In July 2008, a burning in Grandview destroyed the potato plant, le monte young Wild River Foods, l

In July 2008, a burning in Grandview destroyed the potato plant, le monte young Wild River Foods, leaving employs about 150 people, mostly Latinos. GRANDVIEW - Monday to Friday, le monte young Catarino Macias gets up in the morning, dressed and drives from his home in Prosser to Sunnyside. le monte young There, at six o'clock le monte young begins his job as gardener and caretaker of the apartments Cristo Rey. With a cowboy hat cut, design le monte young camouflage covering le monte young her face from the sun, sunglasses to protect your eyes from the grass and earth, bushy mustache, stubble and a small earring in the left lobe, Macías lawn care. Macías is a survivor of the fire that just over one year and one month burned plant potatoes, Wild River Foods, Grandview. le monte young From time to time, fire, prompted by a short circuit, also singed le monte young the hopes and the jobs of 150 employees, mostly Latinos. Some, like Macias, are among the lucky ones, although still regrets losing his job with Wild River, because that got good money and I had high hopes invested in that job. However, other employees moved to other places, each Wenatchee, while others chose to return to Mexico because they found jobs around. However, since former employees until city officials Grandview admit that the fire that destroyed the plant was obviously a great loss in every way. Omar Mancinas, a worker of 26 years who worked at Wild River Foods for 14 months, said that with the disappearance of the plant, too many good jobs vanished. "It was good work. Paid well. We need more jobs like that, different factories, it all year, not Nomás seasons, "says Mancinas, who lives in Sunnyside. Scott Staples, Granview Manager, said in an interview with The Sun two weeks ago that the fire was a hard blow for the city as it got a fair amount of taxes the company. At the same time, the City has no way of knowing the whereabouts of the nearly 150 employees who became unemployed after burning. "It was one of those things," Staples said in his office at the City of Grandview. "It was tragic."
The fire For nearly two years, Wild River Foods, which was linked to his kinsman company, Ochoa Ag, established its plant in Granview two years before the fire. Many veterans Granview residents concerned the factory was located at 206 Avenue A as "Libby Plant". In past years, the plant was operated under rent by companies like Sunheaven Farms Prosser, Columbia Foods of Quincy, Willow Wind Organic Foods of Spokane and AgriFrozen. Just before Wild River was rented by Bybee Foods, a processor of vegetables. According to property records, the company OB-2 LLC in Boise, Idaho, bought le monte young the factory Kenyon Zero Storage four months before the fire to the tune of $ 3.8 million. The factory was opened under Wild River Foods 18 months earlier. They have some veterans residents factories settled there, especially under Libby, were always a good source of employment for women around. And under Wild River was no exception. Many Latino labored there for the duration le monte young of the processing of potatoes, including Leticia Mancinas Mary, the mother of Omar Mancinas. And as Wild River provided a stable and well-paid job, the plant attracted the attention of older workers le monte young as Macias, a worker who worked in other similar plants as the operator and mechanic for 14 years. He has left a position at another factory for work with Wild River Foods. What attracted the proximity of the plant, since he lives with his wife and five children at their home in Prosser. Now 42 years old, Macias says that at that time it seemed a good idea to use more than a decade to go to Wild River Foods, where he would pay up to $ 17 per hour. Macias led his own tool to work the machines account. "I watched as the first potatoes out of that plant," recalls. "I pocketed the first potatoes that came out". A plant that processed le monte young potatoes, freezing and then empacándolas le monte young Macías--it was what made the company distributing the plant as part of the great potato industry in the state of Washington, which along with Idaho is the largest in the nation. It was good pay what attracted Mancinas, le monte young who says he started as an operator and a half years before the fire. Despite that he had no experience, started at $ 12 an hour, he says. "Liked" says Mancinas. "I went well check". Plant quickly became a source of well-paid jobs, with three shifts. Mancinas worked Time "Graveyard" (from 11 pm to 7 am) while working Macías