Organizations Happy H2-A Legislation Advances In Olympia

Much to the displeasure and dismay of the Ag industry, lawmakers in Olympia this week advanced legislation allowing the Employment Security Department more oversight of the H2-A program in Washington.  Senate Bill 5438 would create an office of compliance at ESD.  Andrea Schmidt, attorney with Columbia Legal Services said ESD has many tasks overseeing this program, including outreach to farmers and compliance audits.

"Also, just all of the administrative functions of the program, which include processing applications and that sort of thing.  Which is essentially all they are able to do right now, process the applications, under the budget that they're currently given."

Edgar Franks with the farmworkers' rights group Community to Community Development said H-2A workers have complained to his organization about housing and food, but fear being blacklisted if they report this to employers.  Franks notes that workers also can't form their own union.

"We definitely want a bill like this that helps make workers feel confident when there's complaints that they have somewhere to go without having that fear in their minds that they're going to get deported if they complain about a legitimate work concern."

The Senate Ways and Means Committee passed the bill on to the Rules Committee. Farmers and the Washington state Farm Bureau testified Tuesday that the fee which would be in addition to the federal fee already collected for H2-A would be too costly.  ESD expects 30,000 H-2A workers in Washington this year.

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