Yuma, Arizona, February 7, 2011

US Migrant Workers to file Suit Against Monsanto for Egregious Employment Practices

Sixteen US migrant workers, including a thirteen year old boy, who were recruited to work for Monsanto filed a federal lawsuit Monday, February 7, 2011 against the international company.  The workers are represented by Pamela Bridge, an attorney at Community Legal Services, a not for profit civil law firm in Arizona.

In June 2010, the workers were recruited in San Luis, Arizona to work in Indiana for Monsanto. The workers were promised free transportation to Indiana, decent, free housing and certain wages to detassel corn.   Once the workers arrived in Indiana and began working for Monsanto, they were housed in an overcrowded, substandard hotel.  Further, they were not paid for a couple of weeks and had no way to get food. In the fields, the workers were not given the proper equipment which caused most of the workers to receive blisters.  The workers were never paid for all of the wages promised to them. After a couple of weeks, the workers returned to Arizona.

“The conditions were so egregious, that a group of the workers called Community Legal Services from a pay phone in Indiana,” states Pamela Bridge, an attorney at Community Legal Services. “I contacted attorneys for Monsanto at that time and informed them that not only were several of the workers unhappy but at least one of the workers was injured.”

The federal Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act provides agricultural workers with certain protections concerning their wages, transportation and employment housing. For instance, an employer has to pay the wages promised to the workers and cannot change the terms and conditions of the working conditions.  If the employer houses the workers, the housing has to comply with state and federal standards.

“Monsanto placed the workers in an overcrowded hotel in which the workers, including the thirteen year old had to take turns sleeping on the floor, ”continues Pamela Bridge.  “We are concerned because we have sued Monsanto before for almost the exact same bad practices yet they continue to take advantage of our Arizona low wage workers.”

The workers are asking for statutory, and compensatory damages under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act and the Arizona Wage Payment Act in addition to injunctive relief against Monsanto to prevent future violations.