President Donald Trump has eliminated a controversial federal regulation initially introduced by Joe Biden, which would have granted foreign agricultural laborers collective bargaining privileges — rights not extended to American farm workers.
The policy, introduced by the Biden team in 2024, focused on H-2A visa holders — foreign nationals temporarily employed on U.S. farms — and aimed to give them unionization rights, even though American farmhands remain legally excluded from such protections.
Under Trump’s administration, the Department of Labor has formally halted implementation of the rule.
This action follows a legal challenge led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who organized a coalition of 17 states to push back against the Biden administration. Kobach contended that the proposal directly contradicted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which specifically omits agricultural workers from collective bargaining protections.
“Once again, Joe Biden is putting America last,” Kobach said at the time.
In 2023, two separate federal judges ruled in Kobach’s favor, determining that the policy did indeed violate the NLRA by allowing foreign H-2A visa holders to unionize while leaving American farm workers without similar rights.
“The Final Rule not so sneakily creates substantive collective bargaining rights for H-2A agricultural workers through the ‘prohibitions’ it places on their employers,” U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves wrote in his November decision.
{Matzav.com}