Anti-farming, anti-farmworker advocates, and a congressional candidate in our state need a history lesson. It is time to review the actual meaning of indentured servitude.

Not only are recent comments from Kim Schrier, a congressional candidate in the 8^th district who compared the H-2A worker visa program to indentured servitude simply wrong. These comments also hurt thousands of Washington farmworkers who are benefitting from this program and undermine farmers pushing for legal immigration reform.

Indentured servitude is a system of un-free labor, which takes away a person’s freedom in exchange for a particular obligation, be it a debt or other repayment. This system was used in North America for poor Europeans to immigrate to the New World and took away four to seven years of a person’s life to repay the debt. Meager rations and shelter were exchanged for the contracted time and at the end of the servitude the immigrants received a “freedom package” of at least 25 acres and a year’s worth of supplies.

The H-2A program, by way of contrast, is a temporary guest worker program used by many farmers. Over the last decade the agricultural community has faced a growing labor shortage that has worsened annually. The H-2A program gives farmers an opportunity to find labor and save crops, raises the wage of all farmworkers, and provides a respectable job and opportunity for thousands of workers from Mexico, Jamaica, and other countries.

An H-2A participant from Mexico working for a large Washington fruit grower recently told his employer that he has just finished his 12^th year under one of the H-2A contracts and because of his age this would be his last year. During that time he was able to purchase five acres of land, fix up his family home, develop a small coffee planting on his land, and see his kids through school, with the last just entering high school, a privilege he never had.

According to the large Washington state fruit grower, “This is what it is all about. Helping to provide these workers with a legal means to be able to provide a way for them to support themselves and their families back home. It also provides the grower with a steady nucleus of workers to augment the local and very fluid workforce of domestic workers.”

What else do workers in our state say about the H-2A program?

• “I’d like to thank the company for giving me, and now my family, a great job opportunity to come to this country and have a good job! Opportunity that unfortunately, sometimes we do not even have at our home country. Also, I hope that I get more opportunities for family members.”
• “No complaints. I am grateful for the opportunity to improve my economic situation with a good job working in Washington State. I am starting to miss my wife and children about now (it is October) and maybe that is the only downside but we all know is for the best and I will see them in a month with gifts that I will bring and stories I will tell them. “
• “I like to come to Washington State because the wages are higher compared to California, and the housing is great!”

“Twenty-five percent of the tree fruit crop would go unharvested without the H-2A program,” the grower noted. “Yes, there are a few bad apples [farmers who have broke the law] but the oversight is very costly with Department of Health checking housing before and during occupancy and Employment Security approving contracts. This is a very onerous and expensive process and we rely on it. The more we use H-2A, the more that other workers are available to other commodities. This program allows workers to wire back almost every nickel back home to their families, which in 5 ½ months workers earn more than they would in over a year back home. ”

Dan Fazio, with wafla, a farm labor contractor organization said, “Anyone who calls H-2A indentured servitude has not visited a farm in Washington using H-2A. H-2A in Washington is a well-regulated program that pays higher wages and offers workers the dignity of legal presence. That is why 95% of the workers ask to come back every year.”

“People want to come here. God bless them for wanting to come up and work for us! We couldn’t do it without them,” says the large Washington Fruit Grower

Representative JT Wilcox, a farmer and House Minority Leader,  said, “There are innumerable reasons to reform our immigration system, and farming groups are among the leaders in trying to do that. I don’t think using rhetoric like ’indentured servant‘ or ’hostage‘ advances that cause very much.”

It’s unfortunate that ‘labor advocates’ and some candidates are using rhetoric which threatens and damages the dreams of so many workers, who are here legally and benefitting the economy of our state.  For those who support Washington agriculture, they should understand that H-2A plays a role in having a legal and adequate labor force and is essential for the success of our farms and for the dreams of our farmworkers.

For more information on Washington’s agricultural labor shortage and the value of the H-2A program please refer to the following studies:

• Washington state’s agricultural labor shortage (By: Washington Policy Center)
• Economic Contributions of Washington H-2A Workers (Prepared for: wafla)