Los Hechados
Immigrant farmworkers in the company town of Samoa told to pack their bags
(June 10, 2010) On Friday, May 28, a young man who we’ll call “Slim” stood in the living room of the home that he has shared with up to 10 roommates at a time for the last 14 months. The week previous, Slim had received notice from the person who sublet the home to him and his roommates that they would have to move out of the house by June 1. Now the deadline was approaching, and Slim — a slender man who could have passed for a high school student, wearing a hoodie and jeans and sporting a shaved head — was at a loss for where he was going to go next.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do,” Slim said, speaking on behalf of his colleagues. “I guess we’ll stay at a hotel for a week and look for work, but we’ll have to leave all our things behind — beds, tables, microwave, everything.”
Like many of his roommates, and like many of his co-workers who had lived in the town of Samoa since February 2009, Slim is an undocumented farmworker. (His name, like those of other undocumented workers interviewed for this story, has been changed.) He was just one of more than 60 residents of the town — men, women and children — who had received the same notice to get out of their houses. They had all come to town, mostly from the Fresno area, to work in the floral industry. The 60 people lived in six houses in the old lumber town. The homes they stayed in were overcrowded, with at least two to four tenants per room. The furniture in Slim’s house sat on cold concrete floors. There were a couple of mattresses in the one bedroom that was visible, and another in the laundry room.
Samoa has always been a working man’s town, but in some ways Slim and his colleagues in those six houses are different than the lumberjacks of yore — their skin is darker, their language is foreign and most, if not all, were born in Mexico. In other ways, they weren’t so different: They work backbreaking jobs for little pay and their employer plays an outsized role in their lives — not only did the company give them their wage, but it took back a portion of that wage in the form of rent and transportation to and from work.
In Slim’s case, the ultimate employer was the Sun Valley Group, the largest producer of cut flowers in the state of California. Not only does the company have a large flower farm in the Arcata Bottom — the farm where Slim and his colleagues worked — but since 2001 it has also held a large stake in the privately owned town of Samoa. And ever since the well-publicized immigration raids on Sun Valley in 2008, it has used its town and an out-of-the-area contractor to keep the farm staffed.
Unfortunately for the workers, the arrangement the company made with its contracted workforce has left the employees with little recourse to justice. Their understanding was that they were being kicked out for failure to pay rent, even though they insisted that they had paid their rent every month, on time, over the last year and a half. What’s more, in total they were paying far, far more than the going rate for a home in Samoa.
It should be no surprise that people like Slim find themselves without options. Oxfam, a group of non-governmental organizations from three continents, works worldwide to fight poverty and injustice; in a report titled “Like Machines in the Fields: Workers Without Rights in American Agriculture,” it writes this about the plight of the undocumented farm laborer: “In a tight market, facing competition from lower-cost imports and seeing profits curtailed with every sale, production costs must be cut. Unfortunately, that decision comes at the expense of those who toil at the bottom of the supply chain with little bargaining power and without familiarity with the system.”
In June 2008, the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency notified Sun Valley that it suspected that 283 of its employees were working in the county illegally. The employees were promptly laid off, but the feds came calling anyway: A large-scale raid on the farm three months later ended with 23 arrests.
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on the cover
Railroad!
Proposed lines ‘set rich blood a-tingling’ in early 1900s
Some Other Proposed North Coast Railroads
Choo-choo Fantasies
Exposing this east-west rail nonsense
seven-o-heaven
Undeterred Will
Will chides Andrew for lack of attention to detail and makes plans for his inevitable victory.
Recent on the cover
May 17
Ring of Fire
Sun and moon will perform a rare pas de deux in Humboldt skies on Sunday
May 10
District Soup
Racing for the top county seat in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd districts
May 3
A Place in the Woods
As park closure deadline nears, a scramble to save what we can
Today
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
Flow 2012 Fashion Show
STAFF PICK / events / 8 p.m. Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. Student designed and produced clothing. Fundraiser for Arcata Arts Institute. $35/$25 students. artsinstitute.net. 822-1220.
Woodside Preschool's Rummage/Bake Sale
events / 8 a.m.-noon. Woodside Preschool, 900 Hodgson St, Eureka. www.woodsidepreschool.com. 445-9132.
Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
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24 Comments
Comment / By Gina Marie / June 10, 1:47 p.m.
We can thank eight plus years of Republicans capped off with Bush’s taking advantage of terrorism hysteria to turn the “Immigration and Naturalization Service” into “Immigration and Customs Enforcement” thus demonizing and encouranging racism against poor hungry people who only want to work and have a decent modest life. We can thank NAFTA for the globalization of trade that encouraged the free flow of capital across borders but keep labor captive behind them.
Comment / By brian / June 10, 7:52 p.m.
What is our D.A. going to do about this?
Comment / By Roxie / June 10, 9:06 p.m.
Shame on Danco and Sun Valley! I sure won’t be doing business with either! I don’t believe the BS that neither company knows what is happening. Both of these companies do rather well for themselves and that does not happen if you’re not aware of and on top of every aspect of your business dealings. This should anger everyone regardless of their view of immigration: if you’re against immigration, these companies are having undocumented workers brought in to fill jobs during these tough economic times and if you are for immigration reform, these companies are exploiting people that are just trying to provide for their families and live the American dream. What the hell is wrong with these people?
Comment / By High Finance / June 11, 8:53 a.m.
Why does Sun Valley exploit undocumented workers? They say its because local people are too lazy.
The truth is, they pay minimum wage, make you work ten hours a day, six days a week with no overtime. And its outdoors in the rain & cold and physical labor.
All they would have to do to attract local people is stop paying third world wages in third world conditions. At the very least pay overtime after 40 hours a week.
Then society has to learn to stop pandering to the lazy by giving them all the free handouts for no work.
Comment / By RT / June 11, 9:59 a.m.
High Finance:
Many locals probably don’t want to be exposed to the chemicals used by Sun Valley too.
Also, isn’t failing to pay overtime wages illegal too? Seems like the IRS should conduct an audit.
Comment / By Thirdeye / June 11, 3:04 p.m.
Farm labor brokers have escaped scrutiny for too long. They are essentially glorified human traffickers. Companies that use them should be held accountable too. They are a dodge for companies that want to avoid liability for illegal labor practices.
Comment / By fthat / June 11, 7:26 p.m.
they don’t pay OT b/c they classify themselves as “farm”. Those OT rules are much diff. than ur standard OT that you lazy folks r familiar wit.
Comment / By Sharon Letts / June 11, 8:40 p.m.
Thank you, Travis and Daniel. Well done.
In retelling the hows and whys of recycling, Phyllis Rex touched on cultural differences that created a challenge between neighbors.
Yes, some of the houses were unruly. Too many young, unattached, male workers in one space would cause havoc in any neighborhood, white, black, whatever, it doesn’t matter.
The most disturbing thing to me is the blanket lease agreement with no references checked, and subsequent move-out notices with no justification.
Those that have done nothing wrong and had been paying high rent for months are now having their references checked. I’ll tell you right now, if you checked my references today … would I have to move out?
The notices came after a stabbing at one location.
Let me pose this question: if a white, female, writer stabbed someone on the other side of the village would I be given a move-out notice?
Comment / By brian / June 12, 8:28 a.m.
Where is the left? Neil, Tom, Bonnie x 2, Heraldo and Co…….
Comment / By Buzz / June 12, 12:01 p.m.
Why don’t you do something about it Brian, instead of nominating others. Are you one of the people High Finance was talking about when he said, ” society has to stop pandering to the lazy by giving them all the free handouts for no work”?
Comment / By A_Ron / June 12, 2:52 p.m.
I’ve lived in Samoa for over a year, and I’ve seen one cop car, heard zero disturbances, and witnessed no violence.
Comment / By now now now! work work work! / June 12, 4:33 p.m.
Corporate mindset breakthrough: import the outsourced labor!
I really wonder…bottom line…how much Sun Valley is saving by doing this. “Hoarding” might be a better word? No more big corporate enterprises in humboldt!
Comment / By JT / June 12, 11:07 p.m.
RT:
Is the health of people working at Sun Valley being impaired by chemical exposure? If so, I think something should be done to change this.
Comment / By Legal Resident / June 13, 8:15 a.m.
I assume the Journal will be doing a follow up piece next week to this illegal love fest tripe. To include the cost to the county of the free health care, food stamps, not to mention the 200 jobs not going to legal residents of the county. Also will you be doing a follow up on contributions to political figures? law enforcement pay offs? Sun Valley has a nice little operation going.
Comment / By Buzz / June 13, 8:45 a.m.
I’d bet hard-earned cash that Legal Resident (above) costs society a lot more than the average migrant worker.
Comment / By now now n ow! work work work! / June 13, 10:06 a.m.
It’s more to the affect of this county, legal res and buzz, that these types of business practices are kept in mind when considering, and especially when imposing the push and pull of business money in the shape of things to come.
Sun Valley is one of the “local” companies wanting to widen the freeway through Richardson Grove, for example…jumping on the bandwagon that their business is good for the local economy, they provide jobs, etc…when in all fact they cut every corner possible and hide under a blanket of unscrutinized PR. Exactly the same with Home Depot…their (very) unfair labor practices are mostly out of sight thus out of mind. They intentionally misinterpret their numbers (over half employees aren’t given more than 32 hours per week, thus no benefits etc.) and etc…yet they’re able to shake hands with local money and smile and laugh that they’re a bunch of good guys doing us a favor.
I absolutely sympathize with the Sun Valley workers in this case. Samoa shouldn’t be put in a spotlight either. Like High Finance said, if all anybody’s paying is third world wages in third world conditions, people are going to accept them to make ends meet. Look at the third world…it’s bigger than our own. Then High Finance goes and says stupid crap about the lazy getting handouts, which is seperate politics…but his former statement is correct.
Poor workers at sun valley, yes…however it shouldn’t confuse things to say “stop it!” anymore than saying one sympathizes with the workers isn’t saying “okay let them be spit on, if that’s what they want.”
…if that makes sense.
Comment / By Buzz / June 13, 12:08 p.m.
“Then High Finance goes and says stupid crap” Hard to argue with that one.
Comment / By Johnny / June 15, 7:35 a.m.
1: “undocumented worker” means illegal immigrant. If local rental agencies and companies are using them knowingly, which it is obvious that they are, they should be prosecuted and the illegals sent back to where they came from.
2: Not only are the workers screwing up the local economy by not paying taxes, Sun Valley Farms are most certainly not paying their taxes properly either.
There are many laws being broken here. 10 People in a house made for 3 is a code violation—and most likely a safety hazard to the people living there.
Knowingly harboring illegal immigrants is against the law as well. Meaning the rental agency and the man whose name is on the lease are guilty.
I sympathize with wanting a better life. That’s why I moved here. But do it legally. If you break the law coming into the country, what is to stop you from breaking other laws? I don’t care what race or from what country an illegal comes from—send them back and let them enter legally. And prosecute those who harbor, employ, lie for/about and hide those here illegally.
Comment / By Buzz / June 15, 7:59 a.m.
Undocumented workers pay taxes, Johnny. Congratulations on having immigrated legally, but that avenue is simply not open to everyone.
Comment / By General Fadi Basem / June 15, 4:32 p.m.
I’m guessing none of you apologists have to live next door to a hellhole like one of these “single family residences” with as many as five familys, or the equivalent in #persons. When is my government going to “provide for the common defense”?
Comment / By Buzz / June 15, 4:48 p.m.
Sorry General, but our government is busy chasing never-ending dreams in faraway places.
Comment / By Carlos / June 16, 5:27 p.m.
Hello, Sun Valley Farms knows about its worker being legal, They still have workers there that are Legal, that are not with zepeda farm labor company. Ice sound check their papers, Sun Valley Farms, gave lay offs to some of it workers, after ice left,, a few weeks later these went back to work. No excuse for anything, law is the law.. and they should be put in jail for using false s.s. number and ID’s. and with no bail and stay in jail atil a bus comes for them to take them back to mexico, and take their family with them..the kids that are born here, can come back when they turn 18yr old..
Comment / By Buzz / June 16, 8:28 p.m.
Jesus may love you, Carlos, but everyone else thinks you’re an asshole.
Comment / By groelshrto / June 25, 9:02 a.m.
Why on earth is the Journal using non-staffer from out of the area to do this story? They have no idea what’s happening up here and got most of the story wrong. Journal FAIL.