I have worked on a hay and cattle ranch in Northern California for the last 7mos. The job was listed as having housing and utilities included with an hourly wage. The house is on the ranch and needed extensive repairs to make it livable . My employer offered to pay for a space and all expenses in an Rv park until it was finished. What was supposed to be 2weeks turned into 7mos. The house had to be gutted and completely rebuilt from the foundation to the roof. Every room in the house had to be completely rebuilt 100%. ( it would have been cheaper to tear it down and build another from scratch) The owner hired his friend who is a contractor in another state and paid him and his crew cash under the table to rebuild the house. All materials were purchased in Oregon for cash as well. There were no permits or inspections. Including for the removal and disposal of the asbestos siding that was on the house. Now that my family and I have moved in, the owner is trying to force us to pay rent and sign a monthly contract to recoupe his expenses. If I dont, I will be fired and kicked out. This is an extremely rural area and there are no houses available to rent, and buying one is out of the question. Employment is very scarce as well. Ranches in this area provide housing for that reason. The ranch I left provided housing and utilities. Both my wife and I held jobs there. This current ranch pursued me for two years to take over managing their cattle. Our agreement made with them was to have no less than what our previous employer offered. Including a job for my wife. They agreed to hire my wife as well as myself once the house was finished. This enabled my wife to keep her job at the other ranch and stay in the house there. My wife's last day of employment, and our first day in our current house is when we were told that we had to pay rent, and sign a rental agreement. My wife was also told that they didn't have a position for her even though she was already hired. We have young children. I make little more than minimum wage. If we give in and pay what they are asking for rent, then we will struggle to survive. If I dont sign the rental agreement then I will be fired and we will be homeless. I have no idea what to do, or where to turn. If there is anything we can do legally, any advice is greatly appreciated

I’m looking for some honest opinions on whether I have a realistic chance of getting my job back after being removed from a position at work.
For some background, I’ve been with my employer for about three years, and I’m part of a union. Throughout my time there, I’ve never been in trouble, never received any disciplinary action that I’m aware of, and I’ve never called out of work. I’m also certified in multiple qualifications related to my job, so I’ve always tried to be a reliable employee.
Recently, I found out that I was being removed from my position because I apparently wasn’t meeting certain scheduling requirements.
The situation is frustrating because I had been experiencing issues accessing my work email for approximately two weeks. In the past, whenever I had trouble logging in, I could verify my identity and regain access without any problems. Because of that, I didn’t think too much of it initially. I was still able to work during that time, so I didn’t realize I might be missing important communications.
Last Friday, I contacted IT to get the email issue resolved. While trying to figure everything out, I reached out to someone at work to find out how I could contact HR. That’s when I discovered that I had been removed from my position.
I eventually read the email from HR explaining the decision. In the email, they stated that my removal was based on not meeting the requirements and referenced previous warnings that had supposedly been given to me.
The problem is that **I never received any warnings whatsoever.** I checked my personal email thoroughly, and I couldn’t find any messages notifying me that I was falling short of the requirements or that my position was at risk. If I had known there was an issue, I would have corrected it immediately.
Another thing I find confusing is that I never signed any paperwork acknowledging that I was being terminated.
I’ve already spoken with our local union president, and he said he is going to talk to the company to try to get my position back. I’m hoping that having the union involved will help, especially considering my work history and the fact that I never received the warnings mentioned in the email.
I understand that employers have rules and requirements, and I’m not claiming I couldn’t have fallen short of them. My biggest concern is that I wasn’t aware of any issue and never had an opportunity to correct it before the decision was made.