Ag-Mart workers land in poor housing

Ag-Mart workers land in crowded, squalid housing

CURRIE -- The faded sign on the former nightclub reads "Jamaican American Club." Inside, roaches skitter around a grime-streaked refrigerator. Stained mattresses lean against concrete walls. Boards cover windows.

Until a few weeks ago, this crumbling nightspot in Pender County was a home for 30 or 40 migrant workers. State labor officials say the workers -- who pick grape tomatoes for Ag-Mart, a Florida company with large farms in Eastern North Carolina -- were crowded into the building with no hot water, no shower and not enough beds.

The Labor Department is investigating who is responsible for the housing, which violated a state law set up to protect migrant farm workers from living in squalor. Investigators say they will try to track down the landlords and the labor contractors, who not only hire and supervise Ag-Mart workers but also arrange housing.

Ag-Mart is not the focus of the probe. Farms have no legal obligation to provide housing for seasonal labor, although many do. And if, like Ag-Mart, growers stay out of the housing business, they are not responsible for the conditions in which workers live.

"I'm not involved with housing," said Don Long, president of Ag-Mart, adding that workers average $9 an hour during harvest. "Our people make good wages. They should be able to live where they want to live."

But Ag-Mart's size makes the situation unusual, said Regina Luginbuhl, head of the Labor Department's agricultural safety and health bureau. She estimated that fewer than 50 of the company's approximately 500 workers live in registered housing. By comparison, Luginbuhl said, every other large farm in North Carolina that employs 100 or more workers offers housing.

With so many landlords spread throughout Brunswick and Pender counties, where Ag-Mart farms, she said the law leaves her few tools. Luginbuhl said she found the nightclub only after receiving a complaint. Josephine S. Harrison of Currie, the owner of the nightclub, declined to comment.

"We would have to go down and hang out in those counties and devote all of our small muscle to finding Ag-Mart workers," Luginbuhl said. "We can't do that."

As a result, she said, many of Ag-Mart's workers live crowded in fly- and roach-infested dwellings. There, they are hidden from officials who could provide access to child care, schools, immunizations and health care.

Ag-Mart grows its tiny, sweet grape tomatoes, called "Santa Sweets," in North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey and Mexico. It also grows a larger tomato known as an "Ugly Ripe."

The company moved into North Carolina in late 2001, and last October, the state Agriculture Department charged Ag-Mart with the biggest pesticide violation in state history. The company is fighting the charges and says it never put employees at risk.

In 2003, the state Labor Department fined Ag-Mart for failing to properly train and equip workers using pesticides.

State regulators have launched previous investigations of housing for Ag-Mart workers. State law requires that migrant housing be registered with the Labor Department. Inspectors check the housing before workers move in to assure that it meets minimal standards for plumbing, electricity and other basics.

In 2003, the Labor Department cited three labor contractors -- Salvador Ponce, Sergio Salinas and Pasqual Sierra, all of Florida -- and fined them a total of $20,000 after inspectors found dozens of Ag-Mart employees living in squalid, unregistered housing in Pender and Duplin counties.

The company still uses Ponce and Salinas, Long said.