Apr. 30—SUNNYSIDE — Daniela Barajas had advocated for better working conditions at Ostrom Mushroom Farms in Sunnyside before and after she was fired by the company in November 2021.
This year, she started a new job as a machine operator at a grape field in Paterson. Her new employer, at Chateau Ste. Michelle, has had a union for almost three decades.
She still rallies with workers at the mushroom farm, even after it was purchased by Windmill Farms. When asked about the differences between her old and new jobs at an April rally in Sunnyside, she covered her mouth to suppress a laugh.
"Oh, my God," she said.
"Todo la gente estaba enojada," Barajas said of the Ostrom workplace. "Everyone was angry."
When she worked at Ostrom, she said, stress from work followed her home. Now, she goes home happy.
Unions representing farmworkers are few and far between — not just in Washington, but across the country. Of the nation's more than 1.25 million agriculture workers in 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics estimated that just 48,000, or 3.9%, were members of a union.
Numerous challenges loom over farmworker efforts to unionize, from national labor law exclusions to power imbalances in workplaces. When workers do undertake the difficult task of organizing, they often face long, risky unionization campaigns dependent on public support and economic pressure. Those underlying factors are visible in the Yakima Valley, with its abundant apple, cherry, grape and hops farms and its...
Over the last year, beyond traditional healthcare and federal procurement matters, the government has pursued federal False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and enforcement across high-risk areas, i...