A Labor Legislation Update

Washington, D.C.—The American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA), the New Jersey Nursery & Landscape Association, the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association and the Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association recently held approximately 30 meetings with a mix of Congressional members and staff from a broad swath of House and Senate offices in those states. The meetings addressed many topics, but chief among the industry’s concern was the need for labor legislation reform.

The lobbying teams described the unstable and worsening labor situation in agriculture and the green industry, and outlined reforms that would stabilize the existing guest worker programs as well as secure the experienced workforce.

“Most of these meetings were targeted at Republican members of the House who may be unaware or only on a limited basis aware of problems that exist in the green industry and agricultural workforce with a high percentage of the workers that are believed to be lacking proper work authorization to be in the country,” explained Craig Regelbrugge, ANLA’s senior director of government relations. Regelbrugge noted that given the fact that more than half of the available workforce is feared to lack proper authorization to work in the United States, the industry also wants to enhance legislators’ awareness of the flaws in current guest worker programs that “limit their current and future use.”

The legislative process moves slowly, but Regelbrugge said these meetings were time well spent. “Most of these meetings can't be measured in terms of win or lose, but it's safe to say that in most of them the staff was interested, attentive, asked good questions and appreciated the chance to learn more about their constituents' problems,” he explained. And he’s optimistic that every day brings new legislation aimed at helping businesses employ legal immigrants closer to passing.

Unfortunately, such new laws will likely mean more for the agricultural/nursery industries than they will the landscape industry at first. “There has been a dialogue between employer and worker advocates in agriculture on and off again over last several years that has led to a blueprint for labor reform in the agricultural context,” Regelbrugge affirmed. “We obviously care deeply about landscape side as well, but the reality on the landscape side is that the dialogue is not as far along and our fate there is hitched to the fate in the general business community for similar types of reforms.”

In addition to paving the way for additional legislation that addresses the H2B program that has become so popular among landscape contractors in recent years, Regelbrugge hopes that new laws passed in the interim will offer some benefits to contractors. “Even the agricultural package that is a focused agenda item in the near term, if it’s enacted by Congress, would provide some immediate seasonal labor relief to landscape employers and other non-agricultural industry employers,” he noted.

At this point, no potential new legislation has been introduced to Congress, but Regelbrugge said the framework for the bill has been worked out. This shifts the focus to selling the industry’s story to congressmen and senators. “We're looking for the political support that would be necessary to move something through,” Regelbrugge related, declining to talk about a specific timeline due to the uncertainties associated with passing any legislation.

“But clearly the problem needs urgent resolution,” he asserted.

The author is Editor/Group Publisher of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at bwest@lawnandlandscape.com.