By: Jennie Wilburn
As we head into Labor Day weekend, most Americans are anticipating a Monday off from work and a time to spend with their families celebrating the end of summer with one final barbecue. However, most people do not considerwe sometimes forget the laborers themselves on Labor Day.
Most of the food that Americans buy at the supermarket has been grown and harvested by laborers who spend long hours with few breaks toiling in the fields or factories, performing repetitive tasks, bent over, often in extreme weather, with no paid holidays or sick days. For their hard work farmworkers receive very little pay, often less than $12,000 a year. For all that they do to provide those who do not farm with food, migrant workers also put themselves in danger. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, farming is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.[1] More farmworkers died due to job-related causes in 2010 than miners, roofers, police officers, or truck drivers. The average life expectancy for a farmworker is significantly lower than that of people in other professions due to heat stress, chemical exposure, unsafe transportation, and farm machine accidents.
Also, as you barbecue your chicken or cut up cucumbers for your salad, remember the that farmworkers have not only suffered physically for your food, but also suffered injustices. The majority of farm workers are immigrants to the United States, and of those immigrants about half are working legally as citizens or under guest worker laws. Most farmworkers have not completed a high school education and most speak English as a second language or not at all. This lack of education and inability to speak the language, along with the barriers of being unfamiliar with the US legal system, results in most farmworkers not knowing their rights as workers. This lack of knowledge allows corporations to exploit farmworker labor. Farmworkers may be forced to work long and unfair hours without overtime and tolerate unsafe conditions without hazard pay or insurance when they are hurt. Farmworkers are often not allowed to unionize and have few legal protections against unjust practices such as sexual harassment. Likewise, child labor laws are different for agricultural work than for any other type of work. Children as young as 12 can work in the fields with no limit to the hours that they work while not in school.[2]
This Labor Day, if you happen to be lucky enough to sit down to an American-grown meal, consider the farmworkers who harvested your food. Those workers did not get to stop and take a holiday. Furthermore, the farmworkers receive very little of the sticker price of your groceries in return for his work. Of the amount that you paid for the food in the supermarket, farmworkers receive about 10 cents for every $1 you spent.[3] After you have considered these facts, pledge to take action to help farmworkers by researching local farms that welcome unions and treat their workers well and by supporting legislation that provides farmworkers with safe conditions and fair wages. If one person considers a farmworker at each meal and pledges to make a change, then one day we will arrive at a society that not only affords basic dignity to all its workers, but also provides its workers with the same wages and protections for all people in all types of labor.
[1] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf
[2] http://www.ncfh.org/?pid=4&page=9
[3] http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/08/17/could-farms-survive-without-illegal-labor/the-costs-and-benefits-of-a-raise-for-field-workers