Blueberry Extortion Ruled Illegal

The US Department of Labor investigates minimum wage violations, and rightly so, but they have a tool called the "Hot Goods Order" which they used in 2012 against three Oregon Blueberry farm operations.  The tool was employed in the 1930's to shut down garment sweat shops, but it is a deadly weapon when used on perishable crops, and a federal judge agreed it was overreach in those circumstances in a suit brought by Pan-American Berry Growers and B&G Ditchen.

Attorney Tim Bernaseck represents both companies. He says his clients were faced with a choice: admit guilt, waive their right to an appeal and pay more than $200,000 in fines and back wages or let millions of dollars worth of berries rot.
Bernaseck said, “I mean it’s really unbelievable that they did this and thought that it was ok to do that. It’s just not the way that our government works, or should work. And we’re just thankful that the judge called them on it.”
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Thomas Coffin wrote the orders unfairly stacked the deck against the farms. The department did not respond to a request for comment. The government has 14 days to appeal.

Oregons' congressmen and State officials also blasted the DOL choice of enforcement.

A retired federal Wage and Hour Division investigator who reviewed two of the cases for an attorney representing the farmers said the agency's action was hasty and alarmingly incomplete.

"They put a noose around the neck of these farmers right off. That is not what Wage and Hour is about," said Manuel Lopez of Eugene, who was a labor investigator for 27 years.

Oregon officials are furious. The state's labor commissioner, agriculture director and most of the state's congressional delegation asked the labor department to explain its action.

Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian was the most direct. In an Aug. 15 letter to the federal agency, he said seizing perishable crops probably violates the constitutional search and seizure and due process rights of farmers "who have yet to be found guilty of anything."  In an Aug. 17 letter, the congressional delegation said the federal Department of Labor "may have abandoned normal due process mechanisms." Use of a "hot goods" order is reserved for cases in which farm labor violations are "willful, egregious and/or repeated," the letter said.

Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley signed the letter, as did representatives Kurt Schrader, Peter DeFazio, Greg Walden and Suzanne Bonamici.