Friday, June 3, 2022
CapitalPress.com 5
Lawsuits target Northwest
farms over H-2A regulations
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Several Northwest farms have
come under legal fi re in recent years
for allegedly discriminating against
domestic workers in violation of
federal H-2A foreign guestworker
regulations.
While the lawsuits seek to
redress the grievances of individual
farmworkers, and several have been
settled, some farm labor experts say
the litigation refl ects broader oppo-
sition to H-2A among union activ-
ists and their allies.
“I’m noticing an increasing
number of lawsuits alleging misuse
of the program, especially in the last
two to three years. In my practice,
I’m seeing a very clear trend,” said
Tim Bernasek, an attorney for sev-
eral defendant farms.
Foreign guestworkers receive
many benefi ts under H-2A, such as
free housing and transportation, and
strong protections under state labor
laws along the West Coast, said
Enrique Gastelum, CEO of Wafl a,
an organization that helps growers
use the program.
Due to these safeguards and
H-2A’s growing popularity, the pro-
gram may be seen as undermining
eff orts to unionize farmworkers,
Gastelum said. “What benefi t do
they have from being unionized if
they’re already so well protected?”
The lawsuits fi led against North-
west farmers have generally lacked
a “strong evidentiary foundation,”
but the litigation underscores how
careful growers must be navigating
H-2A’s complex regulations, said
Bernasek, who leads the Dunn Car-
ney law fi rm’s agriculture, food and
natural resources team.
“There are a lot of traps for the
unwary,” he said. “Don’t think you
know how to use this program,
because you don’t.”
Bernasek said that farmers
should seek professional help from
organizations that are experienced
in documenting compliance with
H-2A regulations.
“You cannot provide a benefi t to
a foreign worker that is not avail-
able to a domestic worker,” he said.
Michael Dale, an attorney with
the Northwest Workers’ Justice
Devii Rao/UC ANR
Cattle prices are higher but so are the prices of inputs, an econo-
mist says.
Capital Press File
A domestic worker picks Rainier cherries in a Washington orchard.
Several farms in the Northwest have faced lawsuits by domestic
workers over the H-2A foreign guestworker program.
Project, said it’s true that H-2A
workers would probably be more
diffi cult to unionize — albeit for
diff erent reasons — he denied
that’s the underlying reason for the
lawsuits.
The organization represents
farmworkers in some H-2A-related
lawsuits.
Foreign guestworkers cannot
switch between employers and
want to be invited back into the
U.S., so they’re likely to resist join-
ing unions to avoid risking their
jobs, Dale said.
“It makes for a very compliant,
hardworking, capable workforce,”
he said.
However, the only motivation
for the lawsuits was that plaintiff s
weren’t prioritized for hiring as
required under H-2A regulations,
he said. Domestic workers must be
prioritized for hiring until halfway
through the contracted H-2A work
season.
“They have a lawful priority
to that work in the United States,”
Dale said. “That’s where these law-
suits come from.”
Though many farmers follow
the H-2A program’s rules, a “fair
number” try to prevent domestic
applicants from taking jobs, he said.
Domestic workers are disqual-
ifi ed for “reasons that don’t make
sense” or “given the runaround”
to discourage them from applying,
Dale said.
Labor shortages are real in agri-
culture and other industries but
once farmers invest in using H-2A,
they may become reluctant to hire
domestic workers, he said. “Once
you’ve laid out the money and
secured the workforce, you want to
get your money’s worth.”
Gastelum of Wafl a said that
H-2A employers aren’t perfect and
may make mistakes, but the pro-
gram’s regulations may also be
exploited by problematic workers.
Farmworkers who don’t meet
employment standards may be dis-
ciplined or fi red, for example, then
blame the H-2A program for dis-
crimination, he said.
“As with any workplace, that’s
going to raise negative emotions,”
Gastelum said. “You can defi nitely
have drama pop up when a worker’s
performance is being questioned.”
For this reason, H-2A employers
should ensure their front-line super-
visors are trained in proper coach-
ing and management techniques,
to avoid unnecessary confl icts and
ensure workers feel their concerns
are heard, he said.
“That will go a long way toward
minimizing issues like this popping
up,” Gastelum said.
Likewise, farmers should hold
meetings to ensure both foreign
and guestworkers understand how
the regulatory requirements of
H-2A aff ect the entire workforce,
he said.
Cattle markets
complex in 2022
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The cattle market outlook for
2022 is a mixed bag, an agricul-
tural economist says.
On one hand, cattle prices are
higher year over year. On the other,
cattle ranchers are facing higher
input expenses.
At $140 per hundredweight,
slaughter steer prices are 17.5%
above 2021 prices.
“But even with higher prices,
farmers and ranchers will travel a
rocky road to profi tability, paved
with infl ation and higher input
costs in 2022,” said Bernt Nelson,
an economist with American Farm
Bureau Federation.
Producers are facing increases
in both feed and non-feed inputs,
resulting in increased break-even
prices.
“Whether cattle prices will
increase enough to off set the
increase in costs and provide prof-
itability remains in question,” he
said in the latest “Market Intel”
report.
“One of the greatest concerns
faced by farmers and ranchers in
2022 is rising input costs, more
specifi cally, feed,” he said.
While cattle prices and input
costs vary across the country, esti-
mates for Iowa by Iowa State Uni-
versity give a general idea of cur-
rent conditions versus a year ago.
In estimating returns to fi nish a
yearling steer, total costs for April
are estimated at $1,832.86. Of
those total costs, feed accounted
Easterday sentencing
moved to September
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Apply less, expect more?
A judge has given ex-cat-
tleman Cody Easterday
more time to liquidate his
Eastern Washington ranch-
ing and farming operations
before being sentenced for
defrauding Tyson Fresh
Meats and a second victim
out of $244 million.
On May 24, U.S. District
Judge Stanley Bastian in
Richland granted a motion
by Easterday’s attorney,
Carl Oreskovich, to push
back sentencing to Sept. 19.
Easterday had been sched-
uled to be sentenced June
13.
It was the fourth time
Bastian has delayed sen-
tencing. Easterday pleaded
guilty March 31, 2021,
and promised to make res-
titution. He faces up to 20
years in federal prison.
The Department of Justice
as not yet recommended a
sentence.
In a court fi ling, Ore-
skovich said Easterday’s
continued
participation
in complex and adversar-
ial bankruptcy proceedings
was vital.
A plan to distribute
money to the victims and
other creditors is scheduled
to be fi nalized this sum-
mer. The U.S. attorneys did
not oppose waiting until
September for Easterday’s
sentencing.
Easterday pledged to
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press File
Cody Easterday
repay $233 million to Tyson
and $11 million to the sec-
ond victim, identifi ed in
court as Segale Properties
of Tukwila.
Easterday took money
from the victims to buy and
feed what turned out to be
non-existent cattle. Fed-
eral prosecutors say East-
erday used much of the
money to cover his losses
in trading in cattle futures
contracts. He faces sepa-
rate civil charges from the
Commodity Futures Trad-
ing Commission.
U.S. attorneys objected
last winter to delaying sen-
tencing from January to
June. Bastian, however,
granted the delay, saying
Easterday was fulfi lling his
promise to sort out what
Bastian called a “mess.”
The judge also noted that
if Easterday had not pleaded
guilty, his trial would proba-
bly still be pending.
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for 25.4% or $465.35.
Feed cost this April increased
nearly 12% year over year, and
that increase was even steeper in
March — up 22%.
Given a sales value on the fi n-
ished yearling of $1,872.78, an
Iowa cattle feeder is looking at a
$39.92 per-head profi t in April,
according to the university’s
estimates.
But there’s more to markets
than cattle prices and input costs.
Supply and demand also factor in,
he said.
The cattle supply is forecast
to decrease, as the industry is in
the contraction phase of the cattle
cycle. The calf crop on Jan. 1 was
down 1.2% year over year, and the
cow inventory was down 2.3%
year over year.
While USDA is forecasting
only a small decrease in domes-
tic consumer consumption, beef
imports also play a factor in mar-
kets — and those imports in March
were up 29% year over year.
On the fl ip side, USDA is fore-
casting a 1.8% decline in U.S. beef
exports in 2022 — although still
well above the fi ve-year average.
“A strengthening U.S. dollar
will make it more expensive for
other countries to buy U.S. beef
while at the same time making it
more aff ordable for the U.S. to
import beef from other countries,”
he said.
Yet, fi rst quarter beef exports
were reported at record levels, pri-
marily to the Asian markets with
China leading the way, he said.