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Volume 94, Number 8
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Biden’s immigration proposal prompts
renewed calls for farm labor reforms
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
n his first day in office, President Joe
Biden sent a clear message to Cap-
itol Hill that his administration was
ready to make immigration reform a
top priority.
Biden offered a sweeping proposal, dubbed
the U.S. Citizenship Act, that seeks to fast-
track legal status for 11 million undocu-
mented immigrants — including farmwork-
ers who make up the backbone of American
agriculture.
The new Democrat-led Congress is now
working to develop that legislation, with Sen.
O
Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Rep. Linda San-
chez, D-Calif., leading the effort. It remains
unclear whether lawmakers will push for com-
prehensive reform, or break up the Biden plan
into a series of smaller bills.
Either way, farm advocates say more is
needed to solve labor shortages that have
dogged the industry for decades.
Leon Sequeira, an attorney based in Wash-
ington, D.C., and former assistant secretary of
labor under President George W. Bush, said
the Biden plan has serious gaps. It makes no
reference to fixing the country’s guestworker
program, which is growing in both usage and
cost for farms.
“There is virtually nothing (here) that is
going to solve the agricultural labor issue that
we face,” Sequeira said. “That is one area where
Congress is going to have to fill in the details.”
Worker shortage
According to the American Farm Bureau
Federation, agriculture needs 1.5 million to
2 million hired workers every year to pick,
See Reforms, Page 11
Leon
Sequeira
Courtesy of California Strawberry Commission
Pickers harvest strawberries near Santa Ma-
ria, Calif. Reform of the guestworker visa pro-
gram for agriculture is among the immigra-
tion issues facing Congress.
Bill amended to require retroactive overtime
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The Senate labor
committee Monday passed a bill
calling on every farm employer in
Washington to go back three years
and pay workers time-and-a-half
for overtime.
Democrats on the committee
amended Senate Bill 5172, which
originally would have barred
the state Supreme Court’s Nov.
5 ruling on overtime from being
applied retroactively.
The bill now would do the
“exact opposite” of what he
intended, the legislation’s prime
sponsor, Sen. Curtis King, R-Ya-
kima, said. “First time I’ve seen
that happen,” he said.
The committee’s vote, how-
ever, was not a total loss for
agricultural employers. If not
approved by the committee Mon-
day, the bill would have died,
falling victim to a legislative
deadline.
Farms would have been left
to defend against back-pay law-
suits without any intervention by
lawmakers.
The committee’s chairwoman,
Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, said
talks on a final bill will continue.
“This is not an easy issue,”
Washington State Capitol
she said. “I believe it is a work
in progress and has much work
ahead of us. ... But it’s an import-
ant issue we should keep alive.”
Farm groups took consolation
in Keiser’s remark.
“It sent a pretty strong sig-
nal that she’s still open to nego-
tiate and shape the bill,” said
Dan Wood, executive director
of the Washington State Dairy
Federation.
“The bill passed by the com-
mittee will make things far worse
than they are now, for all of agri-
culture,” he said. “You would
see a whole bunch of farms shut
down and farmworkers lose
their jobs.”
The court’s 5-4 ruling declared
that exempting dairies from
the state’s overtime law was
unconstitutional.
The court’s majority did not
rule on whether workers could
sue for back pay. The four dissent-
ing justices said it would be unfair
to allow back-pay lawsuits. Nev-
ertheless, some 30 such lawsuits
have been filed in a half dozen
counties.
The bill that passed the labor
committee confirms that the
court’s ruling should be applied
retroactively and to all farms, not
just dairies.
Farms would have to find
workers and pay them back over-
time, plus 12% per year interest.
See Pay, Page 11
Easterday Dairy moving forward despite company’s trouble
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
BOARDMAN, Ore. — Plans
to revive Oregon’s second-larg-
est dairy remain unchanged,
despite the new owners — a
prominent farm family based in
southeast Washington — fac-
ing allegations of fraud by Tyson
Foods.
Easterday Farms purchased
the dairy, formerly Lost Valley
Farm, in 2019. The family regis-
E.J. Harris/EO Media Group File
The Lost Valley Farm outside Boardman, Ore.
tered a new business in Oregon,
called Easterday Dairy LLC, which
is now seeking state approval to
Founded in 1945
by Farmers and Ranchers.
We still measure success by the acre.
reopen the dairy in rural Morrow
County with up to 28,300 total
cattle.
But Oregon regulators say they are
proceeding with caution and watch-
ing closely amid an unfolding scan-
dal involving Easterday Ranches, the
livestock arm of the family’s multi-
pronged agricultural operation.
Easterday Ranches supplies cattle
for a beef plant run by Tyson Fresh
Meats near Pasco, Wash. In Janu-
ary, Tyson sued Easterday Ranches
for $225 million, accusing the ranch
of faking invoices and charging
See Dairy, Page 11
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