Just as the Bush administration is trying to push agribusiness to hire more legal guest workers, a dozen of the workers filed suit Thursday in Sacramento, claiming their employers have cheated them and have broken promises made in Mexico about the work here.
About 180 workers – the dozen among them – arrived in the Sacramento area in mid-July to work for six months on H-2A temporary visas.
Their departure was hailed in local media in their home state of Colima, Mexico, as a great opportunity to work legally in the United States.
The owners of Salvador Gonzalez Farm Labor Contractor, based in Galt, had traveled to Colima to meet with government officials there and recruit people to work for them on the H-2A visas.
In their suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, workers say they were promised wages of $100 a day – a figure touted in the media in Colima – to work for eight to 10 hours a day, six days a week. Instead, the workers say, many have been left mostly idle in remote labor camps.
Most of those in the lawsuit are housed in a decrepit labor camp with torn, bloodstained mattresses five miles outside the Delta town of Clarkburg.
Workers who met with legal aides Wednesday night at the camp also invited media in to observe the conditions. They said they were fed up, but wondered if they would be thrown out on the street or sent back to Mexico because of the lawsuit.
In interviews, they described rising daily at 4 a.m., hoping that a driver who comes by would offer to take more than just a few to harvest pears or grapes.
In spite of promises, they said, many have worked only a few hours a day or not at all for as long as a week. Some have copies of pay records that show a mix of hours ranging from three to eight hours a day.
Even if they don't work, they said, they are required to pay almost $10 daily for meals that consist of little more than beans and eggs.
"He promised us good wages, and to enter to work in a secure and legal way, with a visa," Daniel Becerra, 20, said of Julian Gonzalez, who is named in the suit along with his son, Salvador.
Julian Gonzalez said he hadn't read the lawsuit and had no comment except, "None of this is true."
Cynthia Rice, an attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. – which is representing the workers – said their allegations challenge the wisdom of the Bush administration's plan to change the H-2A program, possibly within weeks. The aim is to make it faster and easier for employers to recruit workers from abroad to fill labor shortages and help employers stop hiring illegal immigrants.
The changes will reduce oversight by state and federal officials, who must certify labor shortages and approve sponsoring employers' applications before U.S. officials abroad issue visas, Rice said.
As it is, she said, the H-2A program can give employers "complete and exclusive and total control over workers."
The men in the Clarksburg camp said the 180 H-2A workers are being housed at various locations. Some have returned to Mexico.
Joel González Avila, said he became disgusted with the housing and scarce work hours within days. He called a nephew in Sacramento, who called the United Farm Workers union.
"I think my dog ate meals better than they gave us," he said in an interview before returning to Mexico in July.
The UFW quietly initiated talks with the workers and contacted California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. and its foundation.
Rice said the workers never received a written contract of rights and terms of employment, as required under federal law.
H-2A workers remain a sliver of California's estimated half-million farm labor force, but UFW activist Anna Reynosa, who investigates H-2A abuses, said that some 3,000 such guest workers were authorized to work for California businesses in 2007.
Rice said that as many as 6,000 were authorized to work in California this year.
Becerra said the Gonzalez family explains work-hour shortages by saying, "The sugar is not ready" yet in area wine grapes.
The workers' lawsuit demands unpaid minimum wages as well as reimbursement of visa fees and other costs that H-2A employers must cover.
H-2A workers in California must be paid a minimum of $9.72 an hour. All H-2A workers must be paid at least three-quarters of what was promised for their contract.
On Thursday, state Department of Housing and Community Development inspectors checked the Clarksburg camp at the urging of attorneys.
Kim Strange, the department's deputy director, said the camp was inspected and approved in February.
On Thursday, she said, inspectors issued 11 citations for violations, including cracked and decaying bathroom floors and old, stained mattresses without tight-fitting covers.
The law permits old mattresses if they are well covered, said Chris Anderson, field operations manager for the department. They may not look good, he said, "but there isn't a lot we can do about that."
Call The Bee's Susan Ferriss, (916) 321-1267.
