COVID fears turn ugly when Fresno business owner confronts employees. Here’s the video
An argument over workplace coronavirus exposures turned ugly this week in Fresno. At least four employees say Lee Perkins, owner of Pacific Grain & Foods, LLC shoved an employee twice while coworkers looked on.
The tail end of the incident on Dec. 15 was caught on camera after an employee began filming with her phone. The video did not capture the alleged shoving. Another employee posted that footage on Facebook, which was shared over 80 times.
Perkins did not respond to multiple calls requesting comment this week.
A Fresno police officer responded to the scene and wrote up a report of alleged battery. Perkins was identified as the suspect, and there were several witnesses, according to Sgt. Jeff La Blue.
Councilmember Esmeralda Soria, who represents the district where the plant is located, said the video and the allegations were “troubling.”
“This just highlights what is probably happening out in our community, but not a lot of people are talking about because they fear retaliation, face a language barrier, or because of immigration status,” Soria said.
She added that she had contacted the city’s code enforcement to inspect the facility.
Fresno business owner ‘exploded’ in argument over COVID, workers say
After a worker’s COVID-19 test came back positive, Perkins told his employees on Tuesday they would wait a week before shutting the plant down, according to employees who spoke with The Bee.
Worried they had already been exposed to the coronavirus, employees at the small northwest Fresno nut butter processing plant argued they should get tested and go home immediately. Perkins offered half the day off to get tested and come back, but when employees asked for more time, things turned aggressive, the employees said.
“When we started to say about taking the whole day, that was when he exploded,” employee Juan Zavala told The Bee in Spanish.
Zavala said Perkins yelled loudly at one employee and then began insulting the rest of the group.
“I said, ‘We have rights,’” Zavala said. “He said, ‘you don’t have rights. You don’t have a job here, leave.’ Then he pushed me from the front.”
As he walked away, Zavala said Perkins shoved him again, “This time from behind.”
After that, a female employee began filming with a phone camera. The original footage was shared with The Bee by another employee, who declined to be named because she feared retaliation.
“I spent 30 minutes on this crap,” Perkins yells in the video. “I’m bending, and I’m giving, and you’re still not happy. Why? You want something free all the time. There’s nothing free, guys, everything here I’ve worked my ass off building.”
In the same clip, Zavala argues with Perkins, who stands near the door of the facility. He claims Perkins doesn’t listen to them.
“Get out. You can leave. You’ve got the camera. You can film me. I don’t care,” Perkins responds, walking toward Zavala. “You’re leaving. Let’s go. Leave.”
Gianna Hernandez posted a shortened version of the clip to Facebook.
Perkins is seen yelling without a mask in the video.
When the episode turned physical, employees called the police, Zavala said, because they feared what the owner might do next.
COVID-19 exposure at the plant in Fresno
Hernandez said she and her colleagues worry about exposure to COVID-19 because social distancing is not enforced at work. She said neither the owner nor the production supervisor wear masks. She estimates that around 20 people work at the plant.
“We don’t have hand soap to wash our hands. We do not have hand sanitizer. We do not even have enough gloves sometimes. Also, we don’t even get provided masks. These production workers have to use the same mask over and over again,” Hernandez said.
Three employees told The Bee that soap, paper towels, hand sanitizer, face masks, and gloves were often unavailable at work. The company does, however, check workers’ temperatures as they enter the facility, they said.
A letter to their customers signed by Perkins and posted to the website claims Pacific Grain & Foods is “enforcing a strict policy with our employees on the importance of washing their hands and staying home if they feel sick.” The letter outlines other procedures, such as frequent cleaning and stocking masks, soap, and hand sanitizer.
Pacific Grain & Foods, LLC has three more plants in Fresno, according to the website. The company employed at least 145 people two years ago, according to former HR manager Rita Garcia. The website says the company supplies beans, rice, grains, spice, and nuts products to “national corporations, bulk food suppliers and mom and pop companies.”
Garcia said the nut butters produced in the plant are sold at Costco and Sprouts.
Hernandez felt she had to post about the incident on social media because many of her colleagues felt too intimidated to do so. On Thursday afternoon, however, she said she was locked out of her work email.
Fresno workers demand quarantine pay
Hernandez also said workers were told Tuesday they would not return to work “until further notice.” When she demanded employees get paid time off to quarantine, she said Perkins called her “a stupid idiot.”
Paola Laverde, spokesperson with the California Department of Industrial Relations, said California’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard requires employers to provide pay and benefits after a COVID-19 workplace exposure if workers are able and available to work otherwise. The employer may require workers to exhaust paid sick leave first.
Enforcement of this standard falls on Cal/OSHA or the Labor Commissioner’s Office.
The four workers who spoke with The Bee said they had not received word about when the plant would reopen or about getting paid for their time in quarantine. One worker, who asked to stay anonymous because she feared retaliation at work, said she felt both humiliated and abandoned.
“We wanted to end the year clean, without debt, feed dinner to our families,” she said in Spanish, apologizing when her voice cracked. “And now we won’t be able to.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 9:29 AM.