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by Susie Taylor

Where do you turn when you’ve got work that needs to be done on the farm and no one willing to do it? For many Ohio farmers, the answer may be in an unlikely, but plentiful, place – a nontraditional, or foreign, workforce.

The decision to hire Hispanics wasn’t taken lightly by the Arbaugh family of Harrison County in eastern Ohio.

"We had to deal with it internally within the family for a long time before we went forward," according to Dale Arbaugh, who manages the family’s 900-head dairy near Jewett.

Finding adequate and reliable labor had been an issue for the Arbaughs in the late 1990s. "As the economy got better and the unemployment rate in the county dropped, we just couldn’t find a stable, hard-working workforce," Arbaugh said. "Our wages were matching those offered by other employers, but the job (milking cows three times a day and cleaning barns) just wasn’t what people wanted to do."

He related how, seasonally, the local paper would report on Hispanic laborers who had been working in the area and needed jobs. That’s when the family approached Rural Opportunities Inc. (ROI) , a private, not-for-profit regional community development and human service organization providing services to farmworkers, low-income families and economically depressed communities throughout New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana and Puerto Rico. ROI has an office in Alliance.

That was two years ago. Now, of the farm’s 30 full-time, year-round employees, 12 are Hispanic.

Nationally, about 1.6 million people are employed to plant, cultivate and harvest crops, according to Department of Labor Statistics.

According to the most recent figures available from the National Agricultural Worker Survey (NAWS), 31 percent of those workers were born in the United States. The other 69 percent are foreign-born workers.

Of the U.S.-born workers, 59 percent are white, 32 percent are Hispanic and 8 percent are African-Americans.

Of the foreign-born workers, 94 percent were born in Mexico and 5 percent were born in other Latin American countries.

The NAWS was published in 2000 and reflects survey trends recorded from farm worker interviews from 1988 through 1996.

Other major findings from the survey show:

• Over time, the farmworker population has become increasingly male (80 percent are men).
• Over time, the farmworker population has become increasingly foreign-born.
• Farmworkers are relatively young – two-thirds are under age 35 – and almost one-fifth are in their first year of U.S. farm work.
• Most adult foreign farmworkers are married and have children.
• Most foreign-born farmworkers with families live and work separately from their spouses and children.

In Ohio, the 2001 Migrant Census showed 14,119 worked seasonal, agricultural jobs in the Buckeye State.

Migrant workers have long been a part of the agricultural workforce in Ohio’s vegetable and nursery industry, but in recent years, Ohio’s grain and livestock operations have been using what they call "non-traditional laborers" – Hispanics who are looking for work to help them support families living in their home countries.

And in those vegetable fields and nursery operations, employers are looking to federal foreign-worker programs to ensure their seasonal needs are being met by trained, loyal and legal foreign workers.

But along with those federal programs come many regulations that employers must comply with.

For many years, The Ohio State University’s Ag & Hort Labor Education Program has strived to improve the working relationship and conflict resolution skills of farm employers and their laborers.

The program, operated through the Agricultural Business Enhancement Center in Bowling Green, is coordinated by Francisco Espinoza, whose father was a migrant laborer who settled out to work in the General Motors plant in Defiance.

When the program first started, it offered services to employers and workers in northwest Ohio, "but we’ve broadened our scope to the entire state," Espinoza said.

As long as there are crops to plant, tend and harvest, there will be migrant labor, he said. "For most migrant families, it’s a way of life," he said. "They make the rounds for so many months out of the year and then head back to Texas or Florida."

One of the most difficult things for employers is awareness and compliance of federal and state regulations relating to hiring, housing and transporting migrant and seasonal workers.

Espinoza works with employers throughout the entire process, but a relatively new organization in Ohio and Indiana is in place to offer specific assistance with compliance issues – Mid American Ag and Hort Services (MAAHS).

MAAHS is a non-profit, membership-based consortium of associations, organizations and employers organized to meet the educational, regulatory compliance assistance and labor recruiting needs of agricultural and other employers in Ohio and Indiana.

"When it comes to guestworker programs, labor camp inspections, adverse wages, bus inspections and the myriad of regulations that employers of foreign workers must comply with, it’s just about impossible for one person at every business to know everything," according to John Wargowsky, MAAHS executive director.

"That’s where we come in to help," he said. MAAHS membership offers consulting services, a Labor Law Compliance Manual, Gempler’s Alert Newsletter, Gempler’s consultation discounts and other services.

Many agencies and organizations throughout Ohio are available to provide support to workers and employers, especially when it comes to conflict resolution and communication issues.

The agencies include Connect Ohio, the Ohio Legislative Information Systems, the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor and Ohio Migrant Education Center.

Links to those agencies and organizations are available on the OFBF Web site under Featured Links.

One reason Tom Demaline joined MAAHS was for compliance support with the federal H-2A seasonal agricultural worker program.

Demaline, owner of Willoway Nursery, a 750-acre wholesale nursery near Avon in northeast Ohio, employs 300 foreign workers from March through November each year. He’s used seasonal workers for 10 to 12 years and started with the H-2A program because of the assurance that workers were in the United States legally.

"The whole nursery industry is very hands-on, labor intensive," Demaline, who is president of the MAAHS board of directors, explained. Several years ago, an Immigration and Naturalization Service raid cost him about 70 percent of the nursery’s workforce. "Our workers had papers, but they turned out to be fraudulent."

After that incident, the nursery decided to go the extra mile by working to comply with federal regulations associated with participation in the H-2A seasonal agricultural worker program.

"This was the only way we could knowingly get a 100 percent legal workforce," he said. Many workers come back year after year.

Typically, they leave spouses, children and extended families behind and send any spare funds back to their families. "It can be really hard on these guys, especially the first year they’re here, but they have a goal in mind, and they work toward that goal," Demaline said.

He cautioned those who think foreign laborers are an inexpensive way for farmers to get help. "This is not an inexpensive program," he said. Willoway Nurseries provides housing and transportation to and from the job site. The company also pays a wage established by the federal government for employers participating in the H-2A program.

"So we’re paying more for the labor, but there are other benefits for everyone involved," he said. Domestic laborers weren’t applying for the jobs and retention was poor. "Overall, it’s been an incredibly positive move for our company."

There are issues that can be difficult.

Mike Geary, Willoway’s Hispanic relations supervisor, said the workers’ English is limited and, at first, his Spanish was no better. "We’ve come a long way" toward being able to communicate with each other, he said.

The foreign workers also demonstrate a good work ethic. "They’ve basically been brought up knowing how to work hard. Schooling wasn’t an option for them, but they want to make it an option for their children.

"I really respect these guys for being able to" leave home and family behind to travel to another country for a nine-month-long job. "I picture myself in their shoes and can’t imagine doing that," Geary said.

For Harrison County’s Arbaugh, a concern was how the foreign workers would interact with locals in eastern Ohio.

"In the end, I believe these guys have broadened peoples’ minds," Arbaugh said. "They’re here to do a job that isn’t glamorous; they’re here to make money to help their families, and that’s what they focus on."

If there’s one thing he wishes could be changed for the Hispanics working on the dairy, it would be to provide more social interaction for them.

"These guys work long hours and then they go back to their dorm to watch TV. I just wish there were more social opportunities for them," he said.

But he doesn’t think he’ll change the way he hires workers for the dairy.

"I like what’s happening. We do have some language barriers, but we’re working through them. I really respect these men for what they’re willing to do to support their families."

Photo 1: Ohio State Program Assistant Francisco Espinoza talks about his work with migrant workers and their employers in northwestern Ohio through the OSU Ag & Hort Labor Education Program.

Photo 2: Tom Demaline of Willoway Nursery near Avon has hired workers through the federal H-2A seasonal agricultural worker program. He said many of the same men return to northeastern Ohio year after year to work for nine months at the nursery.

Photo 3: Dale Arbaugh has hired 12 full-time, year-round Hispanic workers to milk cows at the family’s Harrison County dairy. Here, Arbaugh, left, stands with Gabrielle Hernandez, center, who has worked on the farm for a year and a half, and Javier Feliciano, who was starting his fourth day on the job. (Photos by Susie Taylor)