Read the full presentation here
The other option is the “traditional” labor models, which include local teenagers, and require more direct involvement from Bayer, like timekeeping and payroll.
The presentation also acknowledges raising the minimum age to 14 years old discouraged what it called the “feeder effect.” In other words, raising the minimum age would reduce the number of workers who catch on to corn detasseling at a young age and return to the job the following year.
This shift to H-2A workers by Bayer reflects a larger trend in the industry. In the last 10 years, the number of H-2A workers in Corn Belt states has exploded.
H-2A workers aren’t limited to detasseling corn. According to data from the U.S. DOL, many migrants herd sheep, construct farm equipment or harvest fruit. Attorneys who specialize in farmworkers’ and migrant workers’ rights at Iowa Legal Aid said H-2As are often used regularly in the pork industry in that state.
Nebraska has seen a nearly 250% increase in H-2A workers from 2015 to 2021, according to a Nebraska Public Media analysis of data from the U.S. DOL. H-2A workers also rapidly increased in other Corn Belt states over the same time frame. In 2015, for example, the DOL approved 809 H-2A workers for work in Illinois. In 2021, the DOL approved 3,010.
The Bayer presentation also said there’s less corn for workers to detassel because of new developments in crop herbicides and genetically modified corn that requires less manual labor.
“While we’ve seen some shifts in labor as a whole, across Nebraska, the vast majority of our workers continue to be local youth laborers,” a Bayer spokesperson wrote in a statement. “The entire industry continues to face challenges in recruiting youth workers, and in many cases these positions go unfilled.”
In 2020, the chief operating officer of Bayer’s crop science division sent a letter to Ricketts after the two spoke.
“I appreciate your passion for agriculture and your interest in our operations in Nebraska,” Brett Begemann wrote to Ricketts from St. Louis. “At Bayer, we support the opportunity to provide employment in the communities where we have sites located. Nebraskans, both youth and adult, will always be a critical part of our summer labor force.”
The letter was obtained through a public records request to the governor’s office.
Begemann said in the letter (dated May 6, 2020) that Bayer would employ 2,050 to 2,670 youth and 187 to 207 adult H-2A workers for detasseling that summer.
Bayer also declined interview requests. In a statement for this story, the Bayer spokesperson stressed detasseling looks much different today than a generation ago.
“Migrant labor crews allow us to address our detasseling labor needs, while also diversifying our workforce and providing valuable talent in other parts of our production operations, including harvest, for example,” the spokesperson wrote. “Using this workforce in this manner helps us streamline our approach to meeting our labor needs.”
Vulnerable workers
Danny Reynaga, a Legal Aid attorney in western Nebraska, said the shift to migrant work has been clear in his line of work.
“It's very common to run across H-2A workers, especially when you're speaking with other folks in the advocacy world particularly here in Nebraska,” the Scottsbluff attorney said.
The son of migrant workers said farm work has changed over the last few decades because advancements in farming equipment and chemicals have eliminated traditional agricultural worker jobs.
“I think what we have now is a much more intense, more focused need – and it's for a shorter period of time,” Reynaga said. “That's where these H-2A workers are coming in.”
And while these jobs – and the H-2A program – are undeniably necessary for the industry, employers sometimes take advantage of migrant workers.
“When you see a lot of H-2A workers, you're going to see more worker rights issues,” Reynaga said. “The fact of the matter is that H-2A workers are vulnerable, to a large extent, and most would say, probably more vulnerable than U.S. workers for a variety of reasons.”
Reynaga and Iowa Legal Aid lawyers say common worker rights issues can manifest in wage theft, not getting paid when they should, poor housing or being overworked. Migrant workers can be vulnerable because they may not speak the common language and a fear of being blacklisted for future work if they raise concerns.
“If you're an employer, what you want out of your workforce is productivity,” Reynaga said. “And when you hire H-2A workforce, typically you're going to get productivity. You're usually hiring someone who's done this before, who's coming year after year, and, by most regards, is going to be a good solid worker.”
Nebraska Legal Aid settled a lawsuit in 2021 against Florida-based Gulf Citrus, a company that contracts migrant workers in Nebraska to detassel.
The 13 migrant workers who sued said Gulf Citrus did not record all the hours they worked, did not credit them with all the acres they completed and did not give them promised bonuses, as reported by the Lincoln Journal Star.
Gulf Citrus showed menus with meals including grilled meat and chicken, burritos and tacos. For several days in a row, the workers were only served eggs, rice and onions, according to the lawsuit. The drinking water in the fields was dirty and tasted bad. An airplane sprayed pesticides on a field next to where the migrant crew worked, leading to breathing problems and an asthma attack for one worker who did not get medical care.
When asked if seed companies chose an H-2A workforce over domestic labor, Reynaga wouldn’t say there’s systemic oppression of migrant workers.
“I'm also not going to go as far as to say that there wouldn't be those talks,” he said. “I'm sure, at some level, there is that discussion – that idea that you can get away with a little bit more with H-2A workers.”
It’s not lost on Chapa, who runs the H-2A contracting business, that migrant workers are sometimes treated poorly by employers. But that’s not the case in the slightest with him, he said.
“We get treated fairly,” Chapa said. “I respect my workers because they are human beings.”
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