A Northern California slaughterhouse involved in a massive beef recall processed cows with cancer while U.S. livestock inspectors took lunch breaks and later distributed the diseased cattle.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Grand Rapids, accuses Johnston, Iowa-based DuPont Pioneer and two recruiters of violating federal wage and migrant labor laws.
There is nothing in President Barack Obama’s recently announced package of executive actions on immigration that directly reassures farmers and ranchers they’ll have efficient access to foreign-born labor.
If it becomes law, it would put California at the forefront nationally of farm labor pay and mark a victory in the fight to improve farmworkers’ rights in a decade’s old movement launched by Cesar Chavez.
A California farmer says Donald Trump’s campaign vow to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally pushed him into buying more equipment, cutting the number of workers he’ll need during the next harvest. Others in California’s farming industry say Trump’s tough campaign talk targeting immigrants in the country illegally, including a vast number of farmworkers, spurred them into action, too.
