COVID HOUSING CHANGES Pt 1
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. The Washington Farm Bureau and WAFLA are breathing a “better late than never” sigh of relief, after the State’s Department of Labor and the Health Department revised emergency housing rules for farmworkers.WAFLA Executive Director, Dan Fazio says removing the masking and social distancing requirements makes perfect sense because they’ve been doing the right thing all along …
FAZIO … “The workers coming from Mexico, we tell the workers, you’re going to be tested upon arrival and then if you’re not interested in being vaccinated this probably isn’t going to be the job for you because you’re going to be living in a congregant housing facility. And so, the workers have all that information before they come up from Mexico and they are not reluctant to get vaccinated. So, we have vaccination rates from the workers from Mexico that are nearing 100%.”
But, Fazio says there are exceptions …
FAZIO … “In most cases, the only reason they don’t get vaccinated would be because of a medical issue or an adverse reaction to a vaccination.”
Fazio says H-2A workers are well vaccinated so they can now turn their focus to the rest of the workforce …
FAZIO … “But now we have a lot of workers who are domestic workers that are coming from California and we’re just hopeful that we can work with the government agencies to encourage them to get vaccinated. And obviously, the best encouragement is to say, if you’re vaccinated you don’t have to wear a mask. In fact, that’s what the CDC told us.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the welcome changes for farmworker housing as harvest season begins.