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10 CapitalPress.com November 9, 2018 Washington used 24,862 H-2A workers, ranking third nationally H-2A from Page 1 Farmers in Michigan and other states have shifted from labor-intensive crops to those that can be tended and har- vested by machine because they can’t find enough labor, she said. “It’s likely that the autho- rized domestic seasonal farm labor supply was diminished as a result of a robust U.S. economy and low unemploy- ment,” said Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council for Agri- cultural Employers, in Wash- ington, D.C. “Unauthorized domestic seasonal farm labor supply was likely diminished somewhat as well as the cur- rent administration continued the trend initiated during the Obama administration of in- creased border enforcement and deportations.” Nationally in 2018, Geor- gia farmers used the most H-2A workers for the first time with 32,364, surpassing Flori- da, which had been No. 1 the previous three years, accord- ing to a U.S. Department of Labor report. Washington state was third with 24,862 H-2A workers, up 34 percent from 2017, which in turn was up 35 percent from 2016. California was fifth overall at 18,908 guestwork- ers, up 24 percent. Berries, general farmwork- ers, tobacco, apples, melons, fruits and vegetables, lettuce, corn, cherries and nursery and greenhouse workers are the top 10 crops or occupations, in order, using H-2A in 2018. Photos by Dan Wheat/Capital Press Roberto Hinojosa Fernandez, an H-2A picker, clips stems on Fuji apples as he works a Bandit Xpress-DBR harvest assist machine at Valicoff Orchards, Wapato, Wash., Oct. 17. The machine eliminates ladders and picking bags for greater efficiencies. California Washington growers The labor shortage was less severe in Washington this year because of a smaller apple crop, more workers migrating up from California due to the light cherry crop there, more H-2A guestworkers and gen- erally higher pay driven by the Adverse Effect Wage Rate — the minimum pay for H-2A workers set by Department of Labor. It’s $14.12 per hour in Washington and Oregon and $13.18 in California. While some Washington growers were short domestic workers, others said they had supplies that ranged from ad- equate to plenty. The Wenatchee Valley, from Wenatchee to Leaven- worth, is prime pear country. Because pears are heavier, pickers prefer apples. A few years ago, a picker shortage resulted in some pears left on trees. The valley is home to many family pear operations that are too small to afford H-2A workers, particularly because of the requirement that farms provide them with housing. The domestic labor supply was a little better last year and even better this year, growers said. “It was really good,” said Pablo Avila, orchard manager at Independent Warehouse, in the small town of Dryden. Picking started Aug. 15 and finished Oct. 2. Avila had 100 workers at peak harvest for 200 acres and for the first time hired H-2A guestworkers, 14 of them. He was able to reduce his piece rate from $27 per bin plus a $2 bonus to stay the entire season last year to $25 with no bonus this year. “We had good quality and more fruit so pickers were more eager to work and I could pay less,” he said. “It seemed like there were more domes- tics looking for work but not a lot. No oversupply.” H-2A visa foreign guestworkers carry ladders to switch picking spots at Griggs Orchards, Orondo, Wash., Aug. 21. Owner John Griggs said he wouldn’t be able to complete the harvest without H-2A workers. Dan Fazio, director of WAFLA, Feb. 23, 2017. Robert Valicoff, president of Vali- coff Fruit Co., Wapato, Wash. Overall, the valley still had a bit of a labor shortage, he said. Greg Rains, horticultural- ist and fieldman for Blue Star Growers, a Cashmere packer, said labor was “significantly better than the last three years” and that it was nice to have some breathing room. Piece rates stabilized, he said, add- ing that none of his growers reduced their rates. About 120 miles to the south in the Lower Yakima Valley, Robert Valicoff, pres- ident of Valicoff Fruit Co., Wapato, was one of the first growers in the state to hire H-2A workers in 2006. “I anticipated a shortage of labor would take place and I figured foreign workers would be here to produce the food or the U.S. would be importing food,” Valicoff said. He employs 220 year-round workers in 1,700 acres of or- chards and his packing house. This year, he hired about 220 H-2A guestworkers on the or- chard side, about 95 percent of his seasonal crew. He also invested $5 million with part- ners in buying and renovating a 200-bed hotel in Yakima for H-2A housing. “Had we not had H-2A, we’d be in a world of hurt. The neighbors can thank us because it’s afforded them to pick up more domestics,” Val- icoff said. He figures his labor costs went up 25 to 30 percent when he fully invested in H-2A workers because of the cost of housing, utilities, transporta- tion, documentation and wag- es. There were periods of pick- er shortages this year during peak Gala apple harvest in Au- for an interview. Dan Fazio, director of WA- FLA, said Washington tree fruit growers had adequate la- bor this year due to the small- er apple crop, more migrants from California, more H-2A workers and better pay. “We didn’t get the calls of desperation from employers this year or big increases in piece rates to steal workers from each other,” he said. “It was primarily because of the 34 percent increase in the legal work program (H- 2A),” he said, predicting the growth in H-2A hires will con- tinue. “I would expect the state to hit close to 30,000 H-2A workers in 2019.” However, the seafood in- dustry in Western Washington was hurting because of crack- downs by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he said. Fazio fears the Trump ad- ministration next year will reinstate Social Security mis- match letters to employers for employees with Social Secu- rity numbers that don’t match Social Security Administration records. The employer is re- sponsible for resolving a mis- match, but can’t if an employ- ee is an illegal immigrant. Fazio also fears the Wash- ington state Employment Se- curity Department’s proposal to charge growers $1,000, plus $100 per worker for the first 1,000 H-2A workers. The money would go to monitoring the H-2A program. “It would devastate the pro- gram. It’s like the state doesn’t understand the basics of a legal worker program. It’s use that or watch crops rot. If we didn’t have those 24,000 workers, we could not bring in the apple harvest,” Fazio said. Fazio believes this year’s improved domestic labor sup- ply may be an aberration and that H-2A will continue to grow “depending on wheth- er the state decides to end the program.” Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, said the continued growth of the H-2A program is indicative of a short supply of domestic workers. The strong economy and the lowest unemployment rates in Washington since 1976 contribute to the short- age, he said. gust but there also were times some growers had enough labor that they gave workers weekends or Sundays off — seldom seen during harvest, he said. Valicoff foresees a future for robotic pickers, which are still under development, but says that some manual labor will always be needed. He also said the H-2A pro- gram needs to be more flexi- ble to allow employers to hire and return foreign workers more quickly, The biggest improvement would be to end joint liability when small growers pool together to hire H-2A workers, he said. “If something goes wrong on one guy’s farm, the others who hired the workers with him shouldn’t be liable for it,” he said. WAFLA’s growth The largest provider of H-2A guestworkers in the Northwest is Olympia-based WAFLA, formerly known as the Washington Farm Labor Association. This year WA- FLA provided 15,771 H-2A workers with 13,848 going to Washington, 1,522 to Oregon and 401 to Idaho, Nevada, Utah and California. Of that total, WAFLA brought in 10,608 as a provid- er to farms and hired 5,163 as a joint employer with farms. Several large tree fruit companies in Washington hire their own H-2A workers inde- pendently of WAFLA. One of them, Zirkle Fruit Co., of Se- lah, hired 4,169 H-2A workers this year, up 40 percent from 2017 and making it the fourth largest H-2A employer in the nation. Mark Zirkle, company president, declined a request Some smaller scale operations find success by pooling resources DAIRY from Page 1 they face,” he said. But they might have an ad- vantage in being able to tap into higher value products and capitalize on consumer seg- ments that place a premium on local, smaller scale production, he said. It will be critical for coop- eratives and producers to posi- tion themselves for a scenario of prices remaining lower for longer without the peak years to provide relief, he said in the report. In some regions of the country, smaller scale fam- ily operations have found success by pooling resourc- es to build larger, more effi- cient operations. In addition, smaller farms are better able to quickly adapt to tap into niche markets such as organ- ic, grass-fed, local and other options for premium dairy products, he said. Cooperatives that have historically only pooled and marketed members’ milk will also need to investigate op- portunities for adding value. Entering into branded business requires different management and marketing skills, as does investing in and operating a manufacturing plant, he said. “But while challenging strategies and entering new markets may be challenging and risky, the risk of maintain- ing the status quo may be even greater,” he said. Oregon and Idaho Department of Labor num- bers for H-2A workers in Or- egon and Idaho for 2017 and 2018 are not yet available, but in 2016 Idaho had 2,994 and Oregon had 759. WAFLA provided 1,522 H-2A workers in Oregon in 2018, up from 623 in 2017. “Oregon has a severe prob- lem. They drastically need the program, but they don’t have housing and the state gov- ernment is hostile to the pro- gram,” Fazio said. In Caldwell, Idaho, tree fruit and wine grape grower Mike Williamson said this year was tight again for labor. For the second year in a row, he had enough workers to get crops harvested only because yields were down. He has 15 to 20 year-round workers and is considering H-2A. “We’re definitely affected by our neighbors all paying above minimum wage,” he said. The minimum wage for H-2A workers in Idaho is $11.63 per hour. Historically, California was never a big user of H-2A because it has about 500,000 domestic farmworkers. Grow- ers also don’t like the added cost of housing and say the program isn’t flexible enough to meet their needs for harvest- ing highly perishable crops in a timely fashion. Jason Resnick, vice pres- ident of Western Growers Association, in Irvine, Ca- lif., said the ag labor supply generally continues to tight- en as workers retire and few younger ones take their plac- es. Western Growers, whose members grow about half the produce in America, has helped growers obtain H-2A workers for 10 years and is handling more requests than ever, Resnick said. Labor shortages have in- creased the average wage to $12 per hour and piece rates can equal $25 to $30 per hour, he said. “We would do a lot more H-2A if it were not for the onerous housing requirements and costs of land, particularly on the coast where shortages are acute. It’s difficult to make the program pencil out,” Res- nick said. Ryan Jacobsen, president of Fresno County Farm Bu- reau, said 2018 labor was tight but better than 2017. Significant minimum wage increases and a rollback of overtime provisions are af- fecting piece rates, he said. Bryan Little, director of employment policy for the California Farm Bureau Fed- eration, said California pub- lic policy discourages piece rates. A CFBF survey last year showed growers 20 to 40 percent short of workers needed and making market decisions accordingly, Little said. Sometimes they found it cheaper to disc a crop un- der than to harvest it, he said. Little said he didn’t hear as much concern about labor this year as he has in the past. “People are not happy. No one feels like they have enough, but they are muddling along, doing the best they can,” Little said. “I don’t have calls from anyone saying, ‘I don’t have people to pick my crops. What do I do?’” ‘I think it’s fair to say there were dozens of users who responded, expressing concern’ SNOWPACK from Page 1 The “Black Box” may look like an or- dinary desktop computer on the outside, Tama said, but it is what’s inside that makes it special. The machine uses spe- cialized computer code, or scripts, to con- tinuously read snowpack data collected from the field, which it interprets and plugs into a geographic information system program — spitting out the color-coded, basin-by-basin maps uploaded onto the NRCS website. Tama knows just how valuable the maps are to a number of agricultural groups, as well as state organizations. “We heard from groups like the Oregon Water Resources Department and Wash- ington State Department of Ecology. There were some individual irrigation districts we heard that responded to our state office em- ployees, saying they were concerned about the maps not being available,” Tama said. “I think it’s fair to say there were dozens of users who responded, expressing concern.” Snow is already starting to fly in the Or- egon Cascades and Wallowa Mountains, though the National Weather Service’s Cli- mate Prediction Center is calling for a 70 percent chance of above-average tempera- tures across much of the Pacific Northwest over the next three months, along with a 30-40 percent chance of below-average pre- cipitation, thanks to El Niño in the Pacific Ocean. Those two factors combined could mean another lean snow year ahead.
