A group of plaintiffs including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, lawn, landscape, and forestry companies and associations have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, seeking to block a sweeping new Labor Department rule drastically rewriting the H-2B temporary and seasonal non-agricultural visa program. H-2B is widely used by the landscape industry and other interests to fill seasonal labor needs when too few American workers apply for such jobs. The plaintiffs in Bayou Lawn & Landscape Services et al. vs. Solis seek a temporary restraining order to block the rule from taking effect as scheduled on April 23. ANLA and many state partners have assisted with the effort to challenge the rule; the Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association recently contributed $5000 to the ANLA Beacon Fund to assist with the litigation.

“The Labor Department and union allies are destroying the only labor safety net available to many green industry firms,” said ANLA vice president for government relations, Craig Regelbrugge. ANLA is also urging members to support two Congressional resolutions of disapproval on the new H-2B rule. For more, visit www.capwiz.com/anla.home.