Plaintiffs: Hector Luna, Julian Garcia, Santos Maldonado and Bartolo Nuņez, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated
Defendants: Del Monte Fresh Produce (Southeast), Inc. and Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc.
Co-Counsel:
Greg Schell, Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, Florida
Date(s) of Disposition:
none.
Complaint
: Luna v. Del Monte (PDF)
Decision
: Del Monte Decision
This class action was filed by the Center's Immigrant Justice Project (IJP) on behalf of migrant farmworkers who assert they were grossly underpaid while working in south Georgia for subsidiaries of the food giant Del Monte. The district court has yet to rule on the merits of the workers' wage claims.
Under the H-2A "guestworker" program, foreign workers are brought to the U.S. on special visas permitting them to work only for the employer who brings them to the country. The plantiffs left their homes and families and spent considerable sums of money to travel to Georgia to work for Del Monte.
The workers were promised, and entitled to receive under federal law, wage rates set by the U.S. Department of Labor to ensure foreign workers do not negatively affect the wages paid to native-born farmworkers.
