Farmers back worker program

YAKIMA – John Wyss had just been hired at Gebbers Farms, one of the nation’s largest apple growers, when the company couldn’t find enough workers in 2005. Fruit went unpicked, and much of what was picked came off the trees too late.

Hail and harsh winter freezes have shrunk the crops in the years since, reducing the need for workers. But if the weather had cooperated, he said, “We would have had severe labor problems.”

This year, new rules enacted by the Bush administration shortly before leaving office may make it easier for farmers to bring in foreign workers. Congress faces another push to potentially legalize undocumented farm workers already in the country. And in Washington state, farm groups are driving lawmakers to make it the second state in the nation to create its own guest-worker program.

As many as 1 million people labor in America’s farm fields each year, pruning trees and harvesting fruits and vegetables. The Labor Department has estimated more than half are in the country illegally.

Federal efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in recent years have left many growers fearing fines for employing undocumented workers, and more are showing interest in a federal guest worker program long criticized as cumbersome and expensive.

Farmers brought in nearly 77,000 foreign farm workers in 2007, the most recent year for which numbers are available. In Washington state, the number of workers brought into the country nearly doubled in 2008 to 2,094, up from 1,140 a year earlier.

That’s far fewer than the thousands working in Washington fields each year.

An estimated 15 billion individual apples are picked in Washington in an average year, and the state grows plenty of other highly labor-intensive crops. Fruit trees require hand-pruning and thinning, and the many varieties of pears, peaches and cherries are selectively picked by hand for ripeness and to avoid bruising.

Some of Washington’s row crops, such as asparagus, also have traditionally required hand labor.

The Washington Farm Bureau has proposed that the state push Congress for a new, nonimmigrant visa class for “essential workers.” Under the bill in the Legislature, the state would then create its own essential worker program to bring in foreign workers during times of peak need.

Colorado last year approved its own pilot program.

“Even with the economic downturn, I don’t see people long-term getting into the migrant farm worker trade. That sounds brutal, but I just don’t see it,” said Dan Fazio, director of employer services for the Washington Farm Bureau. “This work force is going to have to come from somewhere else.”

Erik Nicholson, of United Farmworkers of America, calls the bill “political theater.”

“It’s an extremely poorly crafted bill that runs counter to existing immigration law in a number of ways,” he said.

United Farmworkers previously supported some agricultural labor bills that included comprehensive immigration reform, such as the AgJobs legislation, which has been proposed in various forms since the late 1990s.

How likely immigration reform is in the coming days given other pressing issues, such as the economy, remains to be seen.

Wyss, of Gebbers Farms, recognizes that any legislation dealing with foreign workers is going to be a challenge in tough economic times, no matter what’s being proposed. But he also believes the farm labor market is going to be as tight as it’s ever been.

“There has always been a migratory labor force in some industry in this country, and during all those years, there were economic challenges,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to change.”