Guest worker program

TOPPENISH -- A guest worker program plans to fingerprint and photograph all nontribal workers on the Yakama reservation and collect 50 cents for every hour they work.

Schaptakay Labor Works LLC has been licensed by the tribe's governing body to develop and carry out a for-profit guest worker program on the 1.2 million-acre reservation.

The program, which its backers say is intended to create a stable, legal work force and reduce crime on the 1.2 million-acre reservation, would generate an estimated $12.6 million a year.

But it's unclear whether the proposal can be legally carried out or if it even has the full support of tribal leadership.

Yakama Tribal Council Chairman Ralph Sampson Jr. said the tribe merely licensed the business, not specific plans to implement the program.

"We're not endorsing them or anything else," he said.

But a co-founder of the company, Wendell Hannigan, says plans for carrying out the guest worker program have the support of several members of the 14-member Tribal Council.

"We're still working with them, meeting with them to create a strategy," he said. "I'm sure the Tribal Council and committees will support us once we get going."

Details of the company's plans were taken to at least two reservation businesses last week, but the proposal is so new few companies were willing to comment.

Business owners have until Dec. 1 to comply with its terms or workers could be ordered off the reservation, according to the company's business plans.

Mike Gempler of Washington Growers League, which represents farmers, said the estimated cost of $1,000 per year per full-time worker will drastically hinder businesses on the reservation.

About 12,600 people work within the boundaries of the Yakama reservation, according to state Department of Employment Security.

It's about tribal sovereignty

The heart of the issue, Hannigan says, is tribal sovereignty -- the Yakama Nation's right of self-governance as assured under the 1855 Treaty.

For more than a century, the Yakamas have watched non-Indians flock to their reservation in pursuit of land and employment. Federal laws allowed
non-Indians to acquire tribal lands.

Today, the reservation is a checkerboard of tribal and nontribal ownership.

Entire towns, such as Toppenish, Wapato and Harrah have sprouted since the 1855 treaty signing. More than 150,000 acres of apples, cherries, hops, asparagus and vineyards draw thousands of migrant workers to the reservation each year.

In recent years, gangs and marijuana-growing operations have plagued the reservation.

This summer alone, police uprooted more than $140 million worth of marijuana plants on the reservation, surpassing the value of the state's entire grape crop this year.

Also, as in other parts of the country, tensions have been growing over undocumented workers.

Closely monitoring non-Yakama workers would help the tribe combat those problems, Schaptakay co-owner Hal Kent said.

Both Kent and Hannigan are taking their plan beyond the fields and into reservation towns such as Toppenish and Wapato to have employers register all non-Yakama workers.

"It's a standard-of-living issue," Kent said. "Yeah, it's not up to snuff, and we've got to make it better and everyone has got to participate."

Tracking workers OK

The tribe could track and document workers on its reservation without any federal involvement so long as it's not bringing workers in from other countries, said federal Customs and Immigration Services spokeswoman Sharon Rummery in San Francisco.

"Indian tribes are sovereign nations," she said. "If they want to keep records of workers, they can do so."

But it's not clear if the tribe could require reservation businesses situated on nontribal land to register their workers.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Tom Rice in Spokane said he wouldn't comment on the matter unless the tribal government attempted such a move.

Hannigan said the tribe could require such business owners to register their workers because federal Indian laws give tribes some civil authority over non-Indians and nontribal lands on the reservation.

A tax issue?

Both Hannigan and Kent said their plan is to assure a legal and stable work force on the reservation while ridding it of much crime.

But Gempler with the Washington Growers League said that's hard to believe given the fee being charged to employers.

"When I was first approached by Schaptakay, I thought it was to help solve a labor problem and provide workers. But that doesn't appear to be what this is about at all," he said. "All of a sudden this has turned into a tax issue rather than a guest worker program."

Gempler also questioned what services employers would receive in return for the fee, adding that guest worker programs charging fees usually provide employers with workers.

"It does nothing to assist employers to bring in workers when there is a shortage of workers," he said. "And that's what a guest worker program does, at least under the accepted definition."

Hannigan said the revenue would go toward the cost of acquiring and maintaining the computer database and possibly put into a fund to help migrant workers return to their homes once work is done here.

"We may be able to work up some type of stipend," he said. "We're still not sure how that's going to work. We're still exploring those options."

Either way, businesses are benefiting on the reservation, and problems are intermingled with the labor force, Kent said.

"If you reap the most benefit from something, shouldn't you share in the burdens?" he said.

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.

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