SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Catherine Watts from Raleigh, North Carolina 8-1-24
[SINGING] Unstoppable, unshakable. But it rolls off the tunnel, unfreakable. It's unavoidable. You saw a little berry between the lines. Start to loosen up your mind. Now welcome again to Shark Farmer Radio. Hey, I'm your host Rob Sharkey. We're in the studio today just outside of Bradford, Illinois. Studio powered by Beck's Hybrid. But those are coming up, right? Beck knowledgey days. Oh my goodness. Yes, we've got a lot of them coming up. You are going to be in Effingham, Illinois, August 8th. Yeah. El Paso, Illinois, August 14th. Yeah. And then, of course, you know the biggest Beck knowledgey days. Atlanta, Indiana. 22nd, 23rd, 24th, I believe. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah. Those are really cool. And man, you talk about learning stuff. It's like I was like, how do I ever know how to grow corn before this? I know. It's intense. But kind of like a carnival atmosphere, like everybody brings their families. So lots of good food and lots of fun things to do. They need a juggler. I know. I have you too. Maybe like, would the fire eaters? Or would you rather have a fire eater or a sword swallower? Probably a sword swallower. That's what I'm thinking. Oh, it says a lot about you. They have us doing a XM show there. So there you go. Yeah, it's always a good time. Let's go out to Raleigh, North Carolina. We're going to be talking with Katherine Watts. How you doing, Katherine? I'm doing good. How are you guys doing today? Doing fantastic. You're actually not in Raleigh today, right? No, not today. I am up in the Big Apple visiting a girlfriend. Nice. Is that-- I was a senior in high school when I was there. Is that like an intimidating place to be? It can be. But I like care about myself, but we still have brains in Raleigh. And so we can run with the best of them up in New York. [LAUGHS] You work for Labor Services International, and we'll get into that. But you grew up on a farm, is that right? Yeah, I grew up in Henderson, North Carolina. Not necessarily on the farm. My parents were divorced, and my dad did was on the farm. So kind of split my time between both. But both of my sides of the family were in agriculture, so. Yeah, so your mom's side was in tobacco. So you have probably some fantastic memories of those drying barns. Didn't they smell wonderful? Oh, yeah. The tobacco warehouse on Dixie Warehouse was our family's warehouse in South Hill, Virginia. You walk in and you need tobacco warehouse, and it just takes you back. It's a nostalgic feel, and it smells so good. I know it sounds like an odd thing to someone who's never smelled a tobacco barn. But just guys smell a cigarette. It smells about the same before it smoked. Yeah. Or maybe a cigar. But lots of great memories. My grandparents lived on the farm both sides and learned how to drive, learned how to count money at the cantaloupe stand when we were real little. My dad's side of the family grew Ridgeway cantaloupe. And we sold them on the side of US Highway 1. And that's where I learned to count money and eat pork top sandwiches. Do you remember how much they were? Oh, gosh. My granddaddy would be so upset if I could tell you how much the cantaloupe were. But they were less than a dollar. And the watermelons were $6. And that's why I say I learned how to count change. Because it wasn't just $1, $2. It was like your big ones were maybe $0.75. We had the baby ones. And they were-- I think he would let us sell those for a penny. Oh, wow. That's fantastic. So you had to learn about dealing with customers, nice ones, and not so nice from a pretty young age. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but it was fun. We didn't have to take ourselves too seriously back then. So labor services internationals, where you work, can you explain what they do? Yeah, so it's a pretty generic name. But it's a firm that specializes in helping farmers across the US obtain legal seasonal labor through the H2A federal visa program. So in a nutshell, I tell folks that I help farmers get legal Mexican labor. 98% of H2A workers are coming from Mexico. So a majority of the time when you're looking at H2A, it is from Mexico or even Central America. And also, South Africa is a really popular place to recruit H2A workers from. So that is, in a nutshell, what I do. Well, how did you even get into that? That's a great question, Rob. Hi. Is it a secret? No, it's not too confidential. But I went to NC State undergrad. I'll give you a little back story. I studied business and then went to work for the power company in North Carolina Duke Energy. And I wrote contracts for major equipment for fossil hydro and nuclear power plants. And I woke up one day. I literally did wake up one day. I knew that I wanted to go work for LSI. And I haven't disclosed this yet. But LSI was actually founded by my mom. So I do work for my mom. And she started this business about 18 years ago. And as I mentioned, she grew up on the farm. But my entire life, my family, has been in agriculture. And so she actually saw the progression of foreign labor programs in the United States. And in 2006, she left the propane industry and decided to open up this firm. And I always knew that one day I would go work for her. But I thought it would be in my 40s or after I had kids or something like that. But I really had a different plan. And left my corporate job and went to work for her. That's fantastic. All right, today we're talking with Catherine Watts from Raleigh, North Carolina. Works for the Labor Services International. We're going to talk about that H2A. We're going to talk about the Chevron case, all sorts of stuff. It's going to be good. You won't want to miss it. All right, after the break. ♪ A ground shaker, a rule breaker ♪ ♪ Hold tight and roll you through every acre ♪ This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io, that's commonground.io. (upbeat music) I see, where are we going tonight, Greenville? - Yeah, down by St. Louis. And you're talking to the Illinois Wheat Association. - Wheat. - You always say it wrong. It's wheat. - It's their summer forum. So yeah, you're the keynote after dinner. - Oh man, they're going to be all sleepy. Southern Illinois people, they go to bed at like, I don't know, eight o'clock. So that's going to be a struggle. - I mean, we can't even poke fun because if we're in Peoria, which is just pretty close to us, it closes at nine. - Yeah. - Geez, if you don't get places anymore by nine o'clock, you're not getting fed. - There was the gas station, the Hux in Peoria, was closed at eight o'clock. You remember that? - Yes, I was shocked. I'm like, okay, well-- - Yeah, nothing to do with anything. - And today, we're talking with Katherine Watts from Raleigh, North Carolina. She's hanging out somewhere in New York. - Looking at the Hudson River today, which is probably pretty. - New York, it never shuts down. Does it, Katherine? - The city would never sleep. And it was a beautiful day here. - So, Katherine, I want to ask you a serious question that you wanted to address. Could you please tell us all the things that bother you about your mom and working with her? (laughing) - Oh my gosh, actually, you know, mom would just keel over if she heard me saying this, but I am honored to get to work for my mom. She is such a powerhouse, and she doesn't even know it about herself. She started this business with not a whole lot, and it has grown to what it is today. I work for Labor Services International, and we're based out of Henderson, North Carolina. We definitely butt heads. We have a very clear mother-daughter relationship. - What? - We do have to separate that when we, as often. (laughing) - That's fantastic. All right, Katherine, you're gonna have to educate us. Tell us about Chevron. - Sure. So the H2A program, it's a federal visa program. So just like you might get foreign labor, if you're a tech company and you need tech professionals, or you're getting a visitor's visa, the H2A program is specifically for seasonal agriculture foreign workers. So farmers come to us and they say, "Hey, I've got a seasonal agriculture operation, "I need you to help me get some labor." It's highly regulated, highly, highly regulated by the Department of Labor, wage and hour division is the enforcement agency. Farmers that bring H2A workers, they have to pay for housing, they have a certain wage rate that they have to pay them. They also have to pay for transportation to and from country of origin. And ultimately, when workers get here, they're not paying for a whole lot unless it's like regulation or their food. So it's super beneficial for both worker and the farmer, but as I mentioned, it's highly regulated and that becomes the largest burden on the farmer because what we've seen in the past, so the H2A program started in the 1980s, really didn't start picking up popularity until the early 2000s when the US began cracking down on the legal immigration and farmers needed an outlet to have a labor resource on their farms. And even though that's when it started to become more widely utilized, we didn't see some of the egregious regulatory overreach until probably the past 10 years, but specifically the past three years, it's been kind of a nightmare for farmers, trying to navigate the complexities of the H2A world and that's why you hire a firm like Labor Services International. We not only file the paperwork, but also make sure to help our farmers stay in compliance with the program. As I mentioned, the regulation is written by the Department of Labor and I'm getting to your question, but in June, we had the Chevron case and I also probably should have said this earlier, but I am not an attorney and none of this information on this interview should be taken as legal advice. (laughing) But Chevron was overturned, Chevron was an opinion case that was issued back in the 1980s, so we have been operating as a nation under Chevron for my entire life and 20 years before that. So it's actually, I think we're gonna see some major repercussions from it that are just starting to unravel. It basically, and I might get a few of these pieces wrong, but it basically, when an issue or a lawsuit is filed against a federal government agency instead of deferring to outside information or other resources, the courts are to defer to the departments, the governing departments decision-making as long as it's reasonable. So that gives your federal administrative agencies a lot of power because they can essentially take a bill and a law that is passed by Congress and they get to interpret it however they want. And that's what we've seen agencies like the EPA and DOL, USDA, they really are taking advantage of their authority to write regulatory language but also to get to interpret it in the courts. And so the courts have taken that power back and farmers specifically might get to be on the offense for the first time in a really long time. And so some of these rules that we've seen come from the Department of Labor that specifically impacts the HWA program and not only Department of Labor, but USCIS and Department of Homeland Security, all of these agencies are about to start having to be held much more accountable than they have been for the past 40 years. And farmers can actually have feel good about going on the offensive. And I mean like filing lawsuits against these agencies and they might have an opportunity to win for the time. - Well at least having a voice. - Absolutely being on the offense for a farmer is imperative. - Well it sounds like a lot of other things. Sorry, I'm sure at lots of points in history, immigrant labor was not treated well. So then you get to HWA program, you get these rules in place. Like so many times before it just keeps going way too far. And hopefully this is a kind of a pendulum swing back to the middle where it should be for good for all sides. Today we're talking with Catherine Watts from Raleigh, North Carolina, working for Labor Services International. Still got lots of questions, Catherine. We'll be back right after the break. (upbeat music) - This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too by the way. Go to commonground.io that's commonground.io. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - All right, we're in Raleigh today. You know who lives there, Emily? - Who? - Not at Ray Hales. - That's right, now hold on. - Hold on. - One way we went on the original dirt road tour. That's, well, 2015. - Oh my gosh, yeah, that was back with BASF. - Yeah. - I can't believe it's been that long ago. - It's time for BASF's favorite radio segment, We're in the world as well. Well, what do you have for us today? - Today I am in the capital city of the US state of North Carolina, Raleigh. - Or Raleigh. - It is the county seat of Wake County and it is the second most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, the 10th most populous city in the southeast, the 41st most populous city in the US and the largest city of the research triangle metro area. - The Golden Triangle, yeah, big in agriculture. - Right. Known as the city of Oaks for its many oak trees, which line the streets in the heart of the city, the city of Raleigh is named after Sir Walter Raleigh, who established the now lost Rowan Oak Colony in present day, Dair County. - Yeah, that didn't go so well. - No, they're over there with the Croatoans. - Yeah, do you think that's what it was? They took the Indian and stole it? - Yeah, well, that's like what happened. - They took it back, I should say. - Yeah. Speaking of the Olympics though, in 1996, the Olympic flame passed through Raleigh while on its way to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Also in '96, Hurricane Fran struck the area, causing massive flooding and extensive structural damage. In addition, W.R.A.L.T.V. became the first high definition broadcast station in the world. - Ugh, that's a big deal. - Big year for Raleigh, '96. The North Carolina Museum of Art, occupying a large suburban campus on the Blue Ridge Road near North Carolina State Fairgrounds, maintains one of the premier public art collections located between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. In addition to its extensive collection of American, European, and ancient art, the museum recently has hosted major exhibitions featuring Auguste Rodine and Cloud Monet, each attracting more than 200,000 visitors. - Yeah, I touched a Monet once. I wasn't supposed to, but I was in a room with a Monet by myself, so I touched it. - You did, you did, it said no touching. - Anyway, continual. - Were you escorted out? - No, I was literally by myself, and I'm like, "Well, I'll never have this chance again," so I touched it. - I'm sure the 10 cameras in the room caught you. - How much does the touching artwork-- - Dude, I look at this as one of my great things in life. When I die, I was like, "Well, he touched a Monet." - Okay, all right, I see that. North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina, has so many notable people that it has its own Wikipedia page, list of people from Raleigh, North Carolina, but I synthesized it down to who I think are the best and brightest, starting with Clay Aiken. - Oh my gosh. - Nice, that's fantastic. - He's a poor man's Ruben Stutter. - Yeah. - Model and actress Hunter Shafer, known for her roles in the HBO show Euphoria, as well as Hunger Games and Kinds of Kindness. - I don't know who she is. - It's okay. - Marion Jones, disgraced Olympic track athlete. - That's right. - Imagine having disgraced in your-- - Disgraced Monet-toucher, oh my gosh. - Cliff Blazinski, lead designer of the popular Xbox 360 game Gears of War. - Oh. - Mr. Beast, the YouTuber, is from Raleigh. - Oh geez. - I'm a YouTuber. - One of my favorite comedians, Amy Sedaris and her brother, David Sedaris, are both from Raleigh. And the band between the buried in me, a progressive metal band. - Oh, I'll take your word for it. - Catherine, does it bother you how he says you're hometown? - Raleigh. - Well, I kind of thought you were joking for a little bit, but now I'm thinking, are you serious? (laughing) - Is it not, was I saying it wrong? - Raleigh. - You're kind of saying Raleigh, it's Raleigh. - Raleigh. - You're too West Coast. - Yeah, I'm a West Coast elite, so, excuse me. (laughing) - Today, we're talking with a Catherine Watts from Raleigh, North Carolina. It works for Labor Service International. So, Catherine, when you're at the old, let's say Thanksgiving table, does politics ever come up? (laughing) Oh, does it? They say, you know, you're not supposed to talk about politics or religion, but those are my two favorite topics. So, they somehow always come up in conversation. What I do is a federal program. So, it is dictated by politics at times, but also just really enjoy making sure I stay connected and up to date with what's going on. And my sister is a lobbyist on the state level and my husband, he works in political consulting. So, we are just super, super invested and it's an election year. So, this is my plug for everyone to make sure you make your plan to go vote. - Absolutely. - Yeah, so, I mean, are you all on the same side? I won't ask what side it is, but are you all on the same side? - How would it be any fun? (laughing) - Yes, we are on the same side and I do, I don't know if I would be the type of person that could have married someone that wasn't on my side because I get pretty passionate about it. So, but I know that beautiful marriages work like that all the time and I am so impressed with those folks, but yes, we're on the same team. - Some people like to fight. There you go. - You have to bring in a cousin or something who's not on the right side to make it interesting. - Oh, yeah, we got a few of those. Catherine, the Labor Service International, tell me about y'all's app. - Sure, so, when I came to work for LSI in 2020, COVID had just hit and we were doing everything super manually. So, everything was done on paper with PIN and we had to mail a lot of packages out, but I was able to convince my boss that it was really important for us to get up with the times and we built a web application from scratch, specifically for our customers that helps folks navigate the HTA program, but really just is a one-stop shop for you to store all of your records and your files. As we've talked about, the HTA program is highly regulated and it's really important that farmers keep up with their records for at least three years as far as their HTA records go. So, this just allows our customers to have everything in one central location online, which I know seems real simple and probably what every business has in 2024, but we're just really proud of it. We designed it with the input from our customers for our customers and it's-- - And working people find that, Catherine? - If you just go to our website, laborservicesinternational.com and there is information on the platform. - Yeah. - Fantastic. - Yeah, that's fantastic. Catherine Watts from Raleigh, North Carolina, Labor Service International. Catherine, thank you for all you do for agriculture and thank you for the interview. Really, really appreciate it. Catherine, don't go anywhere. Sean Haney's coming up next. He's on the other side of the border. Look out to everybody next time. ♪ Get ready ♪ ♪ Get ready for the next shake up ♪