Such good news! Your reporting on this has been great. The local law firm teamed with Columbia representing the farmworkers is the same one fighting Monsanto over genetically engineered wheat contamination in four states.

But my box of strawberries might cost an extra nickel next season!

Seems like the US has a whole host of temporary worker programs (with flexible stay times that can be set to the period of employment).

Temporary (Nonimmigrant) Workers

http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-stat…

Even programs for spouses and children.

With such a robust set of programs, why is there any illegal immigration at all? Why not just follow the rules? And the added benefit is that if you do follow the rules, you can demand full and equal protection under US labor laws (as this lawsuit shows).

Good going Raul! Take care.

Thanks for the important coverage, Ansel. Great pic, too. What about a photo essay on farm workers in the Skagit?

The class action lawsuit has to be certified by the judge; otherwise, it won't go forward.

@5: Lets hope it does go forward. It could, even if it fails, be a precedent setting case of marginalized farmworkers exercising their rights, putting other growers on notice. I know that Puget Community Coop (PCC) is paying attention to this case and is considering, if they havent already, not buying any more Sakuma products.

The real story is that Skagit County has just lost 400 workers that were making over $12 per hour! It's not like these workers were only making minimum wage. Sakuma Brothers may have made some mistakes, but all this lawsuit does is hurt the entire community's economy.

Oh, good, the growers' sockpuppets come out!

I am amazed at all of the drones that cannot enter a discussion without an open mind. It just seems like the same point of view being regurgitated over and over. I was hoping that bringing a new point of view to the discussion might be productive. Instead the focus remains on the "poor picker" who was unjustly treated. If you don't like the way your are being treated at work, just quit an find a new farm to pick for. There are endless job opportunities as a picker..that is why Sakuma Bros. needed to use the H2A program. The real injustice is the "poor farmer" and tactics used by the DOL to implement the Hot Goods Act. Do a little research on this topic and you will find that farmers all over Washington and Oregon are being unjustly harassed and extorted by our government.