Page 61 - Grapevine July-August 2019
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Around The Vineyard
workers. Joint employers can share housing. Like Traditionally, these employees have been hired
the fees, the joint employers can decide among locally. More and more we are hearing that these
themselves how to divide these costs, typically on a Farm Labor Contractors/crew leaders are having
per-bed basis. Remember that the available num- difficulty hiring enough people locally to fill their
ber of beds determines the number of visas which crews. Many are having to become H-2A FLC’s and
can be applied for and that the housing will need themselves hiring foreign workers to fill out the
to be inspected and approved about 45 days before crews they eventually bring to your vineyard. We
the workers are expected to arrive. have also helped start-up Farm Labor Contractors,
working in a number of agricultural sectors, includ-
Joint employer relationships work best when ing viticulture, hire H-2A workers from the very
employers have some flexibility in their labor beginning. These businesses spring up in areas
needs. If everyone’s crop will ripen at the same where there are clusters of growers who need
time, and must be harvested TODAY, it will be hard occasional help, but not enough help to justify the
to share the workers, i.e. when everyone needs cost of opening an H-2A job order of their own, and
every worker at the same time. In our experience, perhaps not enough help to justify participating in a
wine grape growers have more flexibility than Joint Employer contract.
growers of some more time-sensitive crops, like
apples being picked for color. As the grower, you may only need to know how to
reach one or more of these entities so that you can
Not everyone is good with “paperwork” and the obtain their services. On the other hand, we have
H-2A program’s paperwork has to be perfect. Any had a few growers approach us in hopes of pro-
grower thinking about filing jointly with one or curing H-2A workers who they would use in their
more other growers has to decide which person or own vineyards AND offer their services to other
persons can be counted on to keep things straight growers as well. Where you might see this route
and respond accurately and timely to the require- taken would be in places where the workers would
ments of the program. Agents, like MAS, will need to move far enough from worksite to worksite
expect to deal with some one point of contact on that they would need to stay in a series of different
all matters related to the contract and that person accommodations and not a fixed-site. H-2A Farm
will be representing the interests of all the partici- Labor Contractors can file an itinerary and perform
pating growers. their work over large areas. The presumption with
Joint Employer contracts is that the workers are
Joint employer H-2A contracts CAN solve a lot of returning to their worker housing every night.
problems for small growers, especially as pertain
to the costs associated with the program. Much It is also true that larger Farm Labor Contractors,
of the time, you will have your usual cadre of good also called harvesting companies, may work in a
hard working employees. If you believe you can be variety of crops, and in large geographical areas.
responsive when your neighbor asks for additional This is common in the western states.
help, and if you believe your neighbor can as well,
then a Joint Employer H-2A contract may be a very Becoming a Farm Labor Contractor does not add
good way to get that extra bit of help you both significantly to the cost of H-2A, but it does take a
need to survive and even thrive. lot of additional time and paperwork. There is sig-
nificant documentation required of the employer in
The Other alternative, his own right, but also a significant amount of addi-
the Farm Labor Contractor. tional paperwork required on any employees who
participate in recruiting, hiring, housing, transport-
Many of you probably already rely on crews of ing, soliciting or employing farm workers to register
workers furnished and led by an outside employ- them as Farm Labor Contractor Employees (FLCEs).
er, often referred to as a “crew leader”. He This includes special fingerprint cards. Vehicles
pays the workers and you, the grower, pay him. used to transport farm workers must be registered
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