WASHINGTON - The Obama administration toughened rules yesterday on wages and job safety protections for temporary farm workers, reversing a Bush-era policy that unions said fostered cheap labor and undercut the hiring of Americans.
The Labor Department issued regulations that, among other things, will require growers to make a greater effort to fill crop-picking jobs with domestic workers. Thousands of foreign workers have been hired to do this work in recent years.
Farm owners have vehemently opposed changes to the H-2A Guest Worker Program since the current administration first attempted to reverse the rules last year. Growers say the new regulations would make it more burdensome and expensive to hire foreign workers for physically grueling jobs that most Americans do not want.
