Worried growers seek 1,000 farmworkers from Mexico

YAKIMA — Some farmers in Eastern Washington are looking to hire as many as 1,000 seasonal farmworkers from Mexico under a federal guest-worker program, as concerns about a labor shortage this season heighten.

Last year, a severe drought in the Yakima Valley, as well as reduced crop size, enabled growers to avert a serious labor shortage, by most accounts.

Still, two employers were able to justify hiring 90 workers from Thailand to harvest apples under the federal H-2A program, which allows farmers to bring in foreign workers if they can prove a labor shortage exists.

This year's unprecedented recruiting comes at a time of urgency for both farmers and farmworkers, as border tensions and concerns about national security threaten to paralyze Congress on far-reaching changes to immigration law.

"There are about a half-dozen farms that are very scared. We need lots of people. It really is different this year," said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Yakima-based Washington Growers League, which represents agricultural employers in labor matters.

While 1,000 of about 31,000 seasonal agricultural workers in the state is a relatively small number, it's the largest since a few Yakima Valley growers two years ago turned to the H-2A program.

The growers went through a California labor contractor, Global Horizons, which lost its business license over wage and tax violations and is not recruiting in the state this season.

The company is appealing the revocation of its license.

In turning to H-2A again this year, growers are using the services of the Northwest Growers Association, a nonprofit labor-contracting firm that is an affiliate of the Growers League.

Gempler said recruiting will take place exclusively in Mexico.

Local workers will have the first shot at farmworker jobs before Mexicans are brought over under H-2A, but employers are skeptical the supply will be adequate.

Already, signs of a labor shortage this season are appearing, with some growers in the Naches area advertising for pruners.

The H-2A program is designed to import foreign workers temporarily when U.S. employees can't be found.

More common in states such as North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, H-2A requires workers to stay with one employer for what is usually a 10-month contract. The employer must provide room and board and pay $9.03 an hour.

Gempler said there is adequate temporary housing for an additional 1,000 workers in the Yakima Valley.

Employers as well as farmworkers are critical of the H-2A program. It can be costly, and workers don't always arrive when they are most needed.

That tempts them to leave the farm to look for work, which makes them subject to deportation.