FRESNO, Calif. — Six female farm workers are expected to file a court motion Tuesday, June 20, in Fresno to join a federal lawsuit filed last February by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charging Kovacevich 5 Farms with sex discrimination for rejecting women for jobs in its Kern and Tulare counties
Latina Farm Worker Women To Join EEOC
Sex Bias Suit Against Valley Grape Grower
Press Conference Scheduled For Tuesday, June 20, At Fresno Courthouse
FRESNO, Calif. — Six female farm workers are expected to file a court motion Tuesday, June 20, in Fresno to join a federal lawsuit filed last February by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charging Kovacevich 5 Farms with sex discrimination for rejecting women for jobs in its Kern and Tulare counties vineyards.
Following the filing of the motion, the women will hold a press conference at 12 noon on the steps of the U.S. District Courthouse, 2500 Tulare St. (at “H” St.), in Fresno. Other partici¬pants will include EEOC officials, private law firms, and United Farm Workers (UFW) organizers. The case came to light after workers brought their grievances to the UFW, which referred them to the law firms and the EEOC.
EEOC’s sex discrimination suit, filed Feb. 15, 2006, alleges that Kovacevich 5 Farms violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by refusing to hire any women — and, until 2003, exclusively hired only men for all of its seasonal farm labor positions, from harvesting jobs to tractor driver positions. Kovacevich Farms hired about 300 seasonal workers each year between 1998 and 2002, not one of whom was a woman, the EEOC investigation revealed.
Kovacevich 5 Farms is the 11th farm employer sued by the EEOC’s San Francisco District Office for employment discrimination. “Agriculture is California’s second largest industry and the EEOC has received many charges of sexual harassment and other forms of blatant discrimination in this sector,” said EEOC San Francisco District Director H. Joan Ehrlich. “But never before have we seen an agribusiness employer with such a blatant discriminatory policy of banning all women from work merely because of their gender.”
EEOC is also interested in identifying women who were turned away from applying to work at Kovacevich 5 Farms or did not apply to work there because they knew the employer only hired men. The first in a series of community meetings — conducted in Spanish to locate more women who allegedly suffered discrimination — will be held by the EEOC at the UFW’s Forty Acres facility at Garces Highway and Mettler Avenue (just west of Delano) on Wednesday, June 21, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Who: Six women farm workers; EEOC Senior Trial Attorney Evangelina Hernandez; private attorneys for the workers; UFW organizer Armando Elenes.
What: Intervening in federal lawsuit over sex bias against a valley table grape grower.
When: 12 noon, Tuesday, June 20, 2006.
Where: Steps of U.S. District Courthouse, 2500 Tulare St. (at “H” St.) in Fresno.
EEOC is responsible for enforcing the federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.
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