Congress is Late to the Party: Blocking Farmworkers' Rights to Pesticide Information

by Elisa Lazzarino, Toxic Free NC 

Farmworkers and their advocates across the country find themselves caught in the middle of a battle between the agrochemical industry, its allies in Congress, and the EPA. At the heart of this conflict is a rider attached to the EPA’s annual funding bill, which would block the agency’s funding to implement and enforce a controversial clause requiring growers to furnish information about the pesticides they use to farmworkers or third-party representatives of farmworkers. Members of the House Committee on Agriculture claim that their decision to constrain the EPA was prompted by the EPA’s lack of transparency in reviving this rule without explicitly notifying members of Congress. However, the dynamics of the situation might reveal more about the Committee’s relationship with industry more than their irritation at EPA’s conduct.

Representatives from the Farm Bureau argue that the requirement places an unfair burden on growers, who might then become targets for activists seeking to use employee disputes to make a political statement, as the clause has no criteria as to who can serve as a third-party representative for farmworkers. Growers and agrochemical producers also fear such a requirement would disadvantage them legally and hurt their profits in the event of a lawsuit from a third-party representative. Growers claim that they would have no objection to requests for pesticide information from the workers themselves, but are strongly opposed to exposing themselves to lawsuits and public criticism. Despite this outcry from powerful voices in the agricultural industry and its supporters in Congress, the EPA chose to continue with the clause after a period of public comment, in which they concluded that the industry brought forth no new information, and support for the measure from those outside industry was overwhelming.

Farmworker advocates, however, argue that growers’ complaints are simply unfounded and ignorant of the legitimate reasons for the provision of third-party representatives for farmworkers, such as the event that a farmworker is ill, injured, or otherwise incapacitated. Given that farmworkers are already greatly disadvantaged in contrast to the immense power that growers and industry hold, particularly their unyielding support from many elected officials and agricultural regulators, farmworker advocates reject growers’ claims of unfairness with respect to the implications of this clause. Advocates point to the numerous legal and social constraints placed on farmworkers.

For example, despite their enormous contribution to the economy and the national food supply, farmworkers have almost none of the labor rights that workers in other industries take for granted, such as protections from employer retaliation against unionizing workers, and the right to collective bargaining. Farmworkers are not guaranteed overtime pay, and despite the high risk of injury and illnesses from exposure to both pesticides and extreme heat, neither do they generally receive workers’ compensation as most growers are exempt from federal requirements. Additionally, only commercial-scale farming operations are required to pay their workers minimum wage, and still many growers only pay their workers according to the quantity of produce they pick, requiring workers to pick several tons of produce to earn the amount that workers in other industries might earn in an hour at indoor, sedentary jobs. Shockingly, child labor laws for agricultural work are also far more lenient than they are in most other industries. Children as young as ten may perform agricultural work around heavy machinery, in intense heat, and in the presence of toxic chemicals with the consent of their parents, where in most other industries the minimum working age is at least fourteen.

In addition to these economic disadvantages, social and cultural circumstances, as well as historical events, created a massive decline in agricultural profits in Mexico and Central America, the origin point of the majority of farmworkers, and made migrant agricultural work in the US one of just few viable options for disenfranchised farmers from this region. Far-reaching trade agreements like NAFTA, which provided generous subsidies to US growers, destabilized the Mexican agricultural market and severely undercut the prices of Mexican producers, driving many of them to come to the US to look for work at much lower pay relative to cost of living. Another crucial distinguishing factor among farmworkers is the fact that large portion that are undocumented are effectively prevented from advocating for themselves through the normal channels used by documented workers of other industries in the US. Fear of retaliation from their employers, which could jeopardize not only their safety and livelihood, but the stability of their families, prevents many farmworkers from speaking out against employer abuses. Finally, perhaps the most pressing reason farmworker advocates support stronger requirements of growers to provide pesticide exposure information to their workers is that this information is often essential to physicians in making an accurate diagnosis of illnesses which are often asymptomatic until years after the initial exposure. In almost any other field, workers exposed to hazardous chemicals would have the freedom to seek necessary information about their illness, but without legal requirements on their employers, farmworkers simply do not have this freedom.

Speaking of bathrooms...

by Clermont Ripley, Workers' Rights Project, North Carolina Justice Center

Speaking of bathrooms…

Who gets to use which bathroom in public spaces in North Carolina has gotten a lot of attention lately thanks to HB2, which was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly during a special one day session in April.  But there is another group of North Carolinians who are also being denied bathroom access: poultry workers.  

Low wage workers at poultry processing plants across the state have long complained about not being given enough time to take bathroom breaks while at work.  Most poultry processing is done by workers lined up along a moving belt with chickens flying by at a rate of 140 birds per minute.  They cannot leave the line to take a break unless someone is there to take their spot on the line.  As a result, workers end up limiting their fluid intake or just holding it – both options have adverse medical consequences.  No Relief, a new publication from Oxfam America as part of their campaign to improve working conditions in poultry plants, reports that many poultry workers resort to wearing adult diapers in order to avoid discomfort and embarrassment at work.  Oxfam also reports that workers who do request bathroom breaks often have to wait an hour to be allowed to go, but many other workers don’t even request breaks because they are scared of punished or threats of retaliation.

Workers at Case Farms in Morganton, North Carolina are fed up with the lack of bathroom access.  They are asking their plant manager to adopt a policy of allowing workers bathroom breaks within a reasonable amount of time after the worker’s request: 10 minutes.  They are also asking the plant manager to ensure that the line supervisors actually carry out this bathroom break policy.  The Farmworker Advocacy Network is proud of the brave stand these poultry workers are taking and is supporting their demand for basic respect and dignity in the workplace.  You can lend your voice to their campaign by signing this petition.  

Join our Workers Memorial Day 2016 service April 28th in Raleigh

Honor the dead, demand the living at NCDOL do more to protect workers.

Join us 10 AM Thursday, April 28th for a press conference and solemn memorial service to honor the 128 workers who died on the job in North Carolina in 2014 and to call for the North Carolina Department of Labor to do more to prevent workplace injuries and fatalities. We will ring a bell 128 times to memorialize each person who died while working for a better life.

Who: NC State AFL-CIO, NC Justice Center, NC Council of Churches, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Student Action with Farmworkers, Action NC, and others

What: Solemn memorial service and press conference on Workers’ Memorial Day

When: Thursday, April 28, 2016, at 10:00 AM – WEAR BLACK!

Where: Bicentennial Mall, across from the legislative building, 16 W. Jones St., Raleigh, NC 27601

Why: 128 workers died on the job in 2014 – 128 too many and evidence that the Department of Labor needs to DO MORE to protect the lives and health of working people on the job

RSVP: bit.ly/wmdral2016

Grab the flyer for WMD 2016 (PDF):

New! Facts about North Carolina's Poultry Processing Workers

Farmworker Advocacy Network’s (FAN) Harvest of Dignity campaign has recently published a new factsheet on poultry processing in North Carolina, one of the state’s top agricultural commodities. This new resource contrasts the profits of the billion-dollar poultry industry with the health and safety hazards, poverty-level wages, and fear that many of the poultry processing workers face in North Carolina.   

 “… a closer look inside this profitable industry reveals hazardous work conditions and low wages for its workers, with few workplace protections and a climate of discrimination.” 

Read and/or download the full factsheet and recommendations here. 

Sign up to receive email updates on how to get involved in the movement to support North Carolina poultry workers. 

Lives on the Line -- A New Report on U.S. Poultry Workers

"Chicken is the most popular meat in the country; Americans consume 89 pounds per capita every year. Yet the people who process the birds that end up on our plates remain largely invisible. Over the past 50 years, poultry has ballooned to a $50 billion industry—while nearly a quarter of a million workers in the processing plants endure dangerous conditions and poverty-level wages every day," begins the Executive Summary of a compelling new report and interactive website from Oxfam America, Lives on the Line. 

North Carolina ranks #3 in the nation for poultry production. In fact, it is our state's top agricultural commodity. But little is known about the thousands of workers in our state who work on dangerously fast production lines, earning low wages and enduring a climate of fear. One of FAN's member organizations, the Western North Carolina Workers Center, played an important role in Oxfam's report, assisting for years with research and interviews with poultry plant employees. 

Take a moment to visit and share this interactive website that offers a glimpse inside the hidden side of a booming industry and learn more about things you can do to help those whose lives are on the line. 

FAN issues Press Statement on EPA's New Worker Protection Standard

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press contacts: Preston Peck, Toxic Free NC – (919) 833-1123, preston@toxicfreenc.org

Strengthened Federal Worker Protection Standard Applauded in North Carolina, but Focus Now Turns to Enforcement

RALEIGH, NC, October 12, 2015. The amended Worker Protection Standard (WPS)--the set of agricultural worker safety requirements overseen by the EPA--includes strengthened and new provisions intended to further protect farmworkers and pesticide applicators from exposure to pesticides. These new rules establish a minimum age of 18 for pesticide handlers; increases the frequency of worker safety training from once every five years to every year; improves the content and quality of worker safety trainings; provides new rules on decontamination and personal protective equipment; and improves the quality of information that workers receive about the pesticides that have been applied at their workplace.

“These provisions are a strong step forward toward protecting North Carolina’s farmworkers and their families from the detrimental effects of pesticides,” said Preston Peck, Policy Advocate with Toxic Free NC. “However, we will now be turning our focus towards the EPA and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture to ensure that this standard is effectively implemented and enforced”.

North Carolina’s Farmworker Advocacy Network (FAN), a coalition that advocates for farmworkers’ rights, played a strong role in the development of these provisions through collecting dozens of statements from farmworkers and others in the state who provide direct services to them during the EPA’s public comment period to ensure that farmworkers’ voices were heard by regulatory agencies. In April 2014, the coalition facilitated an in-person listening session at the annual NC Farmworker Institute with key EPA staff to hear directly from workers about their experiences with pesticides and their opinions about the proposed changes.

“It was crucial to let farmworkers have a say in the updates to the laws that affect them daily,” says Nadeen Bir, Advocacy and Organizing Director at Student Action with Farmworkers. “FAN will continue our conversations with farmworkers to determine how the improved standard is actually being implemented.”

Some provisions that FAN wanted in the new WPS, such as medical monitoring, were absent from the final provisions released on Monday. They say that they now wish to partner with the EPA and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture to ensure that the new rules are implemented swiftly and that there is strong enforcement of the safety standard. Farmworkers have been on the front lines of occupational exposure to pesticides for decades, and many have suffered acute and chronic symptoms from close contact with toxic pesticides in the fields. It has taken more than 20 years for the Worker Protection Standard to be updated and revised, but farmworkers, advocates, health providers and residents of rural communities hope that EPA’s improved rule leads to real improvements in workplace safety for agricultural workers.

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Media Release: EPA pesticide safety changes welcome, farmworker coalition says, but fall short

MARCH 31, 2014 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: John Zambenini (937)554-4583 

EPA pesticide safety changes welcome, farmworker coalition says, but fall short 

Ag Worker Protection Standard update overdue, working children still not protected 

"The new proposal falls short in key ways, such as allowing teenagers to work as pesticide applicators." --Fawn Pattison, Toxic Free NC. Photo by Peter Eversoll. 

RALEIGH — A group of North Carolina farmworker advocates praised proposed EPA changes to the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard, but said the measures represent only a partial improvement for workers’ health and safety. The North Carolina Farmworker Advocacy Network (FAN) announced Monday its support of upcoming changes designed to reduce workers’ risk of pesticide exposure. But the measures, now open for public comment, still fall short, advocates say. 

Coalition leaders say changes to the 22-year-old standard address inhumane working conditions where pesticide exposure is a significant risk, but stop short of protecting children or monitoring the long-term harm of exposure.

“For too long, the people who pick our food have been forced to put their own health and their children’s at risk, just by going to work,” Fawn Pattison, Senior Advocate at FAN member organization Toxic Free North Carolina said. “We’re pleased the EPA proposed strengthening this outdated safety standard. But the  It is not immediately clear whether the changes will sufficiently address documentation loopholes that stymied the high-profile Ag-Mart case concerning three children born in 2005 with severe birth defects. Their mothers worked in tomato fields for Ag-Mart when they were pregnant, and the birth defects were believed to be linked to pesticide exposure. The proposed new regulations do call for growers to keep records of pesticide applications, as well as more frequent training for applicators, though no record of when workers return to treated fields.

The EPA’s proposal has renewed community efforts to address unsafe working conditions. “We’re pleased that the EPA is proposing strengthening protections for youth who work in the fields,” Carol Brooke of the NC Justice Center said, “but believe that children under 18 should not be exposed to the hazards of handling pesticides.”

Nadeen Bir, Advocacy and Organizing Director, of Student Action with Farmworkers said the long overdue update must be part of a broader conversation about farmworker issues. “Enforcement of the standard is always a challenge,” Bir said. “It’s made worse by workers’ fear of retaliation if they come forward about violations.”

The estimated 1-2.4 million farmworkers in the United States often live in fear of wages being withheld or documentation being confiscated if they report violations or abuse.

“The proposed rule is positive, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle,” Bir said. The comment period ends June 17th. FAN is calling on the public to voice support for the proposal, and for stronger protections for children and youth in particular. A full copy of the proposed rule, and instructions for commenting can be found on the EPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/safety/workers/proposed/index.html.

The coalition is calling for continued scrutiny of policies that affect the lives of farmworkers. Part of the challenge the WPS changes present is sifting through the details of the lengthy new policy and anticipating the needs of workers. Its ramifications are not yet completely known, advocates said. Farmworker Advocacy Network is an award-winning coalition committed to recognizing the humanity and leadership of farmworkers, upon whom our agricultural system is dependent, and bringing their concerns to the public. www.ncfan.org

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Welcome to National Farmworker Awareness Week! March 24-31, 2014: Reflect, Share, Act!

WHY is there a National Farmworker Awareness Week? FAN joins organizations and individuals across the country this week to honor farmworkers and their families, raise awareness about issues affecting them, demand safe and just working and living conditions, and call for an end to unfair treatment under the law.

HOW can you participate? We invite you to take a brief moment each day to think about the lives of farmworkers and their families who harvest our food. Every day has a different theme connected to farmworker justice, with multimedia information to learn more, and steps to take action for the related issue. Visit and ‘Like’ the National Facebook page for this special week and spread the word.

TODAY’s theme is worker unity. “In 1966, Cesar Chavez and a group of strikers set out on a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento to draw attention to the plight of farm workers, and during this strike the union won its first contract.” We honor the long legacy of workers organizing in the U.S. and call attention to the importance of unions in advancing worker rights—see images of these struggles in action, and learn more, in this short video. 

The power of farmworker organizing comes to the big screen across the country this Friday! Don’t miss the premier of the major motion picture Cesar Chavez on March 28^th – organize a movie meet-up like this one in Durham, NC!