by Jennifer Bamberg, Investigate Midwest
A group of migrant agricultural workers who say they were sprayed with pesticides while working in a central Illinois cornfield in 2019 reached a confidential settlement late last month with Corteva and its Johnston-based subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, ending a three-year lawsuit with the seed giants.
The case against the companies that owned and operated the aircraft that sprayed the workers is ongoing.
Lawyers for the workers said the companies violated the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act by:
*Failing to provide them with facilities to wash off the chemicals after being sprayed.
*Ordering the workers to go back into the fields still enveloped by the toxic compounds.
*Lying to them about what had been sprayed.
*Failing to pay for the workers’ hospital bills, despite carrying the legally required workers’ compensation coverage.
Attorneys for the migrants and their children sought compensation for damages and attorney fees, and alleged that the companies had committed battery and assault.
Federal and state investigations, investigative reporting and public outrage around the case helped spur a change in the law that passed in June 2023, increasing penalties for applicators who expose humans to harmful chemicals.
Illinois Sen. Karina Villa, a West Chicago Democrat who fought to pass the legislation for years, said that it’s difficult for her not to get emotional about what happened to the workers. Villa said both of her grandfathers were farmers and migrant workers, and she wanted to make sure such workers are protected in the state. She has been a member of the Senate Committee for Agriculture since 2021.
“I really wish I would have been a fly on the wall to know what that settlement was, but in my personal opinion, there’s nothing that can compensate for the blatant disregard for humanity that occurred,” she said.
On Aug. 5, 2019, about 95 workers were detasseling corn in a field in Santa Anna Township, Illinois, operated by the agricultural seed and chemical company Corteva Agrisciences, when a plane flew overhead, dousing the workers in chemicals, according to court documents. It made a second pass, spraying the workers again only minutes later. Two weeks earlier, a helicopter had dusted the same workers.
According to the lawsuit, the company “provided no emergency medical assistance, decontamination measures, or instructions to the workers about rinsing or washing themselves, and offered no transportation to a medical facility.” Several of the workers sought medical care at a nearby hospital, including a pregnant woman who was afraid she was miscarrying.
Some of the workers were not able to decontaminate and exposed their families and children to the pesticide, according to the complaint.
In a court motion, attorneys for the migrant workers wrote that each of the workers they they represented live and work outside Illinois in multiple states. Many of the workers “do not have consistent or reliable access to the internet, making even remote participation for all Plaintiffs unfeasible,” according to the motion filed in April.
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