DETROIT — A jury has awarded more than $500,000 to five men from Guatemala who said they were exploited and underpaid by a labor contractor that brought them to Michigan to plant and harvest fruit and vegetables.
Much of the verdict last week — $450,000 — was in the form of punitive damages against Purpose Point Harvesting for violating an antitrafficking law.
Interpreters translated Spanish to English as the five men testified in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. They recalled three seasons as laborers who handled asparagus, apples, cherries and other crops in Oceana and Newaygo counties, from 2017-19.
They sometimes worked 100 hours a week but never got paid for more than 60, wore headlights to pick asparagus after midnight and slept on couches, attorney Teresa Hendricks said Wednesday.
“They were told if they didn’t like it, it was better than what they could earn in Guatemala,” she said.
“They’re some of the bravest men I know,” Hendricks added. “They had to come to this country to stand up for their values and speak the truth in a strange courtroom, in a town they’re not familiar with, in front of a jury and lay it out bare.”
An attorney for Purpose Point said other workers contradicted the claims.
“Ultimately the jury makes a decision based on the facts they’re allowed to see. We still deny the allegations and look forward to the appeals,” Robert Alvarez said.
The men entered the U.S. under a federal program, known as H-2A, that allows farms to use foreign labor if they can’t find domestic workers. Purpose Point serves as a middleman, recruiting people to fill jobs at Michigan farms and handling payroll.
The head of the company is a native of the Malacatán area in Guatemala, the workers’ same home region, Hendricks said.
She said it’s difficult to find foreign farmworkers who are willing to speak up about wages and working conditions. Hendricks recalled meeting one of the men in a cornfield late at night.
“The retaliation of being deported early, losing their jobs and visas — those were all real fears,” she said.