Rural Laws: January, 2002 - Number #6

Florida. Mecca Farms, one of Palm Beach County's largest growers, and its labor contractors, Rogerio Rodriguez, Maria T. Sanchez and M. Sanchez & Son Inc, were sued for not paying workers the minimum wage for picking tomatoes. The workers were paid 40 cents for each bucket of tomatoes picked; they allege they did not earn the $5.15 an hour minimum wage to which they were entitled. In 1995, the U.S. Department of Labor levied a $15,000 civil penalty against Mecca for similar violations.

Over 100 migrant farm workers filed suit in October 2001 saying they were underpaid while they picked fruit for Sorrells Brothers packinghouse over the past two years. An attorney for the workers says that they were guaranteed wages of $7.66 an hour, but received $5 an hour or less, and that they are due more than $250,000 in back wages.

The value of land used to grow oranges in Central and South Florida fell about 10 percent between 2000 and 2001, to between $6,100 and $6,400 an acre. (www.agbuscenter.ifas.ufl.edu)

The Redlands Christian Migrant Association is one of the nation's largest operators of Migrant Head Start programs, which provide early childhood education to the children of migrant farm worker parents, generally at no charge. In fall 2001, Redlands opened a new MHS center at the Beth-El Farmworkers Mission that provides free care for up to 62 children aged 0-5 whose parents migrate in order to do farm work; the center operates from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m, and is closed in July, August and September. The mission provides other services for migrants, including food and clothing, education and training.

Tennessee. A Portland farmer went to jail in January 2002, after being convicted in the drowning of a migrant farm worker in October 1999. The migrant was riding in the farmer's truck with other workers, and was pinned underneath the truck when it flipped in the rain. The farmer put the migrant in a swine-waste lagoon; an autopsy showed the migrant had been alive when he was put in the pond and that he had drowned.

Peter Franceschina, "Migrant laborers sue Mecca Farms," Sun-Sentinel News, November 21, 2001. "Migrant workers sue citrus company for wages," St. Petersburg Times, October 8, 2001.