Immigrant workers in West Pawlet last month held a press conference to shed light on an alleged assault by the owner of a local dairy and maple farm.
According to the farmworker advocacy nonprofit Migrant Justice, which coordinated the news conference, on July 3, Ulver Perez Roblero returned to his trailer after work and stopped to talk and share a beer with a group of people outside his home. He says when he went inside, Richard Hulett, the owner of Deer Flats Farm and member of Pawlet Select Board, knocked on Roblero’s door and immediately began hitting and pushing him.
“I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t say anything. He was holding me down as he hit me,” Roblero said in Spanish. Migrant Justice provided translations. “I was trapped with nowhere to go and I couldn’t call out, and I felt like I was going to die. I thought that this was going to be my last day on the Earth.”
Roblero's 15-year-old nephew, Josue Adrian, came out of the trailer in response to the commotion and, Roblero says, Hulett proceeded to attack him as well. Vermont Public is not using Josue Adrian’s full name because he is a minor.
Deer Flats Farm did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Vermont Public. The Vermont Department of Public Safety reported in a news release that Richard Hulett, 45, "received information alleging an individual had attempted to distribute illegal narcotics on the property."
Migrant Justice released a response stating, "This allegation stemmed from a misunderstanding in a conversation across language barriers. No worker sold or attempted to sell drugs. This is a distraction from a brutal assault against a worker and his family, that was not justified by any means."
Roblero says when he attempted to call a coworker on his phone for help, Hulett hit the phone out of his hands.
“Eventually he stopped hitting me and he asked how old my nephew was, and when I told him my nephew was just 15 years old, that’s what finally caused him to stop and to begin to calm down,” Roblero said.
Roblero says Hulett proceeded to give him a beer, pushing him to drink. Hulett then said he wanted to take them out on his boat, and put life jackets on Roblero and his nephew and dragged them behind him on the boat on an inner tube.
Roblero says they didn’t understand what was happening and feared Hulett would kill them.
“We were out on the lake and didn’t know what he wanted from us," Roblero said. "My nephew was crying and he said ‘Uncle, I don’t want to be here anymore.’”
Eventually, Hulett brought both of them back to his house and continued to push Roblero to drink beers. Roblero and his nephew say they repeatedly asked to go home, and eventually Hulett allowed them to leave.
“We told the boss that we wanted to go to the hospital and asked if he would take us and he said no, he didn’t want us to go, and he just laughed and made fun of us,” Roblero said.
After reaching out to Migrant Justice, the pair were taken to Rutland Regional Medical Center. Vermont Public reviewed hospital discharge papers related to the incident.
Roblero said in the days since the alleged assault his neck hurts and he has had trouble eating and swallowing.
Richard Hulett has been cited by Vermont State Police on two counts of misdemeanor simple assault. His arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 23.
At the press conference, Migrant Justice called for the expansion of the Milk with Dignity program, an initiative that aims to protect the rights of workers in the dairy industry. Companies that join the program agree to follow fair housing and labor standards. Today, 20% of Vermont’s migrant workers are employed by farms that are part of the program.
Marita Canedo of Migrant Justice says Deer Flats Farm supplies milk to the supermarket chain Hannaford, which Migrant Justice has, for years, been pushing to join the program, in part, because they say it will boost farmworker safety.
“What we need is to order companies to understand the responsibility of this, that they can really bring an economic justice to farmers to find workers that are going to avoid any kind of violence to their human rights,” Canedo said. “It's really important to understand that they are responsible for the problems in their supply chain.”
A spokesperson for Hannaford said they do not buy milk from Deer Flats Farm. Ericka Dodge, director of external communications and community relations, said in an emailed statement, “Our supplier verified that they do not buy milk from this particular farm, and they have no relationship with the farm.”
Dodge continued that the “allegations presented by Migrant Justice are disturbing. No worker should ever suffer abuse in their workplace,” and stating that Hannaford is committed to “the fair and dignified treatment of all workers in our supply chain.”
Roblero and Adrian live in housing provided by Deer Flats Farm, which is the case for most migrant workers. Will Lambek, also with Migrant Justice, says it's common in the industry, and creates a situation of strong power imbalances between worker and employer.
Though workers are protected from unlawful eviction by Vermont law, Lambek says that policy is frequently violated.
“And so workers and their families become unemployed and homeless in the same day,” he said. “And that's why so many workers are afraid to speak out and don't feel like they can speak freely."
At the start of the pandemic, Roblero says he was fired by Hulett when he reported a positive COVID test. He was evicted from his housing and had to seek work out of state.
Now, after returning years later, the family fears a similar situation.
Ulda Diaz Velasquez, Adrian’s mother, also spoke at the press conference and said she witnessed the assault.
“My biggest fear was to lose my housing situation right now,” she said. “I feel a little bit comfortable, maybe a little bit safer, not completely, because I have the community with me because we are doing these, we are organizing, we're raising our voices, we're making it public.”
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