Sweep Targets Violations of Farm Labor Laws in State

A strike force of state and federal investigators swept across the San Joaquin Valley on Tuesday in the start of what authorities called the state’s largest-ever crackdown on violations of labor laws designed to protect farm workers.

Hours before daybreak, about 60 investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor, the state labor commissioner’s office, and a variety of other state and local agencies fanned out across the agriculture-rich region around Fresno. Their efforts represented the biggest push to date in an ongoing statewide enforcement campaign.

The sweep, in which investigators conducted 53 inspections and issued about 65 citations resulting in more than $100,000 in fines, was aimed at growers and farm labor contractors with a history of labor law violations. But authorities said it was also intended to serve notice to the Central Valley’s farming community at large.

“You almost have to have this kind of major effort to send a message,” said state Labor Commissioner Victoria L. Bradshaw, who accompanied enforcement teams on their rounds.

At a California Highway Patrol roadblock in the city of Kerman two hours before dawn, authorities found vans packed with farm workers and driven by unlicensed and uninsured labor contractors. In most cases, workers had paid $3 or $4 apiece just for a ride to the fields. More than 32 citations were issued.

Later in the day, investigators handed out citations at several farming operations for child labor violations, including two to a labor contractor who supplied wobbly wooden ladders to teen-agers harvesting nectarines.

They also uncovered an assortment of housing, health and safety violations at a variety of locations, including the failure to provide toilets and drinking water for laborers toiling under the Central Valley sun.

“Obviously there is a variety of state, local and federal agencies not only willing to put resource dollars but man-hours for a prolonged period of time behind this effort,” Bradshaw said. “And I think that definitely sends a message to the employer community and the employee community.”

The state and federal investigators are members of the Targeted Industries Partnership Program (TIPP), a joint enforcement and educational effort started late last year partly in response to criticism that the state’s agriculture and garment industries were riddled with labor abuses.

Despite boasts by state officials, farm worker advocates have blasted the enforcement program as a public relations ploy too weak to scare growers and farm labor contractors into compliance.

And one manager whose plant was visited by authorities Tuesday complained that the program’s tactics are heavy-handed.

“I’ve got no problem with TIPP. My only problem was with how it was handled today,” said Dan J. Gerawan, general manager of a Reedley packing plant. Investigators visited the plant after getting an anonymous--and unsubstantiated--complaint that workers were not being paid minimum wage or receiving overtime pay.

Gerawan contended that investigators walked onto his property without advance notice and began questioning workers before checking in with him. He said he would have preferred investigators to wait until he had arrived.

“When they come in and do it with the level of arrogance they displayed today,” Gerawan said, “it kind of rubs you the wrong way.”

The program attempts to strengthen labor law enforcement by coordinating the efforts of the government agencies charged with regulating the farming and garment industries.

Prior to Tuesday’s sweep, agents in the joint effort had issued 194 citations and assessed $3.3 million in fines against farm operators and garment manufacturers in the nine months of the program. Fines may be appealed administratively or challenged in court.

Major sweeps have been conducted in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, Imperial County, Riverside County and the counties of Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito. Smaller sweeps have been done in San Diego, Orange and Kern counties.

The San Joaquin Valley sweep, which started Tuesday and is expected to take several weeks to complete, represents the largest enforcement action to date.

“There are never going to be enough tax dollars to fully fund enforcement,” said Jose Millan, who heads the program statewide. “What we are trying to do is increase the level of voluntary compliance.”

Investigators set out while darkness still blanketed the valley. After a 3:30 a.m. strategy meeting, they accompanied CHP officers to a busy intersection in Kerman.

Near a brown-and-gold sign welcoming visitors to the sleepy farm town, officers set up a roadblock and began herding vans into a Taco Bell parking lot.

An unlicensed driver was found carrying two dozen laborers, crammed back-to-back inside a dusty and dented passenger van. Another unlicensed driver was transporting a dozen workers. An all-female crew of 15 was crammed into another van.

The women told investigators that they paid a few dollars each for a ride to work, causing Bradshaw to wonder aloud whether that income was being reported by the van driver to the IRS or the state employment office. The labor commissioner announced that she would report the earnings herself to the proper authorities.

“We’ll do our part to battle the underground economy,” she said.

When the roadblock was lifted, investigators spread out through the acres of farmland that cover the valley floor.

Bouncing along rutted trails, Bradshaw and the other investigators hunted for labor crews in areas where they had been seen picking fruit only days before. The state and federal officials guessed that the crews had been moved once word leaked out that labor agents were in town.

No matter, Bradshaw said. Enforcement can wait.

“We’ll get them on the back end because we don’t leave,” she said. “We’ll play cat-and-mouse for a while, but we’re here for the duration.”