Over the course of four years of litigation, farmworker labor union Familias Unidas por la Justicia, AFL-CIO, and union member Ramon Torres Hernandez, won important victories to protect the wages that they earn harvesting crops.
The farmworkers successfully challenged the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)’s practice of unlawfully approving agricultural employment contracts that would have allowed employers to pay workers substantially less than the legally required wage. Depending on the crop, the unlawfully approved rates would have reduced workers’ pay by 25% to more than 130%. During the 4-year span of the case, the workers successfully stopped the unlawful wage rates from taking effect. Their case protected millions of dollars in wages and reinforced DOL’s responsibility to safeguard—not undermine—the wages and working conditions of farmworkers.
For farmworkers already navigating low wages, unstable employment, and rising costs, those losses would have meant less money for rent, groceries, transportation, and their families’ other basic needs. Protecting wages through this litigation helped ensure that farmworkers would have more money to pay for basic necessities.
The case also demonstrated why workers must be able to challenge government agencies when those agencies fail to carry out their legal obligations. Federal protections mean little when workers do not have the resources, representation, or power to enforce them.
The latest ruling in the case concerns the attorneys’ fees awarded for that work. After a lower court significantly reduced the requested fees, Columbia Legal Services appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision, recognizing the significance of the workers’ success and concluding that the lower court had not adequately accounted for what the litigation accomplished.
As the Ninth Circuit explained, the case’s outcomes “protected millions of dollars in wages for farmworkers.”
“This case was always about workers receiving the wages they were legally entitled to earn and ensuring that the Department of Labor fulfilled its obligation to protect them,” said Hannah Woerner, an attorney with Columbia Legal Services who represented the farmworkers. “The Ninth Circuit’s decision recognizes the significance of what the workers achieved. Attorneys’ fees also make it possible for organizations like CLS to continue representing communities that would otherwise be unable to challenge powerful employers and government institutions.”
The Ninth Circuit sent the case back to the lower court to recalculate and increase the fee award. The final amount has not yet been determined.
Behind every long-term legal victory are supporters who believe that justice should not depend on income or power. Donor contributions help sustain the years of advocacy often required to protect workers’ rights, ensuring communities have a voice when challenging unlawful actions by employers and government agencies.
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