By: Marnie Eisenstadt
Oneida, N.Y. — Green Empire Farm and its migrant labor contractor will need to move 250 workers out of local hotels and into bunkhouses at the greenhouse by June 1, Madison County officials say.
The county’s request comes on the heels of an outbreak among the migrant workers: At least 169 of them have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks. The virus spread not at the greenhouse, but at the hotels where the workers were living, county health officials said.
Most were crammed four to a room, two to a bed. County officials said they were unaware that the three hotels — the Days Inn, Super 8 and La Quinta — were being used for farmworker housing.
Samantha Field, a county spokeswoman, said Green Empire is building bunkhouses meant for migrant workers, but they are not done. The farm opened in August.
Those need to be finished by June 1 so the workers can move out of the hotels, Field said. The county delivered that message to both MAC Contracting, the migrant labor provider, and Mastronardi Produce of Canada, the company that owns Green Empire Farm.
“We have impressed upon them — this can’t continue,” Field said.
At least two bunkhouses are under construction, and it’s unclear how many workers they would hold or how tight the quarters would be. A spokeswoman for Mastronardi did not respond to questions about the migrant workers’ living situation.
Field said the county will inspect the bunkhouses to make sure they are up to the farmworker housing standards in state law before allowing workers to move in.
The state Department of Health and Madison County are also investigating whether housing the workers at the hotel violated state law. Public health law sets out minimum standards for farmworker housing.
Jill Montag, a spokeswoman for the state DOH, said the department is reviewing information about how the workers were housed and whether the state standards for migrant worker housing were violated.
Some farmworkers became seriously ill with the coronavirus and had to be hospitalized. None died. But Roxanne Whaley, a housekeeper at one of the hotels, caught the coronavirus along with her husband. Her husband died May 7. The hotel’s owner also became ill with the virus and had to be hospitalized.
Field said the county was unaware that the hotels were being used to house migrant workers until the outbreak. Once they found out so many workers were living in such tight quarters, the goal was to test them all, separate those who were ill from those who were not, and get medical care for everyone who needed it.
Now that that situation is under control, the county wants to make it clear that the hotels are not a permanent solution, she said.
In addition to the county and state investigation, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also investigating the working conditions.
The migrant labor force is more than 270 workers. Another 180 workers came from the surrounding area. The migrant workers started at the farm to tend and harvest strawberries in December. Now they are harvesting tomatoes and planting cucumbers.
Field said most of the workers have recovered and will be returning to work, if they haven’t already.
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