The Hop Pickers' Bargain: Growers Cut Wages as Harvest Opens
In the Puyallup Valley, growers try to hold the line at two cents a pound. Crews register, balk and bargain — while Native pickers from British Columbia are turned away in favor of white workers.
The story, cleaned up
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PUYALLUP, Aug. 29. — [Special.] — George Ross recently contracted ten tons of hops at 7 cents, and later ten tons at the same price. He is unable to pick his hops without help, and would rather sell them at this low price, which will let him out, than not pick them and lose what was put into the cultivation.
Old hops are not wanted at all. If there is any price it is not more than 5 cents. It has been thought that Indigenous pickers would not pick for anything less than $1 per box, but two British Columbia crews have offered to pick for two growers here, representing twenty-one tons, for 2 cents per pound. They were refused on the ground that white pickers would be given the preference. M. J. Meeker will act for sixty Indigenous pickers beside whites.
The Puyallup Hop Company registered their pickers without a price being stated. Later a circular was sent to each crew stating the situation and that 2 cents per pound would be paid, and requesting an answer. Of the registered here, replies already have been received from forty-five, and only two refused to accept the reduction. A man in Centralia says: 'We will try it, and if we lose it behind we will charge it to the Democratic administration and take our revenge...'
Nearly the necessary number of pickers have been registered by this company, although they wish they had 1,500 to 1,800 pickers. Prior to 1892, never more than 75 cents per box of twenty bushels was paid; since then $1 has been the ruling price, with receipts of $1.25 and one of 56 cents being paid.
Oregon will begin picking about the 10th. Many growers here expect to commence in early September. M. J. Meeker has an early variety which he will begin about the 5th. As usual, E. Meeker & Co. will begin later than many, about the 12th or 15th, giving the hops ample time to ripen. E. M. Dana says he will not begin as soon this year as usual, wanting his hops to get thoroughly ripe. Joe M. Fernandes has a very fine crop of hops.
The figures quoted above for hops do not establish the price, as that is not usually fixed until transactions occur, with the goods in the bale and actually delivered. One of the Yakima growers, when asked why they were so willing to offer $1 per box, said it was very hard to get pickers enough, as they preferred to pick in the Sound country, it being easier and the hops not wilting as badly.
“He would rather sell them at this low price, which will let him out, than not pick them and lose what was put into the cultivation.”
The harvest wage fight is a reminder that farm labor has always been a bargaining problem, and that employers have often played racial hierarchies against workers' solidarity. The explicit preference for white pickers over Indigenous crews is part of the same history that later shaped Washington's agricultural labor camps and unions.
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