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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Labor Camp To Be Built To Settle Suit

Associated Press

A fruit-growers’ cooperative will help build a labor camp to settle a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of migrant cherry workers who lived in an unlicensed, primitive camp during harvest.

Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges on Thursday approved the out-of-court settlement between Blue Bird Inc. and Columbia Legal Services, which filed the suit last month.

Bridges certified the class-action suit on behalf of about 75 workers who stayed at a camp outside Wenatchee that Blue Bird managed during the 1995 harvest.

The settlement requires Blue Bird, a Peshastin-based warehouse and grower cooperative, to provide as much as $25,000 to purchase portable shower houses and possibly a communal kitchen for a new camp for any workers in the Wenatchee Heights area during cherry harvest. The camp would house as many as 100 workers.

As part of the settlement, Blue Bird also agreed to form a nonprofit corporation and seek money from other warehouses and growers to build the camp. A portion of camp development could also be financed by employers of workers who use the camp.

The corporation would also investigate the availability of state and federal grants to aid in developing the camp and possibly others.

“We’re hoping this idea will spread to other areas,” said Norm Gutzwiler, a horticulturist for Blue Bird.

The agreement was approved in lieu of a monetary settlement.