Call it ‘slavery.’ Call it ‘forced labor.’ A Florida man did it to people who pick melons
Summary
Date Reported: 12 Feb 2023
Location: United States of America
Companies
Sam's Club (part of Walmart) - Buyer , Walmart - Buyer , Schnucks - Buyer , Cardinal Farms - Supplier , Wonning Melons - Supplier , Carlton Farms - Supplier , Kroger - Buyer , Los Villatoros Harvesting - EmployerAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Mexico , Agriculture & livestock , Gender not reported , Documented migrants )Issues
Forced Labour & Modern Slavery , Recruitment Fees , Wage Theft , Precarious/Unsuitable Living Conditions , IntimidationResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Media; Resource Centre
Story containing response: (Find out more)
External link to response: (Find out more)
Action taken: Carlton Farms told the Miami Herald they had not received "notice of any legal violations involving workers from LVH". The Resource Centre was unable to find contact information for Cardinal Farms or Wonning Melons to invite them to respond. None of the four US supermarkets named as receiving melons harvested by exploited LVH workers responded to a request for comment from the Resource Centre. In March 2023, a protest march was organised by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to highlight widespread conditions of exploitation in the US agricultural sector and pressure supermarkets to join the Fair Food Program.
Source type: News outlet
If you bought melons sold at Kroger, Schnucks, Walmart, its big box club offspring, Sam’s Club or other chains, they might’ve been harvested or packed by H-2A visa workers provided by Los Villatoros Harvesting, a Bartow company run by Bladimir Moreno. If they were, that fruit reached your table via victims of federal RICO and slavery law violations.
Moreno, 56, violated federal RICO and slavery laws in getting those workers from Mexico to the United States, then abusing them once they were here...
Labor said LVH workers harvested watermelons for Wachula’s Carlton Farms, Penny Carlton, James Carlton and Scott Carlton’s company. Sun Fresh Farms, whose officers are Penny and James Carlton, handles the retail side of the business. Those watermelons, Labor said, were sold by Walmart and Kroger. In an email to the Miami Herald, James Carlton said Carlton Farms received no notice of any legal violations involving workers from LVH...
The melons packed in the Hoosier State by LVH workers for Oaktown, Indiana’s Cardinal Farms and Vincennes’ Wonning Melons were sold by a distributor to chains that included Kroger, Schnucks and Sam’s Club. Meanwhile, the workers’ housing barely merited the word. Moreno’s guilty plea said he knew about six workers in one hotel/motel room and 75 workers in a warehouse. Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigators found each worker didn’t have a bed to himself and, in one location, there were 44 workers in 10 rooms...
Also, Moreno himself “repeatedly and consistently” told the workers they would be deported or arrested if they didn’t keep working or tried to escape.” When investigators came around, Moreno tried to intimidate the workers into silence...
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