Live, Local, Late Breaking news, weather, and sportsGary Black calls worker program 'cumbersome'

Gary Black calls worker program 'cumbersome'

Georgia's Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black spoke to a roomful people in Pelham Friday, some of them farmers, to discuss Georgia's controversial new immigration law and the federal guest worker program known as H-2A.

Commissioner Black was highly critical of the federal program.

"The federal government has failed agriculture and has failed all American tax payers by refusing to reform the guest worker program at the federal level," said Black.

"This program should have been reformed 20 years ago. This is nothing new," Black continued.

Black says farmers complain that the H-2A program is expensive, the paperwork is cumbersome, and many farmers aren't allowed to participate in the program.

"40% of the respondents in our survey don't even qualify for H-2A," said Black.

Another problem farmers face is hiring local labor. Farmers say they want to hire locally, but those hired don't stay around for long. 

Black says a farmer in Tifton that has this problem.

"This farmer has hired, in the past season, over 1,300 local workers. Today he has six of those that remain," said Black.

Black says now is the time for congress to act to save the country's agriculture industry.

"American agriculture is crying out to the leaders of this country to step up and solve this problem in a bipartisan way in 2012. The time to act is now," said Black

He hopes something will be worked out soon.

Black says he's spoken with Georgia lawmakers and they are making a push for reforming the H-2A program.

Under the Georgia law, employers with at least 500 employees must now use a federal database to check the employment eligibility of workers.

Smaller businesses will be phased into that requirement.

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