Kansas City-based Dairy Farmers of America has responded to a work stoppage after its acquisition of W&W Dairy in Monroe and subsequent requirement that all employees submit to reverification of their work eligibility, saying they intended to keep all current employees and blaming any problems on the United States’ immigration policy.
Dairy Farmers of America recently acquired W&W Dairy, which will formally take effect next month. On August 1, the company told the largely Hispanic and Latino workforce they would be required to reverify work eligibility. Fear and worry caused around half of the employees to leave W&W Dairy, while 43 remained. The remaining 43 requested severance and attempted to organize after the demand was not met. DFA is reported to have threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to their protected organizing actions.
A walkout occurred on Aug. 12. Employees expected to hear back from management by August 18, which they did not, and a picket and press conference were held Aug. 19.
On Aug. 21, DFA sent Madison365 a statement over the strike. In its statement, DFA claimed it intended to retain “100% of the W&W Dairy workforce” while not directly addressing the demands it made of employees.
Required to reverify
Employees were notified that they needed to provide documents to complete an I-9 form, a document used by employers to verify identity and employment authorization of new hires, and E-Verify. The latter is used to verify employment eligibility of newly hired employees through comparing I-9 forms with records at the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration.
DFA is not legally required to make employees complete such verification in an acquisition, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The policy dictates that employers have two choices in the event of mergers and acquisitions. An employer can either treat everyone as new hires or as continuing employees.
If treated as new hires, DFA would be required to have W&W Dairy employees complete new I-9 forms. If DFA were to treat W&W Dairy employees as continuing employees, this would not be required unless workers were on temporary status. The majority of employees left at W&W Dairy have been employed there for over a decade.
Dairy Farmers of America should have received employees’ previous I-9 forms, as required to obtain in the acquisition, but have chosen not to adopt them.
“This is not a new DFA policy; we take compliance with state and federal labor laws very seriously and are committed to complying with federal employment eligibility requirements. As a federal contractor, DFA uses E-Verify across our national network of 80+ manufacturing plants,” DFA said in a statement.
The DFA statement claims that news outlets have erroneously reported their verification policy as “new.” No article written about the acquisition and strike has claimed that DFA’s policy is new. A single article from Wisconsin Public Radio does call it new for W&W Dairy.
“DFA only acquired W&W’s plant, equipment, licensing, and various other agreements,” DFA said in a statement. “We did not acquire or receive all the I-9 or other documentation from W&W employees, so we must follow DFA’s new hire process and create a new application and obtain all necessary documents.”
Part of the process states that because DFA has federal contracts, all employees — new or old — are required to use E-Verify. This is not entirely false, but not completely true. According to E-Verify, in most cases, all employees are required to complete the form; however, that is subject to language in DFA’s contract with the federal government.
Exemptions listed in E-Verify state that employees not engaged in federal contract work do not necessarily have to complete the form.
Also, Kansas, where DFA is based, and Wisconsin, where W&W employees currently reside, are both states that do not require E-Verify. W&W does not have any federal contracts itself and only produces commercially available off-the-shelf items — which would exempt it from the E-Verify requirement.
Dairy Farmers of America did not answer whether any federal contract it holds stipulates a requirement for all employees, regardless of work on a federal contract, to complete E-Verify. Instead, it holds that this is its requirement “based on laws applicable to federal contracts” as a federal contractor.
Current immigration policy is the issue, DFA said
Dairy Farmers of America blames the “broken immigration policy” and said that the issue is “very nuanced.” In a LinkedIn post, CEO Dennis Rodenbaugh points to H-2A visas for agriculture workers as an issue for many farms across the country.
“Dairy farming is uniquely demanding, requiring expert, hands-on care for livestock year-round,” Rodenbaugh said in the post. “However, the only agricultural visa available, the H-2A program, is limited to seasonal or temporary work, which is inadequate for dairy operations that require skilled labor every day of the year.”
According to USCIS, H-2A visas allow U.S. employers to hire temporary and or seasonal foreign workers for agriculture when qualified domestic labor is not sufficient. It is temporary for up to a year, with a maximum of three years, with annual renewals. The worker must leave the country after the maximum allotted time to qualify for another 1-3 year round.
To gain foreign workers with H-2A visas, the employer, DFA in this instance, would have to apply for a temporary labor certification from the U.S. Department of Labor. Workers need to already be in a different country with no residence in the U.S., according to the requirements for H-2A visas.
Regardless of the issue with H-2A visas, this cannot be the case for W&W Dairy employees. Many employees claim that they have worked for W&W Dairy for over a decade. By simple virtue of long-term employment, DFA’s rationale does not apply.
Also, W&W Dairy is a cheese manufacturer; the visas of complaint do not apply to manufacturers. H-2A visas would apply to dairy workers on farms. W&W Dairy is not a farm.
In addition, H-2A visas are largely considered inefficient for dairy farms due to its defined time, typically set at 10 months, according to USCIS. Cows need year-round care every single month — as Rodenbaugh said himself — so a two-month hiatus per year of employees would not be feasible.
Rodenbaugh does assert that the long-term commitment of immigrant agricultural workers should have a clearer avenue to citizenship.
Technically not DFA employees until September
Dairy Farmers of America states that W&W employees are not fully its own until September. Employment offers for W&W staff to become DFA employees are contingent on completion of its I-9 and E-Verify requirements.
“We have extended a job offer, effective September 2025, to any W&W employee who chooses to apply and meets DFA employment eligibility requirements, which includes obligations as a federal contractor,” DFA said.
It claims it does not know what plans are from W&W’s current management. No news on discussions has come forward on possible severance since Aug. 19’s press conference.
