Nativo Lopez Cries 'Racist,' Appeals Court Cries 'Defamation'

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Nativo Lopez Cries 'Racist,' Appeals Court Cries 'Defamation'
[Moxley Confidential] Split decision in Overhill Farms case has chilling free-speech implications, dissenting justice asserts
By R. SCOTT MOXLEY Wednesday, Nov 24 2010

Does an American company have the right to fire competent Latino workers who’ve taken jobs after supplying fraudulent Social Security numbers, and would it then be permissible under the First Amendment for a community activist to publicly label that company “racist”?
Laila Derakhshanian
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That isn’t a hypothetical question, but one that ignited controversy this month inside the California Court of Appeal based in Santa Ana. The case centers on labor protests against Overhill Farms Inc., a Los Angeles County-based frozen-food company that in May 2009 fired nearly one-third of its workforce, all Latinos. Company officials declared the former employees, some of whom had been employed for more than a decade and made as much as $14 per hour, “illegal aliens.”

So, it was no surprise that when more than 250 Latino workers at Overhill Farms learned they would be fired if they failed to produce valid Social Security cards, they turned to Lopez, national director of Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana. It was also no surprise that Lopez responded against the company with indignation. He orchestrated a series of protests and labeled the company “racist.”

But Lopez’s plan backfired. None of the workers without Social Security cards returned to work. According to court records, Lopez now finds himself not just liable for allegedly smearing a publicly traded company with annual revenues of about $200 million but also being pegged as a shameless political opportunist and, worse, an extortionist.




http://www.ocweekly.com/2010-11-25/n...-nativo-lopez/