ALAMOSA — For decades, a mushroom farm in the San Luis Valley was celebrated as a major employer that gave an economic future to Guatemalans who fled civil war in the 1980s.
Its manager, Baljit Nanda, was described as a “mushroom magnate.” Button, crimini and portobello mushrooms — grown, plucked and packaged by migrant workers laboring in a 10-acre metal warehouse northeast of Alamosa — were sold to grocery stores like Whole Foods and King Soopers.
But when the farm quietly closed last year, it owed thousands of dollars in unpaid wages to employees, some of whom were injured on the job and subjected to unsafe working conditions, according to more than a dozen interviews with former employees, their family members and community advocates.
One woman was struck by a forklift while working at the farm. Another had her finger amputated after her hand was caught in equipment. Laborers and at least one vendor were paid with checks that bounced. When some employees confronted a manager at Colorado Mushroom Farm last year, he threatened to call immigration authorities.
The farm filed for bankruptcy in December, citing $100,000 or less in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities. Some of the former workers are undocumented, leaving them little recourse to pursue lost wages or compensation for workplace injuries.
“All the families are victims — my family and my kids, other families and their kids,” said Juan Mejia, who worked at the mushroom farm until June 8, operating...
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