Worries grow for nursery workers

Many of the more than 500 workers laid off from Zelenka Nursery in Grand Haven Township found out Thursday the paychecks that they already have may be worthless. A Michigan-based migrant legal group set up shop Thursday to help the displaced workers.

The company laid off most of its staff Tuesday and announced the next day that its financial lenders withdrew all cash from the company's accounts for liquidation.

"Right now, we have a lot of payments but they'll have to wait because there is no check," said Karla Martinez, whose husband works for the company. The Martinez family, originally from Texas, lives in an apartment in Olive Township supplied free by the company with only a security deposit to pay.

The company called back a small number of workers Thursday, mostly irrigation and shipping employees.

Martinez, who worked in the fields, said her husband returned to work Thursday but was afraid he would never get paid.

"They go because (they) are afraid to leave everything," she said.

On Thursday, attorneys from Bangor-based Farmworker Legal Services and officials from Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance Project set up shop in the Olive Township apartment complex laundry room to hear complaints from workers.

Four hours after starting, Farmworker Legal Services attorney Helen Harnett said the room was constantly filled with shocked workers.

"These are people that made five or six bucks (an hour) over here and now they have nothing," Harnett said.

About 400 of the workers laid off were seasonal workers.

Harnett said some workers had not cashed up to five weeks of pay and found out this week that their checks were now worthless. Workers also claimed the company told them they would not get bonuses and would not receive their $100 per person security deposits. Farmworker Legal Services expected to sift through the information Thursday and contact Zelenka officials today, Harnett said.

Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance Project workers at the scene referred questions to Teresa Hendricks, the executive director and senior litigator for the group. She could not be reached for comment on the group's efforts.

A Zelenka Nursery telephone hotline message posted at 11:30 a.m. Thursday stated that paychecks prepared for last week's work "have been declared worthless" by the lenders. The message stated that if the lenders determine the company could issue paychecks, that it would be at least "several business days."

When reached late Thursday afternoon, Zelenka Chairman Tom Ablum said talks were continuing with the lenders, banks consisting of Bank One, Comerica, Fifth Third and Standard Federal.

Ablum said the company had never missed a bank payment and paid off about $7 million in debt this year for a total that had reached beyond $20 million.

"They're the bad guys," Ablum claimed about the banks.

Ablum said company officials were still trying to keep some jobs and the firm alive. The nursery was purchased by Chicago-based Franklin Street Equity Partners in 2000.

"Right now, I'm interested in preserving any part of the company we can," he said.

Mary Kay Schoon, a program assistant with Ottawa County Michigan Works!, said several laid off Zelenka workers filed for unemployment Thursday with most expecting to leave the area.

While Schoon said she was not aware of any of the 100 full time staff laid off from Zelenka Nursery visiting the Michigan Works! Holland office, she said she expected they would be trickling in soon.

Lloyd Gingerich, director of migrant and bilingual education at West Ottawa Public Schools, said the uncertain terms of the closing and the last-second notice has caused some concern among migrant workers.

"There is a lot of confusion out there," he said. "People aren't sure if they should stay because it might reopen or if they should go because there's no work for them."

For Martinez, her 4-year-old daughter and husband, moving back to Texas is the goal. But without their paychecks, that cannot happen, she said.

"We don't have enough money to go back to south Texas," she said.