Discrimination case yields two acquittals

Sat., March 29, 2008

Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

YAKIMA – A federal judge has cleared two Yakima Valley growers of liability in a racial discrimination case filed by local Latino workers who claimed they were displaced by laborers brought in from Thailand.

However, U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley upheld a jury’s verdict from September that found the labor contractor who brought in the workers did discriminate against them.

The farmworkers contend that Global Horizons Inc. violated the Farm Labor Contractors Act by failing to provide jobs promised to local workers. They also said the company discriminated against local workers based on race by failing to hire them or by firing them and replacing them with workers brought from Thailand under the federal H-2A guest-worker program in 2004.

A jury agreed, awarding $317,000 in damages for discriminating against workers and violating federal labor laws. Global Horizons, based in Los Angeles, sought a jury trial, while the two growers – Green Acre Farms of Harrah and Valley Fruit of Wapato – had their case heard directly by Whaley.

Whaley ruled in their favor Thursday but upheld the jury ruling against Global Horizons.

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