EUGENE, Ore. — Two tree farm workers who are indigenous people from southern Mexico have sued their Oregon employer, alleging that their Mexican supervisor discriminated against them with verbal abuse and sexual harassment. “This case is unusual in highlighting the vulnerabilities of a minority-within-a-minority, the indigenous Mixtec population,” said William R. Tamayo, the regional attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in San Francisco, which filed the complaint in federal court in Eugene on the workers’ behalf.
EEOC attorney May Che said discrimination in Mexico against indigenous people is common. The language and culture of the indigenous people predates the Spanish conquest by hundreds of years.
The complaint seeks monetary damages, training on anti-discrimination laws at Holiday Specialtrees tree farm in Woodburn, and information to prevent future discrimination.
Holiday Specialtrees’ website says the company farms 2,200 acres with 3 million Christmas trees in production. It ships trees throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and overseas.
The company declined to comment on the lawsuit, The Oregonian reported.
According to the EEOC complaint, the supervisor at the tree farm allegedly assaulted one of the employees, groped him several times and made degrading comments. The supervisor also is accused of forbidding them to use their native language because he said it sounded ugly.
The behavior escalated to threats of physical violence and sexual harassment, Che said, and the workers alleged that the company did nothing to stop the abuse.
Che promised the EEOC would aggressively go after employers who fail to take appropriate action against harassment, especially where workers are so susceptible to attack.
Luis Lucero of the EEOC’s Seattle field office, which is overseeing the case, said Holiday Specialtrees failed to conduct an adequate investigation and basically swept the issue under the rug.
“Business-savvy employers should have policies in place for dealing with incidents like this, or risk being in violation of federal laws,” Lucero said.
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