Growers, residents in Santa Maria area clash over housing for H2-A farmworkers

On Wednesday, April 6, an unfinished house in Nipomo burned down in a late-night fire.

It wasn’t just any house—it was one of the seven three-bedroom homes that, upon completion, would make up a development called Mads Place. Mads Place was set to host up to 112 people—that’s 16 per house—under H-2A, a federal program for temporary foreign farmworkers.

click to enlarge Growers, residents in Santa Maria area clash over housing for H2-A farmworkers
PHOTO BY BRENNA SWANSTON
FIRED UP: Alleged arson took down an intended H-2A house last month, ultimately halting the employer’s housing project. Each of the development’s seven homes would have housed up to 16 temporary foreign farmworkers.

Once neighbors caught wind of the development’s purpose, controversy sparked. And then a fire sparked. And then Greg and Donna France, who were purchasing the development to house workers for their berry farm, pulled the H-2A project.

A controversial subject

Cal Fire has not yet confirmed the fire’s origin, but witnesses, community members, and growers have commonly expressed one suspected cause: arson, probably by a community member who didn’t want so many H-2A workers in the area.

The H-2A program holds a questionable rapport with residents in and around the Santa Maria Valley. When the former Laz-E-Daze retirement and residential center on North Broadway was bought out to house H-2A workers, the purchase displaced many low-income residents who previously lived there, including people recovering from substance abuse, mental health patients, and elderly people.

Many community members protest H-2A because it overcrowds residences that could be used by local families, but agricultural companies claim they have no other choice. They say the industry is suffering from a labor shortage, and the only legal way to bring in foreign farmworkers is through H-2A, which requires employers to provide free housing for their workers.

The growers’ side

Growers who want to use the H-2A program must first demonstrate that there’s an insufficient number of domestic workers for the job, according to Jason Resnick, vice president and general counsel for the Western Growers Association.

These growers must offer the open positions to their past and current employees, advertise the positions throughout California and neighboring states, and accept any domestic workers who are willing and able to take the jobs. If after an extensive search, the project still needs more workers, growers may then apply to hire workers through H-2A.

The application goes through four government agencies: the Employment Development Department, the Department of Labor (DOL), the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the relevant consulate. By the time growers start the application process, they must prove they can provide free, adequate housing (think: the Mads Place development) and transportation for their H-2A workers, said Ruben Lugo, agricultural enforcement coordinator for the western region of the DOL. The DOL enforces housing and transportation standards for H-2A employers.

Growers must offer either adequate kitchen equipment or catered meals to their H-2A workers, Lugo said, as well as a pre-set “adverse effect wage rate,” which in California comes to $11.89 per hour. Growers who secure these provisions for their H-2A workers must offer the same pay and services to any domestic workers they’ve also hired for the project.

“It’s the only temporary worker program we have,” Resnick told the Sun. “We are experiencing labor shortages, so employers are relying more and more on H-2A. We’re seeing more employers use it or contemplating using it in the near future.”

Unfortunately, the program tends to lead to community tension.

“That’s going to require that those employers provide free housing, and that’s how we get into the situation where ag and suburban areas clash, with the needs of the farmers and the needs of homeowners,” he said. “We’re concerned we’re going to see more of these conflicts.”

The community’s side

The morning after the Mads Place fire, a neighbor named Rick—who requested his last name not be used—told the Sun he had a young daughter, and he was concerned about the inevitable influx of men H-2A would bring into his small neighborhood.

“I don’t like it, just like everybody else,” Rick said. “I don’t mind the people, don’t get me wrong—but go do this somewhere else.”

Santa Maria resident Pedro Reyes lives two blocks from the H-2A housing facility on North Broadway, and he expressed a similar concern for his own neighborhood. Reyes, a longtime advocate for farmworker rights, also said H-2A prevents agricultural companies from feeling enough pressure from the labor shortage to improve working conditions for potential domestic employees.

“Part of the reason why those jobs are not attractive to legal workers is the exploitation that goes into those fields,” Reyes said, “specifically the salaries and the working conditions.”

For example, under California law, farmworkers aren’t due overtime until they’ve completed a 10-hour shift. If they were given an eight-hour regular shift like employees in most other industries are, Reyes said, it’d be easier to find U.S. citizen workers.

“If you are a legal resident, with a legitimate Social Security and a green card, the last thing you’re going to do is stick yourself in that situation,” he said. “If we provide local workers here an eight-hour shift with a decent-paying salary and health care, we would have a lot of people lining up for those jobs.”

Reyes said under current conditions, farmworkers are often denied decent salaries, health care benefits, comp time, sick leave, and the right to unionize.

“No one in their right mind is going to go and stick themselves in those fields, because there’s complete exploitation,” he said. “And that’s one of the reasons why I’m against the idea of guest workers.” 

Staff Writer Brenna Swanston can be reached at [email protected].

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