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Washington ag groups decry reopening plans involving farm workers Washington state’s leading agricultural groups say Gov. Inslee has a double standard for farmers and their vaccinated workers following his announcement on Friday that fully vaccinated employees do not have to wear a mask or socially distance at work. Contributing to the confusion, the groups say Gov. Inslee ignored a legal deadline which required him to inform the agricultural groups whether he would let stand a COVID-19 regulation that contradicts his new state reopening guidance for businesses. Washington Farm Bureau chief executive John Stuhlmiller and wafla executive director Dan Fazio issued the following joint statement: ....
Washington Growers Slam ‘Double Standard’ for Farm Workers Posted by David Eddy|May 24, 2021 Washington state’s leading agricultural groups say Gov. Jay Inslee has a double standard for farmers and their vaccinated workers following his recent announcement that fully vaccinated employees do not have to wear a mask or socially distance at work. Advertisement Contributing to the confusion, Gov. Inslee ignored a legal deadline which required him to inform the agricultural groups whether he would let stand a COVID-19 regulation that contradicts his new state reopening guidance for businesses. Just last month, agriculture groups succeeded in court in preventing the state from enforcing unreasonable COVID-19 regulations on farming. ....
Ag groups call to reopen farms and lift emergency farm worker restrictions Washington state’s agricultural groups are appealing to Gov. Inslee to repeal recently renewed COVID-19 emergency rules for farm workers using temporary housing following his announcement that the state will loosen restrictions for fully vaccinated people. Farmers across the state have been leading a comprehensive worker safety program focused on widespread testing and vaccination. As a result, the CDC has recognized that farm worker facilities in Washington state are three times safer than local communities, achieving a nearly 100 percent vaccination rate. Despite this, on May 9 the DOH and L & I automatically renewed restrictive emergency farm worker rules for the third time. ....
Is the Abandonment of Guest Worker COVID Protections a Taste of Things to Come? The Farm Workforce Modernization Act would likely lead to enormous increases in the number of workers brought to the U.S. by growers. David Bacon Dorian Lopez, an H-2A guest worker from Mexico, lives in barracks in central Washington built to house contract workers brought to the U.S. by growers under the H-2A visa program.  is co-publishing this article. Growers are just beginning to bring this yearâs wave of contracted laborers into Washington state for the coming season to pick apples, cherries and other fruit. The laborers are arriving to just-relaxed COVID-19 health and safety requirements for farmworkers, courtesy of a Superior Court judge in Yakima County, the heart of the stateâs apple country. ....
LACEY, WA April 21, 2021 Yakima County Superior Court Judge Blaine Gibson ruled in favor of agriculture groups, prohibiting the State of Washington from enforcing unreasonable emergency COVID-19 regulations farm leaders say don’t incorporate best science, the arrival of vaccines, and are pushing farmers out of business. On February 3, 2021, the Washington Farm Bureau and wafla, a non-profit association specializing in agricultural labor issues, filed suit against the state over infeasible and misguided emergency Covid regulations that have been automatically rolled over every 120 days for the past year. The state has been unwilling to make adjustments to the regulations even after farm workers have been vaccinated to help put farmers on a path to economic recovery. The fourth renewal of these rules is scheduled to be filed on May 9. ....