Hennings: Overtime, Climate Change Top Issues On Minds Of Wheat Growers

Incase tending to the 2021 crop is not enough, Washington wheat growers have a lot of their plat in both Olympia and D.C. these days. Michelle Hennings, Executive Director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers says one of the most pressing issues they’re watching in the virtual session Senate Bill 5172, which looks at requiring overtime pay once farm workers pass 40 hours a week. She said while much of the attention has been on dairy, and potentially the tree fruit industry, Hennings says this will impact wheat producers that need additional help during harvest. She noted not only is this proposal bad for owners and operators, many employees disagree with the legislation.

“Because they’ll lose out on their hours.  Farmers would try to work around the overtime by maybe having two sets of employees and those employees really look forward to those extra hours during harvest so that they can save up and spend on different things.”

Hennings added they are also watching a variety of issues on the federal level. Two of the top issues that will have a direct impact on Washington farm country, infrastructure and climate change.

“We just want to make sure that agriculture is at the table when they’re considering different climate packages.  We need to make sure that we’re looking at a package that’s run through USDA on maybe increasing some of the conservation packages that are out there.  But, we need a baseline for how they measure carbon along with what the market would even look like.  And they’re just not there yet.”

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