RSSCherry pickers find solace in tents
Yakima Herald-Republic
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GRANGER -- For the past 15 years, Augustine Ceballos and his family have spent the cherry harvest living beneath orchard trees.
Working for Reddout Orchards atop Cherry Hill, the California family of four would sleep in a small tent, cook on a portable stove and bathe in cold water.
"Yeah, it was hard for us," he said through his 14-year-old son, Yoan, who translated his Spanish. "We had a little stove and were cold at night."
But this season, a new labor camp erected by orchard owner Helen Reddout has changed everything for the family and the nearly 100 other seasonal workers who pick cherries here each year.
The camp, the only one of its kind in Yakima County, features tents equipped with electricity, secured to concrete slabs and large enough to accommodate a family.
Other similar tent labor camps exist in Wenatchee and Benton and Franklin counties.
Once a common feature in the Yakima Valley, labor camps largely disappeared in the past few decades as stiffer state and federal guidelines took effect. More recently, however, camps are starting to sprout again around the state as farmers, government officials and others work cooperatively.
Nestled amid cherry trees along the north side of Cherry Hill, the Reddout camp is situated on several acres and includes about a dozen tents capable of housing nearly 100 people.
Two large buildings at the center of the camp are furnished with several tables, six ovens and stoves and the same number of refrigerators.
On Wednesday afternoon, a handful of workers gathered around tables in one of the kitchens to warm food.
A couple of other workers headed to the showers with towels draped over their shoulders.
"It's a big difference now that they made this camp," Ceballos said. "We have a kitchen with stoves and refrigerators and bathrooms and showers. Before, we didn't have that."
Reddout said she decided to spend nearly $300,000 on the project last year after walking through her orchard and seeing workers sleeping beneath trees or in their cars.
"They would be pitching little bedrolls on grass or sleeping in cars along the roadside," she said. "I was really concerned with the fact that they were sleeping in cars and along the river bottom."
Finding housing has been a longstanding problem for workers drawn to the region's cherry harvest, which typically lasts only a few weeks.
Reddout said she began planning the camp in November, and construction began two months ago. Such camps must meet requirements from both the state departments of labor and health.
"It's a long, hard process, and there are a lot of hoops to jump through," she said. "Now that this is done, I feel lifted."
Reddout said she used to supply workers with tents, makeshift showers and cooking equipment, but that ended 15 years ago after stiffer state requirements regarding labor housing went into place.
She said at that time she couldn't afford to construct buildings that would have met state requirements.
"At that time (workers) were just left to fend for themselves," she said.
Now that state requirements on temporary labor housing have become more reasonable, she said, she was able to erect the camp.
She leases the tents at $12 a day from the Washington Growers League for the roughly six weeks it takes to pick her entire crop. This season there are only about 50 workers because half her crop was lost to freezing temperatures in early spring.
Once the crop is picked, the tents will be returned, she said.
Tents are a cost-efficient way to provide housing for workers during the relatively short cherry-harvesting season, said Mike Gempler, executive director of the growers league.
"These tents and the setup for the tents are the result of an agreement that we struck with (the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and the state Department of Labor and Industries and the state Department of Health," he said. "This provides another tool to be used in temp housing for migrant workers."
Gempler said there are about 20,000 seasonal workers during June and July in south-central Washington, and about half are from out of the area.
While working here, they often rent garages from local residents, or use driveways to park and sleep in their cars.
"It's not good for neighborhoods," he said. "It's substandard living for those who have to do that."
While there are some nonprofit organizations providing some housing to migrant workers, there's not nearly enough to meet demand, he said.
"There is a need for decent beds and quality housing for migrant workers," he said.
* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.
