By Clint Thompson
Ag labor was the focus of discussions in early September when watermelon industry leaders met with Congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. National Watermelon Association (NWA) members, which included Jordan Carter, Greg Leger and George Szczepanski advocated for ag labor reform.
Ag labor is the biggest expense for watermelon growers. But the H-2A system is complicated and, more importantly, inefficient, says Szczepanski, NWA executive director.
“At the beginning of this year at our spring board meeting, our board made it clear that advocating for ag labor reform was at the top of our to-do list. We have engaged with the Redding Firm, headed up by Bob Redding, who’s no stranger to ag advocacy,” Szczepanski said. “Working with Bob, we were able to secure meetings with both sides of the aisle and both chambers of Congress as well as representation from the White House. Most of that really focused on ag labor.
“At the end of the day, it was about saying, we have some wins through this administration on the regulatory front. We want Congress to back that up with legislation that will help us move forward and get some progress on ag labor, which is a huge issue for us.”
The H-2A program allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs.
The Southeast continues to utilize a substantial amount of H-2A workers, as evidenced by 2024 statistics. Florida, the largest employer of H-2A labor, accounted for 47,396 positions or 12.3% of all certified positions. Georgia increased its certified positions to 43,436, making it the second-largest employer of H-2A labor. The Southeast, which comprises Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, recorded 52,686 certified positions in 2024.
The drastic increases in the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), the minimum hourly wage that producers must pay to temporary foreign workers and ensures that their hiring does not adversely impact wages of domestic workers, is a driving factor for reform. But it’s not the only reason.
“For the majority of our growers, especially NWA members, H-2A is the primary and mostly the only source of labor. We’re proud to be doing it the right way and with legit labor, but the system is not really workable,” Szczepanski said. “AEWR is certainly one of the biggest parts of that, but it’s almost such a big issue that it provides a smokescreen for the fact that system is not working efficiently enough as it is. It’s not just the price, it’s the inefficiency and unpredictability.
“(Reform) makes the difference between eating food that we can get out of the ground or it’s sitting in the ground rotting because we can’t harvest it,” he added. “The situation is that dire.”