Lawsuit Claims Mississippi Favored White Foreign Workers Over Black Local Workers

A Mississippi farm is in the middle of a lawsuit after six Black workers alleged they were paid lower wages than white workers who were hired on through the work visa H-2A program.

The lawsuit filed by the Mississippi Center for Justice explains that the farm, Pitts Farm Partnership, violated the regulations of the foreign worker visa. The visa, which requires that both U.S. workers and foreign workers be treated equally, was not respected because of the wage discrepancy and discrimination toward the Black American workers.

The Center for Justice explained in a statement that in recent years, “Pitts Farms recruited and hired only white farmworkers from South Africa. In 2020, Pitts Farms laid off most of the plaintiffs while it recruited more white H-2A visa workers than ever.” The complaint also highlights the discrimination in the hiring practice by explaining that only white South African workers were hired when the country as a whole is home to over 80% Black people.

According to the lawsuit, the farm started bringing in white workers from South Africa in 2014. The workers were hired on for seasonal work. However, the lawsuit explains that the farm did not put in the necessary effort to hire willing local workers before they outsourced the work to foreign candidates.

The lawsuit details four plaintiffs who did agricultural farm work for Pitts Farm between February and November. They received a payment of $7.25 per hour, the minimum wage. On weekends, they got paid a higher wage at $8.25.

The two other plaintiffs, Stacy Griffin and James Simpson, worked on the farm driving trucks during the harvest season. They typically worked from late July through to August or November. According to the lawsuit, these two plaintiffs were paid an hourly wage of $9.00 an hour starting in 2018. When it came to the white South African workers, the farm started them off with a wage of $9.87 an hour, beginning in 2014. Since then, their hourly wage increased nearly every year until it reached $11.83 an hour last year.

In addition to the wage discrepancy, the lawsuit also alleges that the Black farmworkers endured racial slurs from the white farmworkers. According to the lawsuit, Pitts Farms hired a white supervisor who had the authority to tell workers what their duties were, as well as hire and fire them. “Occasionally, the supervisor used racial slurs,” the lawsuit details. “Pitts Farms was informed about the supervisor’s use of racial slurs and did nothing.”

Ty Pinkins, a lawyer from the Mississippi Center for Justice representing the Black workers, explains that “it is unacceptable and unlawful” for locals to be passed up for job opportunities in favor of foreign workers, especially during a time when high unemployment rates were rampant through the Mississippi Delta.

According to Pinkins, the H-2A program often gets abused to deny American workers job opportunities that are instead passed on to foreign workers. Pinkins highlights how this issue is especially rampant in the south where Blacks have had a history of being mistreated. “The case also reflects our nation’s deep, ugly history of exploiting Black labor. For too long, powerful businesses have abused Black Americans for profit,” Pinkins shared with The Associated Press.

The men are seeking unspecified damages in their lawsuit, including damages that resulted in monies lost due to the unequal pay scale.