FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Raleigh, NC) - Nine Mexican farmworkers filed a lawsuit today against the North Carolina Growers Association, (NCGA) the nation’s largest farm labor broker, and the workers’ grower employers for alleged participation in a mass blacklisting network involving over one thousand employers.

“I know of no larger blacklist in US history.” said Lori Elmer, attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina, which represents the migrant farm workers. “The NCGA blacklist eclipses even the infamous Hollywood blacklist in its size, scope and quite likely, in the suffering it causes.”

The lawsuit alleges that NCGA, a company which brokers foreign labor, engaged in a “pattern of racketeering activity” with specific intent to personally profit, in violation of the North Carolina Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act through blacklisting, visa fraud, witness tampering, and extortion.

Plaintiffs claim that NCGA manipulated the contract end date to deter workers from completing the contract. In a March 31, 2004 report, the US Office of the Inspector General concluded that current NCGA practice “enables NCGA to avoid paying return transportation and/or contract guarantees, as many workers depart without completing their contracts”. Plaintiffs claim that NCGA has illicitly gained hundreds of thousands of dollars through this scheme.

The worker plaintiffs had been coming lawfully to the United States with work visas under the federal “H-2A” program by NCGA for many years, and “blew the whistle” on dangerous working conditions such as not having water to drink in the field, or seeking medical attention for work related injuries, and allege that the defendants retaliated against them for these actions through a system of blacklisting, which prevented them from obtaining employment with other employers.

Human Rights Watch, in a report released in 2000, dubbed the NCGA’s practices (and specifically blacklisting) a “campaign of intimidation” against H-2A workers who exercise their legal rights. The present lawsuit alleges overt hostility to workers who challenged their treatment or consulted attorneys, and a pervasive scheme of coerced written waivers.

One worker plaintiff, Juan Villarreal, was pulled from his fieldwork and taken to NCGA corporate headquarters after he sought legal counsel for his workers’ compensation claim. He was interrogated at length, and threatened with the blacklist. They punished him by offering work to his co-workers but not to him, continuing to harass and threaten, and ultimately by ordering his removal from the labor camp for return to Mexico.

Another plaintiff, Luis Acosta, alleged that he was blacklisted for leaving North Carolina mid-contract when his daughter in Mexico suffered a medical emergency, despite his employer’s knowledge and approval of his departure.

Ms. Elmer said, “These workers were courageous to blow the whistle on unacceptable working conditions. The NCGA’s response was to ensure they could never come back to work in this country again.”

Plaintiffs brought this lawsuit in North Carolina Superior Court at Wake County and are represented by the North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center and Legal Aid of North Carolina, a statewide, non-profit law firm that provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers to economic opportunity.

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