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Juan Abarca-Figueroa v. Servicios Agricolas Mex., Inc.
(07-CV-2581 United States District Court for the District of
Arizona)
In December 2007, Farmworker Justice
and Community Legal Services of Arizona filed suit to remedy alleged
discrimination against U.S. farmworkers who were denied employment
harvesting citrus crops in favor of temporary H-2A guestworkers.
Under the federal H-2A program, employers are permitted to hire
temporary guestworkers only when there is a shortage of U.S.
farmworkers to perform the work and when the employment of foreign
workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions
of U.S. farmworkers. However, in Figueroa, the 200 U.S. farmworker
plaintiffs allege that the labor contractor failed to recall them to
work, contracting with foreign workers instead. In fact, farmworker
advocates have observed increasing unlawful discrimination against
U.S. farmworkers by contractors and growers who prefer to employ
temporary foreign workers who are bound by the terms of their visas,
cannot lawfully seek work in the United States with any other
employer, and who are frequently subjected to severe forms of
exploitation and abuse. This case is one of a number of lawsuits and
administrative actions that farmworker legal advocates are pursuing
around the country to protect the employment rights of U.S.
farmworkers.
UFW and Farmworker Justice v. DOL (07-CV-2241 United States
District Court for the District of Columbia) On December 13, 2007,
attorneys at Farmworker Justice and Public Citizen filed a lawsuit
on behalf of Farmworker Justice and the United Farm Workers of
America against the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) under the Freedom
of Information Act. The lawsuit challenges DOL’s failure to release
information about employers applying for temporary foreign
agricultural workers under the H-2A program -- public information
that is needed to ensure that DOL and employers utilizing foreign
guest labor are complying with laws that regulate wages, benefits
and working conditions within the United States. From January to
April, 2008, in response to the lawsuit, DOL agreed to release all
of the requested documents, to repair inappropriate redactions, and
to waive search and copying fees. In August, DOL agreed to the
payment of Farmworker Justice’s and Public Citizens’s fees and
costs, tying the ribbon on what is a complete litigation victory
that will benefit US farmworkers and H-2A guestworkers.
Read the Press Release
Download the full Complaint filed 12/13/07 in US
District Court for the District of Columbia
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Wage and Hour Cases
FJ joined two leading migrant legal
service organizations, California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) and
the Immigrant Justice Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC),
in state and federal litigation filed on behalf of temporary guest
workers for relief from wage and hour violations and other unlawful
practices perpetrated by their employers:
Salines del Valle v. Sierra Cascade, Inc. (SC CV 06 1378,
Superior Court for the State of California, County of Siskiyou). FJ
served as co-counsel to California Rural Legal Assistance, in a
representative action under California’s Unfair Competition Law on
behalf of over 200 H-2A guestworkers who were recruited in Mexico
and transported by their employer to the northern reaches of
California to perform field work, cutting and training strawberries.
The workers alleged that they were subjected to an onerous
production requirement that was not disclosed in the recruitment
process and that they were fired, unlawfully, and sent back to
Mexico when they failed to meet it. They also alleged a number of
other exploitive practices, including being subjected to unsafe and
unsanitary housing conditions, being denied meals that the employer
was required by law to provide, and being denied wages for travel
time and other work hours. After the case was filed, the employer
removed the case to federal court, and plaintiffs successfully
petitioned for its return to the state court where it was filed. The
case settled in July 2007, with plaintiffs securing classwide
monetary damages, meaningful injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees
and costs.
Rosiles-Perez v. Superior Forestry Service
(Civil Action No. 1:06-CV-0006, United States District Court for the
Middle District of Tennessee), FJ is co-counseling this case with
the Southern Poverty Law Center. It is a lawsuit on behalf of more
than 2000 H-2B guestworkers who were brought to the United States
from Mexico and Guatemala to plant pine trees, spray chemicals and
perform other arduous labor for the country’s largest forestry labor
contractor. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that they were
subjected to numerous violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA),
two federal wage and hour laws that protect agricultural workers,
including forestry workers. In July 2007, the court certified
plaintiffs’ minimum wage and overtime claims as a collective action
under the FLSA, and in March 2008, plaintiffs’ AWPA claims for
monetary and injunctive relief as a class action pursuant to
subsections (b)(2) and (b)(3) of Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure -- two major victories. In September 2008, the
judge entered an order holding the defendants in contempt of court
for misconduct during the discovery phase of the litigation.
Press Release:
Judge Grants Class Action Status to Forestry Workers' Case
Class Certification Opinion
Reynaldo Guerra-Jimenez v. Servicios Agricolas Mex., Inc.
(07-1492 United States District Court for the District of Arizona)
In August 2007, Farmworker Justice joined Community Legal Services
of Arizona and the private law firm Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick &
Dym (Chicago) in wage and hour litigation on behalf of over 200
citrus harvesters who allege that they were denied wages for
compensable wait time and travel time. This case challenges the
common, unlawful practice of requiring farmworkers to report to a
single location in the morning to board company-owned busses for
transport to the fields, and to wait in the fields before work
starts, while paying only for the time that the workers spend
harvesting crops. In addition to monetary relief, plaintiffs seek
declaratory and injunctive relief that would require the contractor
and grower to pay for farmworkers’ wait and travel time in the
future.
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Health &
Safety Litigation
UFW
v. EPA (diazinon):
Farmworker
Justice, Earthjustice and California Rural Legal Assistance have
filed this suit on behalf of the United Farm Workers (UFW),
Pesticide Action Network of North America, Pineros y Campesinos
Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), Beyond Pesticides, Teamsters Local 890,
Farm Labor Organizing Committee (AFL-CIO), and Luis Garza Lopez, an
individual farmworker in California. The lawsuit is part of a
multi-year campaign to protect children, farmworkers, and wildlife
from the most dangerous pesticides and to reform the EPA's
lackadaisical regulations of public and private health.
Press Release
Diazinon Fact Sheet
Diazinon Talking Points
Download the Full Complaint
Panna v. EPA
Farmworker Justice is
co-counseling this case, brought by a broad coalition of farmworker,
public health and environmental groups demanding that the EPA ban
the use of endosulfan, a highly toxic chemical that is part of the
same family of chemicals as DDT. Like other organochlorine
pesticides, endosulfan is persistent in the environment and poisons
humans and wildlife both in agricultural areas and in regions far
from where it was applied. (Plantiffs for this case also include
the UFW, NRDC, Teamsters Local 890, Beyond Pesticides, PCUN, Center
for Environmental Health, FLOC and the Alaska Community Action on
Toxics).
Press Release (July 24, 2008).
Fact sheet on Endosulfan.
Talking Points.
Download the Full Complaint
Reynaga v. Warmerdam
(DPR)
An FJ lawsuit with California
Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) in state court to challenge the
California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s (DPR) routine
declaration of an “agricultural emergency,” which has allowed table
grape growers using sulfur to put harvest workers back in the field
two days before the expiration of the required restricted entry
period. The California Grape and Tree Fruit League was granted a
declaration of an agricultural “emergency” for the fourth year in a
row, based on below-average rainfall. The court struck down the
agency’s action for violating the federal EPA Worker Protection
Standards.
UFW v. EPA (W.D. WA)
FJ challenged the EPA's approval
of two toxic pesticides, guthion and phosmet, in this lawsuit with
Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and CRLA.
After an initial settlement allowing the EPA to reconsider its
continued approval of guthion, we renewed our challenge against the
agency for allowing a lengthy six-year phase-out. Continued use of
guthion is not justified because it poses immediate health risks to
farmworkers and their children, and numerous alternatives are
available.
UFW v. EPA (N.D. Ca)
Filed suit with Earthjustice, NRDC,
and CRLA to challenge the EPA’s authorization to allow continued use
of the highly toxic insecticide chlorpyrifos, which consistently
ranks as one of the top five pesticides causing the highest number
of reported injuries to farmworkers. At the close of the Clinton
Administration, chlorpyrifos was banned from virtually all home and
garden uses because of its risk to children’s health. This case was
filed on behalf of the three largest farmworker unions, the UFW,
FLOC and PCUN, as well as Sea Mar Health Center, Frente Indigena
Binacional Oaxaqueña (FIOB), and Beyond Pesticides.
NRDC v. EPA
Challenged the EPA’s unethical and
dangerous regulation allowing chemical companies to test pesticides
on human subjects. The case is pending before the US Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit.
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