On July 6th Juan Jose Ceballos, only 32 years old, died in the fields in North Carolina. Juan came to the United States under the H-2A guestworker visa and through the farm labor contractor (FLC), Gracia & Sons LLC. OSHA is currently investigating the cause of Juan’s death, yet this is not the first time that Gracia & Sons LLC have undergone investigations due to workplace conditions and treatment of farm workers.
Gracia & Sons LLC is a notorious farm labor contractor with a record of perpetuating human rights violations. Just last year, the company was forced to pay over $100,000 in back wages and was order by the Department of Labor to change workplace policies after allegations of human trafficking by H-2A workers. Three women discussed instances of physical and sexual abuse, harassment, wage theft, and the confiscation of their passports while working under the FLC. Yet even with a documented record of inhumane treatment of workers for profit, the company was still able to recruit workers from Mexico under the H-2A program this year.
We at FLOC are filled with both sorrow and rage. Over the years we have voiced our opposition to the growing number of FLCs in the agricultural industry, we have met with policymakers, held marches, conducted educational trainings, and written in-depth pieces, all with the goal of educating those in power on how farm labor contractors operate with impunity at the expense of workers. These reoccurring themes of abuse with Gracia & Sons LLC are not uncommon, but rather exemplify how the system operates.
In 2019, FLOC took on Salvador Barajas, another farm labor contractor who operated the company SBHLP Inc., a Florida based FLC that stole wages from hundreds of workers across five farms in North Carolina. The company was ordered to pay almost $500,000 in back wages and penalties in a case that involved almost 200 workers. The Department of Labor disbarred the contractor SBHLP Inc. from participating in the H-2A program for three years, but to this day workers have yet to receive any of the money owed to them, and we have discovered that Barajas operates a different FLC with his family, facing no accountability for the abuse he perpetuated. Five years ago, FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez spoke on the issue stating, “We’re making a call to get the Department of Labor to end these labor contractors from being involved in the H-2A program until they can find a meaningful way to uphold the standards and regulations in the H-2A program.” And yet a few weeks back, Juan Jose Ceballos lost his life while working under a farm labor contractor that had a record of brutality and exploiting workers but was still able to recruit workers under the Department of Labor.
There must be systematic change to the H-2A program, we can no longer allow farm labor contractors to act with impunity at the cost of workers’ lives.