According to an expose published last week in North Carolina’s News and Observer, entitled “Ag-Mart workers land in poor housing,” North Carolina labor officials found 30-40 workers who pick grape tomatoes for Florida-based tomato giant Ag-Mart crowded into a former nightclub building with “no hot water, no shower, and not enough beds.” The photo on the right is of a bath found in the unpermitted housing.

The story reports that the workers were placed in the housing by their labor contractors, “who not only hire and supervise Ag-Mart workers but also arrange housing.” Ag-Mart is a key supplier of grape tomatoes to McDonald’s. The story goes on to say that “many of Ag-Mart’s workers live crowded in fly- and roach-infested dwellings.” The photo below is of yet more unpermitted housing rented to Ag-Mart workers found by the News and Observer in the course of its investigation.

This is apparently not the first time that AgMart worker housing has been the focus of state investigations:

“State regulators have launched previous investigations of housing for Ag-Mart workers. State law requires that migrant housing be registered with the Labor Department. Inspectors check the housing before workers move in to assure that it meets minimal standards for plumbing, electricity and other basics.

In 2003, the Labor Department cited three labor contractors — Salvador Ponce, Sergio Salinas and Pasqual Sierra, all of Florida — and fined them a total of $20,000 after inspectors found dozens of Ag-Mart employees living in squalid, unregistered housing in Pender and Duplin counties. The company still uses Ponce and Salinas, Long said.”

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