October 8, 2018
Farmworkers in Michigan Sue Over Illegal Housing and Working Conditions
In March of this year, 76 migrant and seasonal farmworkers in Michigan sued their employers Shoreline Growers, as well as housing companies Brookside Farms and Pine Acres Estate, in federal court for a wide range of state and federal labor law violations, including violations of minimum wage, overtime, and housing laws.
Shoreline, doing business as Sawyer Nursery, recruited the workers in 2015 in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, offering work at Sawyer nurseries in Michigan and Alabama for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Recruiters promised the workers $9-10/hour, free quality housing, and “plenty of overtime.” With these promises before them, the workers left their homes and jobs in Texas and spent hundreds of dollars on bus tickets traveling first to Alabama and then to Michigan.
Upon arriving to the nurseries, the workers quickly realized that the recruiters’ promises were empty. To start, the housing conditions were so poor that Michigan authorities had deemed them unsafe for human habitation in December of 2016. The multiple safety hazards included bed bugs, mold, mildew, and inadequate toilet facilities. Shoreline also failed to provide clean drinking water, restrooms, or handwashing facilities.
Despite knowing about the housing health risks, Shoreline did nothing to improve the housing and exposed workers to various harms without warning or protection. The workers’ young children suffered bug bites, rashes, and fevers. Even the adults fell ill and had to seek medical care and miss work while recovering. When one of the workers reported the poor housing conditions and resulting health problems to the Shoreline’s human resources manager, the employer promptly fired him.
Although the workers had to spend their own money to try to make their situation bearable- purchasing cleaning supplies, paying for doctors’ visits, and taking unpaid sick days off work - Shoreline never reimbursed them for any of these costs.
Shoreline also regularly deducted from workers’ paychecks for the costs of housing and equipment, even though the workers had not received notice ahead of time that their pay would be reduced. These illegal deductions meant that the workers earned less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Shoreline thus not only failed to pay the $9-10/hour that it promised, but failed to follow the law at all.
The workers are asking the court to award them damages, attorney fees, and their unpaid wages. They are represented by Farmworker Legal Services of Michigan, who can be reached at (269) 492-7190. The case is currently pending.