Borton & Sons Plans to Lay Off Nearly 1,000 Seasonal Workers as Washington Harvest Winds Down

Borton & Sons, Inc. plans to lay off 928 seasonal farmworkers in Washington in November, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing submitted to the state.

The company said the affected positions are held by general farm labourers working under the federal H-2A programme, which allows agricultural employers to hire temporary foreign workers for seasonal jobs.

The lay-offs are scheduled to begin on 8 November and run through 15 November across Borton operations in Yakima, Zillah, Pasco, Burbank, Prescott, Soap Lake, Othello and Mesa.

Borton classified the 928 positions as permanent lay-offs because it has not established specific recall dates or staffing requirements for the 2027 season. The filing also said additional domestic workers could potentially be affected, depending on weather, crop conditions and employee attrition during the remainder of the harvest.

Why the 928 Lay-offs Matter

Large seasonal employment swings are a familiar feature of US agriculture. Labour requirements can rise sharply during harvesting and then fall once crops have been picked, processed and packed.

The classification of the Borton positions as permanent does not necessarily mean the workers will never be employed by the company again. Rather, the filing indicates that Borton has not determined when, or whether, those particular positions will be recalled for the 2027 season.

The distinction matters because a seasonal worker can lose a job at the end of a harvest without there being a permanent closure of the underlying agricultural operation.

Washington's Seasonal Lay-off Pattern

Borton's planned reduction is substantial, but Washington's agricultural sector has recorded several large seasonal lay-offs.

From November 2024 through November 2025, Washington employers reported 20 agriculture-related lay-offs affecting 14,831 mostly seasonal workers, according to the state's Employment Security Department. Officials said agriculture-related businesses had not traditionally filed WARN notices for seasonal workforce reductions because federal rules did not require them to report such lay-offs.

Changes in state reporting requirements brought more of those seasonal employment fluctuations into the public record.

The state's 2025 economic report recorded 1,561 positions affected by a Stemilt Ag Services lay-off, 1,368 at AgriMACS, 3,465 at Gebbers Farms and 1,200 at FirstFruits. These figures demonstrate how sharply employment can contract when agricultural work reaches the end of its seasonal cycle.

The numbers alone do not show that a grower is struggling financially or preparing to shut down. In agriculture, large changes in headcount can be part of the normal operating cycle.

Financial Pressure on Farmworkers

The end of a seasonal job can nevertheless create significant financial uncertainty for workers whose income depends on agricultural employment.

A 2025 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that 18.5 per cent of workers in farming, fishing and forestry experienced at least four measures of economic hardship, compared with 6.9 per cent of workers overall. The study covered employed adults in 36 states and the US Virgin Islands.

The study found that 32.1 per cent of workers in the farming, fishing and forestry group reported food insecurity, while 24.5 per cent reported housing insecurity. The group's median annual wage was $35,520 (£26,218), compared with $48,060 (£35,475) among workers overall.

Those figures do not specifically describe Borton's workforce, but they illustrate the broader financial pressures that can accompany employment in industries where working hours and job availability fluctuate.

H-2A Workers Face Fresh Uncertainty

Borton's filing also comes as the H-2A programme faces renewed uncertainty over how agricultural wages are calculated.

The Department of Labor changed its methodology for calculating Adverse Effect Wage Rates in 2025. On 25 August 2026, a federal judge in California ruled that the new methodology was unlawful and ordered the department to develop a replacement. The judge did not immediately vacate the existing rule, but ordered the government to notify employers that some workers could eventually be entitled to back pay.

Washington is one of the country's largest users of the H-2A programme. During the first three quarters of fiscal 2025, employers in the state accounted for 28,363 certified H-2A positions, or 8.9 per cent of the national total, according to Department of Labor data.

The scale of Washington's agricultural industry helps explain the demand for seasonal labour. USDA data show the state produced about 7.54 billion pounds of apples in 2025, with 7.163 billion pounds recorded as utilised production and a value of about $1.89 billion (£1.4 billion).

What the Borton Filing Shows

For Borton, the planned November lay-offs coincide with the seasonal reduction in labour needs that follows harvest activity.

For the affected workers, however, the immediate question is what happens after their current jobs end.

The WARN filing provides no specific recall date for the 928 positions in 2027. Until Borton determines its labour requirements for the next crop cycle, those workers face uncertainty over when, or whether, comparable seasonal employment will become available again.