WENATCHEE (Washington) WORLD

November 12, 2007

Use of guestworker program up in state

By Dan Wheat

World staff writer

WENATCHEE — Washington growers hired twice as many seasonal agricultural workers through the federal H-2A guestworker program this year, although the number remains small.

Growers in 2007 were certified to hire 1,657 workers, and there was verification that 1,140 were hired. In 2006, 814 were certified and 515 verified, says Bill Tarrow, a state Employment Security Department spokesman.

All of those were for tree fruit pruning and harvesting, except for 38 used in nursery work this year, he said.

About 26,000 seasonal workers are typically hired in Washington state during cherry harvest, and about 42,000 are hired for pear and apple harvest.

Still, the H-2A program helps individual growers and takes some pressure off other employers in tight labor times, says Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League in Yakima.

The number of applications to use the program was up too — from 16 in 2006 to 31 this year, Tarrow said. However, five of the 31 were withdrawn by applicants or denied by the state on grounds that there was sufficient labor in that particular area, he said.
Tarrow said the numbers reflect the shortage of farmworkers in Washington, and the department expects an increase in applications next year.

Increased security on the U.S.-Mexican border and requests by the Social Security Administration for employers to rectify false Social Security numbers from employees, he said, will increase interest in getting legal workers through the program.

Gempler agreed that there will be more applications next year and said he’s already working on three to begin in January for tree fruit pruning and some nursery crops.
“That’s unheard of. That’s the earliest we’ve ever had,” Tarrow said of Gempler’s three applications.

The Growers League and the Washington Farm Bureau act as agents helping growers with applications to Employment Security. That department takes the applications to the U.S. Department of Labor, which runs the program.

The program allows growers to hire foreign workers on temporary visas. Growers must pay $9.77 an hour, provide housing for the workers and pay their transportation from and back to their country of origin. The wage is expected to go up to $9.92 an hour next year, Gempler said.

In 2005, some workers came from Thailand, but last year and this year all of them came from Mexico, Tarrow said.

The program, which Gempler said is cumbersome, assures growers workers for a set period of time — usually three to four months.

The cumbersome part is working with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to get visas and consular interviews in a timely manner, he said.

“Each one has to be interviewed by a U.S. State Department official and has to have criminal background checks,” Gempler said, a process that can take four to five months.

The going average rate for seasonal farm work is $10 an hour, but for H-2A workers, it’s more like $12 to $14 an hour when adding transportation and housing costs, Gempler said.

Andy Gale, general manager of Stemilt AgServices, said the company hired 140 workers through H-2A this year for cherry and apple harvest.

“Overall, there were some challenges, but it went well,” he said.

It worked well at the company’s orchard in Mattawa, where the manager went to Mexico to interview prospective employees, he said. It didn’t work as well at the company’s Lucky Badger Orchard, north of Orondo, from which no trip to Mexico was made, he said.

Some of the workers weren’t very interested in working, he said.

Stemilt has invested in housing and intends to keep using the program at least at the same level, Gale said.

Gempler said the labor shortage was more regionalized this year, being a bigger problem north of Wenatchee and less of a problem in south central Washington.

Cherries, apples and pears are getting picked, but it takes workers away from other ag jobs such as milking cows and harvesting hops and vegetables, he said.

Overall, the number of seasonal ag workers are declining in number because the economy is relatively hot, unemployment is low, and there’s more enforcement against illegal aliens which, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, make up about 70 percent of the state’s seasonal ag workforce, Gempler said.

“Even with increases in wages, there isn’t sufficient legal residents to do seasonal field work jobs,” he said. “The only alternative is the temporary visa program like H-2A.”