Vikrant
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- Apr 20, 2013
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SUNNYSIDE, Wash. Esther Abarca said the foreman drove to parts of the apple orchard that she had never seen. Deep into the ranch, in what she could describe only as a desolate place, he parked the truck, reached over and tried to grab her.
Weeping as she told her story, Abarca said the foreman got out of the truck when she resisted his advances. He opened the side door, climbed on top of her, and began to kiss and grope her. She called for help and tried to push him away, but he got her pants halfway off.
I kept screaming, but there was nobody there, Abarca said.
Abarca said she kept screaming as the foreman groped her. But then, as if suddenly chastened by her crying, kicking and pushing, she said he stopped. He told her that if she didnt tell anyone what had happened, hed give her $3,000 for a new car.
Abarca, a mother of three, said she refused the money.
I told him that that was the very reason why I had come here to work, that I did not need him to give me any money at all, she said.
The foremans alleged first assault came in 2009, during the long days of the Yakima Valley apple harvest in central Washington. An immigrant from Mexico, Abarca was new to the Evans Fruit Co., one of the countrys largest apple producers.
Nearly four years later, Abarcas story was the subject of a federal court case testing whether the owners of Evans Fruit looked the other way as their workers claimed they were subjected to repeated sexual violence and harassment by an orchard foreman and crew bosses.
It was a rare public accusation for an immigrant, many of whom fear retaliation and deportation if they speak up. Abarca was testifying in only the second case of a farmworker claiming sexual harassment to reach a federal court trial.
...
Female workers face rape, harassment in US agriculture industry | The Center for Investigative Reporting
Weeping as she told her story, Abarca said the foreman got out of the truck when she resisted his advances. He opened the side door, climbed on top of her, and began to kiss and grope her. She called for help and tried to push him away, but he got her pants halfway off.
I kept screaming, but there was nobody there, Abarca said.
Abarca said she kept screaming as the foreman groped her. But then, as if suddenly chastened by her crying, kicking and pushing, she said he stopped. He told her that if she didnt tell anyone what had happened, hed give her $3,000 for a new car.
Abarca, a mother of three, said she refused the money.
I told him that that was the very reason why I had come here to work, that I did not need him to give me any money at all, she said.
The foremans alleged first assault came in 2009, during the long days of the Yakima Valley apple harvest in central Washington. An immigrant from Mexico, Abarca was new to the Evans Fruit Co., one of the countrys largest apple producers.
Nearly four years later, Abarcas story was the subject of a federal court case testing whether the owners of Evans Fruit looked the other way as their workers claimed they were subjected to repeated sexual violence and harassment by an orchard foreman and crew bosses.
It was a rare public accusation for an immigrant, many of whom fear retaliation and deportation if they speak up. Abarca was testifying in only the second case of a farmworker claiming sexual harassment to reach a federal court trial.
...
Female workers face rape, harassment in US agriculture industry | The Center for Investigative Reporting
