Jonas Nájera-Rios, an H-2A guest worker who has returned to work several seasons at Stemilt’s Quincy, Washington operation, is a member of the first EFI Leadership Team on the farm.
Improving conditions at the company-provided H-2A housing was an early project that Stemilt Quincy’s EFI Leadership Team addressed. Nájera-Rios brought the issue to the group after observing that the shared kitchen was often left dirty. “Many of the workers who are here are young, so they did not have the habit or experience of cooking for and cleaning up after themselves.”
The team followed the fact-based problem solving process they learned in training and interviewed their co-workers to find out why these issues were happening.
“We talked to the farmworkers, asked them questions like ‘Why is this happening?’ And then we looked for solutions. We found out that there wasn’t enough space so people would leave the food out. So we took the initiative to put in bigger refrigerators with freezers for meat. We taught them also to cook with less oil on the stove top, so it wouldn’t splash so much and to clean each time that someone uses the stove,” Nájera-Rios said.
The Leadership Team also introduced incentives like a trip to the mall and a carne asada roast to reward employees for meeting the goal maintaining a clean shared space for many weeks in a row.
I think one of the things that encouraged me to join the EFI team was to know more. I wanted to help people. Some of the most important things that I learned from EFI are to work as a team, to cooperate with other co-workers, to listen, to give an opinion. I believe it’s a really good program for everyone, for the company and for the farmworkers.
– Jonas Nájera-Rios
Nájera-Rios said the employees responded well to the training and new systems for maintaining a clean shared kitchen, because they recognized that the change was improving the quality of life for everyone in the housing unit.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the housing units operated at half capacity.
“For me personally, the measures that the company is taking [to fight COVID] are really good. They are always going a step beyond, taking good measures for the health of everyone and I think it’s really important because, by taking care of the people, we will be able to stay healthy to work, hopefully. I believe, as much as we help ourselves, we are also helping them,” Nájera-Rios said.
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