Fourteen Black farmworkers filed a lawsuit in a federal court in September against a farm in the Mississippi Delta, alleging that it paid them lower wages and offered them fewer hours than foreign workers brought in under the federal government’s H-2A visa program.
Those farmworkers, clients of Southern Migrant Legal Services and Mississippi Center for Justice, have now settled the case against Noble Fish Farms. This business raises catfish and grows soybeans and corn in Sunflower County, Mississippi.
According to the lawsuit, Nobile Fish Farms obtained visas for foreign workers by falsely claiming to the U.S. Department of Labor they would pay local workers as much as any foreign workers and offer employment to local workers first.
The lawsuit alleged that the plaintiffs would be laid off or have their hours reduced upon the arrival of the H-2A workers and paid less than the H-2A workers for their hours worked.
Nobile Fish Farms denied the allegations and denied any liability to the plaintiffs.
The Texas RioGrande Legal Aid announced the settlement today but has kept the amount confidential. Lawyers for the farmworkers confirmed the case was settled on mutually agreeable terms.
“The H-2A program requires employers first to try to recruit and hire local workers, but we continue to hear from U.S. workers who report being pushed out of their jobs and replaced with guest workers. We will continue to investigate those claims and bring legal action when warranted,” said Hannah Wolf, an attorney with SMLS who represented the workers.
“We hope our legal efforts will make clear to farmers in the Delta, and across the U.S., that they need to pay fair wages to local workers,” added Rob McDuff, a lawyer for MCJ.
This is the third case that SMLS and MCJ have filed against farms in the Delta on behalf of Black farmworkers seeking compensation for wage and hour discrimination. Each of those cases was settled on mutually agreeable terms. In addition, the two organizations have settled claims for workers against five other farms without filing suit.