A federal judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit filed by Yakima Valley farm workers who contend a Los Angeles-based labor contractor illegally and intentionally displaced them with workers from Thailand. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Leavitt ruled that the three plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit may proceed on behalf of an estimated 600 farm workers allegedly denied employment when Global Horizons Manpower imported workers from Thailand under the federal H-2A guest-worker program in 2004.
See "Judge grants class-action status to farm workers' lawsuit", Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, August 1, 2006