In mid-April United Farm Workers of America and Familias Unidas Por La Justicia AFL-CIO filed a lawsuit in Skagit County seeking an injunction for safer working conditions for farmworkers.

The tone-deaf lawsuit, which centered primarily around the use of bunk beds in migrant farmworker housing units for H-2A workers, got its day in court May 1. According to summaries from the hearing, the unions agreed to drop calls for an injunction and work toward safety solutions with the Washington State Departments of Health and Labor & Industries.

Shortly thereafter a “proposal” was sent to a Skagit County farmer who employs H-2A workers. It included revisions to the original safety-driven framework filed in superior court.

Among the new requirements for safe housing from the unions were the following: “Temporary Seasonal Workers operators shall ensure two of the three conditions exist; 1) there is ample internet bandwidth to accommodate all occupant’s internet needs; 2) shall subscribe to the fullest range of television programing available in the language most readily understandable to workers; ensuring an adequate distribution of televisions to comply with social distancing requirements; 3) adequate number of pool and table tennis tables.”

Small business owners, restaurants, and the agricultural community are scrambling for ways to keep their employees and customers safe, healthy, and employed. Some businesses are seeking out unplanned for loans to purchase additional PPE; others are choosing to operate with smaller work crews; and still others are finding ways to alter their operations such that they will be able to do without additional employees. 

By way of contrast, two farmworkers unions are willing to abandon what was billed as a quest for the safety of essential workers in exchange for internet and ping pong.

The farmworkers’ unions have lost sight of one simple fact: no one can work for an employer that does not exist.

If farmers are forced to allow fruit and vegetables to rot unharvested this year, workers – foreign or otherwise – won’t have anywhere to earn a wage next year, let alone a someone to provide pool tables.