Five farmworkers who tried and failed to get Oregon regulators to investigate after they allege they were denied water for hours at a time over three hot days are taking their complaint to court.
Earlier this month, the five Woodburn residents filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Eugene alleging that Farm West Labor Contracting Co. and Rainbow Orchards VIII LLC violated state and federal workplace safety laws, as well as Oregon’s whistleblower protection statutes by failing to provide a safe place of employment. The lawsuit also claims the companies violated the terms of the workers’ working arrangements by firing them when they complained.
“I want there to hopefully be some justice for everything we experienced,” said Paulino Candido, one of the farmworkers bringing the suit, through a Spanish interpreter.
Jennifer Ceja, the owner of Farm West Labor Contracting, declined to comment when reached by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Rainbow Orchards VIII didn’t respond to a request for comment.
As temperatures surpassed 90 degrees in August 2020, the farmworkers said they repeatedly begged their supervisor for water. The supervisor, they said, initially offered to sell them beer or juice instead.
During three days of work, the plaintiffs say they were forced to go between four and seven hours without water. The water their supervisor eventually did provide was lukewarm and murky, they said, and they were forced to share a cup when they drank.
One of the workers, Juliana Valencia, said she grew lightheaded and dizzy on the third day of work. When she approached the supervisor later in the day, she said he told her to contact the labor contractor who hired her if she wanted water.
Later that day, the farmworkers said the supervisor fired them.
“I’ve been working as a farmworker for 14 years and I’ve never before experienced the type of humiliation that I experienced at that farm,” said Valencia through a Spanish interpreter. “They took advantage of us.”
The five farmworkers bringing the suit tried to seek help from the state before pursuing legal action on their own.
In a September meeting organized by PCUN, Oregon’s largest farmworkers union, the farmworkers detailed their experience to Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division administrator Michael Wood and other Oregon OSHA officials. But the agency never opened an investigation.
Wood told The Oregonian/OregonLive in July that Oregon OSHA was unable to investigate because neither the workers nor PCUN ever filed a formal complaint with his agency or the state Bureau of Labor and Industries, which handles workplace retaliation.
At the time, the farmworkers didn’t want their names made public because they feared they could lose future employment.
Wood said the agency could have protected their identities if they had filed a formal complaint. But the workers said they left the meeting with the impression there was little the state could or would do if they were unwilling to reveal their identities.
“I don’t understand why OSHA didn’t do anything,” said Valencia, 34. “To this day, they haven’t done anything. It makes me feel like I’m nothing.”
The farmworkers didn’t file a complaint through the state Bureau of Labor and Industries within the 90-day window allowed by the agency.
Mayra Ledesma, a staff attorney for the Northwest Workers’ Justice Project, who is representing the farmworkers, said the workers couldn’t meet that timeline because Farm West Labor Contracting didn’t provide them with the name of the farm where they were hired to work. That’s one of the complaints outlined in the lawsuit.
Without that information, Ledesma said it took her organization longer to determine that the supervisor who denied the workers water was employed by Rainbow Orchards.
“We can’t undo the harm they experienced those three days, but this lawsuit is a way for them to have some sort of remedy for what happened to them,” Ledesma said.
The decision to pursue legal action wasn’t easy, Valencia said. She said she initially didn’t want to make her name public because she feared she would face retaliation and lose future work with farm labor contractors in the Willamette Valley.
Valencia said her decision to come forward hasn’t impacted her employment so far, but she remains worried about the consequences of speaking up. Still, she said she felt she had no other choice.
“I was afraid and I’m still afraid, but if I let this fear stand in my way there are always going to be people that take advantage of me,” Valencia said. “If people like me don’t speak up then these employers will get used to treating people like this.”
Henry Drummonds, a Lewis & Clark Law School professor specializing in labor and employment law, said the farmworkers in this case could receive a significant settlement if they prevail because Oregon’s whistleblower protections statutes don’t have a cap for punitive and emotional distress damages. (The lawsuit doesn’t specify damages sought.)
