YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- Importing workers from Asia to help harvest state fruit is a new trend based on a decades-old federal program -- and it's growing.

Last season, 170 Thai workers were imported to harvest Yakima Valley apples and cherries. This year, there could be at least 1,000...

Global said 95 percent of the local workers it hired in Washington last year didn't show up for a second day.

Several of them, represented by Columbia Legal Services, are seeking to intervene against Global to stop further use of H-2A workers in the Yakima Valley...

One man, a farm laborer for 20 years who was employed briefly by Global, said the company imposed unrealistic standards to get rid of local workers.

"The company wanted us to prune 100 to 150 trees a day and do a good job," he said, asking that his name not be used. "A worker could do that many trees, but not do them well."

Erik Nicholson, United Farm Workers' Pacific Northwest regional director, believes the Asian workers are the latest part of a historic cycle in farm labor.

"There's a subtle race card being played here, which is the legacy of agriculture. One hundred years ago, we were bringing Chinese workers onto our farms. They were replaced by the Japanese, who were considered harder workers. Then it was the Filipinos and then the Mexicans," Nicholson said.

"We have a similar trajectory here. As Mexican workers become more organized, one of the responses is to replace them with workers from Thailand."