In response to increased immigration detentions across the state, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and other state lawmakers have introduced the Immigrant Worker Protection Act for the 2026 session.

Immigrants not legally authorized to work in the U.S. represent an estimated 40% of the people who help to produce many fruits, vegetables and other labor-intensive crops. 

For the third time in 2025, a Mid-Columbia agricultural operation has agreed to a settlement with state justice officials for reportedly treating workers unfairly. 

The number of apprentices nationally and in Washington state has increased more than 70% in the past decade, according to a new report from the Washington Student Achievement Council. Washington currently has close to 16,000 active apprentices, who are paid to work while they receive classroom instruction. 

While construction employment appears to be expanding in many places around the country, that labor force continues to shrink in Washington state. 

Washington state is joining 20 other states in opposing the Trump administration’s move to increase the cost of H-1B visa petitions for high-skilled foreign workers to $100,000. 

Even as the federal government withdraws support for clean energy projects and legal challenges against those same projects continue from tribal, environmental and community advocates, the industry is still expected to boom in the coming years. 

A contractor with offices in Pasco has been fined by the state Department of Labor & Industries after a 3,000-pound piece of equipment fell and crushed a worker at a southwest Washington jobsite. 

The long-operating packaging manufacturing plant in Wallula will cut 200 jobs by the end of March 2026 as it permanently shutters part of the facility to cut production costs. 

A California union and a group of farmworkers from around the country—including one from Sunnyside and several others working in the state’s vineyards—are suing to stop new, lower-wage federal guidelines that save money for farmers but cut pay for temporary foreign agriculture workers, hurting local laborers as a result, the suit alleges.