Seven migrant farmworkers from Texas allege they were recruited to work in Iowa for illegally low wages and forced to live in substandard housing.
The workers are suing Remington Seeds, which operates a seed-corn processing facility in DeWitt, and Javier Chapa, a Texas labor broker who runs Chapa Global Contracting. Chapa was allegedly hired by Remington to recruit, house, and supervise migrant farmworkers in Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas.
The plaintiffs — Homero Reyes, Manuel Ozuna Chavez, Luis Acuna, Antonio de la Rosa, Felipe Arevalo Gonzalez, Juan Antonio Cantu Gonzalez, and Juan Lopez Escamilla — filed their lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
They claim the defendants violated federal law requiring employers to pay American workers, like the plaintiffs, the same wages paid to foreign nationals under the H-2A program for temporary agricultural jobs.
According to the lawsuit, Chapa concealed that he was employing higher-paid foreign nationals at a Nebraska seed-corn processing plant and refused to let the plaintiffs take those jobs.
For five years, Chapa allegedly recruited the plaintiffs to travel from Texas to Iowa to work at Remington’s facility in DeWitt. Each August, at the start of the work season, the workers gathered in McAllen, Texas, where they boarded a bus to Iowa. They were required to stay at a Quality Inn in Clinton but were barred from eating the complimentary breakfast offered to other guests.
The workers allege they sometimes slept four to a two-bed room, forcing them to share beds or sleep on the floor, and that they were required to reimburse Chapa for lodging costs. In October, at the end of the season, they returned to Texas on another bus chartered by Chapa.
The lawsuit claims that in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, each worker had to reimburse Chapa for lodging and pay $450 for bus rides and meals, while being barred from using personal vehicles. These reimbursements, described as “kickbacks,” allegedly reduced their overtime wages below the federally mandated minimum compensation.
The suit also alleges Chapa failed to comply with federal housing safety and health standards for migrant agricultural workers.
Accusing the defendants of violating the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, the plaintiffs seek damages for lost wages, substandard lodging, and discrimination at the hotel, as well as an injunction requiring compliance with the law.
Chapa declined to comment on the lawsuit, and calls to Remington Seeds were not immediately returned Thursday.
This article has been carefully fact-checked by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and eliminate any misleading information. We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity in our content.
Leave a Reply