Claravale-Garthwaite2008

Ron Garthwaite and Collette Cassidy in happier times at Claravale Dairy, in 2008.

It’s been a tough few months for Claravale Dairy, what with being linked to a number of campylobacter illnesses as well as labor problems.

Two months ago, I reported on Claravale Dairy being near financial collapse, due to state-imposed recalls of its raw milk and a suit by two former employees seeking $500,000 in damages because they say they were misclassified, and underpaid.

Just in the last couple weeks, it seemed to get worse when a former Claravale manager (and not one of the two who sued) took Claravale to task for mismanaging the dairy, and its employees. The former manager, Spencer Tregilgas, posted accusations on both my blog’s Facebook page and on a crowdfunding page being used by Claravale to raise money from supporters, alleging that Claravale had intentionally overworked and otherwise exploited its former employees.

Claravale responded by removing the crowdfunding campaign, when it had raised about $26,000 of a targeted $600,000. I hid the Facebook item because i had concerns that Tregilgas’ post contained a number of potentially libelous charges against Claravale’s owners, Ron Garthwaite and Collette Cassidy.

Yet sometimes, when things look worst is when you turn a corner and begin to see the light. And that’s the way it is at Claravale, says Cassidy. In an email, she writes that the former employees “are trying to build a case that we took horrible advantage of them and all of our employees. It’s very sad and pathetic. They had an opportunity of a lifetime here, where we were looking for someone who had the interest and what it takes to learn the business and possibly inherit it.”

Now, she says, “We have a very good crew here. Everyone likes their  job and is well paid. That has always been the case.”  The three disgruntled employees “had the opportunity to learn from the best in the industry (Ron) but unfortunately thought they knew better.”

In a sense, labor problems have become more of a challenge for Claravale, and other farmers, than safety issues. At both the federal and state levels, regulators and legislators alike are intent on forcing businesses to pay contractors as employees and to pay managers overtime. So far has the pendulum swung that contractors/employees who accept positions knowing what the parameters are, sometimes are tempted to get lawyers to try to change the arrangements after the fact. And places like Claravale, which often can’t afford the extra charges, are put on the brink of going out of business. It even hit the fast-growing car service, Uber, when a California court ruled recently that it should have paid a contractor as an employee.

The safety problems, in that context, seem less weighty. As Cassidy puts it: “We have been milking cows for the production of raw milk here at Claravale Farm every day, twice a day, without a single break, for very nearly 90 years and have still never had a pathogen issue traceable to our facilities or procedures.” The outbreaks of 2012 and earlier this year were more related to the stresses of management than anything else, she suggests.