Posted by denised in And we thought we had it bad. The EEOC has filed a case against Willamette Tree Wholesale, operator of 140 acres of retail nursery farmland near Molalla. The company allegedly ignored reports of sexual harassment and rape, and then retaliated against the workers who filed the reports. One 38 year old female was reportedly taken to remote areas of the property by the company foreman and raped repeatedly over a period of several months. According to the EEOC, the investigation found that predatory sexual behavior at the nursery was rampant, “expected…and a condition of employment.”
What makes this case even more shocking are claims that the problem is a national one. Migrant workers are largely undocumented individuals who, because they’re in the country illegally, underreport crimes committed against them. EEOC lawyer William R. Tamayo says workers refer to fields in California as fields of “calzon,” or “panties” and in Florida as “The Green Motel.” According to them, sexual harassment is par for the course for farm workers and complaints are the exception and not the rule.
While individuals who are in this country illegally are committing a crime, the people committing crimes against them are no less criminal. They’re just citizen criminals. And, the sexual harassment, rape and mistreatment of migrant workers will continue as long as the majority of the workers are here illegally. It’s a vicious, sad and ironic cycle that in being here illegally, the victims of these crimes don’t have access to one of the basic rights of American citizenship and that’s the right of protection.
The topic of how to deal with illegal immigration can be debated until the cows come home. But what isn’t up for debate is that employees, regardless of their citizenship, should not be subject to working conditions that include rape and torture. By hiring undocumented workers, companies like Willamette compound their criminal activities by adding sexual assault to their list of crimes. Tamayo says he hopes the “lawsuit will send notice to employers in [the] industry to stop predatory sexual behavior and abuses of supervisor power.” We hope so, but the cynic in us believes that as long as there are victims too afraid to report abuse, there will be employers like Willamette looking to take advantage of them. Source: Oregon AP
