Ag labor reform is overdue, but …

Rep. Dan Newhouse’s call on this page for the U.S. Senate to pass his Farm Workforce Modernization Act repeats his longtime call for reform, and it’s by most accounts a reasonable and necessary legislation for all the reasons he states in his column on this page.

There are factors he doesn’t mention that you might want to know, and I have one question.

First, not everyone agrees the bill is a good one. Some farm workers organizations say it would cause hardships on their constituent population and even allow pitting them against one another.

Second, the bill is being held up by Republicans in the Senate who are leery of one provision the House agreed to long ago that would allow farm workers to sue their employers, just like anyone else. Current federal law governing farm workers doesn’t allow that.

The legislation is dear to Newhouse, a farmer himself, who offers valuable insight in his column regarding a current labor crisis in farming, which is growing worse.

His assertion that passing the bill, in the House known as H.R. 1603, would “reduce food costs” seems less than a certainty; many factors he also cites could add up to greater effects, a point the opposition and farm labor make. The opposition in the Senate stems mainly from farmers in the southeast part of the country to whom Idaho Sen. Larry Crapo is apparently responsive. He does not want to pass the bill without significant Republican support.

The glaring question the issue raises, however, is why don’t politicians in favor of reforming farm labor — by easing immigration issues for that industry — see a similar solution to many of America’s choke points?

With current unemployment extremely low in the country, employers complaining of a lack of labor even at greatly increased wage offerings, handwringing over a supposed fiscal cliff Social Security is headed for, why not add workers through the only readily available solution: ease immigration restrictions to add to the work force?

It’s an obvious solution, one that Doug White, Newhouse’s Democratic opponent in the current race for his 4th District seat in the House, is calling for. White perhaps has an advantage over Newhouse on the issue, because Newhouse would have to go up against his own party’s stars of populist demagoguery on immigration.

Newhouse’s frustration stems mainly from his own Republican Party’s long-running dependance on rhetoric designed to inflame labor against progressive solutions. A few decades back, they would have been more inclined to seek real solutions through compromise.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher