|
Laid-off worker says
By Robert Rodriguez / The Fresno Bee
Mateo Silva doesn't understand why his former employer, Tanimura & Antle,
laid him off with 15 other employees and then hired 200 foreign guest
workers for the company's spring lettuce harvest.
"The company said they were going to call us, but they never did," said
Silva, who worked at the company's Fresno County farm near Five Points.
"They had us stop work, but then they bring in more people. I haven't
worked in three months."
Silva and three other Tanimura & Antle employees were joined Thursday by
representatives of the United Farm Workers, which has filed a complaint
with the U.S. Department of Labor alleging that the Salinas-based
produce company did not follow the rules when hiring the temporary guest
workers under the federal H-2A program.
Carmen A. Ponce, vice president for human resources and in-house counsel
for Tanimura & Antle, issued a brief e-mailed response to the complaint:
"We have received no notification from the department of labor about
such a complaint. The allegations reported (by the labor organization
that does not even represent our workforce) are baseless and we intend
to aggressively pursue our defense to such defamation."
Eric Nicholson, international director of guest worker programs with the
UFW, said that under the federal guidelines, employers can hire guest
workers only when there are not enough U.S. workers who are willing and
able to do the work.
But Nicholson said he doubts the company made a good-faith effort to
find those workers, especially because none of the laid-off workers was
made of aware of the positions filled by the temporary foreign workers.
UFW officials believe the guest workers are harvesting lettuce in
Brawley and Yuma, Ariz.
Silva, who worked in the company's machine shop, said he would have
willingly done the work, if given the chance.
"I've cut lettuce before," he said. "I know how to do a lot of things."
Armando Elenes, the UFW's external organizing director, said the union
is asking the labor department to investigate the company's hiring
practices and help compensate the employees for loss work.
"The company is failing to abide by the rules," Elenes said.
|