Mexican workers to receive settlement from U.S. egg company

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Mexican workers to receive settlement from U.S. egg company

Cubria, The News Staff - 7/2/2002

WASHINGTON - As many as 1,700 Hispanic workers could receive shares of the

settlement in the DeCoster Egg Farms discrimination lawsuit, whether or not they

were working there legally at the time, Mexican Embassy officials said here

Monday.

" Their (the plaintiffs) migratory status has nothing to do with their ability to

collect compensation, " said Rico, the embassy's secretary of political

affairs.

The Mexican government and a group of 14 Mexican workers filed the 1998 suit

against the Maine company, accusing the farm of racial discrimination in its

treatment of Hispanic workers.

The 3.2 million-dollar settlement, which applies to all Hispanic immigrants who

lived or worked at DeCoster between 1988 and 1997, was reached last month.

Questions about eligibility arose as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in

March that undocumented immigrants cannot collect unpaid wages. But the decision

does not apply to the DeCoster case because it is a discrimination lawsuit, said

Ben Giuliani, executive director of the Maine Migrant Workers Advocate Group.

" The Supreme Court ruling is misread in a lot of ways, " he said. " It doesn't bar

these plaintiffs from seeking discrimination redress. "

It is unclear how many of the immigrants were undocumented at the time they

lived or worked at DeCoster. The 14 named in the suit were legal immigrants at

the time, Rico said, adding he expected most of the others were " undoubtedly

undocumented. "

Wolf, the workers' lawyer, disagreed.

" There may have been a time when many were undocumented, " she said. " But it is

my belief most, if not all, of the workers employed there in the last few years

have been documented. "

The settlement applies to all Hispanic immigrants, Wolf said. " The suit was

filed on behalf of Mexican nationals, " she said. " But the settlement ultimately

reached includes all people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan,

Dominican, Central American, South American or Latin ancestry. "

The exact number of affected workers is not known, but officials estimate

between 1,500 and 1,700 Hispanics worked at DeCoster during the 10 years in

question.

Tim O'Brien, DeCoster's lawyer, called the estimate " a very fluid number. "

Rico said he estimates 700 to 800 people will eventually lay claim to a share of

the settlement. Officials said they will embark on an aggressive publicity

campaign to reach as many of the workers as possible.

Those whose current address is known will receive information about the

settlement in the mail, O'Brien said. The parties also will run print, TV and

radio advertisements announcing the agreement. The ads will run in areas of

Mexico and the United States where many of the workers are believed to live,

including in Texas towns such as Mc and Brownsville, Wolf said.

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