Despite adequate supply past 2 years, more farmworker shortages predicted

WENATCHEE, Wash. – Washington state apple growers, who paid farmworkers more to pick their fruit this year and saw harvest last a little longer than usual, had better get ready for some more labor pains.

Those attending the 103rd Washington State Horticultural Association’s annual postharvest conference and trade show at the Wenatchee Convention Center learned that a 55-year-old federal labor program, increased mechanization and cooperative ventures with other growers in hiring and housing will be needed to survive what most believe is a coming shortage of farmworkers.

Rick Anderson of Sakuma Bros., a blueberry farm near Burlington, said some see bright, sunny skies because the labor supply has largely been adequate the past two years. But others see dark clouds on the horizon, as workers move into other things such as construction and as the general public takes a harsh view on immigration, he said.

Anderson’s comments were part of a panel discussion at the annual meeting, which alternates between Wenatchee and Yakima. The panel on

“Labor Survival: The Global Labor Market” also included Diane Coates, public affairs director with the USApple Association; Juan del Alamo of Del-Al Associates in Virginia; Glen Lucas, general manager of B.C. Fruit Growers Association in British Columbia; and Blair Losvar, president of the horticultural association’s board of directors.

Growers, in addition to paying higher wages, are looking at other incentives to maintain a steady supply of labor. There is increased interest in the federal H-2A program, a product of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, and use of farm-labor contractors. Growers also are looking at housing and greater use of mechanization, such as machines used to harvest raspberries once picked by hand. Researchers around the country also are getting closer to making new blossom-thinning technology – both chemical and mechanical – available to growers.

While all options represent thinking “outside the box,” they still amount to “Band-Aids,” Anderson said.

Coates said large-scale labor shortages present “the biggest threat” to the tree fruit industry. As a result, many growers in the Eastern U.S. have begun using the H-2A program, although many small growers find moving through the bureaucracy in which it is embedded to be a daunting task.

Nonetheless, small growers in Virginia have formed associations to use the program to move workers from one grower to another, del Alamo said. Maryland shoved aside its longstanding anti-immigration views to foster use of the H-2A program, he said.

Canadians have a similar program called the Seasonal Agriculture Workers Program, Lucas said. It came about because many domestic farmworkers are students who return to school in the fall when apple harvests begin. The program has helped alleviate the problem, but it isn’t a final solution in Canada, and the H-2A program won’t be a panacea in Washington state, he said.

“I don’t think that’s the end of the road on your labor issues,” he said.

One reason for that is that the federal government is slamming the brakes on H-2A applications, Coates said. For example, applications processed at the consulate in Monterrey, Mexico, once numbered 5,000 a day. After the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., six years ago, they dropped dramatically and are now fewer than 450 per day, she said.

Public perceptions regarding immigrations also are a factor. H-2A was created when domestic workers strongly pursued agriculture-related jobs. People incorrectly still believe that’s the case, she said. And the public believes a program like H-2A is bringing greater number of migrants to the U.S., but only 2 percent of the nation’s ag industry uses the program, she said.

“And the popularity of Lou Dobbs has not made any of this easier,” she said, noting Dobbs’ “war on the middle class” campaign.

USApple and others are trying to change perceptions in Congress, that growers need a program that recognizes the seasonal nature of the fruit industry and the perishable nature of its products. But recent legislation focused only on employee identification verification and fines for employers. No one is talking about a guestworker program.

“We’ve been telling them the H-2A system is broken,” she said.

Anderson said many congressmen from non-fruit-producing states actually proposed applying more taxes to the H-2A program and removing some of the tax deductions available to growers who use it.

source: capitalpress.info