Farm Workers

COVID19 Threatens Seasonal Farmworkers At The Heart Of The Food Supply

April 6, 2020 Michael Haedicke, The Conversation. Educate! COVID-19, Farm Workers, Food and Agriculture

Many Americans may find bare grocery store shelves the most worrying sign of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their food system. But, for the most part, shortages of shelf-stable items like pasta, canned beans and peanut butter are temporary because the U.S. continues to produce enough food to meet demand – even if it sometimes takes a day or two to catch up. To keep up that pace, the food system depends on several million seasonal agricultural workers, many of whom are undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other countries. These laborers pick grapes in California, tend dairy cows in Wisconsin and rake blueberries in Maine. As a sociologist who studies agricultural issues, including farm labor, I believe that these workers face particular risks during the current pandemic that, if unaddressed, threaten keeping those grocery store shelves well stocked.

Heat Wave Safety: 130 Groups Call For Protections For Farm, Construction Workers

July 19, 2018 Georgina Gustin, Insideclimatenews.org Resist! Climate Change, Exploitation, Farm Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

Parts of the country are expecting another round of searing, potentially record-shattering heat in the coming days, and many farm and construction workers will be out in it—with no federal heat stress standards directing their employers to offer them water, rest or shade. Despite recommendations going back more than 40 years, the federal government has repeatedly failed to set a heat stress standard for American workers. On Tuesday, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, along with United Farm Workers Foundation and Farmworker Justice, joined more than 130 public health and environmental groups in submitting a petition to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration calling for the agency to require employers to protect their workers from heat by imposing mandatory rest breaks, hydration and access to shade or cooled spaces, among other measures.

Florida Farmworkers Push For Fairness In The Fields

March 7, 2018 By Negin Owliaei, Inequality.org Organize! Class Struggle, Exploitation, Farm Workers, Florida, Labor

South Florida was known as a hotbed for modern-day slavery. Now, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are using their innovative model to bring dignity to the tomato fields. Immokalee, Florida, is known for producing nearly all of the winter tomatoes in the United States. Up until recently, the town also had a reputation for being home to some of the worst labor exploitation in the country, with sexual violence, wage theft, and assault occurring regularly in the tomato fields. The working conditions were so bad that the town was considered “ground zero for modern slavery” in the United States. But one group has spent the last two decades transforming the conditions for Florida farmworkers. Through the use of boycotts, supply chain agreements, and an innovative monitoring program, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has made massive inroads in creating a safe workplace for one of labor’s most exploited communities.

Boycott Driscoll’s This Week In Support Of Workers

November 20, 2017 the Boycott Driscolls Campaign, www.popularresistance.org Resist! boycott, Farm Workers, Food and Agriculture, Worker Rights and Jobs

From the Boycott Driscolls Campaign. The 80,000 farmworkers in San Quintin, Baja California (Mexico), who are fighting for a collective-bargaining agreement with BerryMex, the Mexican subsidiary of Driscoll's Corporation, need your support. These are workers who toil in semi-slave-like conditions. They want improved wages and working conditions; they want an end to the sexual harassment of women fieldworkers; they want dignity and the recognition of their newly formed independent trade union: SINDJA.

Scores Of Farm Workers, Activists March On Ben & Jerry’s

June 23, 2017 Wilson Ring, www.AP.org Resist! Farm Workers, Protests, Vermont, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Wilson Ring for Associated Press - MONTPELIER, Vt. - Scores of dairy farm workers and activists marched Saturday to a Ben & Jerry’s factory to push for better pay and living conditions on farms that provide milk for the ice cream maker that takes pride in its social activism. Protesters said Ben & Jerry’s agreed two years ago to participate in the so-called Milk with Dignity program, but the company and worker representatives have yet to reach an agreement. “We can’t wait any more. We are going to pressure them and see what happens,” said Victor Diaz, a Mexican immigrant now working on a farm in Vergennes. The march that began Saturday morning in Montpelier ended mid-afternoon at the plant in Waterbury, about 14 miles away. Organized Will Lambek said the marchers presented a letter to company CEO Jostein Solheim who said the company was committed to joining the program.

True Food Systems Change From The Bottom Up

June 18, 2017 Families United for Justice, www.popularresistance.org Create! Farm Workers, Food and Agriculture, New Economy, Worker Rights

By Families United for Justice. On June 15th FUJ members turned out to overwhelmingly ratify the tentative collective bargaining agreement presented by their negotiations committee. After an overview of the contract the Mixteco and Triqui hand harvesters, men and women, lined up to cast their ballots. Official vote counters Jeff Johnson President of the WA State Labor Council and Steve Garey former President of the Steelworkers Local 12-591 tallied the vote and announced it was over 85% in favor of ratifying the tentative agreement. The harvesting season will begin soon with contractual benefits for members of FUJ hand harvesting the berries. Among the benefits union members will receive is an average $15 an hour wage. While this contract is truly a great victory, C2C's vision for a better food system stretches far beyond this moment.

Boycott Wendy’s

May 21, 2017 Staff, www.allianceforfairfood.org Resist! boycott, Farm Workers, Food and Agriculture, Worker Rights

By Coalition of Immokalee Workers. For over three years, farm workers and consumers have been demanding that Wendy’s join its major competitors – Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Subway and Burger King – in participating in the Fair Food Program. Yet, Wendy's has instead consciously and shamefully opted to profit from farm worker poverty and abuse, continuing to cling to the low-bar standards of the past when presented with an acclaimed and proven alternative. Rather than participate in what was called the "best workplace-monitoring program” in the U.S. in the New York Times, Wendy's ran from responsibility and abandoned the Florida tomato industry altogether. In response to increasing pressure from consumers to join the Fair Food Program, Wendy's released a new code of conduct for its suppliers, a perfect example of the failed, widely-discredited approach to corporate social responsibility that is completely void of effective enforcement mechanisms to protect farm workers’ human rights.

It’s Time to Scrap NAFTA, Not ‘Tweak’ It

February 26, 2017 Victor Suarez and Alejandro Villamar, www.fpif.org Educate! Canada, Farm Workers, Jobs and Wages, Mexico, NAFTA, Trade, United States

By Victor Suarez and Alejandro Villamar for Foreign Policy in Focus. Some politicians and “experts” still don’t understand — or don’t want to understand — that a great deal of popular discontent in the United States, Mexico, and Canada alike is rooted in undemocratic policies that have produced inequality, unemployment, migration, food dependency, and pollution. NAFTA isn’t the only factor — but it’s one of the most powerful. The reason is that NAFTA was never designed for the development of our peoples through trade, but instead to advance the narrow corporate interests of multi-national firms and the governments that serve them. In the case of Mexico, it was negotiated and signed by an authoritarian government that only served the interests of large Mexican and global corporations, and which turned its back on productive sectors linked to the domestic market.

Sakuma Agrees To Negotiate A Contract With Farm Workers

July 9, 2016 Whatcom-Skagit General Membership Branch, IWW, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Farm Workers, Food and Agriculture, Wages, Worker Rights

By Whatcom-Skagit General Membership Branch, IWW. Four Years Struggle Three Years Boycott, Sakuma Finally Ready to Negotiate- FUJ Response to Sakuma Press Statement on MOU Burlington, WA - We at Familias Unidas Por la Justica (FUJ) are certainly encouraged that Sakuma Berry Farms has relented to the pressure of the ‪#‎BoycottDriscolls‬ campaign and the workers voices in the fields to finally agree to begin negotiations. We want to make three things very clear: 1. Sakuma Brothers Farms approached us at FUJ indirectly to begin the process. 2. We have agreed to meet on a date proposed by them. 3. They asked for confidentiality about this prior to our meeting with them.

Cesar Chavez Day: His Legacy Lights A New Leader’s Path

March 31, 2016 Emma Torres, www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org Educate! Cesar Chavez, Farm Workers, Food and Agriculture, Strike

By Emma Torres for Equal Voice. I was only 15 years old when my family became involved in the huelga (strike) in California. My parents, aunts and uncles provided meals to hundreds of Chavistas who stopped at our town of Soledad, Calif. during their marches. My siblings and I had no idea how witnessing those historical moments would change our lives. We did not yet understand that we were inheriting the legacy of our humble and hard-working parents. But the idea of being in la lucha – the struggle to achieve social justice – stuck in our minds as we listened to a man who looked like us shout that we were worthy human beings who deserved better wages, better working conditions, portable toilets, clean drinking water and respect. That was something I had not heard before and have never since forgotten.

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