Migrant Legal Aid, Inc.

Migrant Legal Aid has sued Monsanto in a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of migrants alleging years of wage theft.  We need a  Watchdog Supervisor and assistant, to level the playing field and protect workers from future wage theft and exploitation.  Corn detasselers suffer injuries, exhaustion, and even death.

Our Watchdog personnel will perform outreach and education to the detasseling workers, monitor conditions, and help stop  wage theft and abuses. We have seen how supervisors leave workers guessing about their pay and number of acres detasseled. You can read the full lawsuit here Detasseling is removing corn tassels --the male part--to create ‘female’ rows that produce hybrid seed used for making high fructose corn syrup, field corn or ethanol. Detasseling is harsh work.  From freezing wet conditions in morning to scorching hot temperatures in the afternoon.  Workers face health threats of corn rash, poison ivy, sunburn, cuts, dehydration, and heat stroke.  

Michigan Fair Food Project  is a project of Migrant Legal Aid, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  In our state, where 44 crops are hand-harvested, we've helped migrants with wage theft, labor trafficking, indentured servitude, child labor, squalid housing, dangerous working conditions, retaliation, and violence. Michigan Bar Journal Story