Searcy, Arkansas

August 30, 2004

Migrants bring suit against Bald Knob farmer
Monday, August 30, 2004 9:08 PM CDT

By Tim Bousquet
The Daily Citizen

David Donaldson, a Bald Knob area farmer and labor contractor, has been sued by 12 Mexican national farmworkers, for what they say is unpaid wages and for other contractual damages. The workers are represented by Southern Migrant Legal Services (SMLS) in Nashville, Tenn.

Donaldson was sued as owner of Garden Fresh, an asparagus farm tucked into a fold in the backside of Russell Mountain, along Strawberry Road.

He is also owner of USAMEX, Ltd., a labor contracting firm that specializes in obtaining work visas for Mexican workers for area farming operations, including Gillam Farms in Judsonia. In May, SMLS sued Gillam Farms.

Donaldson declined to comment specifically about the suit, but said there are larger issues at play.

"There's something behind this," he said. "It's about tax-payer supported law firms suing farmers, and putting farmers out of business. It's happening all over the country."

Donaldson pointed a reporter to "Harvest of Injustice: Legal services vs. the Farmer," a book published in 1997 by the National Legal and Policy Center, which is posted on the group's web site, www.nlpc.org. The book acknowledges that in the 1950s migrant farmworkers often lived in substandard housing and were otherwise ill-treated, but argues that legislation intended to help the workers has been abused by legal services organizations.