PTM Berry Farms and Vicente Labor Contractor of Ferndale were fined for employing children and failing to pay their workers the federal minimum wage.
Henry Bierlink with Whatcom Farm Friends says the farmer and contractor had no choice but to pay the fines or else their entire blueberry crop would rot.
Bierlink says he questions whether labor laws are fair when it comes to producers of perishable products like berries, because they have no time to contest the charges.
He says the farmer and contractor may have been denied due process.
