Blueberry Workers Rights

In the article, Some Washington blueberry growers have admitted that they systematically violated the rights of their agricultural workers over a period of years, by Nicholas K. Geranios depicts how the blueberry worker’s rights are being violated by companies like Blue Mountain Farms. Furthermore, the editorial details how such Walla Walla blueberry growers have been recurrently failing to pay minimum wage and overtime pay for workers as early as 2011. Hence, in 2013 the U.S. Department of Labor filed a suit against the blueberry companies like Blue Mountain Farms. Upon investigation, the Department of Labor found that workers were not given tickets to detail how much they picked and thusly they received no paycheck. Even workers who did have
Why did it take four years for workers to obtain minimum wage and overtime pay? Why were basic workers’ rights denied for four years? While it is true that the legal process takes time, it does not follow that it took two full years for the cases to be reported for judicial review. According to Geranios, “Labor Department investigators in 2013 discovered the growers were paying hundreds of workers off the books in Walla Walla County fields” (Geranios). The essence of Geranios’ argument is that blueberry companies were not only undermining the law, but also evading justice as investigations only started in 2013. Time is paramount here because the workers were not even being paid minimum wage. In other words, the workers were being paid less than $8.67 an hour for their labor. Given that the average American works about 50 weeks a year and 40 hours a week, means that the workers make less than $17,340 a year. This is not to say that it is impossible to live on less than $17,340 a year, but it would be extremely hard, especially with a family or while trying to pay off a loan on a house. In sum, forcing these blueberry workers to live off of less than the legal minimum wage for multiple years is inexcusable. Therefore, there was a clear and intolerable violation of worker’s rights by companies similar to Blue Mountain Farms that have taken years to resolve. Such violations are not solely unethical, but also painstakingly time-consuming to fully compensate and bring to justice. Ultimately, what is at stake here is more than just minimum wage or overtime pay, but time and the workers’ very livelihoods. The clock is ticking and workers’ rights are protected by law, but when such legislation is blatantly ignored, how can workers be truly