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4 CapitalPress.com Friday, January 22, 2021 Washington agriculture warns bills would make labor scarce By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — The Washington Farm Bureau and other business groups warned Monday that two bills sponsored by Sen- ate Democrats would cre- ate labor shortages and upset the state’s paid leave program. Agricultural workers and other “frontline employees” could get more sick and family leave during a pub- lic health emergency under Senate Bill 5115. Under one provision, workers in companies with 50 or more employees could take up to 12 weeks off and collect up to $10,000 if their child’s day care closed or school was not holding in-person classes. Senate Bill 5097 would expand the scope of fam- ily leave. Currently, work- ers can take paid time off to care for children, grandchil- dren, parents, grandparents, siblings and a spouse. The bill would allow workers to take family leave to care for anyone to whom they had an “affinity.” Supporters said the bills respond to the pandemic, letting workers quarantine, recover and take care of others. Food Northwest lobby- ist Dan Coyne told the Sen- ate Labor, Commerce and Tribal Affairs Committee there are better ways to pro- tect workers. “Mainly, the state of Washington needs to up its game in making COVID vaccine available to all frontline workers as quickly as possible,” said Coyne, who represents food processors. “There is mass confu- sion among employers that I work with about how to responsibly get our employ- ees in line for vaccines,” he said. The Farm Bureau called the two bills “extremely bad.” Associate director of government relations Bre- anne Elsey said they would worsen an existing labor shortage and leave crops in fields. “There’s no ability to postpone (harvests) until your crew returns from three months of leave,” she said. SB 5115 would apply to a broad-range of workers, including nurses, janitors, firefighters, bus drivers, teachers and retail clerks, as well as farm and food processing workers. It has union support. The bill has several major provisions: • A frontline worker who tests positive for COVID-19 would be assumed to have been infected at work and would be eligible for work- ers compensation benefits. • Employers would have to provide personal protec- tive equipment. • Employees who pub- licly complain about work- place conditions would be shielded from retaliation. A whistleblower could get up to 40% of a fine levied by the state. • A worker would be eli- gible for paid leave after earning $1,000. Currently, a employee must work for 820 hours to be eligible, or about 16 weeks of paying into the system. Employers would get a tax credit to offset the higher benefits. Business groups warned that eventu- ally someone will have to pay. • Frontline workers who are paid at or near minimum wage would get a 25% pay raise, increasing the mini- mum wage to $17.11. • Employers must report outbreaks of the disease in their workforce within 24 hours. At the same time, workers are not required to report any medical con- dition or diagnosis to their employer. Farm Bureau director of safety and claims Richard Clyne said farms started last spring to keep their essen- tial employees healthy and working. “Unfortunately, it would mean that all of their efforts at safety are being met with a slap in the face,” Clyne said. Courtesy of Gebbers Farms Plastic barriers separate workers in a break room at Gebbers Farms in Okanogan County, Wash. The farm has appeal a $2 million fine issued by the Washington De- partment of Labor and Industries. Gebbers Farms appeals $2 million fine By DON JENKINS Capital Press Gebbers Farms, a north-central Washington tree fruit grower, has appealed a $2 million fine issued by the Department of Labor and Industries for coronavi- rus-safety regulations. The farm filed the appeal to the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, which hears challenges to L&I pen- alties. The deadline to appeal was Wednesday. L&I said Gebbers violated housing and transportation rules over a 12-day period in July, potentially exposing 2,700 foreign guest work- ers to the coronavirus. Two workers who lived in farm housing died of COVID-19. Gebbers said it consulted BAGS: • Seed Bags • Fertilizer Bags • Feed Bags • Potato Bags • Printed Bags • Plain Bags • Bulk Bags • Totes • Woven Polypropylene • Bopp • Polyethylene • Pocket Bags • Roll Stock & More! HAY PRESS SUPPORT: • Hay Sleeves • Strap • Totes • Printed or Plain • Stretch Film (ALL GAUGES) WAREHOUSE PACKAGING: • Stretch Film • Pallet Sheets • Pallet Covers LOCATIONS: Albany, Oregon (MAIN OFFICE) Ellensburg, Washington CONTACT INFORMATION: Phone: 855-928-3856 Fax: 541-497-6262 info@westernpackaging.com ....................................................... CUSTOMER SERVICE IS OUR TOP PRIORITY! w w w. w e s t e r n p a c k a g i n g. c o m negative for the virus,” the farm stated. The large fine stemmed from transporting workers in a bus and housing work- ers in bunk beds. To prevent the virus from spreading, Gebbers isolated workers in groups of 42, while the state limited “cohorts” to 15 workers. The farm has been in com- pliance with the state rules since July 27. The farm was fined $7,200 for not immediately notifying L&I of one worker’s death. The farm said the man died in a hospital and that it didn’t learn of the death until sev- eral days later. Gebbers also was penal- ized for not having toilet paper or hand-washing sta- tions at all field bathrooms. Dairy forecast holds optimism back strong and was up 3% year over year in November. Increases above 2% are in the While the outlook is bet- big growth territory, and that ter for dairy markets than it almost surely needs to be han- was in the early months of the dled by exports, he said. Milk production in the COVID-19 pandemic, there European Union, Oceania and are still uncertainties ahead. “We aren’t quite done with Argentina has also come back, COVID yet. Unfortunately, he said. “We need worldwide we’re at another peak,” Mark Stephenson, director of dairy demand to hang tight if we’re going to continue policy analysis at the to sell a lot of dairy University of Wiscon- sin, said during the product into export latest “DairyLives- markets,” he said. tream” webinar. But while there is The pandemic uncertainty, there is has had pretty heavy reason for optimism impacts on the mar- in dairy markets, he Mark ketplace. Things are Stephenson said. now going into a tail- There is a fifth spin of worldwide recession round of the USDA food box because the pandemic has program, which has been caused a lot of supply-chain expanded to a variety of dairy disruptions, not just for dairy products in addition to cheese but virtually every supply and fluid milk. Grocery store chain across the globe, he sales have remained above a said. year earlier, and the industry is “It will have an impact starting to move a little more on dairy demand if people dairy product through food- remain out of work and if we service and institutional chan- really can’t get back into the nels, he said. There’s also some back-to- restaurant segment in a seri- ous and strong, meaningful work happening with some way,” he said. version of normal. There are After declining in the early additional export opportu- months of the pandemic, U.S. nities, and there are COVID milk production has come vaccines and better testing and By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press WE SPECIALIZE IN BULK BAGS! an outside expert before the harvest season and developed a plan to keep workers safe. At the order of the state, some 3,000 Gebbers workers were tested for COVID-19 in the late summer and less than 1% tested positive, a lower rate than the general popula- tion of Okanogan County. Gebbers said in a state- ment Monday that the farm shared L&I’s goal to protect workers. “While we cannot com- ment on the alleged July 2020 violations because of pending litigation, our deci- sion to appeal the state’s alle- gations is rooted in the truth that Gebbers farms took extraordinary measures to keep employees safe while they were at work and 99.3% of our entire workforce tested tracing taking place, he said. “All those things I think give us some optimism about dairy markets this next year,” he said. But there are still concerns about how rapidly the vac- cines will be administered, and it’s going to take some time before herd immunity is achieved. “Even when we do, the U.S. is going to take a while to dig out from this recession — as is much of the rest of world. This is not going to be an easy thing for us to climb out of,” he said. As for milk prices in 2021, he’s forecast U.S. aver- age prices at $18.50 per hun- dredweight for the all-milk price, $17.35 for Class III and $16.56 for Class IV. “I think we’re going to have some more tightness in the marketplace during some periods of time, and I think we’re going to see some time periods where our markets our challenging again. I do not expect the kind of troughs that we saw in April and May,” he said. That’s because the mar- kets better know how to han- dle another shutdown in the U.S. marketplace if that hap- pens, he said. S214623-1 S225781-1