Laws: January, 2003 - Number #08

Oregon. Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner wants to require farm employers to give hired workers meal and rest breaks beginning in summer 2003. Farmers say that they are exempt from laws mandating meal and rest breaks but Gardner, who said that 16 states provide unpaid meal periods for farm laborers and four require paid rest breaks, would require Oregon field workers to have an unpaid half-hour meal break and two paid 10-minute breaks for each eight-hour shift. Some of the 140 employees at the 12,000-cow Threemile Canyon Farms' dairy in Boardman, Oregon complained of reduced wages in June 2003. One worker said his pay for 15 days of work fell in January 2003 from $793 to $656; the dairy says that workers are paid on the basis of a 60-hour, six-day week. The milk from the farm is sold to the 150-dairy coop Tillamook County Creamery Association, and the UFW threatened to call a boycott of Tillamook cheese if Threemile refused to recognize the union. The two-year old dairy, owned by R.D. Offutt, one of the largest US potato growers, and the Bos family of Bakersfield, California, received $20 million in state private activity bonds as an incentive to locate in Boardman. The Dalles area in Wasco County, Oregon has 8,000 of the state's 11,000 acres of cherries, and they produce an average 25,000 tons worth $25 million. As apple prices fall, growers in California and Washington are planting more cherries. In 2001, Washington produced 102,000 tons of sweet cherries; California, 47,000 tons; and Oregon, 34,000 tons. Cherries are sold in 18-pound boxes for prices that range from $20 to $40 a box. Washington. In 1999, the state refurbished 40 8 x 40 foot used shipping containers for migrant housing in Mattawa; farm workers pay $3 a person or $10 per family a day, plus a $70 deposit, to live in the Esperanza Housing project. During the summer months, Mattawa's population of 3,000 almost doubles, and temporary housing is scarce. However, Mattawa residents complain that, with 50 percent of the town's property owned by government or nonprofits who are exempt from paying property taxes, the farm worker housing brings residents but no taxes. The state paid for more than 3,200 housing units in Washington for farm workers in 2003, according to Deanna Tabor, farmworker program manager for the Department of Community Trade and Economic Development. The state also funds a rent-a-tent program, run by the Washington Growers League, that lets growers rent tents for use by farmworkers on their property during harvest; some 108, six-person tents were rented in 2002. In 1999, the state legislature committed $40 million over 10 years for farmworker housing programs. Washington's unemployment insurance system provides UI benefits to workers based on their highest-earning two quarters. However, to save money for Boeing and other manufacturers who complain that they are subsidizing agriculture and other seasonal industries, beginning in 2005 UI benefits will be based on annual average earnings, and maximum UI benefits will fall from the current 70 percent of the average worker's wages to 63 percent. Before the changes, Washington had the US's most generous UI benefit system, providing up to 30 weeks of UI benefits of up to $496 a week, at an average cost of $600 a worker each year to employers. In Oregon and Washington, the contractors hired to help put out summer forest fires estimate that Hispanics make up more than 60 percent of their crews. The National Wildfire Suppression Association says Hispanics are hired to save money- many of the contractors pay the state's minimum wage, $6.90 an hour in Oregon- and notes that most Hispanic fire fighters are ex-farm workers who have little experience fighting fires. On a 20-person fire crew, the crew boss and the three assistant squad bosses must speak English, and all fire communication over the radio must be in English. Peter Prengaman, "Zeal for work, low labor cost make Hispanics attractive hires as firefighters," AP, July 19, 2003. Sebastian Moraga, "Mattawa housing project struggles during lean harvest seasons," AP, July 17, 2003. Alex Pulaski, "Dairy workers go to union," Oregonian, June 25, 2003.