Hannelore Sudermann

Four Spokane-area United Parcel Service employees filed charges last week against their union for unfair labor practices. According to the charges the employees filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the Teamsters Union, including Teamsters Local 690 in Spokane, did not deal properly with workers who returned to their jobs before last summer's strike ended. The charges, written by attorneys at the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation, also claim the Teamsters contract with UPS was illegal because it required union membership "in good standing" as a condition of employment.

Alex McGregor is the new president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. Photo by Hannelore Sudermann/The Spokesman-Review

Chain of command. From left, the Barbieri team members are David Bell, Don Barbieri, David Barbieri, Stephen Barbieri, Tom Barbieri, Art Coffey and Dick Barbieri. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

And the last shall be first. Washington's wheat growers have gone from being last in percentage of acreage in a federal environmental program last spring to being the state with the highest acceptance rate in the nation.

Farmers will learn Thursday whether acreage is enrolled After two months, growers in Eastern Washington will hear if they've won federal funding to idle portions of their farmland under the Conservation Reserve Program. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman will announce changes in the number of Washington state acres enrolled in the 10-year program when he visits Olympia on Thursday. Wheat farmers and landowners have been waiting since the last CRP sign-up ended on Nov. 14 to decide what to do with the 591,509 acres they have offered.

Even after acquiring three Northwest hotels since the beginning of the year, the growing Cavanaughs Hospitality Corp., plans to buy two more. The family-owned company formerly known as Goodale & Barbieri plans to acquire the Hallmark Inn of Hillsboro, Ore., and the Outlaw Inn of Kalispell, Mont., once its initial public offering of stock is completed, according to the company's filing with the Security and Exchange Commission. Cavanaughs, which owns and operates hotels, retail and office properties and entertainment services, registered with the SEC on Monday and has applied to sell its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Donavan Ensz, 16, of Othello, checks out a John Deere tractor Tuesday while visiting Ag Expo at the Convention Center. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

The Teamsters may have lost last week, but they're not ready to leave Washington's apple packers yet. Teamsters spokesman Patrick Lacefield said Monday the union will object to the elections Jan. 8 in Wenatchee and Yakima on the basis of unfair labor practices. During that day more than half of nearly 300 workers at the fruit-packing warehouses of Yakima's Washington Fruit and Produce Co. and more than half of about 500 at Wenatchee's Stemilt Growers Inc. rejected the union.

In separate elections today in Yakima and Wenatchee, nearly 900 apple packing workers will vote on whether they want Teamsters Union representation. The future of tree-fruit workers throughout the state could hinge on whether a majority of those voting at two of the largest packing plants in Central Washington decide to join the Teamsters. Currently no tree-fruit workers have union representation. The elections come after a twoyear Teamster campaign in both areas and a battle for worker support between the union and the employers, Stemilt Growers Inc. in Wenatchee and Washington Fruit and Produce in Yakima. Each election is independent of the other. Stemilt has about 550 apple packers and Washington Fruit about 300 eligible to vote.

In order to keep the country's Southeast Asian trading partners, the U.S. Department of Agriculture this week offered $545 million in credit guarantees to five countries. But the move probably won't help boost wheat prices in the Northwest. Now at about $3.20 a bushel, wheat is selling for less than what it cost farmers to produce. The credit, however, may keep valuable long-term wheat customers in the Phillipnes, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. They, along with South Korea, recieved about 11 percent of all U.S. agricultural exports in 1997. The credit guarantees come at a rough time for the Asian markets with the Malaysian ringgit and the Phillipine peso falling to new lows early this week. The countries that receive much of the Pacific Northwest's soft white wheat are left in an economic lurch.

It may be a season of change for the Intermountain Grass Growers Association. Plans to restructure the group that represents grass farmers in Eastern Washington and Idaho comes as a response to member concerns that it is too narrowly focussed on the grass-burning issues and bans in the area of Spokane. "We're doing it to bring in outside areas that are non-traditional IGGA members," said John Cornwall, former president of the association.

Tessa and Scott Fitzgerald run Adventures in Advertising in Spokane. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

They won't be home for Christmas. They won't stand loaded with tinsel next to a crackling fire or in front of a picture window with flashing lights wrapped lovingly in their branches. This year hundreds of Christmas trees in Spokane and North Idaho are headed to shredders.

To sell the meat he produces, organic beef farmer Rod Repp has had to be creative. Though he's a certified organic farmer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture won't recognize him as such. And though it costs him more to raise beef organically, he can't sell it as organic in the stores. "I can't label my meat organic meat," said the frustrated farmer from Endicott. "I can't use the word organic to let the customer know that it is."

The Teamsters are the apparent winners in the bid to represent Department of Corrections workers, one of the largest groups of public employees in the state. In the vote counted Monday, 1,481 out of about 3,900 DOC workers who cast ballots voted for Teamsters Union representation. Only 818 voted to keep the current union, the Washington Public Employees Association, and 189 voted not to have union representation.

Tuesday was a big day for this town of 4,000. It was Patty Martin's final city council meeting as mayor, coming after she spoke-out against agriculture waste-control practices. And it also was the day the community heard results of tests for toxins in a groundwater plume which may be heading toward the town's high school.

Quincy-area residents next week will hear about the extent of pollution and possible cleanup efforts when ag-retailer Cenex Supply and Marketing and the Washington State Department of Ecology discuss test results from the Cenex-owned site in the town. The land, less than half an acre which Cenex bought from another agricultural product supplier 15 years ago, is tainted with herbicides and pesticides. "It was probably mismanaged before they bought it," said Ed Hares, hydrogeologist for the Washington State Department of Ecology. "Let's just say with the past practices, we can look back and say they were wrong."

Guests tour a plane from Central Montana Air's new fleet at Spokane International Airport Tuesday. Photo by Hannelore Sudermann/The Spokesman-Review

As Third World countries become richer and the global appetite swells, so will the demand for food. That should be good news for Washington state farmers. But trade barriers and outright bans, such as China's on U.S. wheat, will prevent American agriculture from meeting the demand, said Dennis Avery, author and former State Department agriculture analyst.

Wheat is Washington State University's latest cash crop. On Friday the Washington Wheat Commission planted $1.5 million on the school to pay for more farming research. The individual winner of the donation is plant pathologist R. James Cook for whom the money will buy an endowed chair. Cook came to the university in 1965 to teach and research plant pathology. Now he'll lead scientific teams in researching direct seeding of wheat, barley and other crops.

Finding ways to balance salmon restoration, water rights and farming was the challenge at the Washington Association of Conservation Districts meeting in Spokane on Tuesday. Several hundred conservation leaders from 48 districts around the state came in search of the solutions. "Salmon may be the poster child, but the issue is water quality," said Colin Bennett, a WACD director from Klickitat County.

Workers at the Stemit Growers Inc. Olds Station Warehouse in Wenatchee sort and pick Red Delicious apples recently. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

The Washington State Department of Agriculture wants people to know that a popular mood-elevating drug has a downside. It causes cows, sheep and horses who eat it to lose weight and sunburn. The Washington Department of Agriculture issued a warning last week that St. John's wort, both a toxic weed and a popular herbal anti-depressant, has "a dark side."

James Hellwig is a key to international markets for the region's businesses. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review