Working relationship: Transparency key to successful H2A recruitment at Stemilt

WENATCHEE — Like many other businesses, the tree fruit industry is faced with the challenge of recruiting and retaining a quality workforce. The owners of Stemilt say that in their experience transparency is an important component of both finding and keeping good workers.

Stemilt is among the growers in Washington who participate in the H2A program, which allows people to come to the United States on temporary visas to work. Zach Williams, Stemilt HR director, estimated about 60-70% of the workers in the company’s orchards are part of the H2A program. For Stemilt it’s been a success.

“We have over a 96% return rate on visa workers. Every year we invite back the same workers, and over 96% of those workers come back to us,” Williams said. “We believe it’s because of the way we treat them and the process, how it’s handled.”

Stemilt works with Cierto Global, based in Tacoma, to help recruit workers.

In a previous interview, Stemilt CEO West Mathison said the partnership with Cierto helps ensure that the workers have a legal status while working in the U.S. and that they are safe as they’re transported to and from their homes to work in area orchards. The process ensures the workers’ H2A visas are in order and that they and their families aren’t victimized by drug cartels and others who would take advantage of them.

“Cierto is an organization that helps recruit the workers in Mexico through a transparent process to help ensure that employees are all treated fairly,” Williams said.

Cierto co-founder and CEO Joe Martinez said his organization supplies Stemilt with all its H2A labor.

“That’s roughly around 1,700 workers a year,” he said. 

The workers are in the country for six to ten months.

Martinez said transparency is an important factor because not being open with information can cause problems for employees and employers alike. 

The H2A process is complicated, and growers – and other industries as well – hire companies to help them navigate it. 

“What a lot of folks didn’t know for a long time was, (companies) would go ahead and maybe hire, or subcontract, someone in Mexico,” he said. “And then the person in Mexico (says), ‘Okay, I’ll go find you people that know how to harvest tree fruit.’ And what we didn’t know is that person subcontracted someone else. And that person ended up charging (prospective employees) a couple hundred dollars to get on the list.”

That practice is illegal, he said. It is harmful to the worker and damages the U.S. employer’s reputation as well, he said.

“What happens is there is a lack of transparency and oversight in the country of origin,” Martinez said.

That can cause problems on the job.

“What ends up happening is when a worker has paid for the right to come to work in the U.S., they’re going to be a lot more reluctant to denounce any bad practices or issues on the farm, because they need to make sure they pay off that debt they’ve incurred,” Martinez said.

“Before I started this organization, I had spent time interviewing 600 families in 10 different states in Mexico, trying to understand how they migrated. One of the realities that we found is that pretty close to 95% of the workers pay some sort of fee to come to the U.S., and that ends up undermining workers to be able to integrate and become partners and build relationships with their employers,” he said.

As a result, a grower may not know there’s a problem in the orchard until it becomes a big problem. Among other things, that may put growers in violation of labor laws, or workers may abandon the contract and go out on their own. 

“That leaves you vulnerable to losing your ability to receive guest workers again,” Martinez said.

His solution was to ensure Cierto was in charge of the recruitment process from start to finish. 

“We make sure we don’t subcontract any part of the process,” he said. “We as the recruiter pay all the fees upfront for the workers, so that there are no monetary transactions between the workers and the recruiter. The only transaction that happens is between the employer and the recruiter.”

Cierto provides a series of classes for prospective employees before they leave, explaining where they will be working, what’s expected, what they can expect and ways that they can address problems that arise. The organization also works with employees to determine their goals and help people plan how they can reach them, Martinez said. That training also helps them avoid scams put out in either Mexico or the U.S. by those who would take advantage of seasonal workers.

Both employer and employee benefit from a transparent system, he said.

“(Workers) want to improve their harvesting techniques, minimize costs and issues, because they understand their value in the supply chain,” Martinez said. “If they’re able to harvest in a much better way, a much more efficient way, that means better purchase orders and better produce.

Employers such as Stemilt can have a more effective relationship with their workforce as well, he said. 

“They have a sustainable workforce because workers are no longer dealing with any of those issues found within recruitment, where they’ve had to pay fees or are being extorted, where they’re told to stay quiet,” Martinez said. “And in return valued workers (are) sharing any issues, so that Stemilt can address them quickly and keep the operation running smoothly.”