Posted on Aug 14, 2022
Legal aid groups in Oregon get state funds to recover stolen wages for cannabis farm workers
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Oregon state lawmakers allocated $6 million to community groups this year to help with what they’ve called a humanitarian crisis for workers in the state’s cannabis industry.
In the basement of a Medford church, a group of migrant farm workers gather, all of them coming from different parts of Mexico in search of better paying jobs.
For the last few years, Jesus found work seasonally on marijuana farms. (He chose not to share his last name because of his immigration status).
But Jesus says he and many other workers stopped working at these farms after losing out on the wages they were promised last year.
“There was just a little bit of marijuana left and they were about to bring out the payment but then the bosses, the heads arrived,” he says. “They had a little meeting and all the owner’s stuff disappeared that day. I saw after that they didn’t give us nothing, nothing.”
Jesus says he lost $18,000 last year, all wages never paid by the people who hired him.
He’s not the only one. Many other migrant workers lost out on thousands of dollars in wages last year alone.
In the basement of a Medford church, a group of migrant farm workers gather, all of them coming from different parts of Mexico in search of better paying jobs.
For the last few years, Jesus found work seasonally on marijuana farms. (He chose not to share his last name because of his immigration status).
But Jesus says he and many other workers stopped working at these farms after losing out on the wages they were promised last year.
“There was just a little bit of marijuana left and they were about to bring out the payment but then the bosses, the heads arrived,” he says. “They had a little meeting and all the owner’s stuff disappeared that day. I saw after that they didn’t give us nothing, nothing.”
Jesus says he lost $18,000 last year, all wages never paid by the people who hired him.
He’s not the only one. Many other migrant workers lost out on thousands of dollars in wages last year alone.
Legal aid groups in Oregon get state funds to recover stolen wages for cannabis farm workers
Posted from opb.org
Marijuana
Farming
Agriculture
Mexico
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
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The nature of the industry and the fact they know they have illegal workers leaves these people wide open to the type of fraud reported, such a shame, but these people were almost all involved with the Illegal end of the industry.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The state funding is generous in its timeline. These organizations have through 2025 to spend it all, giving them time to build out more programming, education, and outreach to help farm workers recover.
The programming from this funding is expected to be fully up and running by fall, 2022. Spencer-Scheurich says Northwest Workers Justice Project is currently hiring a paralegal to travel to Southern Oregon to help with this influx of wage claims. They’re hoping to help as many people as possible who work in cannabis cultivation.
“Operations are cycling through a lot of workers. Because if they’re not paying, eventually workers tend to find a way to escape or leave if they’re not getting paid,” Spencer-Scheurich says. “We believe it to be a much bigger problem than we can currently see.”
..."The state funding is generous in its timeline. These organizations have through 2025 to spend it all, giving them time to build out more programming, education, and outreach to help farm workers recover.
The programming from this funding is expected to be fully up and running by fall, 2022. Spencer-Scheurich says Northwest Workers Justice Project is currently hiring a paralegal to travel to Southern Oregon to help with this influx of wage claims. They’re hoping to help as many people as possible who work in cannabis cultivation.
“Operations are cycling through a lot of workers. Because if they’re not paying, eventually workers tend to find a way to escape or leave if they’re not getting paid,” Spencer-Scheurich says. “We believe it to be a much bigger problem than we can currently see.”
(0)
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