What About Farmworker Women?

By Valery Arevalo, Paralegal at the Farmworker Unit of Legal Aid NC

In light of the efforts to raise awareness of the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace, the phrase "me too" has surfaced on social media to show the magnitude of the issue and how much it is ingrained in our society. Though the voices of Hollywood actresses have been a great way to spark the conversation of a widespread act of injustice, what about the stories of those who are silenced?

It is important to take into consideration the plight of economically disadvantaged women who live in silence with these behaviors in their workplace. They are the most vulnerable to these abuses.

At the Golden Globe Awards, Oprah spoke about an open letter written on behalf of the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, the National Alliance of Female Farmworkers, comprised of about 700,000 female farmworkers. The letter expressed the gratitude of the farm worker alliance towards these powerful women who spoke out, as well as conveyed the fact that their stories went on in silence, in the shadows, and unreported out of fear. Though commendable, the women of the farmworker alliance stated that they felt as though they did not have the same privilege as these public figures did in speaking out.  Their stories did not come with glamour and crowds of a supportive audience, but with the endless fear of threats, failure to provide for their families, and being retaliated against.

A report last year by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that when someone is sexually harassed at work, the most common response was to avoid the harasser or ignore the behavior. The mentioned report stated that sexual harassment training across the board does not place an emphasis on the issue as means of prevention, or to protect its employees, but rather a way for industries to avoid legal liability. The report further emphasizes the issue at hand, that sexual harassment has become an issue that is swept under the rug so to speak, failing to protect employees of various industries in the places where they spend the majority of their time. According to reports from the National Farmworker Ministry, females in the fields are often given the lowest-paying jobs, are the first to be laid off, receive fewer opportunities to advance, and face a culture of discrimination and machismo in the workplace, on top of that, adding the element of being harassed.

The fact of the matter is that cases of sexual harassment and assault are part of the reality of the farm worker world. 90% of female farm workers that participated in a study in California identified sexual harassment as a problem in their work place. Being that women make up 22% of the agricultural workforce, the rate is alarming. Fear of retaliation, threats due to their legal status, and the need to maintain financial stability to provide for their families play a crucial role in the lives of these workers, which is why it is of utmost importance to educate this community of the dangers of sexual harassment, what it looks like, and how they can speak out against it by knowing their rights. They are usually the primary caregivers of their families, and for that very reason, they are reluctant to take legal action against their aggressors.

 These are some of the behaviors that by law are often considered acts of sexual harassment:

-Promising employment benefits in exchange for sexual favors

-Threats as a result of declining sexual advances

-Sexual abuse

-Vulgar comments

-Soliciting or demanding any sort of sexual act

-Unwelcome physical contact of any sort

It is important for the farm worker community to understand that they are in their right to decline any type of sexual advances, record the times and dates where these incidents have taken place, report these acts to a supervisor, the police, or a legal service provider of their choice. “It is a blatant violation of the law that any employer takes adverse action against the victim because the individual reports the act.

Working in a safe environment is a right, regardless of any type of status. There is enough abuse that goes in the workplace as it is, and sexual harassment is unacceptable. It is our duty as humans to report these incidents that affect those who do not feel at liberty to speak out.

If you work with farmworker women, please give them a copy of this info graphic about sexual harassment, created by our office, the Farmworker Unit at Legal Aid of North Carolina.

Should you become aware of any case of sexual harassment, please report and refer to our office by calling 919-856-2180. 

Delaying Implementation of WPS Delays Justice

By Patricia Patterson, Policy Advocacy Intern at Toxic Free NC

In December of 2016, Gina McCarthy—the former administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA—delivered a letter to the current administration of the EPA, petitioning a delay in the implementation of the Worker Protection Standard (WPS). Prior to this petition, most of the revised WPS was scheduled to officially go into effect on January 2, 2017. This petition proposed that the EPA place the implementation date behind a full year due to violations such as failing to provide adequate educational materials regarding WPS rule changes. In February of 2017, Barbara Glenn—the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, or NASDA—urged the EPA to publish an official letter relaying their agreement to delay implementation. Glenn requested that the EPA delay WPS until “adequate enforcement guidance, educational materials, and training resources have been completed and the state lead agencies have the tools, time, and resources necessary to effectively implement the rule changes and assist the regulated community with compliance activities.” The EPA is yet to publicly release an effective date for WPS since its recent decision to grant NAFTA’s petition.

The most recent revision to WPS was published in the Federal Register in November of 2015, which aimed to strengthen protections for farmworkers and their families. Since 2015, there have been hundreds of incidents of pesticide exposure that have jeopardized the health and lives of farmworkers. In February of this year near Bakersfield, California, an aerial application of a fungicide was applied to an almond farm while six workers were still in the field. This farm failed to notify and remove their workers prior to application, needlessly exposing them to a harmful pesticide. Despite the $500 fine that was issued to the employer for violating WPS, it is impossible to reverse the harmful effects caused by pesticide exposure. In addition to this, in June of this year, two pesticide exposure incidents occurred on a farm in Watsonville, California within a week of each other. Over 25 farmworkers were exposed to harmful insecticides and fungicides in two separate cases of pesticide drift that occurred in rapid succession of one another. As a result, several farmworkers were hospitalized due to severe dizziness, eye irritation, and other symptoms of illness. Violations such as the ones in Bakersfield and Watsonville further indicate an importance for effective revisions and swift enforcement of the WPS, changes that may not be implemented in time to help farmworkers currently suffering from pesticide exposure in their day-to-day lives.

A new regulation under the revised WPS aims to lessen the burden of toxics exposure by addressing the issue of children having direct contact with pesticides. The EPA has included a “first-time ever minimum age requirement,” which states, “Children under 18 are prohibited from handling pesticides.” It has long been known that the developing organ systems of children often make them more sensitive to toxic exposure. The EPA recognizes that children are more susceptible to toxics exposure, because children take in more pesticides relative to their body weight than adults. Children under 18 are at a higher risk of becoming developmentally and cognitively impaired due to pesticide exposure. The new WPS rule change would reduce the negative effects of toxics exposure on children by prohibiting them from handling pesticides. The choice to delay implementation of WPS prevents employers from enforcing safety measures such as this one, harming children who continue to handle pesticides.

By delaying implementation of the revised WPS, the EPA is allowing farmworkers to continue to be exposed to pesticides while maintaining limited regulation. While the EPA has managed to implement a couple of changes to WPS in 2017, many changes still remain unaffected. According to their website, the EPA plans to execute three major changes under WPS on January 2, 2018. These requirements under the revised WPS are listed as the following: “pesticide safety training must cover the expanded content; pesticide safety information (posters) must meet the revised standards; and handlers must suspend applications if workers or other people are in the application exclusion zone.” New regulations under the WPS such as the suspension of pesticide application while workers or others are present will help minimize the risk of pesticide exposure. Ensuring that these requirements are enacted as soon as possible is the best way to protect farmworkers and their families.

A Farmworker Institute for Farmworkers

By Anna Jensen, NC Farmworkers' Project

For 13 years, the Farmworker Advocacy Network has been bringing farmworker advocates together to strategize, share stories, and work collaboratively on legislation, enforcement, and farmworkers protections across North Carolina. This year, FAN expanded its effort to bring farmworkers themselves together from across the state to share their own stories, learn together, and support each others’ struggles.

On a Sunday in May, 22 field and poultry workers from Morganton to Kinston gathered at a church in Fuquay-Varina to meet each other, attend workshops about topics relevant to their lives, and relax on a day off work. The event, planned by members of FAN’s Worker Solidarity subcommittee, featured workshops on nutrition, phone apps that can be useful to farmworkers, immigration, theater performance, and workers’ rights. The lunch break included time for karaoke, and the day concluded with a raffle of donated items like soccer balls, speakers, and duffel bags.

Workers who participated said it was good to meet people and to have the chance to learn. Workers spoke highly of the nutrition workshop because it was practical and interactive. Other workers expressed an interest in knowing more about using theater to talk about difficult topics and to promote social justice.

In past years, some farmworkers have had the opportunity to travel to the Farmworker Institute, where advocates from across North Carolina gather for workshops every year. While the experience has always been valuable for workers and advocates, this year, the decision was made for farmworkers to have their own Institute so that more workers could participate, and so that FAN could offer more workshops relevant to farmworkers’ lives. Many workers can’t attend the Institute because it is held on a weekday during work hours, so participation is limited to workers who aren’t working or who feel comfortable asking their bosses for a day off. The decision to hold a separate event was in hopes that workers would have more of a chance to talk to each other, to build connections with workers from across the state, and to feel that they belonged in a space that taught advocacy and organizing.  While this year’s event was small, it offered workers the chance to form meaningful connections, and we hope to create more such spaces for workers in the future!

A Personal History of Progressive Support for Farmworker Union Organizing

By Dave Austin, Triangle Friends of Farmworkers

In 1976, fresh out of public health graduate school and the Peace Corps, I got hired as a staff member with the Carolina Brown Lung Association (CBLA), a non-profit organization advocating for workers’ compensation for workers incapacitated by the severely disabling disease called byssinosis, and for workplace standards to limit the cotton dust in textile mills that caused the disease, also known as “brown lung.”  When I started I knew next-to-nothing about how the workers’ comp system worked, or didn’t work …. and only a little bit more about workplace safety & health standards, how they were created, implemented and enforced …. or not. 

I look back on my 10-year experience with the CBLA with some pride because the organization successfully fought for and won some important policy changes.  Whereas in 1972 brown lung wasn’t even recognized as an occupational disease in the U.S., by the early 1980s the workers’ compensation system had changed significantly to recognize that brown lung was indeed caused by concentrated cotton dust in the mills and to create a protocol of diagnosis and workplace attribution that allowed hundreds of disabled textile workers to finally receive workers’ compensation.  For thousands before then it was too late, but it was something.   The disabled textile workers we helped to organize had everything to do with those changes.    

I also look back with some chagrin on my own naivete and obliviousness with regard to the effort to clean up the mills.  Because beyond the CBLA’s efforts to change brown lung compensation, we also wanted to prevent the disease. To do this we had to force OSHA to develop a workplace standard that would minimize cotton dust exposure.  

We did organize retired, disabled textile workers to testify about how they had contracted disabling brown lung after as little as one or two years in dusty areas of the mills, and this did have some significant effect in the 1978 promulgation of OSHA’s cotton dust standard (CDS).  But we had little access to active mill workers for the simple reason that we couldn’t offer them protection from getting fired if they took a stand.  The textile union (ACTWU) was a leader in pressuring for CDS passage and then fighting off the many industry appeals of the standard, as well as the actual implementation of the standard inside the mills – which, after all, was where it really mattered. 

Of ACTUW’s critical role, I was pretty oblivious.  Building/maintaining/organizing the CBLA seemed the most important thing in the world, and – although the intensity and passion of that 10 years of work was something I’ll always remember – I now look back and wonder how I could have missed what was right in front of my face: the importance of union protections in any kind of workplace movement.  And I wonder what I could have/should have done to support that effort.  ACTWU won an incredible victory in 1974 in winning a union vote at JP Stevens plants in Roanoke Rapids, but for me it came out of the blue.  And it took ACTWU 6 more long years before it was finally able to force JP Stevens to sign a contract.  Might it have been less if I and other progressives had supported ACTWU more? 

For several years now I’ve volunteered with organizations that support farmworker union organizing, namely the Triangle Friends of Farmworkers (TFF) and the National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM).  One frustration is that the importance of union organizing seems even less salient today to young progressives, and the public, than it was to me 40 years ago.  I believe progressives need to acknowledge better the absolute necessity of union protections in the workplace that can encourage workers themselves to create, fight for, and win control over their own lives.  Until workers themselves can take a collective stand, without fear of retaliation, significant changes in policies or laws or corporate or farm-level practices are impossible to imagine.  And, without significant public support, union organizing becomes an even more arduous and fragile exercise.  Unions depend on the dues of their members for organizing resources; farmworker union organizing needs considerable public support because seasonal work and the exploitive wage levels of farmworkers means dues contributions are incredibly low. 

Union organizing efforts operate within a legal framework that offers workers at least some protections in exercising legal rights.  Throughout the early decades of the 20^th century workers fought to create that framework.  This is why TFF and NFWM focus efforts on support for labor organizations whose members are farmworkers, like the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). FLOC has won benefits for members through collective bargaining. These benefits were previously seen as important but improbable legislative reform goals.  FLOC is now involved in spreading the right to collectively bargain (beyond the farmworkers currently covered through FLOC’s contract with the NC Growers’ Association) to thousands more farmworkers in the Southern supply chain of tobacco giants such as Reynolds American. To learn more or get involved, contact Triangle Friends of Farmworkers at:  daustin@mindspring.com;  or  the National Farm Worker Ministry at: salan@nfwm.org  for ideas on how to help, such as driving farmworker-leaders in FLOC to and from critical regional organizing meetings.   Forty years from now, I hope more people can look at farmworker organizing victories and say “we played a key role in that effort”.  

Farmworkers and the ACA

The deadline for enrolling in the Health Insurance Marketplace came and went at the end of January. Though the ACA open enrollment period has passed, those experiencing certain life events – including marriage, moving, or a change in immigration status – may be eligible for a special enrollment period. While these life events may seem obvious to some, others may not realize that they are eligible for coverage.

For H2-A workers who enter this country to work for a specific period of time, once their visas are stamped and they enter the US, they gain lawful immigration status and become eligible for a special enrollment period (SEP) to enroll in health care coverage. However, in North Carolina 90% of all farmworkers do not have health insurance for a variety of reasons. Farmworkers must enroll within 60 days of arriving in North Carolina, and there is a limited number of in-person assisters to help them with their applications, especially since farmworkers work long hours. Finally, growers or workers themselves simply do not realize that H2-A workers are eligible. Likewise, farmworkers require frequent follow-up to help them after the enrollment process to translate mail and troubleshoot errors, such as​ missing tax credits or misplaced insurance payments.

Agricultural labor is one of the most dangerous lines of work. Farmworkers do particularly grueling jobs that involve repetitive motions, exposure to the heat and pesticides,​ and working with heavy machinery. For these reasons, farmworkers need access to health care. With the Affordable Care Act their health plans cover basic care – doctor’s visits, physicals and hospital stays. The average cost for health insurance is $20 to $80 a month. Farmworkers and their families are a particularly vulnerable group and are greatly​ in need of the peace of mind that they will be able to afford health care and be able to continue doing farm labor if they are hurt on the job.

There are many health organizations in North Carolina working hard to improve access to health care for farmworkers. One such group is the North Carolina Farmworkers Project, located in Benson, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping farmworkers improve their living conditions and increasing access to health care. Last year, they enrolled more than 200 workers through collaborations with other organizations at enrollment events in May and July timed to meet workers when they arrive in the state. They have many success stories, one being a farmworker whose insurance coverage started on July 1 and who suffered a broken leg on July 4, but thanks to his health insurance he was able to go to a local hospital and physical therapy was covered when he got out. If he had not had health insurance,​ his bills would have been more than $30,000, and he would have had limited access to local, affordable physical therapy without his insurance.

The NC Farmworkers Project proves that local organizations are needed to do the work of expanding health care coverage to people who require​ it the most, especially in rural areas. Through specialized outreach strategies and community partnerships, we can improve the lives of those who desperately need access to health care and are able to sign up for marketplace coverage.

The Pay Stub Disclosure Act

From Interfaith Worker Justice (http://www.iwj.org/)

As many as 20 million U.S. working men and women, including farmworker and poultry workers, do not receive pay stubs outlining how their pay is calculated or what deductions were taken from their wages. Too often, workers who don't receive pay stubs are victims of wage theft, cheated of the pay they legally earned.

Currently, there is no there is no federal requirement that employers give workers pay stubs. Without a paystub, workers are not only at a disadvantage in determining if they have been paid correctly, but without documentation, they have difficulty proving the violation.

In January, Representative Bobby Scott has introduced a bill, The Pay Stub Disclosure Act (HR 4376), in the US House of Representatives requiring employers to provide workers with information that employers are already required to keep and thereby help deter wage theft.

The Pay Stub Transparency Act would:

• Require a uniform federal pay stub, making it easier for multi-state employers who currently face a patchwork of varying state laws.
• Require employers to provide information to employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime requirements, with a pay stub that explain how their wages are calculated, including whether they were paid overtime.
• Give employees the right to inspect their employers’ pay records.
• Give employees the ability to go to court to seek financial remedy when their rights to a pay stub or records inspection are violated.
• Codify the legal presumption that if an employer fails to keep records of an employee’s pay, the employee’s own credible evidence and testimony about his or her pay is presumed to be true.

The Pay Stub Transparency Act is important because wage theft, which is rampant in throughout the U.S, is especially devastating for workers in low-wage jobs. Too often, workers’ pay is illegally whittled down by undercounting the hours they worked, paying illegal wage rates or taking unauthorized deductions.

Many workers are paid in cash, by check without any explanation or calculation, or with a payroll debit card that either doesn’t have a pay stub feature or that charges workers a fee to see their pay stubs. One recent study of 4,000 low-paid workers found that 57 percent did not get a paystub.

By requiring employers to provide pay stubs, workers will receive more of their legally owed wages and deter wage theft.

First, employers would think twice about underpaying workers their wages if the hours and wage rates had to be reported regularly on a paystub. Studies show that those employers who pay in cash or without proper paystubs are often ones who steal wages from workers. 

Second, workers who understand how they are paid (or underpaid) would be better equipped to talk with their employers about discrepancies between their own records and the employers’. 

Third, workers who discovered that their employers were cheating and couldn’t resolve the problems directly with their employers would have better information for filing a wage complaint.

The Pay Stub Disclosure Act is a common-sense piece of legislation that will help workers know their rights to be properly paid, will give them the tools to ensure that they are being compensated as they should be, and in if necessary, the proof and documentation they need to help recover stolen wages.

Consider calling your Congressperson to ask that they co-sponsor this common-sense piece of legislation.

Imagine that Farmworkers Were Not Afraid of Losing Their Jobs

By: Dave Austin, FLOC Organizer 

At the 4/16/15 Farmworker Institute I again had the pleasure of talking with farmworker support organization staff from around the state about their important work. The organizations ranged from farmworker health services to legal aid services to housing rehab services to faith-based institutions providing material and spiritual aid to farmworkers.  These dedicated folks are uniformly devoted to their work, and to farmworkers. But I couldn’t help hearing some frustration and resignation in their voices when I asked about the impacts they feel they are making.  For example, staff of an organization that provides health services for migrant farmworkers talked to me about barriers they face. Certainly farmworkers face living and working condition hazards that result in poor health.  But beyond that truism, I heard these service providers saying things like:

•  Identifying health risks/hazards for farmworkers through health education and training has little impact, because farmworkers are powerless to insist on changes – especially if those changes would cost the grower.
• Workers are extremely reluctant to ask for time off for illness, or to see a health care provider about symptoms. They fear losing wages, and also retaliation. They fear for their jobs.
• The opportunity to enact more effective health & safety regulations and laws is severely limited because the current political climate tends in the opposite direction and/or there is no worker constituency that can argue on its own behalf, and behind which supporters could rally. And even if a new regulation was passed, it’s doubtful there would be meaningful enforcement on the ground. 

The responses from staff in other farmworker service sectors (e.g. legal support of worker rights; housing) were pretty similar.  A summarizing conclusion might be: no matter how good our outreach; no matter how well and conveniently we provide services; no matter how strategically we plan policy change campaigns, farmworkers’ fear of losing their jobs, or discrimination on the job, stalls their participation. And that participation is absolutely essential to meaningful accomplishment for our organizations/agencies. Farmworkers’ fear undercuts the impacts we might have.   

My own conclusion is that, over the years, there are more and more farmworker support organizations/agencies, working harder and harder, but – as illustrated in SAF’s film Harvest of Dignity – having only limited significant impact on farmworkers’ lives across the state.  As a volunteer with the Farmworker Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), I believe that only membership in a union can afford a farmworker the job protection that will allow him/her to collaborate with, to facilitate, and to benefit from, the services that farmworker support organizations provide.

While many people know little about FLOC or how a union operates, with each successful grievance resolution more FLOC members understand how the union works. Building the union is painstaking work. And the work is not just in the fields and labor camps. To build farmworker organizations, there must be “freedom of association” for farmworkers – that is, farmworkers must have the legally protected right to join together in whatever kind of association they decide they need. To achieve that right, FLOC is coordinating a “corporate campaign” that is pressuring RJ Reynolds and the other international tobacco companies to affirm this right, and its guaranteed implementation “on the ground”  -- because only large corporate commodity processors like RJR have the power and resources to insure this systemic change of a major guarantee of human rights for farmworkers in the commodity chain.  

This corporate campaign requires engaging diverse allies, from national faith based organizations to the international allies, like progressive members of the British Parliament, and labor allies in Europe.  It is also a massive job. Farmworker unions, like Cesar Chavez’ United Farm Workers, have succeeded only when there was consistent, strong public support.  That help is often just showing up – at a rally, at a corporate shareholders meeting, or wherever, because public support is what ultimately wins corporate campaigns – when large corporations finally see what the advocates see – that creating a system that recognizes worker human rights is, ultimately, a win-win for corporate processors, for growers, and for workers.    

There would seem to be no more natural allies for farmworker union organizing than staff/volunteers/friends of farmworker support organizations --  because you already know about the conditions farmworkers face, including their fear of losing their jobs. I hope you will hear this plea to lend support – either organizationally, or personally, or both, to the farmworker union organizing effort. 

What Makes the North Carolina Farmworker Institute Unique

On April 16, more than 150 farmworker advocates gathered at the United Church of Chapel Hill to network with each other and learn about issues affecting farmworkers. Workshops included an update on how DACA and DAPA expansion will affect farmworkers, an explanation of the Affordable Care Act in relation to farmworkers, and a discussion of camp access and using songwriting as an outreach tool with farmworkers. The keynote speaker, Neftali Cuello, a farmworker youth and activist, delivered a powerful spoken word poetry piece about her experiences in the fields and the need for justice for farmworkers. It was a beautiful day of learning new things, sharing experiences, challenging assumptions, and growing in both faith and practice.

In its sixth year, the Farmworker Institute developed out of programs of the NC Council of Churches Farmworker Ministry Committee. Today the annual summit has expanded to include people working in health outreach, legal services, advocacy, and faith (I met some wonderful people of faith, including a representative of the Society of St. Andrew’s and a group from Church Women United).  What grew out of Jesus’ Good News to the poor and oppressed now includes all who are motivated to seek justice for the oppressed and to advocate for fair wages and work with dignity.

Another exceptional aspect of the Farmworker Institute is that it incorporates the voices of farmworkers themselves. This year 22 farmworkers attended the event and received training about their rights and reported back to decision makers about what their needs are. This was my third year attending the event and my first year serving on the Planning Committee; every year I continue to be impressed by the skills, knowledge, and resources of the other farmworker advocates in North Carolina. In fact, the very first South Carolina Farmworker Institute is taking place this month, demonstrating the importance of an event such as this.  The NC Farmworker Institute truly embodies Cesar Chavez’s words about the message of Jesus: “He is calling us to ‘hunger and thirst after justice’ in the same way that we hunger and thirst after food and water: that is, by putting our yearning into practice.”

The 2015 NC Farmworker Institute Planning Committee