RALEIGH (North Carolina) NEWS-OBSERVER

March 27, 2010

Migrant workers sue seafood plant

Mexican migrant workers have sued another seafood processing operation in the state, claiming they were underpaid and unfairly treated because they are women.

The federal suit filed in Raleigh by three women says that as many as 150 migrant workers could have been short-shrifted by Captain Charlie's Seafood in Columbia, about 150 miles east of Raleigh. The suit seeks class action status to represent all other employees who might have been paid less than is required by this country's visa program for temporary foreign workers.

The migrants are being represented by the N.C. Justice Center in Raleigh as well as the American Civil Liberties Union. The Justice Center, which specializes in litigating and lobbying on poverty and other social issues, regularly visits migrant labor camps around the state and distributes information on workers' legal rights. The workers contacted the Justice Center last year after they were fired by Captain Charlie's.

"They were upset because they hadn't made very much money since coming," said Clermont Fraser, a lawyer for the Justice Center.

The women suing Captain Charlie's were among a group of about 20 Mexicans who came to this country in May on H-2B visas for temporary workers. The women were put to work removing meat from cooked crabs and packing the meat in containers.

The suit alleges that Captain Charlie's violated the standards of the visa program by failing to pay the migrants' visa and travel expenses to this country and paying them a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour instead of the county's prevailing wage of $7.63.

The women were also given inferior work and paid less than the men, the suit says. Then, in August, Charlie's fired the women, saying there wasn't enough work for them, with several months left in the crabbing season. The women - Marlen Guadalupe Landeros Covarrubias, Sandivel Villanueva Flores and Rita Dorali Curiel Sandoval - have returned to Nayarit on the west coast of Mexico.

Federal law entitles the workers who win in federal court to be paid double the amount they are owed, Fraser said. The workers could recoup several thousand dollars each if they win the case.

"It's a lot of money to them," Fraser said.

Phillip Carawan, president of Captain Charlie's, did not return calls seeking comment.

The Justice Center settled a similar suit last year against Frog Island Seafood in Elizabeth City.

Fraser said the protections in the temporary worker visa program are intended to prevent cheap foreign labor from depressing wages and working conditions for Americans.

The purpose of the H-2B visa for temporary workers and H-2A visa for temporary farm labor is to supply American businesses with imported workers when there's a lack of domestic workers.

According to the suit, to get to this country the migrants paid a $100 visa reciprocity fee in Mexico, a $100 visa fee to the U.S. Consulate and $270 for a bus ticket.

A U.S. Department of Labor bulletin posted last year on the agency's Web site says that employers are required to cover those costs because "the transportation expenses and visa fees of H-2B employees are primarily for the benefit of the employer."

The public bulletin says the workers, many of whom don't speak English, endure isolation and other hardships for temporary work in this country.

"The positions are, by definition, temporary with no possibility of the jobs becoming permanent, no matter how well the employees perform or what skills they acquire," the memo says. "These temporary jobs require them to move away from their families, friends and home country, to a place where many of the workers have a limited ability to participate in normal social and community activities because of language barriers."