SAKUMA BROTHERS FARMS Under investigation.
  • Photo by Star Murray
  • SAKUMA BROTHERS FARMS Under investigation.

Sakuma Brothers Farms is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor for using guest workers during a labor dispute, Department of Labor spokesperson Jose Carnevali has confirmed. It's been rumored for weeks that the farm is under investigation, but until now the government shutdown prevented me from being able to confirm it with the Department of Labor. Carnevali wouldn't offer any further details about the investigation.

Here's what's happening: Under the federal H-2A guest worker program, the farm, which grows delicious berries for Haagen Dazs and other buyers, brought in 175 guest workers from Mexico in July, who live on a labor camp near Burlington. The farm said they did so because of a labor shortage.

However, there are rules about using guest workers, and one of the rules is, guest workers can't be brought in if a farm is in the middle of a labor dispute. The language of the law is unambiguous, and in my reading of it, it certainly seems to apply to Sakuma Brothers Farms. Here's the relevant part of the federal code when it comes to labor discord:

An employer seeking to employ H-2A workers must agree as part of the Application for Temporary Employment Certification and job offer that it will abide by the requirements of this subpart and make each of the following additional assurances...

(b) No strike or lockout. The worksite for which the employer is requesting H-2A certification does not currently have workers on strike or being locked out in the course of a labor dispute.

The code further explains that a strike is defined as any "concerted" slowdown or work stoppage. A spokesman for Sakuma Brothers Farms has not responded to several requests for comment on the Department of Labor's investigation.

The guest workers arrived just days after over 200 other migrant farmworkers—not guest workers—first walked off the job to call for higher wages and better treatment. Many of them had been coming back year after year for the farm's harvest season. As I reported earlier this month, negotiations broke down completely when the farm fired an outspoken worker. (The farm alleges they fired him for a domestic violence incident; workers believe he was fired because he was effective at leading work stoppages.) The workers remained on strike through the end of harvest season and continue to call for a consumer boycott of the farm's products. Two weeks ago, Bastyr University in Kenmore became the latest institution to join the boycott, according to their website.

Rosalinda Guillen, one of the strike organizers, calls the guest worker program "an exploitative, almost slave-like worker program." She said it's like "going to Mexico and renting humans to harvest your crop and then shipping them back" and even compared it with the old "bracero" program (others, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, make the same comparison). Guillen filed a complaint with the Department of Labor regarding the guest workers back in August, which appears to have prompted the investigation.