Legislative Alert
December 9, 2005
Washington, DC – The American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA) reports that House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) introduced his long-rumored enforcement-only bill on December 6. Among other things, it mandates electronic verification of a prospective employee’s eligibility, and makes verification retroactive to the entire currently-employed workforce. It does nothing to provide access to or assurance of a legal workforce. If this bill were to be enacted in its current form, it would devastate the green industry, agriculture, and various service sectors.
The Judiciary Committee Considered the bill on Thursday, December 8. It will likely be on the House floor for a vote the week of December 12. Passage is expected. The Senate would then take up the issue next year. Senate consideration of more suitable provisions has become the industry’s major objective at this point. Following completion of the Senate’s version of the bill, a House/Senate conference would then iron out differences.
What does this mean for you?
Retail: Without an economic and available source of labor, growers would simply not be able to reliably grow, harvest and ship product to your stores. Labor disruptions and higher costs in many service industries would reduce the spending power of many customers in your market whose income depends on immigrant employees to operate their small businesses. The end result: you have to raise prices and operate less efficiently, and your customers have less to spend. Delivery interruptions will result in lost sales.
Nursery growers: Whether you use immigrant laborers or not, your suppliers or customers do. If any significant portion of your product is sold to landscapers, the loss of an immigrant labor force will drastically reduce their ability to install plants and therefore to buy them. Many of the growers who produce liners and small plants rely heavily on an immigrant labor force, so the price of your inputs will increase dramatically while availability is eroded.
In the end, many growers throughout the workforce would face losing up to three quarters of their labor force, with limited options to obtain a legal workforce.
Greenhouse growers: Many of you have a large immigrant workforce. Those of you who operate without immigrant labor, will see the landscape and retail markets, you sell to, devastated by this legislation eroding the market to purchase your plants. Your suppliers, seed and small plant producers rely heavily on immigrant labor and this bill will dramatically increase the cost of your inputs.
Landscape firms: Like retailers, you will face a dramatic increase in cost and reduction in availability of product. Many landscape firms rely heavily on immigrant laborers for crew management and installation. Enforcement alone will drive many employers into the limited and capped H-2B program, possibly imploding the program for both current and prospective users.
Landscape Distribution (re-wholesale): Many of your suppliers and customers rely heavily on immigrant labor. This bill would impact product cost and availability while disrupting your customer’s ability to install and therefore purchase product.
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Past Alerts:
January 5, 2005
January 21, 2005
February 2, 2005
February 22, 2005
April 7, 2005
April 25, 2005
May 11, 2005
July 25, 2005
December 9, 2005