Help Wanted on Guest Workers

Oswego County orchard operator seeks improved process

By Mariam Jukaku

Contributing writer

Eric Behling grows apples in Mexico, Oswego County, but often has to look to Mexico - or other countries - south of the border to find workers willing to pick the fruit in the fall.

He is a fifth-generation farmer on Behling's Orchards, and 20 of his 50 workers are here from another country through the guest worker program.

Behling traveled to Washington, D.C., in October as a board member of the New York Farm Bureau to convince law makers to increase the scope of the current guest worker program, known as H2A.

Why is a guest worker program needed?

"We're looking for a stable, legal work force to harvest our crops," Behling said. He said farms used to have schoolchildren help on the farms in the summer and housewives used to be hired to pick fruit. But now, he says, young people want to work on a more flexible schedule and women have largely gone to work full time to support their families.

"We're into a corner as farmers trying to find available workers," Behling said.

What does the current guest worker program look like and what are the problems facing it?

Farmers can hire guest workers from other countries only if they can prove there is a lack of qualified local workers willing to do the job. The problem, Behling said, is that U.S. farmers need upward of 1.2 million of these workers but last year the state department only granted

50,000 guest worker visas. Behling said the state Farm Bureau is expecting the state department to double the number of visas granted, to 100,000.

Another problem, according to Behling, is the lack of flexibility in the application process.

"It is very cumbersome and it's pretty expensive," he said.

Pages of forms are filed with the state Department of Labor, which are then forwarded to the federal Department of Labor. After their approval, another 18-page application must be filed with the Department of Homeland Security. Finally, farmers contact an agency that works with the foreign countries to find workers. Behling said after all that work, guest workers sometimes arrive too late to help pick fruit. "The time element for farming is very critical," he said. "Harvesting (time) can move (up) days or even weeks."

What do farmers think should be changed?

Farmers want the process more streamlined and want better communication between the State Department and the Labor Department on the status of applications. Behling said he looks at it as a pilot program. "It's a question of getting the left hand to get the right hand to work in unison."