Legal Aid of North Carolina said Wednesday that it has filed a federal complaint against the N.C. Department of Labor alleging that state labor inspectors have failed to ensure safe working and housing conditions for migrant farmworkers.
"Many migrant housing units are overcrowded, in disrepair and have unsanitary cooking and washing facilities. Fields where farm workers risk exposure to pesticides and extreme temperatures harvesting crops may lack bathrooms and safe water for drinking and hand washing," Legal Aid's Farmworker Unit said in a news release.
Dolores Quesenberry, a spokeswoman for N.C. Department of Labor, rejected the allegations in an email.
"This letter is just a political stunt to promote a leftist agenda," Quesenberry said.
"They're always talking about unregistered camps and horrible conditions, yet they will not provide addresses or locations. If they did, we'd go and inspect. Instead of playing politics, we need to find solutions to everyday problems and help the hardworking men and women of our agricultural community," she said.
In the counties that make up Northwest North Carolina, farm cash receipts on all products — hogs, eggs, tobacco, among others — were nearly $795 million in 2010, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Statewide, total receipts were more than $9.6 billion.
About 58,000 migrant farmworkers helped generate that money, according to the Farmworker Advocacy Network, which is based in Raleigh. For many of them, the working and housing conditions are "atrocious," said the Rev. John Mendez of Emanuel Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, a longtime advocate.
"I've seen the conditions. They're in these long barracks, kind of like a storage area, no restroom, four to five (workers) in there. There are insects in there, and there's no air. Imagine that in the summer? Forget politics. These people are in horrible conditions," Mendez said.
The N.C. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Division, or OSHANC, is responsible for inspecting migrant housing prior to occupancy, and for investigating complaints when the housing is substandard.
State labor inspectors impose inconsistent penalties, routinely negotiate reductions in penalties, and do not focus on the worst migrant camps, according to Legal Aid's complaint, which was sent in a letter dated Sept. 30 to David Michaels, the assistant secretary of labor for U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
"We request that your agency investigate this complaint and facilitate corrective action by OSHANC," Mary Lee Hall, Legal Aid's senior managing attorney, said in the complaint.
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