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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Farmers Use More Legal Guest Workers By SHANNON
DININNY, Associated Press Writer
YAKIMA, Wash. - In 2006, just 12 Washington state farmers sought to
bring in foreign workers to pick fruits and vegetables and prune trees
under a federal guest worker program. A year later, that figure more
than doubled.
And already in 2008, eight farmers have applied to bring in foreign
workers this coming season.
To meet that growing demand and ensure that farmers know what's required
of them, the state held its first training seminar Thursday to teach
farmers about the federal H-2A guest worker program.
Call it H-2A 101.
"We're expecting an increase in the number of growers wanting to use H-2A
again, and that is one of the reasons we're putting on this training,"
said Oscar Trevino, program coordinator for the H-2A program with the
state Employment Security Department.
"We need to help employers who are interested in the program or who have
used the program to better understand the rules, laws and regulations _
and their responsibilities when they file an application," Trevino said.
Washington is far from the only state facing labor shortages in the
fields, forcing many farmers to look outside the United States for legal
workers. In 2004, some 6,768 farmers across the country were certified
to bring in foreign workers, but that number grew to 7,740 last year.
Under the H-2A program, farmers may apply to bring in foreign workers if
they can show the supply of U.S. workers is inadequate.
In 2007, more than 76,000 foreign workers came to the U.S. under the H-2A
program to work in agriculture, though just 1,240 of them were in
Washington. They comprise just a sliver of the estimated 860,000 people
working full time in agricultural fields nationwide, according to recent
U.S. Department of Labor statistics.
The Labor Department estimates that more than half of that number are in
the country illegally.
Expect more Washington growers to apply for the federal guest worker
program if immigration reform stalls in Congress as expected this
election year, said Mike Gempler of the Washington Growers League.
"More and more growers are doing what they can to prepare to use the H-2A
program," Gempler said. "That means becoming knowledgeable about it and
making preparations to be able to use it, whether it's having housing
available or making contacts and getting themselves ready
organizationally to handle that sort of system."
The bottom line is that many farmers feel they have no choice, he said.
"There's a lot of concern, not just orchardists and more labor-intensive
crops, but row crop farmers as well," he said. "People in processing and
packing, associated industries, are all looking at their ability to
attract an adequate number of legal employees. Bona fide legal
employees."
The Apple State does grow some highly labor-intensive crops: Fruit trees
require hand pruning and thinning, and the many varieties of apples,
pears, peaches and cherries are selectively picked by hand for ripeness
and to avoid bruising.
Some of Washington's row crops, such as asparagus, also have
traditionally required hand labor.
Gebbers Farms, the third-largest apple grower in the country, was
sending six people to the training seminar from the company's base in
Brewster, a small agricultural town in north-central Washington.
"A lot of people don't know what H-2A is. The smaller growers have never
addressed it. They hear H-2A and all they know is it doesn't work," said
John Wyss, the farm's government affairs analyst. "For the state to put
an educational seminar on is fantastic. It shows an effort to say,`We
want to solve this problem together.'"
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