Labor woes loom large for apple growers across U.S.

By DAN WHEAT

Capital Press

Sentiment for reform of the H-2A guestworker program is building in Congress, leaders of the U.S. apple industry say.

Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement agree the H-2A program is flawed, Nancy Foster, president of U.S. Apple Association, said following a subcommittee hearing on H-2A. That's a change from a year ago.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and member Dan Lungren, R-Calif., both have H-2A reform bills and the committee met to gather testimony about agricultural labor needs, Foster said.

Dale Foreman, chairman of U.S. Apple and owner of Foreman Fruit Co., Wenatchee, Wash., submitted written testimony seeking H-2A reform or a new ag guestworker program.

In his testimony, Foreman said the picker shortage for his company was so dire this past fall that he ran radio ads offering $150 per day and was only able to recruit three more pickers when he needed 100.

"We had thousands and thousands of bins of fruit picked two to three weeks late. Much of it was not good enough for the fresh market and had to go to processing. Fresh is worth 10 times processing, so financially it was very expensive," Foreman told Capital Press.

The company operates about 1,700 acres of apple, pear and cherry orchards in north central Washington and employed about 1,000 pickers during last year's harvests.

Foreman said he's concerned about having enough labor this coming season, particularly because bud counts indicate large crops. He said he will apply for H-2A guestworkers for the first time but that the U.S. Department of Labor, which administers the program, is "doing everything in its power to make it a failed program."

He noted apple growers in Michigan and New York who have used H-2A for years have been rejected for renewal applications for "silly little reasons," like using correction fluid on forms.

Growers in the two states pressured Democratic members of Congress over the issue, including Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., which has made Democrats more favorable toward reform, Foreman said.

"We're hoping for reform much broader than H-2A," he said. "We need a new program, a real ag labor program that allows immigrants to come here legally for 10 months a year to prune and pick.

"H-2A is a Band-Aid. But when you're bleeding you need a Band-Aid and what you really want is a cure."

Comprehensive immigration reform is unlikely this year but bipartisan ag labor reform could pass, particularly if backed by Stabenow, he said.