Washington state imports Thai farmworkers

Importing workers from Asia to help harvest state fruit is a new trend based on a decades-old federal program – and it’s growing. Last season, 170 Thai workers were imported to harvest Yakima Valley apples and cherries. This year, there could be at least 1,000. Some fruit growers like the idea, citing controversy over use of illegal Latino immigrant workers and concerns about an eventual labor shortage.

The federal guest-worker program contains provisions intended to protect local workers and wages, but it worries unions and advocacy groups representing local laborers. They predict the guest workers will reduce local hires.

Growers and farm-labor contractors like Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Inc., which employed the Thais, are expected to bring hundreds more workers to Washington from overseas this year. As many as a dozen growers in Eastern Washington have expressed interest, Global says.

“I think foreign guest workers are the answer for now, until the next big thing comes around like mechanization,” John Verbrugge, orchard manager at Valley Fruit in Wapato, told The Seattle Times for a story in Sunday editions. “I’m getting far better results with the legal workers and not having the hassle of the paperwork,” Verbrugge said.

Jeff Johnson, organizing and research director of the Washington State Labor Council, said the importation of Thai workers “totally flabbergasted us. We have no labor shortage in the state of Washington, so we question the need for these foreign workers to begin with,” Johnson said.

Global is the target of a 2-year-old federal probe into wage-and-hour violations. The company also came under fire from state regulators last year for the way it paid and housed its Thai employees.

Mordechai Orian, president of Global, said his company is providing labor-force stability. His company has filed applications for up to 640 workers sought by three Eastern Washington growers, he said.

“They’re not coming to us because we’re asking them,” Orian said of his grower clients. “They’re coming to us saying, ‘Please help us.’”

Imported farm labor isn’t a cheaper option for growers. They pay contractors a premium.

In return, they say, they get workers whose immigration status is not in question, workers who – with limited English, their movements largely controlled – will show up to work.

And unlike some foreign workers, Orian said, the Thais want to return home.

Even at the height of the growing season, unemployment in the Yakima area is higher than in much of the state. Agricultural jobs fluctuate depending on the size of the harvests, but generally they have declined as farms consolidate or disappear, state figures show.

Dan Fazio, a labor specialist with the Washington Farm Bureau, said growers with a reputation for being fair and honest don’t have a problem getting good people.

“The markets are able to correct for the tightness we experienced with last year’s big crop. People have to pay more for workers,” he said.

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