San Antonio Express News has an investigative report out today covering the rampant wage theft that still takes place against produce workers in the Rio Grand Valley: Fair pay a distant dream for produce packers in Rio Grande Valley
For two years, Jorge Perez Hernandez worked 12 to 18 hours a day, six days a week, in a small refrigerated warehouse here. He sorted fruit and vegetables from Mexico and repackaged them for distribution in the U.S.
***
“I came in at 8 a.m. and I left at 11 p.m. or 12 at night, with an (unpaid) hour for lunch and dinner,” he said. “Six days a week.”
And when they complain or report being underpaid…
“Sometimes he’d carry the gun, put it on the table so we could see it there, to intimidate us,” Perez Hernandez recalled.
De La Fuente heard about their complaint and fired all six workers, Galvan said.
***
Employers have coached workers to lie to investigators about their pay and working conditions, and in some cases have fired them for cooperating, court records show. In one case, a packing company reported an undocumented worker to U.S. immigration authorities to retaliate against the man for talking to investigators, according to court records.
And, the workers get the message…
After Fuentes Farms fired them, five of the six workers who had complained to the commission dropped their cases. They feared being blacklisted in the industry — or worse, deported.
The government can’t keep up, even with help from excellent public interest firms like Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.
Experts largely agree that the Department of Labor doesn’t have the resources to stay on top of the situation. Many workers say speaking up often means becoming unemployable.
In this border region of Texas, many undocumented workers struggle to feed their families, being abused by American companies while staying under the radar to avoid deportation. What keeps them going is their dream for future generations.
“They want their children to be educated,” he said.
His oldest child is 15, a sophomore in high school. Like his parents, he is undocumented. Unlike them, he speaks both English and Spanish. When he grows up, he wants to be a lawyer.
