"Georgia judge blocks federal rule allowing migrant farmworkers to join unions in 17 states,"

A federal judge in Georgia on Monday blocked the U.S. Department of Labor from enforcing a new rule in 17 states that would have prevented agricultural employers from retaliating against migrant workers with H-2A temporary work visas for joining labor unions and organizing against wage theft, trafficking and other abuses.

Siding with the states in a lawsuit against the Labor Department, the judge granted a preliminary injunction and ruled the regulation would unconstitutionally give foreign agricultural workers rights that Congress never intended to provide.

U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood found the rule violates the National Labor Relations Act, a federal law that allows certain employees to unionize. Agricultural laborers are explicitly excluded from the law’s definition of “employee” and are not entitled to collective bargaining rights, the George W. Bush appointee said.

“By implementing the final rule, the DOL has exceeded the general authority constitutionally afforded to agencies,” Wood wrote in the 38-page decision.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which represents the Labor Department in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening.

The ruling comes after a lawsuit filed in June by attorneys general of Kansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. A Georgia farm, Miles Berry Farm, and the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association also joined the suit...