 David Kuack |
During this year’s inaugural GIE Media Horticultural Group Crystal Ball Project, 30 growers from the nursery and greenhouse segments came together in St. Louis to discuss the issues that are having the biggest impact on their businesses. Not surprisingly, labor was one of the major issues discussed. 
Federal action In June House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith introduced legislation to make the federal E-Verify system mandatory. American Nursery & Landscape Association said a bill mandating national use would significantly challenge the nursery and landscape industry and would slow the country’s economic recovery. It is estimated that 7 million undocumented workers are currently employed in the United States. Craig Regelbrugge, ANLA’s vice-president for government relations and research, said that the legislation would have a major impact on the labor-intensive agriculture industry. “While several considerations have been alluded too, none of them offer the guarantee of a legal and reliably available workforce that our industry and American agriculture, need to remain in business,” Regelbrugge said. “Expansion of E-Verify must be done concurrently with broader reforms to America’s broken immigration system.”
David Kuack |
Explore the July 2011 Issue
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