SOUTH BEND (Indiana) TRIBUNE

October 29, 2009

Southwest Michigan farms cited for violating migrant worker laws

By KELLI STOPCZYNSKI

Some local farms are in trouble ― facing federal fines ― for violating migrant housing and child labor laws. One U.S. Labor Department spokesman is calling the violations "intolerable and disappointing."

The labor department said it chose 35 farms at random in 2009. At some of them, inspectors found workers living in unlicensed labor camps with sewage seeping into some housing units and bug infestations in others.

At Adkin Blue Ribbon Packaging in Van Buren County, inspectors found a 6-year-old child picking in a field.

In Berrien County, two farms were found in violation of housing laws that protect migrant workers. One was cited for the same thing in Cass County, but Labor Department spokesman Scott Allen said he did not have access to the specific housing laws each farm violated.

One farm on the list was Schaenfeld Farms near Sodus.

“It's all a bunch of [explicative],” said a man who would only identify himself as the farm's owner.

When asked if he did anything wrong, the man replied, “No, I'm supplying people with good jobs and good wages. I see no reason that the wage an hour has any business if they're getting paid over minimum wage, what's the problem?”

WSBT then asked the man if his living quarters were unsanitary, as mentioned in a news release from the Labor Department.

“That's bologna,” he said. “It's a licensed labor camp from the Michigan State Department of Agriculture.

Froehlich Farms in Berrien Center was also fined.

“They […] cited me for not having a fly-tight lid on garbage cans [in the living quarters],” said Dean Froehlich, one of the farm owners. “I don't have one of those in my own home. Do you?"

Froehlich also said the Labor Department cited his farm for not changing a light bulb in a room. He said these are his business's only violation since it started in 1957.

“We are very good to our employees,” he said of the 13 migrant workers he employs. “We give them a party at the end of the season and they go home with a very good bonus."

He also said the citations were from last summer, not 2009, as the Labor Department indicated.

Another farm cited was Berrybrook Enterprises in Dowagiac. Nobody at the farm could talk to us about the Labor Department's allegations about unlawful migrant housing.

In Froehlich's case, he said he felt like the violations were for pretty minor offenses.

Labor Department Spokesman Scott Allen couldn't comment specifically about the violations, but when asked about what Froehlich considered to be small issues, Allen said, “It's a problem even if there's only one farm that has violations […] We're going to see to it that they come into compliance so the children are protected and the migrants are protected.”

It is unclear whether investigators found any undocumented workers at any of the 35 farms. Froehlich said all his workers are legal. Allen said he wasn't sure about the investigation's findings.