AG Alert-Recent Actions Affecting Agriculture in California.

Dear friends,

The following was written by my good friend, Rob Roy, President & General Counsel for the Ventura County Agricultural Association (VCAA).  I consider him one of the best, if not the best, ag labor attorney in the state.

His commentary is spot on and is also very sad.  

First, the state went down the road to put the CA oil industry out of business.  Ag is now where oil was 10 years ago. 

We need to keep fighting with every election we have to elect representatives who will support oil & ag, not those who want to put both industries out of business.

The SBCTAC, a coalition partner with VCAA,  will never quit fighting for this cause and fighting for businesses in general to survive and profit vs. being forced to close down or move out of state where they can be profitable.  Just remember, a business can move... a farmer can not pick his farm up and move out of state.

Together we can win this battle.  In the words of Winston Churchill, 'Never give in.  Never, never, never, never-...'  (Winston Churchill, October 29, 1941, Harrow School in England)  

Best regards,

Mike Stoker

President & CEO, SBCTAC 

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Are the Days of Governmental Protection of Agriculture Over?

Suffice it to say, this week has been a tremendous letdown to the California agricultural industry for a number of reasons.

First of all, on September 30, 2026, the Governor signed AB 2646 which established a base hourly rate of $19.75 with annual cost-of-living adjustments effective January 1, 2027.  The industry expected that it may have received some form of dispensation from the Governor’s office, especially after he signed AB 2227 (farm labor contractors).  Nevertheless, as expected, the Governor clearly demonstrated where his affinities lie: farmworker advocacy NGOs, unions, and farmworkers.

While this legislation has proposed an hourly rate of $19.97 for H-2A workers in California, a secondary issue in the legislation remains to be vetted by the DLSE.  Under the Federal H-2A regulations, the term “corresponding employment” refers to those domestic employees who are performing the same jobs as H-2A workers set forth in the H-2A job order.  However, in AB 2646, the Legislature has expanded this definition to a corresponding employee “engaged in agriculture who: is a resident of California and performs the same (or substantially similar) work during the same period as an approved agricultural employee [H-2A worker] employed by the same employer in the same County.”  As you can see, this definition set forth for corresponding employment of domestic workers in AB 2646 is substantially different from the U.S. Department of Labor's H-2A definition.

It will be interesting to see how the Division of Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, clarifies this definition.  On the other hand, VCAA believes that this is an opening to challenge AB 2646 as a deliberate interference with the enforcement activities of the U.S. Department of Labor under the H-2A program. 

In a second major action, the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, in the case of United Farmworkers v. U.S. Department of Labor, has ordered the Department of Labor to issue a new Interim Final Rule by December 30th to comply with the Court’s Order.  The Interim Final Rule (IFR) will be vacated as of December 30, 2026.  The parties will be required to submit a Joint Status Report on October 22, 2026, and every three weeks thereafter until the new IFR is issued.  [Attached is a copy of the Court’s Order]  In the interim, the IFR has not been vacated so H-2A workers currently operating with the reduced AEWR may continue to utilize that reduced hourly rate for their H-2A workers and domestic workers in corresponding employment, as defined under the H-2A regulations.

At the Status Conference on October 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor indicated it would endeavor to finish the new IFR within four months.  However, the Court found that the DOL had not justified that much time and pointed out that the agency issued the existing rule just five and a half weeks after the prior rule was vacated.

The agricultural industry can only hope that the U.S. Department of Labor will develop the new IFR by the Court-ordered date of December 30, 2026.

In a third government action, VCAA recently reported that the State of California had issued grants in the approximate amount of $35 million to a variety of unions, farm worker organizations, and NGO advocacy groups who support farmworkers.  Over 100 applications for grants of the $35 million were granted by the State using taxpayer money in the budget.

Lastly, the Governor also signed AB 2227, which will increase the amount and costs of farm labor contractor bonds in order to obtain a contractor’s original or renewal license.  While the Legislature wanted to base the value of these bonds on the “gross invoices” of the contractor, industry advocacy groups were able to persuade the author to maintain the existing standard using the gross payroll of the contractor as a basis for determining the size of the FLC bond.  AB 2227 also increases a number of penalties for violations found in the Labor Code chapter on farm labor contractors.

Aside from the foregoing, California’s farmers continue to get up every day and provide food for the entire United States and elsewhere, notwithstanding significant increases in diesel, gasoline, pesticides, fertilizer, excessive administrative costs, and a host of other items required by our State government.

All we can do is stay the course and continue to fight and not give in to this economic tyranny.