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CapitalPress.com
March 25, 2016
Farm groups line up against Calif. ag overtime bill
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — Farm
groups are lining up against
legislation that would do away
with agricultural exceptions to
California’s overtime laws.
A bill by Assemblywom-
an Lorena Gonzales, D-San
Diego, would phase in a re-
quirement that ag employers
observe the same eight-hour
work day and 40-hour work
week as other employers. State
law now requires overtime to
be paid to farmworkers who
exceed 10 hours in a day or 60
hours in a week.
The bill has quickly drawn
criticism from groups includ-
ing the California Farm Bu-
reau Federation and Califor-
nia Cattlemen’s Association,
which assert that imposing the
standard work week on agri-
culture could bring drastic cost
increases and prompt some
growers to leave the state.
‘It just doesn’t work’
“It just doesn’t work in ag-
riculture,” said Justin Oldield,
the CCA’s vice president of
government relations. “We’re
going to make every effort
and do what we can to try and
stop this thing. … I will say it’s
going to be a tough ight but
we’re up for the challenge.”
Gonzalez’s Assembly Bill
2757 faces its irst hearing in
the chamber’s Labor and Em-
ployment Committee on April
6. It would gradually roll back
the daily and weekly over-
time threshold on farms until
reaching the standard 8 and 40
hours, respectively, in 2020.
Farm Bureau members and
others have raised their con-
cerns in meetings with law-
makers. Growers said they’d
have to more carefully manage
labor costs during peak har-
vests, and cuts in hours could
affect farmworkers and their
families, the CFBF reported.
In the Imperial Valley, the
new regulations could prompt
more growers of vegetables
and other annuals to plant their
crops in Arizona or Mexico,
where some have already gone
because of California’s stricter
labor and workers’ compensa-
tion laws, according to CFBF.
Gonzalez, a former labor
leader and the daughter of an
immigrant farmworker, argues
that few occupations are as
physically demanding or ex-
hausting as farm labor and that
workers should have the same
right to overtime pay as others
in the food production chain.
Clinton backs bill
She found an ally in former
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, the Democratic presi-
dential frontrunner. In a letter
to Gov. Jerry Brown and leg-
islative leaders, Clinton argued
OSU hires expert to ight slug menace
McDonnell specializes in
biological control of pests
Capital Press
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Courtesy of Robin Rosetta, OSU
European red slugs are common in gardens and landscapes.
It was important for OSU
to ind a researcher who’s fa-
miliar with applied science —
managing slug pests — rather
than simply studying slug bi-
ology, she said.
McDonnell’s experience
with using biological control
agents and essential oils to
combat the mollusks was im-
pressive, as was his ability to
win grant funding and train
graduate and post-doctoral
students, Rao said.
Novel methods of con-
trolling slugs are increasingly
important because the baits
that are commonly used to
attract and kill them aren’t al-
ways economical, she said.
“People are looking out-
side the box for slug manage-
ment,” Rao said.
While recruiting for the po-
sition, OSU consulted farmers
as well as representatives of
the USDA, Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture and local
soil and water conservation
districts, she said.
“We got input from every-
one,” Rao said.
Courtesy of Rory McDonnell
Rory McDonnell hunts for slugs in Ireland in this undated photo.
McDonnell has been selected as OSU’s new slug expert.
hired directly by the farm that
employed them averaged 41
hours of work a week in July
2015, while California farm-
workers averaged 43.6 hours,
said Philip Martin, an emeritus
agriculture and resource eco-
nomics professor at University
of California-Davis.
Most harvest workers are
employed less than eight hours
a day, but some work six days
a week during harvests, Martin
said in an email.
“Workers most likely to be
affected by an 8/40 overtime
requirement are irrigators and
equipment operators, who of-
ten work 60 or more hours a
week during busy periods,” he
said.
Farmworker retraining
raises some questions
U.S. Department of Labor
devotes $75 million to
farmworker training
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Oregon State University
has hired a new invertebrate
pest scientist to help farmers
ight the slug menace threat-
ening their crops.
In 2015, farmers com-
plained that damage from the
slimy mollusks has grown
worse in recent years during
a “slug summit” organized by
OSU, prompting the universi-
ty to seek additional resources
to battle the problem.
While slugs have long been
a pest for Oregon growers,
some believe their populations
have grown in recent years
due to the popularity of no-till
farming and less ield burning.
The slug researcher job
was among several new posi-
tions created at OSU thanks
to an additional $14 million in
funding allocated for agricul-
tural research and extension
during the 2015 legislative
session.
The search for OSU’s slug
expert was recently completed
with the hiring of Rory Mc-
Donnell, who is currently a re-
search specialist at the Univer-
sity of California-Riverside.
McDonnell will start his
new position in Oregon in
mid-July.
A native of Ireland, Mc-
Donnell obtained a doctorate
in environmental science from
the National University of
Ireland in 2004 and has since
studied biological control of
slugs, including a nematode
that parasitizes them.
OSU was initially con-
cerned that few people with
suficient expertise in slugs
would apply for the job, but
was ultimately able to choose
from a good pool of candi-
dates, said Sujaya Rao, an en-
tomology professor at the uni-
versity who headed the hiring
committee.
the bill “relects our shared
commitment to fair and hu-
mane working conditions for
those whose labor feed our
nation and much of the world.”
Agriculture was exempt
from overtime laws until 1976,
when Brown, in his irst stint
as governor, signed legislation
establishing the 10-hour day
and 60-hour week standard on
farms. California is now one
of four states that require over-
time pay for farmworkers.
A bill similar to Gonza-
lez’s failed in the Califor-
nia Assembly in 2012, two
years after then-Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger vetoed anoth-
er such proposal.
Across the U.S., workers
The U.S. Department of
Labor plans to spend $75
million on training to help
farmworkers ind higher-in-
come jobs, raising troubling
questions for some agricul-
ture groups.
Migrant and seasonal
farmworkers “often experi-
ence chronic unemployment
and underemployment” so
the grant money is aimed at
stabilizing their current jobs
and acquiring skills needed
“to start careers that provide
higher wages and stable,
year-round employment,”
according to DOL.
The agency said its Na-
tional Farmworkers Jobs
Program is intended to help
workers overcome obstacles
on their way to a “sustain-
able future,” but the agricul-
ture industry faces problems
in recruiting and retaining
enough workers.
“We’re seeing an increas-
ingly alarming labor short-
age,” said Gail Greenman,
director of national affairs for
the Oregon Farm Bureau.
Greenman said she’d pre-
fer if the program’s goal is to
train workers for better jobs
within agriculture, rather
than divert them into other
industries.
“I certainly hope that’s
not the intent,” she said.
The U.S. Department of
Labor did not respond to
requests for comment from
Capital Press.
Greenman said it’s a mis-
nomer that agricultural jobs
are low-paying, since efi-
cient blueberry pickers can
earn as much as $25 per hour.
Tasks such as grafting
also require expertise that’s
highly valued by farmers, she
said. “Just because this type
of job doesn’t require a col-
lege degree doesn’t mean it’s
not skilled.”
While agriculture can of-
fer a decent income, many
people nonetheless avoid sea-
sonal work, said Dan Fazio,
executive director of WAF-
LA, formerly the Washington
Farm Labor Association.
For some individuals —
such as undocumented work-
ers — the arrangement is ac-
ceptable, which is why they
stick with such jobs, he said.
Fazio said the agency is
publicizing the farmworker
training program at a time it
claims not to have enough
resources to process applica-
tions for the H-2A agricultur-
al guestworker program.
“The Department of La-
bor should be spending their
money on making the legal
worker program work,” he
said.
The agency is supposed
to provide farmers with nec-
essary certiication to bring
in H-2A workers 30 days be-
fore their “date of need,” but
has recently waited until they
only have 10 days or less,
Fazio said.
That delay leaves growers
with little time to get approv-
al from the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security and
obtain other clearances, he
said.
As to the purpose of the
retraining program, Fazio
said he wouldn’t stand in
the way of people bettering
themselves but believes the
DOL “feeds the miscon-
ception” that agriculture
provides only low-paid, un-
skilled work.
“The obvious question
is, ‘Are you taking people
away from the agriculture
industry?’” he said, adding
that he doesn’t believe the
program to be effective. “I
think I would be more upset
if I thought it would actually
take workers away.”
USPB changes name to Potatoes USA
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
15-5/16 x 10 x 2
18-3/4 x 14-3/8 x 3
ROP-12-2-2/7
ROP-10-4-2/#24
CALL FOR PRICING AND AVAILABILITY.
Delivery Available
503-588-8313
2561 Pringle Rd. SE
Salem, OR
LEGAL
NOTICE OF OREGON MINT COMMISSION BUDGET HEARING
TO: ALL OREGON MINT GROWERS
Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held
pursuant to ORS 576.416 (5), on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at
10:00 a.m., at the Hood River Hotel, 102 Oak Street, Hood River,
Oregon upon a proposed budget for operation of the Mint
Commission during the fiscal year July 1, 2016 through June 30,
2017. At this hearing any producer of Oregon Mint oil has a
right to be heard with respect to the proposed budget, a copy
of which is available for public inspection, under reasonable
circumstances, in the office of each County Extension Agent in
Oregon. For further information, contact the Oregon Mint
Commission business office, 4093 12th Street Cutoff SE, P.O. Box
3366, Salem, Oregon 97302, telephone 503-364-2944. The
meeting location is accessible to persons with disabilities. Please
make any requests for an interpreter for the hearing impaired
or for other accommodation for persons with disabilities at least
48 hours before the meeting by contacting the Commission
office at 503-364-2944.
13-4/#4
COLORADO SPRINGS,
Colo. — Leaders of the Na-
tional Potato Promotion
Board have changed the or-
ganization’s informal name
to Potatoes USA, seeking to
place a greater emphasis on
the commodity they market.
Board members of the or-
ganization, which previously
went by U.S. Potato Board
on its website and literature,
approved the name change
March 17 during their annual
meeting.
“It’s not important for ev-
eryone to know that we’re
the Potato Board, but it is im-
portant for them to know that
we represent potatoes,” said
board member Karlene Har-
dy, of Oakley, Idaho. “The
board is not important. The
potato is.”
The organization is updat-
ing its website under a new
web address, potatoesusa.
com.
At the meeting, the orga-
nization, which represents
2,500 family farms, also sim-
pliied both its strategic plan
and its mission statement,
which now read, “Strengthen
demand for U.S. potatoes.”
Hardy said the board is
analyzing its two newest
programs that are aimed at
strengthening potato de-
mand to assess their returns
on investment. One places
potato-centric salad bars in
schools and another features
food trucks with all-potato
menus.
The strategic plan, which
was once about 60 pages
long, has been pared down to
about 15 pages.
Potatoes USA President
and CEO Blair Richardson
said the plan, which had of-
fered rigid guidelines cov-
ering ive years, will now
be more luid, allowing the
board to make adjustments as
needed.
Given that the industry is
LEGAL
NOTICE OF OREGON BLUEBERRY COMMISSION
PUBLIC BUDGET HEARING
TO: ALL OREGON BLUEBERRY PRODUCERS
Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held
pursuant to ORS 576.416 (5), on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 at 12:00
noon at Chemeketa Events at Winema, Room 210, 4001 Winema
Place NE, Salem, Oregon, upon a proposed budget for operation
of the Oregon Blueberry Commission during the fiscal year July 1,
2016 through June 30, 2017. At this hearing any producer of
Oregon Blueberries has a right to be heard with respect to the
proposed budget, a copy of which is available for public
inspection, under reasonable circumstances, in the office of each
County Extension Agent in Oregon. For further information,
contact the Oregon Blueberry Commission business office, 4093
12th Street Cutoff SE, P.O. Box 3366, Salem, Oregon 97302,
telephone 503-364-2944. The meeting location is accessible to
persons with disabilities. Please make any requests for an
interpreter for the hearing impaired or for other accommodation
for persons with disabilities at least 48 hours before the meeting
by contacting the Commission office at 503-364-2944.
13-4/#4
LEGAL
The
Oregon
Processed
Vegetable Commission will
hold a public budget hearing
on April 21, 2016, 7:30 p.m.
at 1320 Capitol Street NE,
Salem, Oregon. Any person
wishing to comment on the
budget is welcome to do so
either orally or in writing. A
copy of the proposed budget
is available for public
inspection during normal
business
hours
at
the
commission office located at
6745 SW Hampton Street,
Suite 101, Portland, Oregon.
13-2/#4
rapidly evolving, Richard-
son said the board wished to
make its strategic plan more
of a philosophical document,
rather than setting speciic
goals for each year.
“It does allow us to take
advantage of opportunities
as they pop up,” Richardson
said.
Richardson said all of
the changes were made with
input from growers around
the country at several meet-
ings held during the past 18
months.
Potatoes USA invests
about $6 million per year in
USDA funding to boost glob-
al demand for potatoes.
U.S. potato growers also
support the organization’s
efforts with an assessment of
3 cents per hundredweight of
potatoes they produce.
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 98
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold,
for cash to the highest bidder,
on 3/29/2016. The sale will be
held at 10:00 am by
RETRIEVER TOWING
1768 13TH ST SE, SALEM, OR
2012 HONDA CBR250R M/C
VIN = MLHMC4104C5208398
Amount due on lien $3,237.00
Reputed owner(s)
Jesse Kinney
United Finance
Legal-12-2-2/#4