Some are Hispanic, he said, but an increasing number are not. Some exploit workers they claim to help. Two Central Kentucky job contractors were recently told by the Kentucky Migrant Legal Services Project that they will be sued if they don't pay what they owe workers, project attorney Ira D. Newman said. He said he could not release the contractors' names until the case was resolved. Two other migrant workers have sued in federal court in Louisville, claiming a contractor paid them with bad checks.
Some local employers are critical of the contractor system.
Harold Robinson, owner of Reliable Residential Roofing and Guttering, said he was approached by a crew leader but refused the offer because he didn't know if the workers could do the job. Each morning at the Hope Center, Lexington's homeless shelter, dozens of farmers, crew leaders and business owners pick up Hispanic workers as part of the center's jobs program. But the system has its supporters. Several contractors, farmers and workers say it does more good than bad. Virgil Webb, a farmer who picks up workers at Pine Grove Grocery in Clark County, said he has hired tobacco workers through contractors for nearly a decade.