A recently released documentary short, titled “Unjustified: The Unchecked Power of America’s Justice System,” focuses on the fallout from a 2008 immigration raid on a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa. Former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin was later charged with numerous violations, including violating child labor laws, identity theft and bank fraud. He was convicted on 86 financial fraud counts and sentenced to 27 years in prison, and his case has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The documentary was apparently directed by an Emmy-nominated producer who has worked on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” and Michael Moore’s Bravo TV series “The Awful Truth.” Additional information about Rubashkin’s case appears in Issue 439 of this Update. See The Des Moines Register, September 19, 2012.
Tag Archives labor
Four migrant farmworkers have filed suit against farm labor contractors who allegedly “recruited undocumented field workers in Mexico and the United States to work on farms (‘growers’) and relied on a pattern of threats, violence, harassment, and indebtedness to force Plaintiffs and other migrant farmworkers to perform grueling, back-breaking manual labor as Defendants transported the workers between several states including Florida, Illinois, Georgia, Mississippi, and New York.” John Does I-IV v. Sunrise Labor Corp., No. 12-80883 (S.D. Cal., filed August 20, 2012). According to the complaint, the individual defendants face federal criminal charges for hiring unauthorized aliens. Among other matters, the anonymous plaintiffs allege that the defendants imposed debts on them—involving fees paid to “coyotes” to smuggle them across the border and charges for food, rent and remittances to their families—threatened them with injury or death, did not pay them compensation to which they were entitled, forced them to work when…
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a Title VII civil rights action against a Burger King restaurant claiming that it failed to accommodate the religious beliefs of a Pentecostal Christian woman who sought to wear skirts or dresses to work instead of uniform pants. EEOC v. Fries Rest. Mgmt., LLC, No. 12-3169 (N.D. Tex., filed August 22, 2012). The employee was hired as a cashier and had allegedly been informed when she interviewed for the position that she could wear a skirt to work, an accommodation she required because she “adheres to an interpretation of the scripture that requires women to wear only skirts or dresses.” When she arrived at work for orientation in a skirt, she was told she could not wear it and would have to leave the store. According to the complaint, “The result of the foregoing practice has been to deprive Ashanti McShan of equal…
Restaurant trade organizations, an Oregon restaurant and one of its employees, a server, have filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), alleging that its interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, forbidding restaurants from distributing a share of tips to non-tipped employees, regardless of whether the restaurants use the tips as a credit toward paying their employees minimum wage, conflicts with a Ninth Circuit decision and will force the restaurants to incur significant costs or subject them to litigation. Or. Restaurant & Lodging Ass’n v. Solis, No. 12-01261 (D. Or., filed July 12, 2012). According to the Ninth Circuit ruling, restaurants can require that tips be shared with back-of-house and other non-tipped restaurant employees where the wait staff are paid at least full minimum wage and the restaurants do not take a tip credit. Cumby v. Woody Woo, Inc., No. 08-35718 (9th Cir.…
The Food Chain Workers Alliance has issued a report claiming that most U.S. workers across the food sector—from production, processing, distribution, retail, and service—earn low wages with few health benefits, a situation that can pose safety risks to both employees and the public. Titled “The Hands That Feed Us: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along the Food Chain,” the 92-page report based its findings on nearly 700 surveys and interviews with employers and workers in the sector, which employs 20 million people and comprises one-sixth of the country’s workforce. Among the report’s findings of workers surveyed: (i) more than 86 percent reported earning low or poverty wages, (ii) 79 percent said they either do not have a single paid sick day or do not know if they do, (iii) 83 percent do not receive health insurance from their employers, (iv) 53 percent admitted to working while sick, (v) 57 percent…
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that the Roskam Baking Co. did not infringe a trademark by using the term “Texas Toast” in selling its packaged croutons. T. Marzetti Co. v. Roskam Baking Co., No. 10-3784 (6th Cir., decided May 25, 2012). Marzetti apparently began using the Texas Toast mark for its frozen garlic bread in 1995 and then adopted the term for use with a crouton product sold in 2007. The company attempted to register the mark in 2009, but the applications were initially denied “because of the potential likelihood of confusion with the mark Texas toast for bakery goods.” Thereafter, they were approved for publication as, “at a minimum, suggestive.” The defendant filed an opposition to the trademarks in 2010, and Marzetti, learning about the company’s Texas Toast croutons, filed this trademark infringement action. The Sixth Circuit agreed with the district court that the mark is not…
A California resident has filed a putative class action against Starbucks Corp. alleging that the company deceived consumers by failing to disclose that some of its products were made with cochineal extract, a common food-coloring ingredient made from crushed insects. Anderson v. Starbucks Corp., No. BC485438 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., filed May 25, 2012). Seeking to represent a nationwide class and statewide subclass of consumers, the plaintiff claims that she and the class members, had they known about the company’s use of the ingredient, would not have purchased the products for a number of reasons, including objections to consuming animal products, allergic responses to the ingredient or “sheer disgust.” Alleging violations of the California Unfair Business Practices Act and False Advertising Act, unjust enrichment, fraud by omission/concealment, and violation of California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the plaintiff seeks disgorgement, restitution, compensatory and punitive damages, payment to a cy pres fund,…
Chipotle Mexican Grill has filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) advising that the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia “is conducting an investigation into possible criminal securities law violations relating to our employee work authorization verification compliance and related disclosures and statements.” The probe follows investigations into the company’s compliance with immigration laws by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm and public disclosure requirements by SEC. According to news sources, the company, which has indicated its intent to fully cooperate with the investigations, was forced to fire some 450 employees in 2011, after it learned that illegal immigrants had been hired to work in its Minnesota restaurants. Since then, the company has reportedly been using Homeland Security’s E-Verify system to confirm employee eligibility. See Reuters and Law360, May 18, 2012; Bloomberg, May 21, 2012,
The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board has filed a petition for injunctive relief against a Ventura County strawberry farming operation alleging unfair labor practices and seeking to stop the respondent from interfering with employees’ free exercise of rights under the labor code. State v. Montalvo Farms, LLC, No. 56-2012-00416985 (Cal. Super. Ct., Ventura Cty., filed May 9, 2012). According to the petition, the farm hires Mixteco farmworkers, most of whom speak neither English nor Spanish. Due to language constraints, these workers allegedly endure “worse working conditions than other agricultural workers, including pervasive undercounting of their strawberry boxes picked, supervisors who charge for rides to work, injuries on the job that are ignored, and outright discrimination due to their inability to speak Spanish fluently.” One Mixteco worker, who is fluent in Mixteco and Spanish, apparently worked at the farm for several years and became a spokesperson for the Mixteco workers. He…
A federal court in Kentucky has determined that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is not entitled to information about the medical examinations of Nestlé Prepared Foods employees in relation to a claim by one former employee that he was fired due to “genetic information” discrimination. EEOC v. Nestlé Prepared Foods, No. 11-359 (E.D. Ky., decided May 23, 2012). So ruling, the court rejected in part a magistrate judge’s recommended disposition and denied EEOC’s motion for enforcement of a subpoena. According to the court, the information sought was irrelevant because there was no evidence that any other employee had alleged violations of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000 0ff-1. While acknowledging that EEOC ordinarily “has broad access to evidence that is relevant to a charge being investigated,” the court was “not persuaded that it has free reign to conduct a broad, company-wide investigation based upon a single…
