By KRISTIN COLLINS, Staff Writer
Nine Mexican farmworkers are suing the group that brought them
to North Carolina, saying they were denied work for exercising
such basic rights as talking to a lawyer or getting medical
treatment.
The suit was filed Tuesday against the N.C. Growers Association,
which imports most of the state's legal migrant farm labor,
and nine farmers who belong to the association. It alleges
the association is a monopoly that intimidates workers, bilks
them of their wages and blacklists them.
"I had no human rights in the U.S. just because I complained," said
Francisco Acuna, a plaintiff who lives in Mojaritas, Mexico. "People
could die. There are people afraid to say anything because
they need to go to work."
The suit was filed by Legal Services of North Carolina, a
nonprofit group that represents poor people in civil cases.
It is the latest shot in that group's battle with the Growers
Association, which arranges seasonal labor for about 1,000
member farms.
Legal Services lawyers say they have sued the association
on behalf of workers about a dozen times in the 15 years that
the association has been doing business.
Growers Association officials did not return phone calls Tuesday,
but Executive Director Stan Eury has said that Legal Services
is on a crusade to dismantle the federal program he uses to
bring about 10,000 foreign workers into the country each year.
The H2A program, named for the provision in immigration law
that permits it, allows employers to bring in seasonal agricultural
workers as long as the employers can show that no U.S. workers
are available to fill the jobs. Farmworker advocates have said
for years that H2A workers often are intimidated and cheated
by employers.
The latest lawsuit alleges a pattern of abuse that Legal Services
lawyers say amounts to organized crime.
The workers who sued were threatened after talking to lawyers
or priests, the suit says, and they lost their jobs if they
sought medical treatment or went home to be with sick children.
Some were pressured into signing a "voluntary resignation" form,
which ends their contract and allows the Growers Association
to charge them for their trip home, the suit said.
The nine plaintiffs are among thousands of workers who have
been barred from working at the association's farms, the suit
says.
Legal Services alleges racketeering, blacklisting, witness
tampering, visa fraud and violations of monopoly and wage and
hour laws. It asks that the plaintiffs receive damages and
be allowed to return to work in North Carolina.
"The defendants certainly deny all those allegations," said
Randy Loftis, an attorney for the association and the member
farmers.
At a Johnston County farm, the suit says, workers were denied
rest in the fields unless they bought beer or other drinks
from a farm foreman. A worker who complained was denied work
for the rest of the season, forced to return to Mexico at his
own expense and refused a job the next year by the Growers
Association, plaintiffs say. At a Sampson County farm, the
suit says, the only water available in the fields was on a
moving truck.
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