Friday, December 31, 2021
CapitalPress.com 5
Judge discards most wage claims against Washington dairy
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — A
federal judge has dismissed
most allegations that a Cen-
tral Washington dairy under-
paid its workers, ruling that
claims against the dairy were
“largely baseless.”
Mensonides Dairy in
Mabton committed “techni-
cal violations” and owed 22
workers a total of $24,646
for missed meal breaks, U.S.
Bankruptcy Judge Whitman
Holt ruled Dec. 20.
The dairy didn’t discour-
age or cut short meal breaks,
but was careless by not mak-
ing sure employees recorded
meals on their timecards, Holt
wrote.
Holt tossed out the other
claims, including one that
sought retroactive pay for
walking or riding a company
vehicle one-quarter of a mile
from the parking lot to the
time clock.
“Simply because the
dairy permitted its employ-
ees to use company vehi-
cles to make the trip does not
transform the travel time into
‘hours worked,’” Holt wrote.
California law fi rm Mar-
tinez Aguilasocho & Lynch
claimed
workers
were
owed a total of $518,488
for missed meal and rest
breaks, and unpaid work
time.
Holt said the fi rm’s calcu-
lations were “unclear, diffi cult
to follow, aggregated with
nonviable theories, and in
many instances not possible
to reconcile with the court’s
own work.”
Eff orts to obtain com-
ment from attorney Charlotte
Mikat-Stevens, who argued
the case for the workers, were
unsuccessful.
The dairy fi led to reorga-
nize under Chapter 11 bank-
ruptcy in 2018. The law fi rm
fi led a claim on behalf of
workers employed by the
dairy between 2015 and 2018.
Holt heard testimony from
21 workers over nine days,
spread out in October 2020
and May 2021.
Holt described some of the
testimony as evasive and con-
tradictory. He said one work-
er’s testimony was “bizarre,
confusing and downright
nonsensical.”
Nevertheless, the judge
went through the time cards,
identifi ed missing meal breaks
and did the math himself.
The number of missed
meals was relatively small,
Holt said, and it was com-
mon for workers to take two-
hour meal breaks for what-
ever reason.
Because workers self-re-
ported meals, they probably
took meal breaks while on the
clock, he wrote.
Eff orts to obtain comment
from the dairy or its lawyer
were unsuccessful.
Holt also rejected claims
that workers weren’t given
rest breaks. The dairy
allowed workers to decide
when they needed a break,
Holt observed.
The awards to individual
workers were based on the
number of missed breaks
and ranged from $3,004
to $36.75. Holt awarded
a matching $24,646 to
attorneys representing the
workers.
Potato
Inslee to push for mandatory riparian buff ers
market
outlook
mixed
for 2022
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
to their survival,” said Inslee,
at an event in Skagit County
hosted by the Swinomish
Indian Tribal Community.
The proposal sounds like ones
previously opposed by farm
groups, he said.
“It’s a big, dumb buff er,”
he said.
The buff ers are part of a
$187 million salmon plan that
Inslee said he will present to
lawmakers. The Legislature
convenes for a 60-day session
Jan. 10.
Inslee rolled out the
plan joined by tribal lead-
ers. He called his salmon bill
the Lorraine Loomis Act.
Loomis was chairwoman of
the Northwest Indian Fisher-
ies Commission and died in
August.
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Potato producers will
have to weigh strong
demand and prices against
high input costs and a
still-uncertain economy as
they decide
their 2022
plantings.
“There’s
a lot of
optimism
in the mar-
kets right
now,” Ben Ben Eborn
Eborn, agri-
cultural economist and
owner of North American
Potato Market News, said
in a University of Idaho Ag
Outlook presentation Dec.
16. “Whether or not that
can stay is dependent upon
the overall economy.”
Risks include U.S. and
international government
responses to COVID-19
and its variants, he said.
Eborn, who is based in
eastern Idaho, said the U.S.
crop fell short of expec-
tations overall this year,
dragged in part by pro-
longed above-average heat
in many Idaho, Washington
and Oregon growing areas.
Global supply is tight.
European
production
dropped. And although
Canada produced its big-
gest potato crop ever,
“moving them around
where they’re needed is
extremely diffi cult,” he
said.
Also in Canada, the
recent Prince Edward
Island quarantine for potato
wart has added to the larger
market’s supply and logis-
tics challenges, Eborn said.
But demand for fries in
the U.S. and internationally
is “sky high” as foodser-
vice demand increases, so
processors will want more
potatoes planted in 2022,
he said.
As
tight
supplies
boosted prices, input costs
have increased, Eborn said.
“And those input costs
just add a tremendous
amount of risk and make
decision making very diffi -
cult,” he said.
Even if processors want
more potatoes grown in
2022, “how much are we
going to increase (acres)
if costs of production have
skyrocketed like this?”
Eborn said.
He estimates most grow-
ers’ operating costs have
increased at least 20%,
“and maybe as much as
30%” not including likely
higher fi xed costs such as
equipment
depreciation,
overhead and land rent.
Availability of products
and labor also remains a
challenge.
“How do you plan when
prices jump like that in a
year?” Eborn said. “What
are they going to be by the
time you need to purchase
your fertilizer, and can you
lock your prices in? It’s not
an easy thing to do unless
you have a lot of leverage.”
Eborn said some other
crops’ higher prices in
2021 could also hold back
potato acreage in 2022.
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
The Chehalis River fl ows past farmland in southwest
Washington. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed
mandatory buff ers along waterways statewide.
soil
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Washington Gov. Jay Ins-
lee will ask lawmakers to
impose mandatory setbacks
along waterways to protect
salmon, a proposal that could
eliminate farmland and stifl e
rural development.
Inslee said Dec. 14 his plan
was the result of two years of
talks between his offi ce and
tribes. The “riparian protec-
tion zones” will keep water
cool for fi sh, he said.
“There is nothing more
Washingtonian than celebrat-
ing salmon and committing
“There is nothing that
more unites us,” he said.
Washington State Dairy
Federation policy director Jay
Gordon said the governor’s
proposal will renew a battle
over buff ers. “Good, grief, I
thought we got past that,” he
said.
The governor’s offi ce has
not released the text of the
bill. According to a policy
brief, the setbacks would be
statewide and would be based
on the height of trees along
banks.
Gordon said farm groups
weren’t privy to the talks
between Inslee and tribes.