WA State Sues Toppenish Rancher for Worker, Labor, H2A Violations

The WA State Attorney General's Office announced they are suing a Toppenish rancher for alleged worker labor violations and abusing H2A rules.

  The rancher allegedly fire local workers, including  women, and replaced them with H2A workers.

The lawsuit alleges that in 2021 Cornerstone Ranches and its affiliated associates illegally fired local workers, including women, and replaced them with temporary H2A workers.

The grower, who produces hops and apples, allegedly:

"...fired local workers after holding them to unfair productivity standards and other requirements not applied to H-2A workers, laid off local workers while H-2A employees continued to work, and regularly reduced local workers’ hours and schedules." (AG Lawsuit)

Cornerstone reportedly doubled the number of H2A workers from 2021, while reducing the percentage of work done by locals dropped from 91 percent of work hours to 59.

The H2A program was designed to only be used in the event of a shortage of workers. The lawsuit also claims Cornerstone did not disclose the hours and pay of the H2A workers as required by law.  They also allegedly told local workers there was not work, misleading them.

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The lawsuit was filed in Yakima County Superior Court. H2A workers are sometimes considered a cheaper source of labor because of the lack of Social Security and Medicare taxes.