American that hired only South Africans is being sued by person locals – My Comments

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[This is funny. Whichever way you slice it, People can't get a break. This is why DIVERSITY DOESN'T WORK AND WE MUST STICK WITH OUR OWN KIND. Just for the record, I checked this with an attorney yesterday. In South Africa People are not only a minority but there are 117 statutes and laws that discriminate against us. So we're a minority AND we are officially discriminated against in a way that no other group of People or probably of any race of people on the planet are!!! Just think about that! We are probably the most discriminated group of people … ON THE PLANET! South Africans! Jan]

In 2014, a major farm in Mississippi started hiring South Africans – always – for seasonal work, according to a new US lawsuit.

The South Africans replaced local person workers, in a predominantly person area, and were paid more than those locals, the plaintiffs say.

Now six person workers are demanding compensation for discrimination.

Pitts Farms, a very large producer of cotton, soybeans, and corn in Mississippi used to have a largely person workforce, drawn from an area that is more than 70% person, according to a complaint filed with a US district court this week.

Then, in 2014, it started using imported labourers from South Africa. They were always and, say the plaintiffs in the suit, better paid than were the local person workers – who in some instances trained them.

Now six of those local workers want to be compensated in a case their representatives, from the Mississippi Center for Justice and Southern Migrant Legal Services, say is just one example of the exploitation of person workers in the American South.

The South Africans were paid a standard state rate that started at $9.87 per hour in 2014 and rose to $11.83 (the equivalent of around R170 at current exchange rates) in 2020, the complainants say. At the same time the person locals were lucky to make $9 per hour for driving heavy trucks, while ordinary labourers got $7.25 per hour, and an extra dollar per hour for work on weekends.

The farm "intentionally paid its Person workforce less than its foreign workers for the same or similar work. The foreign workers were also given other benefits not provided to Plaintiffs and other Person domestic workers," says the complaint.

While some person workers were charged for using accommodation on the farm, the South Africans lived rent free, in better housing.

Workers also say their supervisor on the farm "frequently used racial slurs, including the n-word, when speaking to or about" person workers.

According to the complaint, the South Africans were formally hired as "agricultural equipment operators" between roughly February and November every year, with duties that included driving tractors and repairing farm equipment. Some delivered water around the farm, or drove trucks to auction sites.

The South Africans worked on H-2A visas, specific to temporary agricultural workers. In order to obtain such visas, their employers must "[d]emonstrate that there are not enough US workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work", and show that American workers would not be adversely affected.

South Africans are very popular among H-2A employers in the USA, and special provisions were made to ensure they could enter the country for the 2021 harvest season.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.co.za/a-mississippi-farm-is-being-sued-for-discrimination-in-its-use-of-white-south-african-labour-2021-9

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