This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.

Ten immigrant workers say they were fired and threatened with eviction from their employer-provided housing earlier this week after asking for a wage increase at Lamell Lumber Corporation.

On Friday morning, several of the workers and around two dozen supporters staged a protest at the company’s Essex sawmill.

“We’re saying we’re willing to go back to work if we get the raise and the improvements in housing that we’ve demanded,” said Nerio Jimenez, one of the workers, who spoke on behalf of the group. His comments were translated to English by Will Lambek of the nonprofit advocacy group Migrant Justice.

The workers’ situation highlights the tenuous predicaments that can arise when bosses double as landlords, and comes amid a moment of scrutiny over employer-provided housing for immigrant laborers in Vermont’s construction industry in particular. 

Jimenez, originally from Mexico, has worked at Lamell for three years, he said Friday. He has held several positions at the company, and most recently worked as a “stacker,” a job that involves moving lumber on a forklift. 

He received a wage increase about a year into working at Lamell, from $13 an hour to $16, he said. Afterward, the company indicated to him and other workers that another raise would follow after a training period, he said. According to Jimenez, that raise never materialized.

Lamell Lumber Corporation did not respond to requests for an interview on Friday.

The workers had repeatedly asked a representative from their labor brokerage company, New York-based Agri-Placement Services, Inc., when they would receive a raise. During a recent monthly meeting, the representative indicated that “the raise isn’t going to happen,” Jimenez said. The company did not respond to a request for an interview on Friday.

The previous Sunday, the workers spoke with a supervisor at Lamell, Jimenez said, telling him that they wanted a meeting with the company’s president, Ronald Lamell, Jr., to speak about the raise issue. The workers also wanted to discuss what they said were times company superiors entered employer-provided housing without permission. The group asked to have this meeting before they returned to work on Monday, Jimenez said.

The company did not agree to the meeting, and the supervisor indicated there would be “punishment” if the workers did not show up the following morning, Jimenez said. 

The workers then commenced a work-stoppage on Monday morning. A manager entered the employer-provided home where Jimenez lives, he said, banging on doors and telling the workers they were fired if they did not show up for work.

The company then offered individual workers their jobs back at a lower wage, $14.50, according to Jimenez — a move he described as “humiliating.” The company also told the workers to vacate their employer-provided homes adjacent to the company’s sawmill, Jimenez said.

At the protest on Friday, the group marched to Lamell’s office with banners and drums, hoping to ask the company’s leadership for their jobs back — with a raise. Though employees could be seen inside through the office’s windows, none came to the door.

Instead, a fleet of Essex police vehicles pulled down the snowy road to the office. 

“We won’t be intimidated,” a protester called out, in Spanish.

That moment of tension did not last long, however. The cops allowed the protest to continue, but escorted the group away from the office and toward the workers’ homes, a few steps away. Jimenez explained that the company had told the workers they needed to leave their homes today.

“He can say that, but he can’t force you, nor can the police force you,” Officer Damir Karadza told Jimenez. “He’s going to have to go through the legal eviction process to get you or whoever else, you know, out of the property, since it has been your home.”