SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS October 2, 2006 Migrant lawsuits tell of grueling work
WESLACO — Nearly 70,000 South Texans stoop along produce rows and reach into orchards around the country each year, their children often beside them, to do the grunt labor that machines still can't. As migrant farm workers, they hoe cotton, cut onions, pack tomatoes and do other grueling jobs many don't realize exist in the age of mechanized agriculture. Far from the grocery shelf, the age-old burden of harvesting still rests on the spines of those on society's lowest rungs. It's done in an environment still prone to abuse that typically isn't reported if the hours are long and the money is good, labor rights attorneys said. But when it doesn't pay well, complaints trickle in, especially with the unrenowned task of "detasseling" seed corn, said to sprout more lawsuits from South Texas migrants than any other job. Workers walk along corn rows, reach up and pull the tassels off the tall stalks so the plants won't self-pollinate, an effort necessary to produce high yielding hybrid corn seed. "The expectation is that they are going to get a bunch of money in a short period of time, and it never works out that way," said Lakshmi Ramakrishnan, an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Inc., which represents farm workers. Detasseling suits tend to settle before trial. Nine have been filed in federal courts in the Rio Grande Valley since 2004 on behalf of dozens of workers alleging their rights under the Migrant and Seasonal Worker Protection Act were violated. Plaintiffs claim they had poor working and living conditions after being lured to far-flung jobs in the nation's breadbasket with false wage promises. "I wouldn't say there are more or worse problems in detasseling than other agricultural employment, but because the problems in detasseling directly impact our clients' meager pocketbooks it seems they are more likely to come forward with these claims," said Ramakrishnan, who represents 12 plaintiffs, including four juveniles, in the most recent case, filed Aug. 29. The suit alleges Iowa-based giant Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Juan Pablo Gonzalez, a labor contractor from Mercedes who recruited the workers, "knowingly misled" them and failed to define the work and payment conditions in writing at the time of recruitment, among other claims. "He treated us like slaves," plaintiff Juan Del Toro, 46, of Weslaco, said of Gonzalez, who he said recruited him in the summer of 2005 along with his wife and three teenage children.
Payment promises They were to detassel corn in the Texas Panhandle and said they got verbal promises of $6.05 an hour; $25 a week extra if there weren't accidents; and a bonus between $500 and $1,000 apiece when the job was done. "The big incentive for us was the bonus," Del Toro said. When they arrived, the promised apartment appeared to be abandoned, was filled with filth and spiders and had no refrigerator, window screens or air conditioning, the family said. They said they didn't get as many hours or the level of bonuses they expected. Del Toro said it was the worst treatment he'd experienced in 30 years of migrant farm work. "Even if you needed to go to the restroom, (Gonzalez) wouldn't let you go" until they finished a row, said daughter Veronica Del Toro, 17, adding he'd yell if it took too long. "We were already there, so what were we going to do?" asked Irene Del Toro, 43, her mother, who said the family was broke at the time. "We had no choice but to enter (the rows)." They left early and their bonuses were $18 each. Gonzalez, 66, said by cell phone from a field in Dumas that the claims were frivolous. "They just want to make money off the situation," he said. "I tried to find the people work, but I didn't promise them anything. I can't promise too much work because sometimes there is and sometimes there isn't." Gonzalez said the Del Toros didn't make much money because they started a week late and quit to find other work. He said they worked poorly. "All the time we had to wait for them to finish their rows," he said. Though Gonzalez said everyone was paid by the hour, Del Toro said his family walked out with about 15 others when they found some laborers were getting paid by the acre. Gonzalez isn't on a U.S. Department of Labor list of 527 farm labor contractors who are not allowed to operate because of previous violations or unpaid fines.
Contractors on list The list does include 67 contractors from South Texas, mainly Hidalgo County, home to 31,894 migrant workers, the most of any county in the state, according to a 2000 study. Pioneer, a subsidiary of DuPont, annually hires about 16,000 temporary agricultural workers to detassel corn, according to a prepared statement released in response to questions about the Del Toro case. "We have a great track record of meeting and often exceeding state and federal requirements related to our workforce and look forward to responding to the allegations at the appropriate time," the statement said. Asked about two other similar cases filed in South Texas since 2001 against Pioneer, Des Moines, Iowa-based spokeswoman Allison Larson declined to comment, citing company policy regarding pending litigation. Other recent claims were filed against Mycogen Seeds, a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences, and agribusiness giant Monsanto, including a 2005 lawsuit in Arizona made on behalf of 41 migrant workers. Pamela Bridge, an attorney for the Phoenix-based Community Legal Services, said Monsanto settled for $2,000 for each plaintiff but the case is pending against labor contractors and four agribusinesses and farms where the work took place in Nebraska. "These guys get approached by a whole lot of people here in Arizona," she said. "In order to leave their families they need incentives." The labor contractor recruited people, some illiterate, with the help of a video shown at an area hotel, she said. The workers complained they did not get the $250 a day they were promised for three weeks worth of work, nor the free housing and transportation. She said they were left "without food, they were left without money" in an isolated area. Monsanto, in a prepared statement, said it trains its contractors to stay in compliance, but declined to comment on why it settled in the Arizona case. Nor would it comment about two other cases filed in South Texas against the company for similar complaints. Three detasseling cases against Valley contractor Pablo Martinez and Mycogen Seeds were settled in 2005. Frank Hill, an Austin attorney for Mycogen, said it's a challenge for labor contractors to meet all the regulations guarding migrants. Rather than "fuss and fight" over allegations of mistreatment, he said, "we just elected to square up with the people." "Even a pretty good contractor like Pablo Martinez, he seemed conscientious, he seemed to try, they can mess up," Hill said. Bill Wiebold, an agronomist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said there may be more complaints because of the financial pressure to pull the tassels within a short time, which can be delayed by weather. "That's got to be a nightmare on the company side in making sure that they have enough labor," Wiebold said. Ramakrishnan, the attorney, said there "is a lot of opportunity for abuse" because the burden of hiring the workers and complying with the law falls on the labor contractors. She said she expects to file another detasseling case soon.
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