Columbia Gorge farmers seek pear disaster declaration, revised housing and overtime rules

Fruit growers in the Columbia River Gorge are seeking federal aid for a disastrous 2025 pear crop and asking state lawmakers to pause and revise recent laws mandating overtime and new housing standards for farmworkers.

Lesley Tamura, a pear grower and chair of the Hood River-based industry group Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers, said members are facing a “perfect storm of bad timing” that threatens to drive some farms under.

That includes state labor standards requiring by January of 2027 more square footage in farmworker housing and overtime pay for farmworkers after 40 hours. Coupled with rising fuel costs, corporate grocery consolidation driving down prices and aggressive federal immigration enforcement further constricting the agricultural workforce, “a lot of us right now are looking at this wondering how much longer we can keep doing this,” Tamura said.

The farmworkers union Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, worked for years to get the overtime and housing laws passed. Its executive director, Reyna Lopez, said lawmakers should look at other structural parts of the food supply chain, particularly large grocery retailers and contractors who often dictate commodities prices, for solutions to the industry challenges instead of pulling back on protections for farmworkers.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/07/09/repub/columbia-gorge-farmers-seek-pear-disaster-declaration-revised-housing-and-overtime-rules/