The recent worker strike at a Monroe cheesemaker highlights a larger issue regarding immigration, according to Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association Executive Director John Umhoefer.
Last month, workers at W&W Dairy went on strike after new ownership required employees to verify their immigration status through E-Verify. Umhoefer explains that E-Verify is a national program required for dairy plants that make products for the government. He says the situation is highlighting a larger issue: America’s immigration system and what it means for the future of food production.
Umhoefer says dairy processing is growing, and therefore, it needs a growing workforce. Part of that answer is a smoother, modernized, year-round work opportunity for foreign labor.
The following is a column by Umhoefer.
“For decades, dairy manufacturers and other food processing industries vital to American food security have urged Congress to create a year-round agricultural visa for immigrant workers.
But Congress – under the leadership of both political parties – has failed to act.
Now, tough new immigration enforcement practices spotlight Congress’ inability to reform legal immigration visas and citizenship pathways, and American food production is threatened.
This summer, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers raided California produce farms and arrested dozens of workers in an Omaha, Nebraska meatpacking plant. In June, ICE arrested 11 dairy farmer workers in New Mexico.
ICE raids, and the recent Trump Administration move to halt new worker visas for commercial truck drivers, have stressed and confused America’s immigrant workforce. Yet our nation’s economy, and certainly the U.S. dairy industry, relies heavily on skilled immigrants who pay taxes on their wages, live and shop in their rural communities, and often have multiple years or decades of expertise in their craft.
In August, a cheese manufacturer in Monroe, Wisconsin saw a significant portion of its immigrant workforce leave the worksite days after new owners Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) began to rightfully implement the federal government’s E-Verify program to determine workers’ eligibility to work in the U.S.
A month earlier, Dennis Rodenbaugh, President and CEO of Dairy Farmers of America, had offered a dairy perspective on immigration reform in a full page, open letter to the President of the United States in the Wall Street Journal and New York Post. His message was pointed at immigrant labor on dairy farms, but DFA’s recent acquisition of the Monroe, Wisconsin cheese factory and the departure of its immigrant workers makes his message resonate across the full dairy supply chain.
“The fate of the farms required to produce our nation’s food, particularly in dairy, should no longer be subject to political gamesmanship,” Rodenbaugh wrote in July, continuing, “Dairy farming is uniquely demanding, requiring expert, hands-on care for livestock year-round. However, the only agricultural visa available, the H-2A program, is limited to seasonal or temporary work, which is inadequate for dairy operations that require skilled labor every day of the year. These jobs cannot be automated; they demand experience, expertise, and hands-on performance. What’s urgently needed is an immigration policy that addresses the unique challenges of the dairy industry and ensures a sustainable U.S. food supply.”
Like their dairy farm partners, manufacturers of cheese, butter, yogurt, and other dairy products need a year-round workforce, and an aging immigration visa program built on seasonal crop harvesting does not get the job done.
Read the full column: https://www.wischeesemakersassn.org/news/wcma-notes-dairy-needs-immigration-reform-now-
