August 19, 2016
CapitalPress.com
11
Labor
CONTINUED from Page 1
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Pat Burnett holds some Bartlett pears. He says this year’s Bartlett
crop is among the best he’s seen in the Wenatchee Valley.
a week off before a month of
harvesting d’Anjou pears. At
that point, they’ll need 10 to
15 more pickers.
A sign in Spanish seeking
pickers was tacked to empty
pear bins at the neighboring
Christensen family orchard.
Manager Pablo Avila said he
has 60 pickers and needs 30
more to harvest 30 acres of
Bartlett and 350 acres of d’An-
jou.
The picker shortage is about
the same it’s been for the last
couple of years, he said. It’s
manageable, harvest just takes
three to four days longer, he
said. Pay is $23 per bin plus a
$1 per bin bonus for staying the
season.
Piece rates vary by variety
and a grower’s need, but most-
ly are in the $20s per bin, Gem-
pler said. They reach $30 per
bin for some premium apple
varieties, he said.
“I think more people are
using end-of-season bonuses
trying to ind incentives to keep
people,” he said.
Cell phones make it hard
to keep people because pick-
ers learn quickly of better con-
ditions or better pay and quit
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Misael Hernandez, 22, is a fast Bartlett picker at Burnett Orchards near Cashmere, Wash., on Aug. 15.
where they are working to go
there, Gempler said. It increases
the workload on growers, who
must keep track of whom they
owe for how many hours when
pickers return on pay day.
Fruit ‘triage’
Growers do a lot of “triage”
on which fruit to pick, and when.
“Most valuable crops come
irst and they hope they can
come around and get the less
valuable in time. They may sac-
riice condition or even an entire
crop because they don’t have
enough labor to pick everything
on time. A lot of that happened
last year and will this year,” he
said.
Paula McKay, manager and
principal owner of Mar-Jon
Labor in Othello, Wash., the
region’s largest labor contrac-
tor, provided 2,150 workers to
growers last year.
McKay said she has enough
workers for her clients now but
will struggle at the end of Au-
gust and early September when
many crops reach the peak of
harvest. Her crews mostly weed
row crops before working the
apple, onion, potato and corn
harvests.
In May of 2015, she was
short weeders until she boosted
their pay from the state mini-
mum wage of $9.47 per hour to
$11.
“Minimum wage hardly ex-
ists anymore,” she said.
14 Meridian FFA members attend Washington Leadership Conference
Photo by Trish Stokes
Meridian, Idaho, FFA members stand in front of the White House during the FFA WAshington Leadership Conference. From left are
Delaney Vatcher, Ashton Shaul, Kyle Schmit, Loretta Lacy, Lauren Barker, Mollie Hiscox, Cameron King, Ellie Higgins, Kiara Wetzel,
Kaitlin Muniz, Lauren Jackson and Kate Johnson.
By Loretta Lacy
Meridian FFA Reporter
Fourteen Meridian FFA members got the chance to attend the Washington Leadership Conference from June 27 until July
3. They were Loretta Lacy, Mollie Hiscox, Lauren Barker, Kyle Schmit, Cameron King, Ashton Shaul, Delaney Vatcher, Kaitlin
Muniz, Rachel Mansfield, Ellie Higgins, Kiara Wetzel, Lauren Jackson, and Kate Johnson and were accompanied by two
advisors, Miss Kya Vines and Mrs. Trish Stokes.
The Washington Leadership Conference is a conference that FFA members from all 50 states can attend. It is held in
Washington, D.C. This conference lasts a week, and eight weeks are offered each summer. All attendees stayed in the Omni
Shoreham Hotel, where the conference sessions were held this year.
During our week of WLC, 348 FFA members from around the nation attended the conference. Members can only attend
this conference once. Most attendees are going into their junior or senior year in high school.
Within the 348 members, we were split into Community Groups consisting of an average of 26 members. WLC puts an
emphasis on leadership and serving your community. This conference focused on having each member create a “Living to
Serve Plan” to help our community at home. We spent most of our community group meetings creating, organizing and
planning.
In our large group meeting, consisting of all the attendees, we did lots of fun, but thought-provoking activities. We
talked a lot about hunger in our communities and what we can do to help. On the last day of the conference, we made
6,200 macaroni-and-cheese bags for food shelters around the D.C. area through an organization called Meals for Hope.
Half of the conference consisted of sessions. For the other half, we spent it touring D.C. WLC attendees were privileged to
visit the following:
• Washington Monument
• Holocaust Museum
• White House
• Jefferson Memorial
• U.S. Capitol, where we visited
• JFK Memorial
• Korean War Memorial
Senator James Risch’s office
• Lincoln Memorial
• Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
• National Archives, where we saw the Constitution and
the Declaration of Independence
• National Zoo
• Natural History Museum
Members from our chapter that attended this trip owe a
great deal of gratitude to the Meridian FFA Alumni, Ada
County Farm Bureau, Meridian Dairy Board, Meridian FFA
Chapter and Dave and Angie Daniels for their financial
donations to reduce the cost of the trip. With their help,
the price of the trip per student was lowered from $1,460
to $650. All 14 of us are extremely thankful to have
attended this great program at less than half the original
cost.
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