NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI DAILY JOURNAL

September 18, 2008

Migrant workers sue farm, grower over benefits

By Patsy R. Brumfield
Daily Journal

VARDAMAN - Twenty-seven Mexican farmworkers have sued local sweet potato growers Ryan Alexander and Alexander Farms LLC, alleging they violated minimum wage laws and failed to adhere to their employment contracts.

The workers were brought to the United States from 2006 to 2008 by the H-2A guestworker program, which allows employers to hire foreign workers if they cannot find U.S. workers to meet their labor needs.

The lawsuit, filed Sept. 4 in U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Mississippi, is assigned to Chief Judge Michael P. Mills and Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander.

Representing the workers are Caitlin Berberich with Southern Migrant Legal Services in Nashville, Tenn., and Tupelo attorney Brent McBride.

Berberich said Wednesday she didn't have precise numbers for what her clients claim was lost in wages and other benefits promised to them in their contracts with Alexander Farms.

"Our clients fronted huge costs and went into debt based on promises of work," said Berberich. "When a grower like Alexander decides to use foreign rather than U.S. workers, he can't push the costs of his decision onto indigent workers."

The farmworkers allege they were not given the hours of work promised in their contracts and that they were paid less than the minimum wage because they were not reimbursed for mandatory expenses such as visas and travel to work and back home.

SMLS says it has represented H-2A workers in six lawsuits against growers in Mississippi over the past two years.

A call to Alexander attorney Aubrey Nichols was not returned for comment.

The lawsuit also asks the court to designated it a Fair Labor Standards Act “collective action,” which would allow other allegedly aggrieved workers to join it.

About 37,000 H-2A workers are employed by growers nationwide, an SMLS news release said, and the majority of farmworkers are undocumented immigrants.