How chicken processed using child labor ended up at your favorite supermarket

When the investigators came, operators of a Southern California poultry processor allegedly hid child workers in bathrooms and closets and hurried them out the back door, according to a U.S. Department of Labor lawsuit.

In two poultry plants in La Puente and City of Industry owned by Tony Bran, federal authorities alleged, kids as young as 14 were illegally working dangerous jobs, deboning chicken and operating heavy machinery. Eventually, the chicken ended up at major supermarkets and distributors like Ralphs, Aldi, Grocery Outlet and Sysco, officials said.

The workers came primarily from Indigenous communities in Guatemala and spoke Q’eqchi’, K’iche’ and Mam. Instead of going to school, the child laborers worked so many hours they were owed overtime pay. Children worked long hours alongside adults, and Bran was allegedly cheating them all out of wages, the federal lawsuit said.

After the investigators left Bran’s Los Angeles-area plants, the workers told authorities, he corralled them.

“[He] told us that he doesn’t care about us, we mean nothing to him and that we should leave if we do not like how he is paying us or treating us,” one worker said in a translated court filing related to the Department of Labor lawsuit.

Last month, Bran settled with the federal government and agreed to pay nearly $3.8 million to workers.

Earlier this year, he settled a separate wage-theft lawsuit with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, agreeing to pay $1.47 million in unpaid wages and penalties. The fines follow a Sept. 28 search by agents from the Labor Department who were accompanied by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Bran did not respond to an interview request or detailed questions about either case.

In court filings, he has denied all allegations against him.

“The Exclusive Poultry maintained business relationships with various companies to provide labor services,” Bran’s attorney, Anthony K. McClaren, said in a statement. “It was unaware of the Department of Labor allegations during the times they were alleged to have occurred.”

The Department of Labor said that Bran set up “front companies” — Meza Poultry, Valtierra Poultry, Sullon Poultry and Nollus’s Poultry — to employ workers. As part of a consent judgment, Bran and his company, the Exclusive Poultry, admitted they employed all of the workers at the poultry plants. Meza, Valtierra, Sullon, Nollus and their listed owners admitted to violations of labor law in separate judgments, but Bran has not acknowledged any such violations.

The conditions at the plants, and the use of child labor for products sold at major shopping chains in the heart of Southern California, generated headlines. But community advocates and experts said they were not surprised by the labor abuses, noting it points to widespread problems. Child labor, along with wage theft and retaliation, have long been the realities faced by many vulnerable workers, particularly immigrants.

“For us, this is not a new thing,” said Odilia Romero, co-founder of Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo, or CIELO, which helps migrant Indigenous communities in Los Angeles. “Within L.A. city, in the restaurant industry and the garment industry and construction industry, there’s kids working.”

Child Labor and Wage Theft Prevalent in Los Angeles

Armando Gudino, executive director of the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, called L.A. the wage-theft capital of the nation.

More than half the Latino workers in Los Angeles get paid less than minimum wage, a report published earlier this year by the Los Angeles Worker Center Network found.

“Child labor is going to be the attention-grabbing issue, but the truth is that wage theft, retaliation and all kinds of labor abuses are prevalent in the entire immigrant population,” said Yunuen Trujillo, worker rights and labor legal services managing attorney at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.

Violations of child labor laws are on the rise in the U.S., according to a report earlier this year by the Economic Policy Institute. The number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws increased 37% in the last year, the report found, with a 283% increase since 2015.

“We’ve seen a lot more of it in the last two years,” said Victor Narro, a UCLA professor of labor studies. “The laws to protect workers are very weak, and then you throw children into it.”

Rollback of Child Labor Protections

Nationally, industry groups are working to