Farmworkers And Laborers

Job description

Workers will provide general labor to assist in the establishment and or maintenance of new or existing orchard properties. Job duties may include clearing property, planting trees, building trellis, and any other labor considered necessary for the efficient structure of orchard properties. Maintenance may include repairing sprinklers on the overhead cooling system, repairing and spreading composted material. Farm property clean up that may include tasks such as picking up garbage around the orchard, removing old string and wire from trellis and orchard blocks, and other hand tasks. May need to clear rocks and debris from the planting area; assist with marking the field for placement of various infrastructure items including trellis, irrigation system, roads, and loading areas.

Workers may care for young non-producing fruit trees including weeding, hoeing, trunk painting, hand fertilizing and growth selection by hand and clipping.

Care for trees during the growing process, recognize tree diseases such as blighted branches in apples and gummosis in cherries.

Worker must safely set and use ladders ranging in size from 6 to 12ft and weighing approximately 40 pounds, other tools, such as but not limited to pruning hooks, loppers, hand clippers, shovels, hammers, wire cutters, shears, ladders, picking bags or buckets.

THINNING: Thinning is a manual process used to control the size and quality of grown fruit. Must be able to pick up and handle ladders. Thinning requires the worker to remove, in some cases not limited to the smallest fruit blossom, bud and/or identifiable fruit from within a cluster of other fruits. Workers will be expected to be able to identify and remove fruit that is misshapen, damaged and/or with other quality problems as directed by supervisors.

PRUNING: Pruning numerous varieties of apple trees according to established company procedures that are based on different treatment according to the varieties of fruit. Work will be performed on trees for long periods of time using a variety of pruning equipment including hand shears, hand loppers, hand saws, and ladders. Pruning may be done from the ground, on a ladder, or from a motorized platform. Workers may be required to selectively prune only trees of a certain size and color as instructed by the crew boss.

Workers are expected to possess or learn pruning skills to be able to identify and remove stubs or broken branches, downward-growing branches, branches which rub against each other, shaded interior branches, dead wood and shoots/suckers with hand pruning saws and clippers, mechanized equipment in pruning activities.

Harvest - preparation for harvest includes spreading liners in bins, rolling bins into blocks by hand. Load and unload empty bins by hand and place them in the orchard.

Picking numerous varieties of apples and cherries according to established company procedures, while accounting for differences in the treatment of different varieties.

Observation of bruised, damaged, or culled fruit by the supervisor will result in a bad bin mark and after three bad bin marks, the employees will receive disciplinary action up to and including termination. A bad bin mark occurs when a bin is inspected and a significant number of culls, bruised or damaged are found by the supervisors.

Continued on Addendum C.

Special Requirements

Work is to be done for long periods of time in the field, when plants may be wet with dew and rain, and may be required during light rain, snow, moderate winds, direct sun, high humidity and extreme temperatures. Allergies to ragweed, goldenrod, insect spray, related chemicals, etc. may affect workers ability to perform the job. Workers must be able to perform the required work with or without reasonable accommodations.

See Addendum C.