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