Ex-employee sues DeCoster Egg owner
A longtime employee of egg operations owner Jack DeCoster is suing his former boss for discrimination based on his race.
Mexico-born Homero Ramirez, who lives in Lewiston, has filed a lawsuit against DeCoster and his businesses in Turner and Winthrop for alleged discrimination and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the state and federal Family Medical Leave acts, according to the Portland Press Herald. Ramirez, a plant manager for DeCoster Egg Farms, which has been split into several spinoff businesses, claims Mexican-American workers were treated poorly and asked to do dangerous or demeaning tasks that other employees were not. The complaint filed in U.S. District Court last month also alleges DeCoster directed ethnic slurs at Ramirez, made threatening statements and told him not to seek medical treatment for workplace injuries. Ramirez, who gave his notice last October, is seeking unspecified damages for emotional and mental distress. Daniel Bates, the lawyer representing DeCoster and most of the 11 business entities named in the suit, said Ramirez's claims have no merit.
DeCoster is also currently involved in another legal battle with former business partner John Glessner, who alleges DeCoster and his family mismanaged their Iowa egg production facilities and deprived Glessner of more than $40 million, The Des Moines Register reported. In turn, DeCoster's Ohio Fresh Egg company has sued Glessner for allegedly stealing from the company before he was fired this summer. DeCoster's Iowa facilities were responsible for last year's salmonella outbreak that affected nearly 2,000 Americans.
Last June, Maine Contract Farming, which operates the Quality Egg of New England farm in Turner that is still owned by one of DeCoster's companies, agreed to pay $125,000 to settle an animal cruelty case.
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