WAFLA COVID Frustrations Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Governor Jay Inslee set the target date of June 30th to fully reopen the state … unless you work in agriculture. That’s the feeling across the state as harvest season gets underway without any real answers to their concerns.
WAFLA CEO Dan Fazio says cherry harvest gets underway this week and still no relief for an industry that’s confident they’ve got this handled …
FAZIO … “Yeah, it’s all hands on deck. The cherry
harvest is finishing up in California, hopefully, you know, at the end of May. And then, at the beginning of June, all those workers that are in California will come up to Washington. And so, we’re hoping that the workers get vaccinated down there, come up here, show us their vaccination card and then we can have no problems.”
But without the Governor’s recall, Fazio says what are we supposed to do? …
FAZIO … “We can’t have these rules where, you can’t use bunk beds, people have to stay with this group or that group. We need the support of the Governor in getting the workers vaccinated because some workers are reluctant to get vaccinated and quite frankly, this doesn’t help.”
So, Fazio says get on the phone and let Olympia hear your frustration …
FAZIO … “Absolutely! I mean, they should call the Governor’s office and say, how do you justify on the exact same day that you tell people one thing, you sign an order to Farm Bureau, the largest agricultural organization in the state, saying exactly the opposite. I don’t understand it.”
Fazio says the Governor’s inaction undermines all the hard work done by farmers and by the state enforcement agencies like the Department of Health and L&I, to keep workers safe.
