Farmworkers who believe they were discriminated against by their former employer, Cornerstone Ranches, can now seek compensation through a $1 million settlement secured by the Washington State Office of the Attorney General.
“ We hope that the settlement money will recognize the harm that those workers and their families experienced and give them some help and relief in recovering from the time where they lost wages,” said Alyson Dimmitt Gnam, an assistant attorney general in the Wing Luke Civil Rights Division at the Washington Attorney General's Office.
The attorney general’s office estimates that more than 50 workers will receive compensation.
The attorney general brought the lawsuit against Cornerstone Ranches in June 2025, about a month after the legal aid organization Northwest Justice Project also filed a lawsuit against the farm. Both alleged that Cornerstone Ranches terminated local workers and denied others jobs, while the business hired guest workers through the H-2A program. Both lawsuits have been settled.
The attorney general's and Northwest Justice Project lawsuits stemmed from complaints raised by eight former Cornerstone Ranches employees who were let go on the same day in March 2023, said David Morales, a managing attorney with the Northwest Justice Project. His organization represented eight plaintiffs in its suit against Cornerstone Ranches. The attorney general's office said this was one incident in a pattern. Its settlement covers workers who they say were discriminated against between 2021 and 2025.
“I hope that moving forward this changes the industry in a profound way,” said Morales. The law firm secured a $22,000 settlement for each plaintiff.
Workers were given varied reasons for their termination. Morales said the same weekend the eight workers were let go, a group of H-2A workers arrived.
Many of the workers who were let go were long-time employees of the farm.
“ They really relied on it; families had really built their lives around it,” Morales said. “It's a tragic story all around because obviously the farm lost long-time workers and now has to bring in a bigger and bigger share of outside H-2A workers to fill all of these needs.”
The United States Department of Labor requires that employers certify that there are not enough local workers to fill jobs prior to hiring workers through the H-2A program. It also dictates that employers cannot hire H-2A workers if the employer laid off U.S. workers within 60 days of the date of need, unless local workers turned down these jobs.
The attorney general's lawsuit also claimed that female workers were disproportionately impacted by the terminations and the reductions in hours.
Dimmitt Gnam said this most recent lawsuit is meant to hold farms accountable for abusing the H-2A visa program.
“ We've seen a pattern across Washington of agricultural employers abusing the H-2A program and violating Washington law by discriminating against local workers, which the H-2A program is supposed to protect,” Dimmitt Gnam said.
A H-2A worker can only work for the employer who has facilitated their visa. Dimmitt Gnam said this gives farms access to employees who are ready to work as soon as they are needed. Even if there isn’t enough work or if the conditions are poor, that worker cannot find employment elsewhere in the country due to the conditions of their visa.
Dimmitt Gnam said she thinks that's one reason why growers might want to use the program in favor of local workers.
“ So even if that company doesn't have work available for a few weeks, or isn't paying them appropriately or is treating them badly, they can't go anywhere,” Dimmitt Gnam said. “Local workers, like any local workforce in any industry, get to vote with their feet. So if there's not work available, if they're not being paid fairly, if they're being mistreated, if they can't make a living at the job, they will go find other work.”
The owner of Cornerstone Ranches, Graham Gamache, declined to be interviewed. Instead, he provided a statement.
“Cornerstone Ranches, of course, never intended to marginalize or in any way exclude the very workers who have made such vital contributions to our success, and we remain proud of the amazing women who continue to play leadership roles across our organization,” Gamache wrote. “If these cases had been presented at trial to an impartial and unbiased fact finder, we are confident we would have been vindicated in all respects.”
In the statement, he said the farm settled because ongoing litigation would be too costly.
“We do have some measure of regret that we cannot emphatically prove our innocence in both the court of law and the court of public opinion,” Gamache wrote.
While a settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, Dimmitt Gnam said by settling, Cornerstone is taking responsibility for the underlying action and agreeing to make changes moving forward.
Cornerstone will have to provide training to supervisors to not discriminate in hiring. The farm is ordered to hire local workers before hiring H-2A workers, and is prohibited from instilling productivity minimums. Local workers said they were being fired for not meeting these when there were not similar requirements on H-2A workers.
Field farm workers who were employed at Cornerstone between 2021 and 2025 who experienced discrimination based on immigration status and/or gender may be entitled to compensation. Those who believe they were impacted must contact the attorney general’s office, which will conduct an interview to evaluate their claims. The attorney general's office asks impacted workers to reach out before April 1.
