The “Men” of Henry’s Turkey Service

The “Men” of Henry’s Turkey Service is a story that seems more like a twisted fairy tale than real life. It began in the late 1960’s back in Goldthwaite, Texas and ended in the winter of 2009 in Atillisa, Iowa when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against Hill Country Farms Inc. for substandard wages, a violations of the American’s with Disabilities Act. More familiarly known as, “The Boys in the Bunkhouse,” Henry’s Turkey Service became the Equal Employment Commission’s largest settlement ever, at $241.3 million.
In the 1960’s Kenneth Henry, who was an expert at turkey insemination, became a partner with T. H. Johnson, owner of Hill Country Farms, a privately owned and sponsored enterprise. Hill Country Farms raised dairy cattle, provided contract labor for turkey breeding and processing plants, and operated a country store and restaurant facility. This privately owned company, with the Texas Rehabilitation Commission’s approval, operated a for-profit program that took individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and trained them in agricultural work and basic life skills. This was at a time in society when it was acceptable and commonplace to put individuals with disabilities into institutions and often, most families were encouraged to do so. Hill Country Farms in Goldthwaite, Texas was home to 25 to 30 mentally disabled men from Texas’s state institutions for the handicapped. These men engaged in a variety of on-the-job training activities, which revolved around the raising of dairy cattle. In addition, Hill Country Farms contracted with out-of-state sites in Atalissa, Iowa, Newberry, South Carolina, Sedgwich, Kansas, and Eldon Missouri; providing approximately 125 men at these locations for turkey breeding and processing companies, such as Swift, Armour, and Louis Rich Foods. Operations of this for-profit program earned Hill Country Farms the coveted “Employer of the Year” award from the National Association for Retarded Citizens in October 1968. By 1980, Hill Country Farms was responsible for training approximately 150 intellectually and mentally disabled persons for employment in a variety of agricultural related jobs, including Atillisa, Iowa. In 1974 a group of men, who later became known as “The Boys in the Bunkhouse,” were sent from Goldthwaite, Texas to Atillisa, Iowa to live in an old schoolhouse and work at the turkey processing plant 6 miles away in West Liberty, Iowa. The groups workday began every weekday at 3 a.m. and consisted of grueling labor as “pinners,” “rehangers,” “eviscerators,” and “croppers.” The men were often on the receiving end of harsh treatment, such as name calling, assaulted with turkey guts, or physical abuse and only occasionally admired for their work ethic. Unfortunately, the men did not earn the same wage as their coworkers. Henry’s Turkey Service received payment directly from the turkey plant for the men’s work and under a section of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, deducted hundreds of dollars from the men’s paychecks. This section of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 allowed certified employers to pay a subminimum wage to disabled workers based on productivity compared to nondisabled workers. The results of these deductions for lodging, food, clothing, entertainment, and health related expenses left a paycheck of about $65 a month for the men. In the 1960’s and early 1970’s this for-profit program, that Hill Country Farms d.b.a. Henry’s Turkey Farm operated was thought of, as progressive, but sadly this organization did not keep up with changing times. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the nations first comprehensive civil rights law, prohibits discrimination in employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications for people with disabilities. Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits private employers, State and local governments, employment agencies, and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. Still reports of abuse and misconduct were overlooked or denied and life went on like “Groundhog Day,” for the men in Atillisa, a cycle to be repeated over and over.
In 2008 Henry’s Turkey Service began winding down operations in Atillisa, Iowa; quietly retiring workers; those who had no families to return to in Texas were sent to nursing homes. The remaining workers in Atillisa, Iowa would be phased out by the Spring of 2009 but, only after training their nondisabled replacements. That would have been the end of the story, but for Sherri Brown who questioned her brother Keith’s meager $80 in savings after decades of grueling work for Henry’s Turkey Service. Failing to receive answers from Henry’s Turkey Service or state agencies Sherri Brown contacted The Des Moines Register and reporter Clark Kauffman began his own investigation. In February 2009 the remaining 21 men were removed from the roach and rodent infested, mildew ridden schoolhouse that they had called home for several decades and which had now been declared a fire hazard. Hearings and investigations soon began to uncover how every level of government failed these men since 1974.
Although, no criminal charges have ever been filed, Henry’s Turkey Service was eventually cited for wage violations by both state and federal labor agencies. Then the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stepped in and charged Hill Country Farms, Inc. doing business as Henry’s Turkey Service, with violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and paying 32 workers with intellectual disabilities substandard wages. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Wolfe agreed that the 32 workers should have been earning the same $11-12 per hour wage that their nondisabled workers were earning instead of $65 per month. Henry’s Turkey Service was ordered to pay $1.3 million for lost wages between 2007 and 2009. Incredibly Henry’s Turkey Service argued that it was justified in withholding wages by providing a 100-year-old former schoolhouse as living quarters and round the clock care in the form of unlicensed caretakers; a husband and wife team. Henry’s Turkey Service was never able to explain deductions of $1,000 per month from each employee’s wages and several hundreds of dollars monthly from Social Security SSI and disability benefits for these living quarters and other expenses. In May of 2013 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission won its historic verdict of $240 million against Henry’s Turkey Service for subjecting this group of 32 men to severe verbal and physical abuse, substandard housing, denial of medical care, and discrimination between 2007 and 2009; after suffering through the same exact treatment for decades prior. This judgment awarded each man $2 million in punitive damages, and $5.5 million in compensatory damages on top of the 2012 judgment of $1.3 million for unlawful disability-based wage discrimination. This historic verdict covers more than 20 years of abuse. Abuses including verbal abuse where workers were called “retarded,” “dumb ass,” “boy,” and “stupid.” Physical abuses consisting of hitting, kicking, pushing; and often being denied bathroom breaks. Arthritic hands, illness, and pain were often dismissed, denied health care, and paid substandard wages. Sadly Henry’s Turkey Services’ assets cover less than 2% of the judgments and the Civil Rights Act of 1991 places caps on non-economic damages to employers.
Unfortunately, the historic verdict was reduced to around $1.6 million because of federal caps, which limit the maximum judgment for punitive and compensatory damages to $50,000 per worker for businesses that employ fewer than 101 workers. The earlier judgment for substandard wages was upheld and Henry’s Turkey Service was ordered to pay $1.37 million and $283,568 in interest. This extreme reduction may make it easier to collect the judgment from a now defunct Henry’s Turkey Service and Hill Country Farms, Inc. Furthermore, the EEOC is considering seizing more than 1,000 acres of Texas ranchland and other assets to aid in the recovery process. Over the last four years only $30,000 to $40,000 in assets has been recovered, but soon monthly lease payments of $3,500 on land owned by Henry of Henry’s Turkey Service, will be applied towards these judgments and fines for the mistreatment of these 32 men. However, there remains the question: will these men ever receive the justice they so richly deserve and how did this abuse go on for so long? The signs were all there, in 1997 Texas authorities asked Iowa Department of Human Services to investigate allegations of “poor treatment,” this same year the U.S. Department of Labor cited Hill Country Farms for multiple wage-and-hour violations. In 1988 the U.S. Department of Labor again notified the company that it was violating the federal Migrant and Seasonal Worker Protection Act; no fine was imposed. In 2001 an Iowa Workforce Development inspector advised that the boiler be taken out of operation leaving the bunkhouse without heat for eight years. In 2002 Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals imposed no fines or sanctions for operation an unlicensed care center. In 2003 The U.S. Department of Labor ordered Henry’s Turkey Service to pay 43 Atalissa workers back wages, but no fines were imposed on the company. In 2006, an Atalissa city official complained to the Department of Human Services; that the doors were chained shut from the outside on the bunkhouse creating a fire hazard, no action was taken. In 2007 a relative complained to the Department of Human Services about the treatment of his mentally disabled relative, the department declined to investigate. Also, in 2007 West Liberty Foods sent a letter describing physical and verbal abuse to T.H. Johnson and Henry’s Turkey Service, but it was not until 2009 when action was finally taken to release “the Boy’s” from their abusers. One really has to wonder, why did it take so long to take action? Kenneth Henry who was 73-years-old in 2009 and still lived in Goldthwaite, Texas ardently denied that Hill Country Farms, Inc. or Henry’s Turkey Service did anything wrong. Henry stated in an interview with the Dallas Morning News in 2009, “These boys cannot take care of themselves. . . . We’ve had 1,500 boys go through the program. It is a lot better than letting them rot in a state institution (Kuffman).” However, Henry’s Turkey Service is not alone in the blame for the decades of mistreatment of “the Boys”. The residents of Atillisa, as well as, numerous government agencies, and the turkey processing plant supervisor all ignored warning signs of abuse. Further, West Liberty foods should have followed up when their letter to Henry’s Turkey Service about “abusive yelling and physical punching” workers saw no results. The case of Henry’s Turkey Service is, the perfect example of what can happen, when people ignore the signs of abuse, and others believe their behavior is ethical, moral, and legal. Although the company was able to underpay their workers and discriminate for decades, they were eventually fined millions of dollars in damages and lost wages. This case can serve as a wake-up call to not overlook or underestimate the disabled or vulnerable in society. Works Cited
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Comission, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity. Intellectually Disabled Workers Awarded $1.3M for Pay discrimination by Henry's Turkey Service. 19 September 2012. 2014 .
Commission, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity. Jury Awards $240 Million for Long-Term Abuse of Workers with Intellectual Disability. 1 May 2013. 2014 .
Fund, Disability Rights Education & Defense. The History of the ADA. 1992. Arlene Mayerson. .
Hyman, John. EEOC Lands Its Largest Settlement Ever. 6 May 2013. 2014 .
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Labor, United States Department of. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). .
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