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Guest workers having trouble getting to state

Lakeland Ledger – August 6, 2011

BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain says the federal government has run into a holdup in processing applications to allow foreign agricultural workers to be employed in the United States.

Strain said Friday the delay is because of a dispute over prevailing wages in Pennsylvania.

Strain said Louisiana sugar mills are trying to get their guest workers processed and on site to work. If that doesn’t occur, the cane will have no place to go.

American Sugarcane League head Jim Simon said the industry uses guest workers to plant cane and work in mills as laborers and boilers. He said many of the experienced sugar boilers come from central America.

Simon said it’s not the first time for such problems – and the guest worker program needs to be streamlined.

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