Cases

We bring lawsuits in collaboration and alignment with allies across movement sectors to dismantle corporate consolidation of power in the meat industry.

Our cases seek to hold bad actors accountable, and empower those harmed by Big Ag, from meatpacking workers put at risk of contracting COVID-19 by their employers, to environmental justice communities subjected to land, air, and water contamination from factory-sized operations.

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December 6, 2024

Stopping Big Ag Exploitation of J-1 Visa Holders (Alvarado v. Livingston)

Represented by FarmSTAND, Legal Aid of Nebraska, and Radford Scott LLP, these three Guatemalan men are suing Livingston Enterprises and Worldwide Farmers Exchange, the company that deceptively recruited them. The lawsuit targets a practice that has allowed employers like Livingston to exploit the J-1 visa program for profit, and alleges that these enterprises violated federal trafficking, racketeering, and civil rights laws, as well as state laws.
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December 2, 2024

Workers' Compensation for Michigan's Undocumented Workers

Everyone should be able to work in conditions that are dignified, fair, and healthy, and getting injured at work should never mean losing your income or ability to take care of your family. However, for the past 17 years undocumented workers in Michigan who suffer serious workplace injuries have been unjustly denied workers’ compensation wages while they are recovering.
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October 30, 2024

Defending the Rights of Seasonal Agricultural Workers

Agricultural workers of all kinds —including seasonal workers on H-2A visas — deserve basic workplace protections, including the right to meet with guests and service providers in the workers’ employer-provided housing without fear of retaliation and protection from injury during their commutes to work.
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September 26, 2024

Better Safety Protection for Workers

Workers deserve to be safe on the job and to participate in OSHA inspections of their workplace.
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August 20, 2024

Morris v. Tyson

FarmSTAND (formerly the Food Project at Public Justice) represented a mass action of poultry growers in Western Kentucky who raise poultry for Tyson, the nation’s largest poultry company. Tyson acts as an “integrator,” controlling all of the inputs used by its poultry growers—such as the...
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June 27, 2024

Essential Services for Colorado’s Farmworkers

Everyone should be able to work with dignity and access resources that better their working conditions and lives. However, agribusiness interests have threatened Colorado farmworkers’ right to access essential services where they work. Agricultural workers tend to be isolated and work long hours. Many live...
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May 31, 2024

Food & Water Watch v. Smithfield Foods

Food & Water Watch, represented by FarmSTAND (formerly the Food Project at Public Justice), filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia against Smithfield Foods, alleging that the multinational meat processing company repeatedly lied to consumers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic so...
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April 29, 2024

Bathroom Breaks for Delivery Drivers (Cross v. Amazon)

Amazon is one of the richest and most powerful companies in the world—yet its policies deprive its delivery drivers of basic labor rights, including the right to bathroom breaks. Under Amazon’s brutal work quotas and elaborate surveillance systems, many drivers resort to urinating in bottles...
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January 12, 2024

Ag-Gag Litigation

A just, healthy, and thriving food system requires transparency. Public Justice engages in litigation to strike down the Ag-Gag laws that penalize whistleblowers who expose the truth about the factory farm system.
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October 30, 2023

Rural Community Workers Alliance & Jane Doe v. Smithfield

With food chain workers deemed “essential” for the wellbeing of others at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but expected to continue working through their own illness, workers at Smithfield’s pork processing plant in Milan, Missouri took legal action to secure basic protective equipment and protocol...
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October 30, 2023

Food Chain Workers Alliance v. Tyson Foods Title VI Complaint

A nationwide coalition of organizations that advocate for meat processing workers and allied groups filed an administrative civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging that in addition to being disastrous for the wellbeing of workers and for public health, two major meat...
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October 30, 2023

Maid-Rite (Justice at Work v. Sec. of Labor)

FarmSTAND (formerly the Food Project at Public Justice), Public Justice, Towards Justice, Nichols Kaster, and Justice at Work filed a lawsuit in the Middle District of Pennsylvania using a never-before-tested mechanism in the Occupational Safety and Health Act, seeking to compel OSHA to enforce workplace...
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