IARN — A new campaign from the National Pork Producers Council highlights the role foreign born workers play in the industry.
Jack Detiveaux – NPPC manager of competition, tax and labor issues – says the “Year-Round Pork Needs Year-Round Workers” campaign features the stories of four foreign-born workers and their employers.
“It is focusing on not only the need for each to perform, which is a pretty big component, but also the pretty big success stories that we’ve had with a lot of our foreign born workforce that exists already,” said Detiveaux. “We’re really proud of the diversity on our farms, up and down the supply chain and in many cases, a lot of folks that we do have that are foreign born are interval parts of their communities. We’ve seen a lot of the success and want to highlight it so people know how interval it has been for our industry and how much more we have to gain by making these changes to immigration policy.”
Along with the campaign, NPPC is calling on the Biden administration and Congress to address labor reform to provide year-round labor to the pork industry. Detiveaux says the pork industry is facing a worker shortage, and that pork producers need year-round labor.
“We’re facing a pretty significant worker shortage, despite pretty well above average wages and benefits,” said Detiveaux. “Most Americans don’t live near hog farms or harvest facilities and so as we have these big demographic changes in the heartland and populations are declining, we need to look to foreign born workers to meet a lot of the vacancies. And so, we’ve looked at some success towards foreign born workers through some existing visa programs, but the shortcomings of the H-2A visa, leave a lot of those openings unfilled. So, what we’re doing right now is trying to highlight the need for reform.”
Learn more about the campaign at nppc.org.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network
Photo courtesy of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC)
