Stuart Elliott www.ksworkbeat.org http://newappeal.blogspot.com/ www.laborstart.org
Immigration Rules Hamper Custom Grain Harvesters http://www.midwestautosource.com/stories/062107/new_179034627.shtml By: Roxana Hegeman
WICHITA, Kan -- Already frustrated by growing bureaucratic delays for hiring foreign workers, the nation's custom grain cutters were hard hit this wheat harvest season by a short-lived Texas rule that required drivers to have a year's residency before they could get a commercial driver's license.
"They were more concerned about illegals coming in from Mexico," said Elaine Flaming, a former custom harvester who now runs Agri Placements International in Fairview, Okla. "That law went into effect not knowing how it was going to affect other agricultural operations -- and it has been a very severe struggle."
Their industry group, U.S. Custom Harvesters Inc., lobbied to overturn the restriction, which had gone into effect earlier this year. The latest version, which the governor recently signed, will allow migrant workers to hold a temporary commercial driver's license as long as their visa is valid, said Tim Baker, operations manager for U.S. Custom Harvesters.
"It is going to be September before Senate Bill 1260 goes into effect, before they allow temporary commercial licenses to be issued," Baker said. "But September is better than never."
By that time, the Texas wheat harvest will be finished.
U.S. custom cutters depend heavily on foreign workers -- mostly coming from Australia, South Africa, Romania and Ukraine -- to run the massive combines and drive the grain trucks that follow the ripening grain crops from south Texas to Canada each year.
About 75 percent of custom-cutting crews are made up of foreign laborers, Flaming said. The seasonal workers, hired through an agricultural guest worker program called the H-2A program, typically stay in the United States about eight months combining wheat, corn, cotton and other farm crops.
"If not for the foreign laborers most of our harvesting operations would cease and the grain would not be cut. ... They are willing to work and they are willing to come -- and they are good workers," she said.
Custom harvesters Perry and Candice Hoffman hired seven workers to run their combines this season, six workers from South Africa and one from Honduras. Since the Hoffmans are based at Bowdle, S.D., they were able to get their crew's CDL licenses through their own state and were unaffected by the new Texas regulation.
One of the reasons the Hoffmans like to hire South African workers every year is that South Africa's harvest season, as well as the one in Australia, are opposite that of the U.S., allowing its experienced farm workers to work seasonally here. Workers from those countries can also speak English -- making it easier for them to pass the CDL test and to communicate with others in the crew.
"It is not a cheaper method, but we had no American reply to our ads," she said in a phone interview from Texas where her crews were cutting. "The foreign help is a reliable source of help we rely on. I don't know what harvesters would do without it."
Their cutting season runs from May until November, so hiring high school and college students is not a good solution because those workers can't work the needed time period, and it is hard to attract others because the work isn't full-time, she said.
But like other custom harvesters in this country, the Hoffmans have been growing more worried about the increasing time it takes to get foreign workers approved through H-2A.
They applied for this season's workers back in December, but it wasn't until April 25 before they got the first workers in, Candice Hoffman said. Then the workers have to apply for Social Security numbers and pass their CDL tests before harvest.
"It is very stressful to wonder if you are going to get that help, because you absolutely need them," she said.
By law, H-2A must process applications within 45 days, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The agency contends there is no systematic backlog or delay. Applications are forwarded to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for further processing.
At Homeland Security's customs and immigration service, regional manager Marilu Cabrera said she was not aware it was taking longer to process H-2A applications, but acknowledged there may be delays overseas.
A fee increase is scheduled July 30 to recover the costs of doing business, Cabrera said, adding the agency is fee-based and has been losing money.