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Harvest interrupted when workers discovered camping in orchard
| Friday, May 9 2008 7:41 PM
Last Updated: Monday, May 12 2008 7:37 AM
The cherry harvest lurched to a stop Friday morning west of Shafter after the United Farm Workers said men, women and teenagers were camping in the orchards where they work.
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The land where the Romeros long to work is largely owned by an offshoot of Stemilt’s owner along with another Washington state businessman, property records show.
Kyle & Brad LLC owns almost 360 acres at that intersection.
Kyle D. Mathison, Stemilt’s owner and partner — and son of company founder Tom Mathison — is a managing member of Kyle & Brad LLC, signature pages of loan documents and other papers on file at the Kern County Recorder’s office show.
The other managing member is Bradley F. Selland, president of Selland Construction Inc.. The Wenatchee-headquartered construction company operates in the western United States and Hawaii, its Web site says.
The limited liability company lists Wenatchee addresses belonging to Stemilt Growers and Selland Construction in various business filings with the California Secretary of State.
Kyle & Brad LLC bought the acreage, along with a 156-acre parcel to the north at the southwest corner of Jumper and Kimberlina Road, in summer 2003 for $5.5 million, county records show.
A 114-acre patch of the orchard along Lerdo is owned by Britz Ag Finance Co. Inc., a Fresno company whose president is David Britz and chief finance officer is Robert Glassman, signature pages of loan documents show. The Britz property is surrounded by Kyle & Brad acreage.
The cherry trees themselves are owned by a Lodi man, Marvin Nies, lease and licensing agreements show. Kyle & Brad LLC rents the trees from Nies.
Men were busy posting “no trespassing” signs around the orchard’s edges Friday.
Kern cherries were valued at $20 million in 2006, according to the Kern County Department of Agriculture’s most recent crop report.
In March, there were 31,500 farm jobs in Kern County — 12 percent of the total workforce, according to the state Employment Development Department.
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"This is our lives," Jesus Romero said about harvesting cherries in a farm west of Shafter where he said he can earn as much as $120 in a day. He and Jesus Romero, left, and Jose Angel Romero spoke for a group of about 60 people gathered to see when they would work again harvesting cherries and where they would stay. Many of the group had been living under the trees on the property until the living conditions were reported in the media. "We want to sleep, rest, and eat," said Jose Angel Romero, as he waited to see if they would have a place to stay. "We just want to know where we can stay, we came to work," he said in Spanish.
Jesus Romero says his hands are the hands of a worker. He says he can earn as much as $120 a day doing contract work harvesting cherries on a farm west of Shafter.
Men wait on farm property to see when they will work again and where they will stay in this May 9 photo.
The labor union learned more than 100 fruit pickers were bathing in drainage ditches and sleeping outdoors Thursday northwest of Lerdo Highway and Jumper Avenue, Delano organizer Armando Elenes said. Many traveled from Wenatchee, Wash., at the request of a company they had worked for in the past, Stemilt Growers Inc., he said.
“The company foreman even gave them a card with instructions on how to get here from Washington,” Elenes said.
Some workers were told they would have housing, or would be allowed to sleep in the orchard, he said.
A spokesman for the privately held fruit growing and packing company denied Stemilt paid wages for the workers or otherwise held responsibility for their housing.
“Stemilt has no connection with the orchard at all,” Washington-based spokesman Roger Pepperl said.
But Kern County property records show the land where rows of cherry trees grow is owned by a limited liability company formed by Kyle D. Mathison, a Stemilt owner and partner.
Neither state, federal nor local agencies claimed much responsibility for monitoring the situation. County Environmental Health Services sent investigators.
Workers were camping in an adjacent almond orchard owned by another farmer, but had left or were packing up Friday morning, said environmental health division chief Guy Shaw.
About 60 pickers who had gathered beneath a shade tree in the cherry orchard’s center around 11 a.m. shouted they wanted to return to work in peace.
“See these hands?” asked Jesus Romero, 42, as he held his battered skin out for inspection. “It means a good worker.”
He can earn around $120 a day picking cherries by hand, he said.
Romero arrived Monday, along with his cousin, Juan Manuel Romero, 42, from Washington, they said.
“We have water, everything here,” Juan Manuel Romero said in Spanish. “We want to stay here. We don’t have money to rent an apartment.”
The UFW wanted Stemilt to provide adequate housing for the workers, but said the company kicked the workers off the land instead, Elenes said. The union was working to find housing for them.
They also filed notice with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to get access to the workers during their breaks, agency spokeswoman Pauline Alvarez said from Visalia.
Many workers in the orchard told UFW officials they had legal papers to reside and work in the country, Elenes said.
Whether they had permission to sleep there is less clear.
“I don’t know if anyone told (workers) they could stay (in the orchard),” Shaw, the environmental health official, said.
Environmental health regulates employee housing, but this situation didn’t fit the bill, he said. An orchard representative showed environmental health inspectors contracts stating no housing was to be provided to workers, he said.
Few farmers do.
Just 13 of the 104 permitted, employer-sponsored labor camps that dotted the county in the ’70s and early ’80s remain, Shaw said.
“The farmers just said, look, it’s way too expensive, we can’t afford to do this,” he said.
Three cruisers from the Sheriff’s Department circled the fruit trees Friday, responding to a call from a project manager concerned about angry workers, Senior Deputy Don Wiggins said.
The deputies found no trouble.
The Romero cousins just wanted to return to work Monday.
“Pure work,” Juan Manuel Romero said.