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CapitalPress.com
November 9, 2018
Pear packer starts using H-2B
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
CASHMERE, Wash. —
It’s crunch time for pear pack-
ing at Blue Star Growers Inc.,
a grower-owned cooperative,
in the heart of Washington’s
Wenatchee Valley and the
heart of the state’s pear pro-
duction.
From September through
December, 300 to 350 work-
ers pack more than 2 million,
44-pound boxes of pears,
some for immediate sales, but
mostly for storage and sales
through the year.
What’s new this year is the
co-op’s first use of H-2B-visa
foreign guestworkers to help
get the job done.
“We’ve had trouble filling
crews. We even tried a train-
ing school for two years, but
we still weren’t getting what
we needed,” says Dan Kenoy-
er, Blue Star general manager.
This season, working
through WAFLA, formerly
the Washington Farm Labor
Association, Blue Star gained
U.S. Department of Labor
authorization to hire up to 40
H-2A-visa workers from its
member growers at the end
of the picking season and em-
ploy them as H-2B workers in
the packing house.
H-2A is the federal foreign
guestworker program for sea-
sonal agricultural jobs. H-2B
is for non-agricultural jobs.
Blue Star hired its H-2B
workers for Oct. 1 through
Dec. 21, enabling them to
return home to Mexico for
Christmas.
“They’re already here and
know our growers. We’re
counting on a large portion of
them coming back next year
as needed,” Kenoyer said.
Rather than H-2B, packers
can use H-2A if more than 50
percent of the product packed
is from the company’s own
operation.
Unlike H-2A, there is no
Adverse Effect Wage Rate to
ensure wages don’t adversely
affect employment opportu-
nities of domestic workers.
However, the U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor sets minimum
wages by type of work and
geographic location.
It’s about $13 per hour
versus the $14.12 AEWR in
Washington, said Dan Fazio,
WAFLA director.
Also unlike H-2A, em-
ployers do not have to
provide housing for H-2B
workers but most employers
help workers find affordable
housing, Fazio said.
As with H-2A, employ-
ers do provide transportation
from and back to the work-
er’s country of origin.
Blue Star hired its H-2B
workers through a contract
with WAFLA separate from
the workers’ prior H-2A
contracts. Housing is tak-
ing a variety of paths. Some
workers are staying with
family or friends and Blue
Star is working with growers
who have housing, said Brett
Holman, Blue Star produc-
tion manager.
While others have in-
quired about it, no other tree
fruit packing sheds in Cen-
tral Washington are using
H-2B and two use about 150
H-2A workers, Fazio said.
As with H-2A, employers
using H-2B have to show
they have tried to hire do-
mestic workers and can’t get
enough and they have to hire
domestic workers who apply
within a certain time frame
of hiring the foreign work-
ers.
Hiring 10 H-2B work-
ers directly from Mexi-
co through WAFLA costs
$1,781 to $2,000 per worker
but that can be reduced by
up to $700 by hiring workers
already in the state as H-2A
workers, a WAFLA informa-
tion sheet says.
Blue Star packs 16,000 to
20,000 boxes of pears daily
on two packing lines that
run six, 10-hour days. Pears
go straight into controlled
atmosphere storage in bins
from orchards. They are taken
out and packed into 44-pound
cardboard boxes for better
storability.
They go back into CA
storage and are brought out
and repacked into different
packaging as needed for sales
through the year.
Pear bureau hires new events coordinator
PORTLAND — Angela
Daniels, experienced in com-
munications, marketing and
event planning and a frequent
guest on Portland’s live tele-
vision morning show, AM
Northwest, has been hired
as event coordinator by Pear
Bureau Northwest.
“We are confident An-
gela’s creative perspective,
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Blue Star Growers, Cashmere, Wash., employees more than 300 workers this time of year to pack
pears. For the first time it is hiring H-2B-visa foreign guestworkers because of being short on labor.
drive and ex-
perience will
be an asset.
In-store sam-
pling as well
as events are
essential
to
our market-
Angela
ing
strate-
Daniels
gies.
They
encourage consumer trial,
impact sales and drive repeat
purchases. With Angela on
board, we can be stronger in
all of these areas,” said Kev-
in Moffitt, bureau president.
Daniels said she’s been
buying pears for years and
looks forward to sharing
her passion for connecting
consumers to products they
love.
“I can’t think of a better
product than fresh, nutritious
pears,” she said.
Daniels most recently
spent four years working
with Rit Dye to refresh its
brand image. She was re-
sponsible for social media,
creative development and
project management.
She was a corporate trainer
early in her career, continues
to be sought for her public
speaking and has been a pan-
elist at the National Restau-
rant Association and BlogHer.
Established in 1931, Pear
Bureau Northwest is the non-
profit promotional arm of the
fresh pear industry of Ore-
gon and Washington, repre-
senting close to 900 grower
families.
— Dan Wheat
Chris and Kandi Bartels, who own defunct beef processor
Bartels Packing, have closed the business but expect to have
enough assets to repay debts, including $4.6 million owed to
cattle suppliers. An auction of the company’s assets is sched-
uled for Dec. 11 in Eugene, Ore.
Bartels Packing
auction set for Dec. 11
No prospective
buyers remain for
defunct Oregon
beef packer
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
With no prospective
buyers for its defunct beef
slaughter and processing fa-
cilities, Bartels Packing of
Eugene, Ore., will proceed
with an auction of its assets
on Dec. 11.
The company shut
down earlier this year but
a court-appointed receiver,
Richard Hooper of Pivotal
Solutions, met with several
potential buyers who were
interested in taking it over
as an ongoing enterprise.
Bartels Packing was a
common bidder on organic
and grass-fed cattle in the
region, so its exit from the
market was seen as detri-
mental for local livestock
producers.
Over the summer, one
prospective buyer submitted
a letter of intent to purchase
the facilities but a final sale
never materialized. Last
month, Hooper obtained
permission from a judge to
auction off Bartels Pack-
ing’s assets, with the pro-
vision that the event could
be called off if a buyer was
found.
In his most recent ac-
count of activities submitted
to the court, Hooper said
there were no longer any
prospective buyers and the
auction would carried out as
planned on Dec. 11 by the
James G. Murphy Co.
When reached by phone,
Hooper said he couldn’t
speculate as to why no buyer
ultimately decided to pursue
the deal.
A preview of the equip-
ment will be held at three
Eugene locations on Dec.
10, and the actual auction
will be conducted as a pho-
to slide show the following
day. More information is
available on murphyauction.
com.
At the time of its closure
in March, Bartels Pack-
ing laid off more than 140
employees and owed $4.6
million to cattle suppliers
and feedlots. The company
expected to repay its total
$8.3 million in debt because
its assets were worth an esti-
mated $14 million.
“We have experienced
significant difficulties over
the past several months
which have caused our
business to falter includ-
ing, among other things, a
continuing decline in sales,
accumulation of finished
goods inventory, the recent
and unexpected loss of one
of our largest customers,
the coming due of our line
of credit and a shortage of
sufficient working capital
necessary to operate as a vi-
able business,” the company
said.
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