In blow to UFW, court lets Trump wage cut for guest workers remain as suit continues
A U.S. federal district court denied farmworkers’ request for a preliminary injunction to reverse the Trump administration’s new wage rule for foreign guest workers.
The United Farm Workers, UFW Foundation and 18 U.S. farmworkers across the nation, including in the Central Valley, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in November. They seek to reverse a federal labor rule that lets employers cut the pay of agricultural guest workers who are in the U.S. legally and temporarily to pick crops.
Thursday’s court ruling means the H-2A wage rule can remain in effect while the union’s lawsuit challenging its legality continues in U.S District Court for the Eastern District of California in Fresno.
On March 18, the union asked U.S. District Judge Kirk E. Sherriff to suspend the new rule and issue a preliminary injunction.
The lawsuit argues that the wage rule, announced Oct. 2 by the U.S. Department of Labor, is a violation of the federal statute governing the H-2A agricultural guest worker program required to prevent an adverse effect on the jobs and wages of local workers. The program is a way for farmers to bring temporary workers from other countries.
The UFW says the rule also was released without giving the public an opportunity to provide feedback, as required by the Administrative Procedure Act.
“Lowering the wages of the H-2A guest worker program to undercut the wages of American farmworkers is plainly illegal,” UFW President Teresa Romero said in a statement. “We will continue to demonstrate this in court and look forward to a final ruling. We are confident farmworkers and the law will prevail.”
Romero said that every day the new wage rule is in effect makes it harder for farmworkers to make ends meet.
Under the old rule, agricultural employers were required to pay the higher of the applicable state or federal minimum wage, the prevailing wage in that area, or the regional average farm wage based on a farm labor survey, known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate.
The wages differed by region but often were higher than the state minimum. Farmers long have argued that the program was too costly. The Trump administration supports the changes as a way to provide a more stable labor supply and to keep farming sustainable, it says.
The new rule uses a revised wage rate formula that critics say will cut the pay of workers in the H-2A guest worker program $5 to $7 per hour. According to the plaintiffs, those wage cuts amount to a transfer of $4 billion from workers to employers, annually.
In California, wages would go from $19.97 to $16.45 an hour, a reduction of $3.52 an hour. That does not include a deduction of $3 per hour for workers who live in employer-provided housing, bringing the actual hourly wage to $13.45, which is far below the California minimum wage, said Erica Lomeli Corcoran, CEO of the UFW Foundation.
Lomeli Corcoran said the foundation is “extremely disappointed” in Thursday’s court ruling.
In 2020, the first Trump administration attempted to implement a similar rule but was stopped by a UFW and UFW Foundation lawsuit. A federal court found the 2020 rule adversely affected the wages and working conditions of American workers, a violation of federal law.
This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 5:18 PM with the headline "In blow to UFW, court lets Trump wage cut for guest workers remain as suit continues."
