75 Farm Workers to Seek Back Pay From Grower

An attorney representing 75 farm workers who have received temporary legal status under the new immigration law vowed Friday to file a $1.5-million claim for back pay against a San Diego County vegetable grower that is one of the largest tomato growers in the country.

Immigration attorney Oscar Ruiz de Chavez charged at a press conference Friday night that workers were threatened, denied overtime pay and forced to live in sub-human conditions while working on vegetable farms owned by Ukegawa Brothers in Del Mar Heights and Carlsbad.

Chavez said he intends to file a $1.5-million claim with the state Department of Industrial Relations on Monday. He also said he is investigating the possibility of suing the farmers for what he said were multiple violations of workers’ civil rights.

‘Finally Speak Out’

Chavez said the workers were coming forward at this time because they had received temporary work permits under the Immigration Reform and Control Act.

“Most of them feel protected,” Chavez said. “They feel they can finally speak out and do not have to be a hidden people.”

In an earlier interview, a spokesman for Ukegawa Brothers accused Chavez of working against the field hands’ best interests.

One of Chavez’s clients, Vicente Rosales Lopez, 30, who said he has worked for Ukegawa Brothers intermittently over the past three years, said in an interview that he works as a picker and insecticide sprayer for up to 90 hours a week but is paid for only 60 hours, earning $184 a week.

Lopez said he is forced to live with five other men in a one-room shed made of scrap metal, lumber, cardboard and fertilizer bags. He said the men have no toilet, cook outside over a fire, and bathe at a single faucet.

“The owner knows this is illegal, but he just wants to have the people there to work on the ranch grounds,” Lopez said, adding that his wife remains in Mexico in their hometown, Arcelia Guerrero. “He doesn’t care how we live.”

Lopez said he has seen dozens of men fired for voicing complaints. “If one of us gets sick, no one cares whether we live or not,” he said.”

Claim Forms Withheld

Chavez also accused the Ukegawas of withholding employment verification forms that illegal aliens need to support their bids for legalization. Under the new law, employers must certify that they employed applicants for extended periods in the past in order to meet the requirements for legal status.

Pete Mackauf, general manager for Ukegawa Brothers, acknowledged in an interview Friday that there had been intentional delays.

“Ever since the amnesty program started in May, we’ve had a fear of losing our workers all at one time once they become legal,” Mackauf said. “We decided to hold off for a little while on filling out the forms, but we now know we made a mistake. This is a top priority for illegal aliens, the chance of a lifetime.

“We are now working at a faster pace to get all of the forms filled out. We underestimated how many lawyers and paralegals would want to make a buck off of this.”

Mackauf called the workers’ immigration attorneys “self-serving” and accused them of neglecting the “long-term interests of the workers.” He accused them of “talking out of both sides of their mouths” by claiming to defend the workers’ interests while charging them up to $1,000 to apply for the amnesty program.

Chavez said he charges $750 per case and payments are made on an installment basis.

The Ukegawa vegetable farms employ 500 people and are spread over 400 acres in four locations, extending from Carlsbad to San Diego.

Mackauf said workers sometimes put in up to 60 hours of work a week without earning overtime pay. Wages range from the $3.35 minimum pay to $6.50, depending on how much a person produces.

Eight years ago, the Ukegawas were ordered by county health officials to destroy a shanty town on their property where about 1,000 illegal aliens lived surrounded by refuse and human feces. The owners were also ordered to install additional toilets, trash cans, hand-washing and drinking water facilities.

In June, 1981, the Ukegawas were ordered to pay $275,000 in overtime wages from 1980 to about 2,000 employees after state investigators conducted a six-month audit of the growers.