‘Firing spree’ at mushroom farm aimed to replace women with men, WA lawsuit says
A Washington mushroom farm is accused of firing a majority of its workers who were women before hiring mostly men.
The company is facing a civil rights lawsuit over allegations it discriminated and retaliated against its female employees and workers who were U.S. residents, officials said.
The lawsuit filed by Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Wednesday, Aug. 17, states that Ostrom Mushroom Farms violated the Washington Law Against Discrimination and the Consumer Protection Act.
Ostrom did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment as of Aug. 18.
The Sunnyside farm in Yakima County fired 79% of its 180 domestic workers between January 2021 and May 2022, according to a news release from Ferguson’s office.
The company fired 85% of its domestic female workers and 72% of its domestic male workers, according to the complaint.
Then the company hired 65 H-2A temporary foreign workers, “all but two of whom were men,” the release says.
“Ostrom even made a Facebook post in the middle of its firing spree seeking quote ‘only males’ to apply to work at the farm,” Ferguson said Wednesday at a press conference, KVEW reported.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s H-2A program provides employers opportunities to bring in workers from other countries only if the business is facing a labor shortage. To qualify, a company has to prove there is a shortage of workers in their region who are “willing, qualified and available” to work.
The attorney general’s office said there wasn’t a shortage because there were workers in the Sunnyside region who wanted to work but were “systemically” fired.
When Ostrom began the H-2A application process, the company raised the current workers’ required hourly production rate, officials said. Workers were then given warnings, suspensions and terminations when they didn’t meet the rate.
All the while, the company never told the workers how many mushrooms they harvested, the release says.
The lawsuit “asserts the minimum production rate was used as a pretext to fire U.S.-based pickers.”
The company “discouraged and outright rejected U.S.-based workers” who were qualified and applied to be mushroom pickers, according to the release.
Additionally, prospective U.S. workers were misled about the hiring qualifications, the wages and the availability of employment, the release states. The company required three months of agricultural experience, but allowed H-2A workers with no experience on the farm, the lawsuit said.
When workers spoke up about the discrimination, the company retaliated against them, the release states.
In one instance, a manager shoved a metal cart at a female worker shortly after she had a meeting about her concerns about work conditions, the lawsuit says.
Another employee was given a warning after being falsely accused of bringing a weapon to work, the lawsuit says.
“The evidence my team uncovered is clear,” Ferguson said in the release. “Ostrom discriminated against female farm workers and Washington residents so that it could hire mostly male foreign H-2A workers who have fewer rights. Their conduct is disturbing and unlawful.”
Ostrom once had a farm in Thurston County near Lacey that had been operating since the the 1960s before it shut down in 2019, The Olympian reported.
Now the vacant lot is expected to be filled with residential development.
The mushroom company also had a farm in Whatcom County, near Everson, but it closed in 2017.
This story was originally published August 18, 2022 at 2:56 PM with the headline "‘Firing spree’ at mushroom farm aimed to replace women with men, WA lawsuit says."
