Sweet Satisfaction : Women Get Settlement Checks in Bias Suits Against Lemon Packers

Imelda Serrato and her husband have never been able to afford toys for their three children. Things will be different this Christmas.

Maria Palmerin owes $2,000 to a friend who helped her buy a used car after her old clunker finally went kaput. The friend can expect her money in the next few days.

Lily Melgoza ran out of food Monday for Blackie and Concha, her two dogs. They will be chowing down on their favorite Ball Park Franks this morning.

The three are among the 29 Ventura County women who were part of a class-action lawsuit against the Buenaventura Lemon Co., a Saticoy lemon packinghouse, charging that they were denied employment because of their sex.

The Dole Food Co., which owns Buenaventura Lemon and another packinghouse named in the suit, agreed to settle for $555,000 last year.

On Monday, the women picked up the first of two checks at the California Rural Legal Assistance office in Oxnard.

“I’m going to spend it all,” said Melgoza, 63, folding a crisp pile of $100 bills after cashing her $1,000 check. “When I saw my husband this morning he said, ‘So, where are we going for dinner tonight?’ We’re excited.”

Although the women were happy to receive some compensation from Dole, they emphasized that their victory meant more than cash: It sent a message that gender discrimination will not be tolerated, they said.

“Life for a working woman is much tougher,” said Palmerin, a 28-year-old single mother. “We’re discriminated against a lot. Many women are afraid to come forward. Hopefully, more will now.”

The lawsuit alleged that Serrato, 41, and another Oxnard woman applied on two occasions to the Buenaventura Lemon Co. but were never called for an interview--only to learn later that men had been hired.

In addition to the two named plaintiffs, 27 Ventura County women later joined the class-action suit and were eligible for compensation. The suit also included other women who were making similar allegations against a Dole-owned packinghouse in Tulare County.

Dole paid a total of $530,000 to women who worked or had applied to both packinghouses, and $25,000 to the lawyers.

The produce giant also agreed to revise hiring practices at the packinghouses so that women would make up at least 20% of those employed for general labor jobs, and to offer promotions on a seniority basis.

“It is good that the money is coming at this time,” said California Rural Legal Assistance attorney Eileen McCarthy, who represented the women along with a Chicago law firm. “These are hard times for working people. Christmas is a hard time for them.”

Maria Cruz, 42, was able to find a seasonal job packing chiles for Nabisco’s Oxnard plant after the Buenaventura Lemon Co. did not call her for an interview.

But now that Nabisco has sold its Ortega line to Nestle, Cruz fears she may soon be out of work again. The checks, Cruz said, will help her and her husband support their five children, two of whom are enrolled at Cal State Northridge.

“When my kids found out, they said, ‘Mom, when are you going to get that check?’ ” Cruz said. “There are so many things they need. I want to buy them a little something for Christmas, maybe give them a little spending money.”

Amelia Ramirez found work at the Oxnard Lemon Co.--a packinghouse that CRLA and the Chicago firm, Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland, also successfully sued for sexual discrimination. The case was settled in 1993 for $575,000 to the plaintiffs and $675,000 to the attorneys.

But despite her new job, Ramirez, 35, and her husband have struggled to provide even basic necessities for their six children.

“They want clothes for Christmas,” Ramirez said. “They always complain they have nothing to wear. I don’t know what I’m going to buy them, but they will have nicer things to wear.”

Serrato doesn’t know what to buy her 11-year-old daughter Gladys, her 9-year-old son Diego or her 7-month-old baby Emanuel. She thinks the older children will offer more than a few suggestions.

“I don’t know what kind of toys they are going to get,” she said. “But they’ll be something good.”

After she pays her friend for the car loan, Palmerin plans to use part of her money to buy Karina, her 3-year-old daughter, the Christmas gift she has been clamoring for.

“She wants a bicycle,” Palmerin said, smiling. “And she’s going to get a bike.”

And after she stocked up on high-grade pet food, where was Melgoza going to take her husband for dinner Monday night? She had it all planned out.

“I’m taking him to McDonald’s,” she said. “I like hamburgers, not the taco places he always wants to go to, and we’re going where I want to go this time.”