Lawsuit Accuses Landscaping Companies of Slavery

[Pisces_2010]

Former workers' lawsuit accuses landscaping companies of slavery:

4:08 AM, Mar. 25, 2011

Written by Brian Haas

Fifteen employees of two Tennessee landscaping companies have sued their former employers, accusing them of human trafficking, slavery and other violations.

Nashville attorney Charles Yezbak filed the suit Thursday on behalf of Mexican nationals working for Vanderbilt Landscaping and Onesource Landscape & Golf Services in 2009 and 2010. The workers were all brought in on worker visas to labor at two companies run by Larry Vanderbilt Sr. and Joffrey Vanderbilt.

The business is not affiliated with Vanderbilt University.

The complaint arose in August 2010, when Hilario Jimenez said he escaped from a trailer in Mason, Tenn., at a labor camp run by Vanderbilt Landscaping. He said he was underpaid, held hostage by the withholding of his passport and was under constant surveillance while living in squalid housing.

Thursday's lawsuit adds a host of new allegations. Additional workers accused the company of displaying firearms in threatening manners, threatening to deport workers who complained about poor working conditions and failing to pay them according to their work contracts.

The Vanderbilts have not responded to the suit. They have previously denied treating the employees improperly, and two employees have said that they were treated well while working for them.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110 ... rnment%20-%

[Pisces_2010]

Tennessee Landscaping Business Sued by Mexican Workers Claiming Forced Labor:

Published March 25, 2011

Fox News Latino

Mexican guest workers are claiming that a landscaping company subjected them to constant surveillance, threats, forced labor, and human trafficking, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Nashville.

The suit claims managers with Vanderbilt Landscaping, LLC, subjected foreigners working under the nation's H-2B visa program to constant surveillance and threats.

A message left late on Thursday for Vanderbilt Landscaping managers was not immediately returned.

According to the lawsuit, workers arriving from Mexico had their passports and visas confiscated and were forced to live in company housing where they were under surveillance. Managers sometimes went armed and one told workers that if they left the camp without permission they would be turned over to immigration authorities, according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.

The workers, who mowed the medians of Tennessee highways and interstates and picked up trash, claim housing conditions were inhumane and working conditions were exploitative, the court papers indicated.The suit also claims Vanderbilt Landscaping subjected one worker to false imprisonment by forcing him to get on a bus back to Mexico after it was discovered he had complained about his treatment.

Related Links
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Rising Number of Auto "Legalizations" as Mexicans Return Home The suit comes on the heels of proposed changes to the H-2B visa program, which allows companies to hire temporary foreign workers after certifying that they can find no American workers to take the jobs.

The complaints of the Tennessee workers echo those of several other groups of guest workers who have sued employers in recent years.

The New Orleans-based nonprofit Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity is among those that have lobbied for changes to the H-2B program. The 14 plaintiffs, from the town of Ruiz in Nayarit, Mexico, are identified as members of that group.

One plaintiff, Hilario Razura Jimenez, has said he had to borrow money to come to work in the U.S. in 2009 and did not earn enough to pay back what he had borrowed, according to the suit. With interest, he owed the Mexican currency equivalent of about $2,000 from that trip when he came to the U.S. in May 2010. And he had to borrow even more money to make the second trip.

"Many people don't complain because they'll be fired, and they can't go back to Mexico because they owe lots of money in Mexico," he said.

The Alliance filed complaints in August against Vanderbilt Landscaping with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, the Labor Department and the Justice Department.

Labor's Wage and Hour Division has levied an $18,000 fine against Vanderbilt Landscaping for failing to properly recruit U.S. workers, placing foreign workers outside the area of intended employment and failing to accurately state the dates of temporary need, reasons for the temporary need and number of workers requested.

The company has appealed the fine.

The Tennessee Occupational Health and Safety Administration fined the company $4,700 for violations relating to equipment safety and crowded, unsafe company housing.

According to the lawsuit, the company had more than $2 million in state contracts with the Tennessee Department of Transportation since 2009.

www.latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011 ... ssee-lan...

[Pisces_2010]

Mexican guest workers are claiming that a landscaping company subjected them to constant surveillance, threats, forced labor, and human trafficking, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Nashville.

Utah will deal with many issues as listed above with the State guest workers program.

[NoBueno]

The suit comes on the heels of proposed changes to the H-2B visa program, which allows companies to hire temporary foreign workers after certifying that they can find no American workers to take the jobs.

Another scam....

[Judy]

These H1b and H2b visa work programs along with visa lottery and issuance of most of the 1.1 million a year in green cards need to grind to a halt. If we need our medians mowed, then Americans need to be hired to mow them. If we need restaurant workers, then Americans need to be hired to work in our restaurants. If we need nurses and doctors, then Americans need to be hired to work in our hospitals and medical professions.

Wake Up! We have to stop this nonsense until every American is employed and every American student who wants to go to college has a seat with a job to go with it after graduation.

[NoBueno]

These H1b and H2b visa work programs along with visa lottery and issuance of most of the 1.1 million a year in green cards need to grind to a halt. If we need our medians mowed, then Americans need to be hired to mow them. If we need restaurant workers, then Americans need to be hired to work in our restaurants. If we need nurses and doctors, then Americans need to be hired to work in our hospitals and medical professions.

Wake Up! We have to stop this nonsense until every American is employed and every American student who wants to go to college has a seat with a job to go with it after graduation.

Well said Judy! Can you believe we are bringing in workers ( God only knows how many) under H1b and H2b visas in order to mow lawns! Our government cannot bring the third-world in fast enough to this country. We now have to bring in people to work as landscapers! Once here, they become real familiar with our court system and the money to be made.

Where does the insanity end?

[miguelina]

The suit comes on the heels of proposed changes to the H-2B visa program, which allows companies to hire temporary foreign workers after certifying that they can find no American workers to take the jobs.

Wait...where are all the illegal aliens who are supposed to be working these jobs? You know, the jobs Americans "won't do???
Looks like illegal aliens don't want labor work, they want "easier" work..hmmm?

We have over 20 million illegals in this country and they have to import MORE foreign workers??

Something does not add up. Illegal aliens must be deported. Once they are all deported, I can at least understand bringing in "guest" workers (without their families) and guarantee they go home when work is done. Make them collect their final wages in their own countries.

"Many people don't complain because they'll be fired, and they can't go back to Mexico because they owe lots of money in Mexico," he said.

So they skip out of repaying their loans and stay here illegally?

[marquis]

here's an unsual thought miguelina ....

it COULD be that the owners actually obey the laws ... maybe they put an add in the local paper/interent , and no job applicants who were legally allowed to work in the country showed up to be employed ...

maybe they actually turned down illegal immgrants because they were following the law ... if that's true that would be so very rare ..