Rural Laws: April, 1998 - Number #8

Apple packinghouse workers voted against Teamster representation at Stemilt Growers Inc. by a 290-205 vote and workers at Washington Fruit and Produce voted against the Teamsters 161-121. The Teamsters had nine organizers in Wenatchee and Yakima during the campaign. Both companies hired anti-union consultants; Stemilt reportedly spent $300,000 to hire Steve Highfill's Ag-Relate of Salinas, California to run an anti-union campaign. The Washington Growers League coordinated a $100,000 effort to monitor union activity and to be "prepared to respond on behalf of the industry to actions by the Teamsters and the United Farm Workers unions."

The Teamsters filed 20 charges against the companies, alleging that they interfered with the workers' free choice by threatening that, if the union won, the INS would be brought in to check documentation. As a result of one complaint, Stemilt was forced to rehire six workers it fired and provide them nearly $20,000 in back pay.

In the run-up to the January 1998 vote at Stemilt Growers Inc., owner Bob Mathison was quoted in the Seattle Times on January 4, 1998 as saying: "We are blessed with a bountiful labor supply. If there is something we want done, we throw bodies at it and they cost $7.50 an hour...You saw those people turning apples in the same direction? If we have to pay $ 12 an hour, those people are gone," replaced by apple-sorting machines. Japan and several other industrial countries have highly automated apple packinghouses.

There are about 15,000 workers employed in 120 apple warehouses in Washington, and 30,000 to 35,000 apple harvesters. A Washington Grower's League survey of the state's 100 apple packing warehouses found that the average hourly wage was $7.50 in 1997. Most apple growers pay a piecerate wage of $11 per 1,000-pound bin, or about one cent per pound of apples picked. Fears of labor shortages in 1997 proved groundless--a few growers raised piecerates to $13 a bin near the end of the season.

Washington produces about half of US apples, and exports about one-third of its apples.

The UFW made its first pension payments to Washington farm workers, paying $200 a month to a 66-year old woman who retired from Chateau Ste. Michelle winery.

Housing. Washington for the fifth year debated temporary housing for migrant workers. Farm-worker advocates have agreed to accept tent-housing for migrant cherry and other short season workers if Washington will spend at least $2 million on additional permanent housing for farm workers through the state Housing Trust Fund.

In 1997, a bill to permit tent housing was approved by the Legislature, but vetoed by the governor.

Washington's Health Department estimates more than half of the farm workers in Washington -- 37,700 of the 62,300 who pick cherries, apples and other crops each year on about 1,000 farms -- are without suitable shelter. Some sleep in their cars or in squatter camps along riverbanks.

Oregon. US Department of Labor ended a year-long investigation of labor practices in the nursery industry after 60 inspections failed to find significant violations of FLSA and MSPA. According to DOL, most Oregon nurseries pay more than the minimum wage and many offer health insurance and bonuses.

DOL reportedly has 48 agents checking out labor practices in vineyard pruning crews in January and February 1998.

Jonathan Martin, "Migrant housing plan outlawed," Spokesman-Review, January 14, 1998. Rick Steigmeyer, "Stemilt workers reject Teamsters," Wenatchee World, January 9, 1998. Lynda Mapes, "Its high noon in campaign to unionize apple workers," Seattle Times, January 4, 1998