08/30/06 Labor Issues Continue

Labor issues continue. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Help wanted signs are normally seen in the windows of local restaurants or retail outlets but not at the end of an orchard row. With apple, grape and pear harvest underway in many areas the issue of labor or lack of has come to a head. Many producers are coming up short filling the harvest crews. Dan Kelly is the Assistant Manager of the Washington Growers Clearing House. KELLY: It's still pretty early but there's definitely shortages already which is pretty scary at this point. Kelly talks about some of the issues caused by the shortages. KELLY: At this point I know some guys have been way short, 50, 60% of a crew. Like on Gala's, they want to selective pick some of that, pick certain color in the beginning and then come back and pick it again, they're not able to do that. If there's not enough pickers out there, they're not going to be able to selective pick as well as they'd like to and so a lot of that fruit is going to end up in the warehouse. According to Kelly the Washington Growers League in conjunction with local Worksource offices to hold training sessions in hopes of creating a larger labor pool. KELLY: Trying to get other people out of the woodwork and do some training sessions for people that haven't harvested before and open it wide open and say hey, anybody that wants to come out and learn how to do this and get a job, there's plenty of jobs available. Tomorrow, how to get a good job as a picker. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.