THE PACKER

THE PACKER

November 3, 2009

Growers' labor violations seen as 'wake-up call'

The Department of Labor levied fines totaling more than $36,000 against eight growers in Michigan for violations of migrant housing and child labor laws — including an allegation of a 6-year-old picking blueberries — and retailers have already discontinued doing business with some of the companies.

The fines resulted from a Department of Labor investigation into 35 agricultural employers in eight Michigan counties — Berrien, Cass, Kent, Newaygo, Ottawa, Oceana, Muskegon and Van Buren — according to a news release from the department’s Office of Public Affairs.

News of the fines and investigation preceded by a few hours an ABC News report, broadcast on “Nightline” the evening of Oct. 30, that showed children working in orchards at Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Co., South Haven, Mich.

That report, led by ABC News reporter Brian Ross, showed a 5-year-old girl, named Suli, carrying two buckets of blueberries in an Adkin field. It also showed two brothers of Suli’s, who said they were 7 and 8, picking blueberries and spoke with one other boy who said he was 11 and that he’d been working there three years and often worked until 9 p.m.

In addition to Adkin Blue Ribbon, a second blueberry grower, Jawor Bros., Ravenna, Mich., also was fined. Those two companies were assessed penalties of $2,584 combined for child labor violations.

Federal law prohibits children younger than 12 from being employed in any agricultural job. An exception to that, said Brad Mitchell of the Department of Labor’s Office of Public Affairs, are family members of a company’s owner.

Tony Marr, general manager for Adkin Blue Ribbon, said his company is investigating what happened. He said the company has policies in place with regard to labor laws, and it’s trying to figure out where and how they broke down.

“The school here for migrant farmworkers’ kids closed for a week because of swine flu,” Marr said. “And, we had our funding cut a couple years ago for kids’ daycare. Growers everywhere are saddled with trying to keep kids out of fields.”

The ABC News video, however, did appear to show children working, not just running through fields unsupervised.

“According to our management, they claimed the girl came out at the end of the day,” Marr said. “Her parents were checking out, and she grabbed a couple buckets. I can’t say for a fact that she wasn’t working all day, but one camera shot by a TV crew doesn’t show she did either.”

Marr said no underage children were on Adkin’s payroll. He said today’s economy and labor market ensures that adequate, legal labor is available.

“We can hire as many adult workers as we need,” he said. “We don’t need to hire children.”

Three of Adkin’s major retail customers — Wal-Mart, Meijers and Kroger — suspended business with Adkin pending investigation.

“We hope to resolve those issues,” Marr said. “We’re looking into why there was an incident in the field and what we can do to prevent it ever happening again. We just need to move forward.”

The children were discovered this summer by graduate school students working with ABC News as fellows with the Carnegie Corp.

In addition to showing the children in the fields, the segment also interviewed Teresa Hendricks of the Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance Project, who said “the rules (on child labor) are very lax,” and that it’s an economic reality for some families to have their children working.

“People just put their heads in the sand,” Hendricks said in the report.

A nurse from the state’s Migrant Health Association said in the report that she’d witnessed incidences fatigue and depression among the children.

The report and news of the fines prompted response from many in the industry, such as United Fresh Produce Association president and chief executive officer Tom Stenzel, who encouraged members to redouble efforts to ensure no children are working on farms.

“I know you all have policies against illegal child labor, but it is our responsibility to make sure policies don’t just sit in a binder somewhere but are being enforced every day,” Stenzel said in his statement.

Randy Villata, executive director for the Folsom, Calif.-based North American Blueberry Council, said his organization was regarding the ABC News report as an isolated incident and will be working with the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council in educating the industry better with regard to child labor regulations.

“It’s a good wake-up call,” Villata said. “Not only for the blueberry industry, but for all industries. We have to be forever vigilant in following rules and regulations.”

Poor housing conditions resulted in fines totaling $33,550 for seven fruit and vegetable growers, including another $4,600 fine for Adkin Blue Ribbon. Other growers found in violation of the Migrant and Seasonal Worker Protection Act housing provisions were:

Froehlich Farms, Berrien Center;

Schaenfeld Farms, Sodus;

Tony Brush Farm, South Haven;

Sherer Fruit Farms, Bloomingdale;

Berrybrook Enterprises, Dowagiac; and

William Bouwcamp, Solon Township.

In the release, James Smith, district director of the department’s Wage and Hour Division in Detroit, called the violations "intolerable and disappointing."

“Among the violations we cited were workers living in unlicensed labor camps with sewage from a faulty septic system seeping up in close proximity to living units, untreated wastewater spilling out of broken pipes, no hot water for hand washing and infestation by insects and rodents,” Smith said in the release.

According to Mitchell, each of the companies cited for violations have 30 days to request a hearing with the district director, in this case, Smith. If they’re still not satisfied, Mitchell said they can file an appeal to an administrative law judge. The final step would be to file an appeal in a federal appeals court.

Mitchell said Adkin and Berrybrook had requested hearings on the housing violations.