Worcester Wreath Fined for Worker Housing Violations

Harrington-based Worcester Wreath is once again in the news for the wrong reasons. As the Maine Monitor reports, the Maine Department of Labor contacted the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last fall with concerns about the living conditions of workers at Worcester Resources. The company supplies wreaths to Wreaths Across America, a controversial 501(c)(3) public charity that is overseen by the wives of the majority owners of the company. Worcester Wreath employs migrant workers on H-2A guest worker visas.

According to the Monitor investigation, MDOL reported complaints that workers were being packed into crowded, “very sanitary” bungalows with debris falling into the kitchen and sleeping quarters. The dwellings were reportedly without access to potable water or functioning smoke detectors. An OSHA inspector discovered on Dec. 2 that the company was housing 71 laborers on the lower level of the factory and in two exterior trailers, and that “none of the sleeping quarters met the spacing requirements.” The workers reportedly had an average of 30 square feet per person in the sleeping quarters, roughly the size of a double mattress.

After a federal inspection, the company was reportedly cited for three “serious” violations and ultimately fined nearly $16,000. As the Monitor noted, Worcester has racked up $50,000 in federal fines during the past four years for labor violations. It has repeatedly failed to file employee illness and injury reports, including the death of a worker and other labor violations. In 2018, workers at the facility filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination and retaliation after they say a crew chief made aggressive, unwanted sexual advances against a female worker. Worcester Wreath told the Maine Monitor that "the workers were very content and happy with the housing and work conditions provided by the company" in response to questions about the latest allegations of labor abuses.

Thom Harnett, a former legislator and farmworker attorney, noted that state agencies recognize that the Worcester Wreath workers are too afraid to speak about the conditions at the facility.

"They talk about the fear of retaliation and the employer blaming the workers for the conditions like the workers want to sleep on the floor," Harnett said. "It highlights the precarious situation of the people who come to work in our fields and farms and related industries. This notion that 'none of this happens in Maine' — well guess what? This is Maine."

This is another example of why ALL workers deserve the right to organize and speak out about conditions in the workplace. According to legal experts, Worcester Wreath workers are a hybrid of factory and agricultural workers. They are agricultural workers in one part of the manufacturing process and factory workers in the other. Unlike most workers, farmworkers don't have the right to the state minimum wage, collective bargaining or overtime pay.  Currently, the Maine Legislature is considering a bill that would give agricultural workers the right to engage in concerted activity and another to make them eligible for the state minimum wage.

Because they have so few rights, migrant workers face a lot of risks in speaking out about workplace abuses.

“Coming forward and reporting abuse and violations of rights as an immigrant worker is an incredibly difficult decision and an act of courage,” said Alice Kopij, co-legal director for the Portland-based Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP). “People may face unsafe working and living conditions, wage theft, exhaustive hours without breaks, threats of being reported to ICE, and much more.”