Farmers, labor clash over foreign workers (Higher wages touted as alternative to importing help)

[Omaha Steve]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/399304_farmlabor09.html

Last updated February 8, 2009 10:32 p.m. PT

Higher wages touted as alternative to importing help

By SHANNON DININNY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

YAKIMA -- John Wyss had just been hired at Gebbers Farms, one of the nation's largest apple growers, when the company couldn't find enough workers in 2005. Fruit went unpicked, and much of what was picked came off the trees too late.

Hail and harsh winter freezes have shrunk the crops in the years since, reducing the need for workers. But if the weather had cooperated, he said, "We would have had severe labor problems."

It's become an annual argument -- farmers nationally complain about a shortage of workers, while labor groups counter that higher wages will secure field hands.

This year, new rules enacted by the Bush administration shortly before the president left office may make it easier for farmers to bring in foreign workers. Congress faces another push to potentially legalize undocumented farmworkers already in the country. And in Washington state, farm groups are driving lawmakers to make it just the second state in the nation to create its own guest-worker program.

At the same time, thousands of U.S. workers are losing their jobs in the economic crisis.

How problematic does that make any talk of bringing in foreign workers?

FULL story at link.