YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

March 19, 2006

Guest workers could ease tree fruit labor shortage

By LEAH BETH WARD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Growers are worried enough about a labor shortage this season that they are seeking to hire as many as 1,000 seasonal farm workers from Mexico under a federal guest-worker program.

"There are about a half-dozen farms that are very scared. We need lots of people. It really is different this year," said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Yakima-based Washington Growers League, which represents agricultural employers in labor matters.

While 1,000 out of about 31,000 seasonal agricultural workers in the state is a relatively small number, it's the largest since a few Yakima Valley growers two years ago turned to the federal H-2A program, named for the temporary visa granted to foreign workers.

Last year's drought and smaller crop averted a serious labor shortage by most accounts. Still, employers were able to justify hiring 90 workers from Thailand for the apple harvest.

This year's unprecedented recruiting effort comes at a time of urgency among farmers and farm workers alike as border tensions and concerns about national security threaten to paralyze Congress on far-reaching immigration reform.

The fear is that they will be left with the only legislation to advance so far: A House measure to enforce the law against undocumented immigrants retroactively, leaving agriculture without workers at harvest.

Sending undocumented farm workers back across the border with no legal way to return would shrink the state's farm economy by up to $500 million and hasten the shift of production to foreign countries, according to a recent study by the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Most of the lost income and production would be in the Yakima Valley, the heart of the state's $1.4 billion labor-intensive apple industry.

It's no secret that agriculture has long relied on a work force that lacks proper documentation. Although employers presume they are hiring workers with valid documents, estimates are that up to 70 percent of the agricultural work force is illegal.

Fearing that they will be asked to enforce immigration laws and fined for unwittingly hiring illegal workers, employer groups have stepped up their lobbying for a new guest-worker program.

The matter is before the Senate Judiciary Committee which, according to national news reports, is under pressure from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee to have an immigration bill ready for a vote by the end of the month.

Frist turned up the heat on the committee Friday by releasing details of his own immigration bill that would tighten borders, punish employers who hire illegal immigrants and provide more visas if the judiciary committee doesn't complete a broader bill in the next 10 days.

A majority on the 18-member committee has come out in favor of a guest-worker program that would let employed illegal immigrants remain in the U.S. — at least temporarily — rather than be deported. The committee members agreed Friday to try to come up with a substitute for Frist's bill by March 27.

The Washington Tree Fruit Coalition, made up of Central Washington horticultural and grower/shipper groups, recently urged Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a Judiciary Committee member, to support a bill that includes access to a legal work force.

"A severe labor shortage has the potential to cripple the tree fruit industry, which threatens the financial health of our local and regional economies," the Washington Tree Fruit Coalition wrote.

Careful to avoid the politically explosive term "amnesty," the groups said the guest-worker component of the bill should include a mechanism to "transition the current experienced workers who lack adequate paperwork" to legal status based on their employment history.

A variety of programs have been proposed in the Senate. One measure would give illegal immigrants up to five years to leave the country. They would have to apply from their home country to return as temporary workers or to seek permanent residency. Another would allow illegal immigrants to work for six years and then apply for permanent residency without having to leave the United States.

Gempler said it's impossible to predict what will come out of the Senate, but he believes a bill with a guest-worker component will be passed in a matter of weeks.

Miles Kohl, executive director of the Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association, said he's wary of the anti-immigrant tone of the debate, and would rather see the Senate not act than pass a bill similar to the House measure, which has no program for guest workers.

"There's too much rhetoric right now and not enough analysis," he said.

Employers want a guest-worker program that, unlike the cumbersome H-2A system, allows them to hire sufficient numbers of legal workers in a timely manner. There is no way that H-2A, which accommodates 30,000 workers annually, could handle the demand, according to Jim Hazen, executive director of the Washington State Horticultural Association in Wenatchee.

The state employed 91,253 agricultural workers in 2004, roughly a third of them seasonal, according to the state Employment Security Department. Nationwide, the Farm Bureau estimates that a new guest-worker program would have to handle at least 500,000 workers.

Local workers will have the first shot at farm-worker jobs before Mexicans are brought over under H-2A, but employers are skeptical the supply will be adequate.

Already signs of a labor shortage this season are appearing, with some growers in the Naches area advertising for pruners.

"Typically, pruners are not a large issue with us, so this is kind of unheard of," Kohl said.

Historically, growers have relied on their own recruiting networks, with some help from the state Employment Security Department and private labor contractors.

Last year, two growers used a California labor contractor who brought H-2A farm workers over from Thailand. The company, Global Horizons, lost its business license over wage and tax violations, and isn't recruiting in the state this season, although it is appealing the revocation of its license.

In turning to H-2A again this year, growers are using the services of the Northwest Growers Association, a nonprofit labor contracting firm that's an affiliate of the Growers League. Gempler, of the Washington Growers League, said recruiting will take place exclusively in Mexico.

The H-2A program is designed to import foreign workers temporarily when U.S. employees can't be found. More common in states like North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, H-2A requires workers to stay with one employer for what is usually a 10-month contract. The employer must provide room and board and pay $9.03 an hour.

Gempler said there is adequate temporary housing for an additional 1,000 workers in the Yakima Valley.

Employers and farm workers are both critical of the H-2A program. It can be costly, and workers don't always arrive when they are most needed. That tempts them to leave the farm to look for work, which makes them effectively AWOL and subject to deportation.

Farm workers have complained that H-2A makes them too dependent on a single employer, who can blacklist them if they complain about working or living conditions.