MS firms settle worker lawsuits

JACKSON, Miss. - Two Mississippi Delta agriculture businesses, both located in Sunflower County about 100 miles NW of Jackson, and 13 Black farm workers have settled the workers' lawsuits over claims the farms hired white laborers from South Africa and paid them more than the local Black workers for the same type of work. Federal court records show the two lawsuits were settled in December. Terms were not disclosed. This form of discrimination is a recent manifestation of the age-old problem of exploitation of Black labor in America and particularly in the Delta,” Rob McDuff of the Mississippi Center for Justice, an attorney for one group of workers, said in a news release Jan. 5. Southern Migrant Legal Services and the Mississippi Center for Justice filed one of the lawsuits in September 2021 against Pitts Farms Partnership, which grows cotton, soybean and corn. The second lawsuit was filed in April against catfish grower, Harris Russell Farms. Amal Bouhabib, a Southern Migrant Legal Services attorney who also represented workers, said more suits will be coming against those who do not pay fair wages to the local workers." Tim Threadgill, an attorney for Pitts Farms, said Jan. 6 that the business was "glad to have reached a mutual settlement" instead of going through expensive litigation. Pitt Farms also denied liability. Robert Warrington, an attorney for Harris Russell Farms declined comment. The lawsuit claimed Pitts Farms used a placement firm to bring in white South Africans seasonal labor from 2014-20 and that the farm did not make the same effort to recruit U.S. workers. The federal H-2A program allows U.S. farmers to hire foreign workers when no U.S. workers are available but does not allow farmers to pay American workers less than the foreign workers, Bouhabib said. (The AP 01/09/23) Farms settle suits on using immigrants over Black US workers | Nation & World | meridianstar.com