by Alex Baumhardt, Washington State Standard
July 9, 2026
Fruit growers in the Columbia River Gorge are seeking federal aid for a disastrous 2025 pear crop and asking state lawmakers to pause and revise recent laws mandating overtime and new housing standards for farmworkers.
Lesley Tamura, a pear grower and chair of the Hood River-based industry group Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers, said members are facing a “perfect storm of bad timing” that threatens to drive some farms under.
That includes state labor standards requiring by January of 2027 more square footage in farmworker housing and overtime pay for farmworkers after 40 hours. Coupled with rising fuel costs, corporate grocery consolidation driving down prices and aggressive federal immigration enforcement further constricting the agricultural workforce, “a lot of us right now are looking at this wondering how much longer we can keep doing this,” Tamura said.
The farmworkers union Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, worked for years to get the overtime and housing laws passed. Its executive director, Reyna Lopez, said lawmakers should look at other structural parts of the food supply chain, particularly large grocery retailers and contrators who often dictate commodities prices, for solutions to the industry challenges instead of pulling back on protections for farmworkers.
Oregon’s immigrant farmworkers are dealing with heightened fear, families being separated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and rising food, housing and gas prices that are leaving some skipping meals, Lopez said.
“It’s really important that we’re looking at every single touch point in the supply chain, so that we’re not blaming the industry’s problems on the most vulnerable people in that system,” Lopez said. “It really cannot be a zero-sum game, because I guarantee you that everything that the growers are feeling right now, their workers — the farmworkers — they are feeling them 10 times as hard.”
Holding on
Tamura and other growers detailed their challenges as owner-operators at a meeting last week with Gov. Tina Kotek and Rep. Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River, as well as staff from the office of gubernatorial hopeful and area Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby.
The members asked Kotek to seek a disaster declaration for pear growers’ 2025 season in which an insect called the pear psylla and an ensuing mold caused by the psylla’s residue decimated roughly half the value of Hood River and Wasco County pear growers’ crop. Annika Forester, executive director of the Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers, said they estimate losses at roughly $40 million to $45 million.
They also asked lawmakers to pause and revisit the state’s agricultural overtime and labor housing rules that have been phased in since 2023 and 2026, respectively. Tamura said the growers don’t want the overtime law rescinded, but want a different threshold for when overtime kicks in for employees who work seasonally on fruit harvests. They’ve suggested capping overtime at 48 hours instead of 40 hours and creating a three-month window where it’s capped at 55 hours to accommodate seasonal fruit harvests.
Kotek on Thursday wrote to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins asking for the disaster declaration for pear growers in the two counties, which could provide them with low-interest loans through the federal Farm Service Agency to help buffer losses and stay operational until a better year. But the loans are only available if the farm owners can demonstrate they were rejected by a traditional lender.
“We’re leveraging personal assets, we’re going into debt, and one bad year might push us over the edge, but one good year — if we have a good year — doesn’t mean it’s going to save us,” Tamura said. “It maybe helps reduce our debt and gives us a little bit longer to hold on.”
Kotek’s spokespersons did not respond to Capital Chronicle questions about the other requests regarding housing and overtime rules by Wednesday evening.
‘Don’t want to fight’
Following the meeting with the growers, Helfrich issued a news release calling on Kotek, the Oregon Legislature and state agencies to pause the workforce housing rules and send emergency funding to the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s pest and disease response programs.
He also proposed “modifying Oregon’s agricultural overtime law to allow for the seasonal nature of agriculture.”
“Government has the luxury of evaluating regulations and ideas one at a time, but farmers must live with every regulation, every cost increase, every bad idea and every market challenge all at once,” he wrote.
Tamura said the growers don’t want to fight the agricultural overtime policy, but there isn’t the revenue for most small and medium size operations to pay time-and-a-half during a harvest season where most farmers work more than 40 hours a week picking fruit that commands lower and lower prices set by the Safeways and Krogers of the world. It’s easier for larger farms with human resources departments that can handle more hiring and visa paperwork to get more workers as opposed to paying existing workers overtime.
“We don’t want to be fighting this policy. We don’t want to be using our time and our energy to do this, but we simply don’t have the money, and so when we hit those thresholds, the only option is to cut hours as much as possible,” Tamura said. “Or, you leave it on the tree, and when you’ve spent the entire year investing in all of the inputs and all of the labor required to grow it, you want to try to get something back for it.”
The Legislature phased in the agricultural overtime law, and included tax credits for growers that could be used to offset up to 60% of overtime wages paid in the most recent tax year. The credits do not apply to foreign workers filling temporary agricultural jobs on H-2A visas that many farms rely on.
And the Legislature recently allocated $5 million to the state agriculture department to help growers offset costs for improved farmworker housing. The new standards include ensuring access to clean and safe drinking water, enough bathrooms with doors and laundry machines, as well as more space in sleeping rooms with bunk beds.
Lopez said it’s frustrating to hear lawmakers and other stakeholders talk about rolling back labor standards when workers need more.
“I understand that the representative (Helfrich) is trying to do his best for the growers that he represents, and I do respect that, but I also want to understand why they think that this is an acceptable trade off,” she said of rolling back overtime and housing standards. She said both farmworkers and growers agree: “the way things are right now, it doesn’t feel sustainable.”
This story was originally produced by Oregon Capital Chronicle, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Washington State Standard, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: [email protected].