On Valentine's Day 2023, over 100 workers at an indoor mushroom growing operation in Sunnyside, Washington, were summoned to a parking lot outside the plant office. Ostrom Mushroom Farms had been sold to Greenwood Mushrooms, a plant manager told them, and effective immediately they were all fired. Then each employee was handed an envelope containing a new employment agreement — spelling out lower wages, different positions than they previously held, and a mandatory arbitration agreement. Workers were told they had to sign the documents immediately if they wanted to keep working. It was winter, when job opportunities were scarce for agricultural workers in the Yakima Valley. They had little choice but to sign.
Three years later, that calculated ruthlessness is about to get close scrutiny by the Washington Supreme Court in a lawsuit filed by the United Farm Workers (UFW) union.
Soon after Ostrom opened its state-of-the art mushroom grow plant in 2019, workers say high production quotas created dangerous working conditions. Workers began organizing and contacted UFW in 2021, and in 2022, they asked Ostrom to recognize their union. The company refused. The following year workers and the UFW filed a lawsuit against Ostrom and its new owner: Greenwood Mushroom, which itself is owned by Instar Asset Management, a private equity firm based in Toronto, Canada.
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