Lawsuit involving 600 Yakima Valley farm workers to go to trial

A federal lawsuit affecting over 600 Yakima Valley farm workers will head to trial.  the lawsuit originally filed in 2014 says that Mercer Canyons out of Alderdale, Washington failed to inform previous local employees about higher paying jobs.  Mercer Canyons, one of the largest fruit and vegetable growers in the state applied for a federal temporary agricultural worker program called H-2A that allows employers to bring in foreign workers if they can prove that there are no local or U.S. workers that can do the job.  Federal Judge Stanley Bastian ruled in an earlier decision in 2015 that the lawsuit could proceed as a class action suit, representing the hundreds of people that may possibly be affected by the practices.  Bacilio Ruiz and Jose Amador, two farm workers representing the suit said they tried to get work at Mercer Canyons in 2013. They argued the corporation failed to inform them of vineyard jobs paying $12 an hour according to the release.