Instar must respect workers’ rights at Washington mushroom farm

In June, the Yakima County Superior Court considered a lawsuit brought by farmworkers against Windmill Farms and the company’s private equity owners, Instar Asset Management. Filed last November, the lawsuit details allegations of humiliation from management, unfair production quotas, gender discrimination, and retaliation against workers for trying to improve working conditions by forming a union. 

I spent 13 years in the farmworker movement, supporting workers in the Carolinas, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mexico. For 9 of those years, I served as the vice president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, one of the United States’ few farmworker unions. Despite the fact that farmworkers play such an integral role in producing North America’s food supply, they face widespread mistreatment across the agriculture sector. I witnessed working conditions that seemed to be lifted from an entirely different century: Rampant wage theft, cramped housing, extreme heat, verbal abuse, retaliatory firings, gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and serious health and safety risks.  

Workers at Windmill allege they have been facing similarly poor conditions. Farmworkers at Sunnyside grow, harvest, and prepare millions of pounds of mushrooms – an ingredient that has been booming in popularity – every year. The entire process is incredibly complex and time-sensitive, and workers are essential to its success. The job is hard. And unfortunately according to allegations from workers, management has only made it harder. 

Like millions of other farmworkers across the US, workers at Windmill have fewer protections than laborers in other industries: farmworkers are not protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and are exempt from some provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act, including the right to overtime pay and portions of the child labor provisions. The lack of federal protections for farmworkers is precisely why unions are key to ensuring the fair treatment of farmworkers. 

Over a period of two years, the farm has found itself in the news over allegations of labor abuse by the Washington Attorney General, the Washington Labor Department, the US Department of Labor, and private lawsuits from workers. When Instar purchased the Sunnyside complex in February 2023, workers saw an opportunity for management to change course, improve how they treated workers, and recognize the union. But they didn’t. Instead, Instar and Windmill management appear to have maintained theunion-busting campaign of their predecessors in a move straight out of the private equity playbook. 

When private equity firms buy a company, they often try to boost profits as quickly as possible before selling it. This race for profits often means bad news for workers, including poor management and training, dangerous working conditions, lower wages, reduced working hours, and widespread layoffs. One notable example of such poor working conditions came to the fore in 2023, when it was revealed that Packers Sanitation Services, a food sanitation contractor owned by private equity giant Blackstone, employed at least 102 children – some as young as 13 years old – in hazardous occupations. The children were working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment including back saws, brisket saws and head splitters. 

Ironically, such poor labor practices can be costly to private equity-owned companies, too. Labor disputes can rack up millions of dollars in legal costs and fines, cutting into the profits that private equity holds so dearly. For the long-term well-being of their investments and their employees, companies like Windmill are better off investing their resources in meeting with the union and improving working conditions. 

It is only thanks to the hard work and dedication of farmworkers that millions of people across North America enjoy fresh food on their tables. Windmill farmworkers deserve better. If Instar wants to salvage this mess – both for its reputation and for its investment – it must recognize Windmill Farm workers’ union and join them at the bargaining table.

Justin Flores is the Labor-Jobs Director at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. Justin spent over a decade in the farmworker movement, including 9 years as vice president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee.