FAN Stands in Solidarity Against the Agricultural Guestworker Act

The Farmworker Advocacy Network is one of over 200 coalitions, groups, and organizations that have recently signed a letter* opposing Representative Goodlatte’s Agricultural Guestworker Act, H.R. 1773, or the “Ag Act”. We believe this legislation could devastate our nation’s agricultural system and undermine core American values.

 As written in a recent FAN blog post, the Ag Act seeks to lower protections for farmworkers by stripping away decades of worker protections to leave guestworkers virtually no protection from abusive conditions. Employers will not need to verify adequate working conditions, wages or insurance coverage for injuries, thus eliminating oversight of worker’s rights. Additionally, guestworkers are offered no pathway to becoming permanent legal U.S. citizens. Instead they will be required to self-deport with the only the possibility of returning as a temporary guestworker. This would leave temporary workers in a highly vulnerable position to be exploited solely for their labor.

 As a coalition, we strongly oppose the Ag Act and believe it is an unworkable, anti-immigrant and anti- worker approach to our nation’s immigration problems. Hard-working farmworkers do not deserve to be relegated to a permanent 2nd class status apart from their families. As such, the Ag Act stands contrary to our nation’s core values of freedom, equality and family unity. Farmworkers have made invaluable contributions to our country, and they deserve protections that not only keep them safe but uphold their dignity as individuals and workers.

  View the letter opposing the Agricultural Guestworker Act

*This letter has already been sent to members of the House of Representatives, however individuals can still join FAN in saying "NO" to unfair and un-workable farmworker legislation by weighing-in with their members of Congress or by accessing the United Farm Workers action alert calling for immigration reform. 

The Ag Act: Congress Considers Turning Back the Clock to the Bracero Program

A bracero worker in the 1950's. Photo by APT.Somewhat lost this summer amidst all the conversation about comprehensive immigration reform is a little-known bill called the "Agricultural Guestworker Act" (or "Ag Act," HB 1773) that has already passed out of the House Judiciary Committee. This harmful bill is a thinly veiled attempt to strip farmworkers of the few rights they have on the job while propping up agribusinesses' bottom line.  

A farmworker in Eastern NC (2009). Photo by Peter Eversoll.

Here's how it works: the Ag Act would establish a new agricultural guestworker program allowing US companies to hire foreign-born workers for temporary employment in that industry. Under the current system employer certification is required, which builds in some worker protections. However, under the Ag Act, employers would only need to attest—on their on behalf, with no outside verification—that they have adequate workplace conditions, recruitment practices, wages, and insurance coverage for worker injuries. Workers would be allowed to move between employers without losing their visa. Also, 10% of a worker’s earnings would be withheld from their paycheck. The worker could only get this money from a U.S. embassy/consulate within 30 days of returning to their home country, and the worker must show they’ve followed program requirements. Furthermore, guestworkers under this bill would not be allowed to bring spouses or minor children under their visa. Finally, federal public benefits would not be available to guestworkers under the Ag Act.

We wanted workers but we got people. ~Max Frisch

Some of the Ag Act provisions are very similar to those in the infamous Bracero Program which exploited and abused 3 million temporary agricultural workers from the 1940s to the 1960s. If passed, the Ag Act would harm all workers by driving down wages, creating a second class of workers vulnerable to employer abuse, and providing reduced oversight of workers’ rights. Eligible workers would be denied access to cost-saving benefits under the Affordable Care Act as well as social welfare programs designed for those most in need. Most troubling is that guestworkers would not be allowed to become permanent legal U.S. residents, creating a class of workers exploited solely for their labor, held forever apart from being included as an equal in the country their labors serve.

-Download the fact sheet by American Friends Service Committee

Instead of adopting the more reasonable Senate bill framework that includes the "Ag-Jobs" compromise (an agreement between agribusiness and farmworkers that would allow farmworkers to get on an accelerated path to citizenship), the Ag Act will harm one of the most vulnerable working populations in the U.S. Apparently, we want the cheap labor that farmworkers provide without acknowledging the whole person - family unity, protections on the job, a safety net for hard times. Farmworkers do backbreaking work, often in deplorable conditions, and they deserve to be treated with dignity. Congress shouldn't turn the clock back on them now.

Flawed study seeks to justify discrimination against U.S. workers

By Lori Johnson | Originally posted at NC Policy Watch

If there is a dominant myth in the debate over America’s treatment of the men and women who harvest our food, it is that U.S. workers won’t take these jobs. A recent study by a researcher named Michael Clemens at the Center for Global Development (CGD), a Washington, DC think tank, and released by the Rupert Murdoch backed Partnership for a New American Economy, makes just such a claim.

The study, which was picked up by media outlets around the country, concludes erroneously that unemployed U.S. workers aren't taking farmworker jobs and therefore don't require much in the way of legal protections.

Unfortunately, the study’s conclusions are demonstrably false and based on faulty information.

Set in North Carolina, the study outright ignores the existence of virtually all the U.S. workers doing farm work in North Carolina. For 2010, the study accounts for only 74 workers, less than one percent of the U.S. workers referred to farm jobs through the North Carolina Division of Employment Security (DES) alone.

The study is limited to farms that bring in foreign labor through the federal H-2A visa program and then only to jobs with the North Carolina Growers' Association (NCGA), a labor broker that charges farms to bring in foreign H-2A labor. Yet NCGA's U.S. worker recruitment outcomes are hardly representative. With four-fifths of the H-2A jobs in North Carolina last year, it received only one-fifth of job service U.S. worker H-2A referrals.

The study falsely presumes that the lack of U.S. workers on H-2A farms is due to worker choice. It even claims that there is "extensive coordination" between NCGA and the state Job Service agency, which is supposed to help connect unemployed workers to jobs.

The reality is some Job Service officials are loathe to refer U.S. farmworkers to H-2A positions, which require much more paperwork. Recently, when an American brought three H-2A job orders to a local Job Service agent, the agent threw the orders in the trash.  When another U.S. citizen sought tobacco work, the Job Services official told her "I don't do H-2A, it's too complicated." Other examples of this kind of treatment abound.

Indeed, the CGD study is based on a time period when Job Service offices were operating under a 2007 U.S. Department of Labor directive to avoid referring US workers to H-2A jobs. The study assumes that a lack of increased referrals during the recession means U.S. workers are not responsive to market forces, ignoring the counteracting force of this federal directive in place during the same time period.

Most U.S. workers don't even know these jobs exist. Several Job Service offices don't post NCGA jobs in the county of actual employment. Instead, the "master job orders,” with information on jobs throughout the state, are posted in the county where NCGA’s headquarters is located. This means that a man who conducts a Job Service database search for work in his home county doesn't even see the available NCGA positions.

There are reasons to doubt the study's claim that few Americans finished the season. The federal Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audited the NCGA and found the NCGA had used a false end date that included late season sweet potato work not available to most workers. The OIG determined it was impossible for most workers, foreign or domestic, to "finish the season."

The study presumes higher turnover is the worker's fault. With many tactics in the playbook of how to get rid of the U.S. workers, perhaps turnover was the goal. Legal Aid of North Carolina has represented U.S. workers at different employers who claimed that the H-2A workforce was given preferential treatment.

Why not welcome U.S. workers? Well, for starters, a foreign labor broker's entire business model depends on Americans not being available. Each U.S. worker hired means reduced profit.

In addition, foreign H-2A workers are exempt from certain core federal worker protection laws and cannot lawfully work anywhere but the farm to which they are assigned.

Perhaps most importantly, though, is the fact that foreign workers are less likely to complain if not paid or treated properly because they fear losing their visa. Add to this the fact that the H-2A program also allows growers to custom pick a workforce that is male and young and unburdened by local family responsibilities and it’s no wonder U.S. workers face such discrimination.

As noted, the study recommends further reducing protections for U.S. workers.

Ignoring all the counteracting factors, the study concludes that U.S. workers won't respond to increased wages or improved working conditions. And of course this “logic” flies in the face of basic market rules that tie supply to better wages and working conditions.    

The truth is there are many workers – both U.S. citizens and authorized aliens – that need and want agricultural jobs. And should immigration reform proposals currently before Congress pass, there will be many more legal workers.

The existence of foreign labor and the need to protect U.S. workers are not mutually exclusive. Let’s hope the public isn't fooled by this ill-conceived and badly-flawed effort to cloak discrimination against American workers.  

This Labor Day Consider the Laborers

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.

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[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

The Dangers of Agricultural Work

By Elaine Bartlett, Episcopal Farm Worker Ministry

The dangers of agricultural work have been widely reported—machinery accidents and heat stroke alone cause hundreds of farmworker deaths each year. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the fatality rate for agricultural workers is seven times higher than for all workers in private industry. OSHA recently launched a campaign to prevent heat illness among outdoor workers, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has announced it is making a “major research and outreach priority” of retrofitting older tractors – the cause of most rollover deaths – with protective structures.

However, little has been done to ensure that farmworkers are educated about and provided the means to prevent or treat another major occupational hazard of agricultural work. Skin diseases and disorders are widely prevalent among U.S. farmworkers, with an incident rate of four to six times higher than workers in all other industries. Excessive exposure to sun, as well as to pesticides, dust and fungi, combined with lack of medical treatment, contribute to a widespread problem that has a major impact on farmworkers’ quality of life. Recent research of North Carolina agricultural workers, published in the Journal of Rural Health, showed that over 95 percent of farmworkers studied were afflicted by some form of skin disease. Fungal infections and sunburn regularly affected 58 percent of North Carolina farmworkers in a 2008 study that appeared in the International Journal of Dermatology. Acne, calluses, dermatitis and tinea pedis afflicted between 40 and 67 percent of the farmworkers.

Although such problems are readily acknowledged within farmworker communities, several factors prevent effective prevention and treatment, including lack of health insurance and money for treatment. U.S. health care reform, which will be fully implemented in 2014, is not likely to have a significant impact on farmworkers’ lives. At least half of farmworkers nationwide do not have the necessary immigration status to qualify for Medicaid expansion and health insurance exchanges available to low income Americans.

Under health care reform, migrant health clinics will receive funding that will allow for an increased level of services. However, only about 20 percent of farmworkers nationwide currently utilize such clinics, according to a 2005 report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, and the issues that limit farmworkers’ use of such clinics are ones that cannot be addressed by the Affordable Care Act. About 90 percent of farmworkers report that they speak and read little to no English, according to the Kaiser report. The vast majority of farmworkers are Latinos from Mexico and other central American countries. While the primary language is Spanish, the Journal of Rural Health study found that 10 to 15 percent of their participants primarily spoke an indigenous language, such as Mixteco or Zapoteco, that made even Spanish language health care inaccessible.

Lack of transportation to clinics and fear of missing work – and wages – can be other factors that serve as a barrier to health care.

For these reasons, it is imperative to focus on outreach services to farmworkers in our communities to cover the gaps that government funded health care cannot address.

Providing farmworkers with access to a sufficient amount of clothing and hygienic items is key in decreasing the rate of skin disorders and other illnesses related to dermal exposure, such as green tobacco illness. Long sleeve shirts, long pants and gloves provide necessary protection from sun, chemicals, and insects, as well as nicotine residue in tobacco plants. For optimal health workers must have access to several changes of clothes per day as the fabric frequently becomes saturated with pesticides, perspiration, dust and other elements. Given that up to 30 workers may share a wash tub at camp, it is not always feasible to launder regularly, increasing the need for a significant supply of clothes per worker.

Equally important is the availability of soap, shampoo and other toiletries that cleanse the skin of pesticides - and, in the case of tobacco workers, crop residues. Providing workers with full spectrum sunblock can help reduce the incidence of sunburn and, ultimately, skin cancer. Access to hydrocortisone cream and other topical treatments significantly reduces the level of discomfort associated with dermatitis, and hydrogen peroxide and bandages can prevent infection from abrasions common to agricultural work.

Farmworkers serve a vital function in our country, harvesting crops for a wage that few Americans would consider acceptable. Farmworkers often spend the majority of each year far away from their homes and families, doing backbreaking labor and living in isolated camps in often substandard conditions. In these last weeks of summer, let us consider the harvest that we have enjoyed this season and what we can do to improve the quality of life for those who have provided for us.

Elaine Bartlett serves on the board of directors of Episcopal Farmworker Ministry. EFwM, in partnership with faith communities of all denominations in North Carolina, provides work clothing, toiletries and over-the-counter skin treatments to workers in 50 migrant labor camps in Sampson, Harnett and Johnson counties. To learn more, visit www.efwm.org

The Affordable Care Act's Prognosis for Farmworkers

Cross-posted with the North Carolina Council of Churches

Every day, about 243 agricultural workers suffer injuries that cost them work time; about five percent of these injuries result in permanent impairment. Agriculture consistently ranks among the three most hazardous industries in the United States. In 2008, the National Safety Council ranked it as the most dangerous industry, and the U.S. Department of Labor reports that children performing farm work are four times more likely to be killed than those employed in all other industries combined.

Nationally, migrant health clinics serve only about 13% of the intended population, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the more than 150,000 farmworkers in North Carolina, less than 20% receive health care. At the same time, the fatality rate for farmworkers statewide is higher than the national average, and nearly 10 times higher than the average state fatality rate for all other occupations.

It is appalling that many of those who harvest our food and contribute to our well-being often work at such personal risk without basic health care. One step in the right direction was the recent announcement of $128.6 million in awards through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which will add about 5,640 doctor, nurse, dental provider and support staff jobs nationally to clinics serving farmworkers and others. The money will go to 219 health centers nationwide, increasing access to more than one million additional patients.

The Supreme Court ruling that upheld the mandate contained within the ACA helped to ensure the continuation of these programs that allocate money to public health care centers. While this decision will benefit many, including some farmworkers, many more will be left behind. According to a detailed analysis by Farmworker Justice, undocumented farmworkers, who make up a majority of the U.S. farmworker population, will only marginally benefit from health reform and will continue to encounter enormous barriers to health care.

Eighty-five percent of farmworkers in the U.S. have no health insurance, and 9 out of 10 children in farmworker families are uninsured. The majority of these workers do not qualify for social services because of their immigration status, even though many live significantly below the federal poverty line.

Because  farmworkers are often impoverished, uninsured, live in isolated areas and move frequently to follow work, many face financial and logistical barriers to receiving health care, says the Texas-based National Center for Farmworker Health. In addition, few health delivery sites have adequate Spanish language resources, including those in North Carolina, where 94% of farmworkers are Spanish-speaking.

Meanwhile, unresolved health problems can limit farmworkers’ ability to maintain productive employment, further perpetuating their position in a vicious cycle. Farmworkers are not protected by sick leave and risk losing their jobs if they miss work. Industry exemptions from rules that protect workers in other sectors and poor enforcement of existing rules leave farmworkers vulnerable and without legal recourse.

Harsh working and living conditions put farmworkers at a high risk for injuries and illness, including work-related lung diseases, noise-induced hearing loss, skin diseases, chemical-related illnesses (such as neurological disorders, miscarriages and birth defects), and certain cancers associated with chemical use and prolonged sun exposure.

Many workers also don’t seek preventative care from physicians for fear of being reported to ICE and consequently being deported. Those who are undocumented often avoid going to locations or institutions where they are made to present identification or where a record of the visit can be documented, which prevents many individuals from seeking proper medical care. Bruce Gould, MD for the University of Connecticut’s mobile Migrant Farm Worker clinic says that sometimes during his visits to camps he finds farmworkers hiding in bushes — they are often desperate for medical care but fear they will be fired if their foreman finds out they are sick.

The American Farm Bureau estimates that without the help of undocumented workers, the agricultural sector of the economy would lose between $5 and $9 billion in flowers, fruits, and vegetables and would cause more than 20% of the production to move overseas. Agriculture is North Carolina’s leading industry, constituting 22% of the state’s income. Eighty-five percent of fruits and vegetables produced in the United States, including those in North Carolina, are harvested by hand.

The help provided by migrant farmworkers is critical for the agriculture sector of the U.S. economy. As Guillermo Noguera, Health Outreach Coordinator in Columbus County, NC said, “Farmworkers feed the world. I think if everybody knows the importance of farmworkers, they will want to keep them healthy.”

All people deserve care. Providing health care to all is not an issue concerning only the patient that is ill; rather, it encompasses a public health dimension, which involves the health of all members of the community. As Margarita, a mother and farmworker in Oxford, NC noted “It’s very important, not just for one person but for the whole community.”

Looking beyond individual health and the economics of the law, will the Supreme Court’s decision reinforce America’s commitment to civil rights and equal opportunity for all – including farmworkers? Or will it reinforce the role of health coverage as a divider between those who will prosper and those who will not?

–Daryn Lane, Student Action With Farmworkers Into The Fields Intern

Worked to Death

As the summer begins to heat up, it’s a good time to remember the people who work outside – especially in the fields. Hot summer days are a mild inconvenience for those with desk jobs, but for those who labor in agriculture, the heat can be a matter of life and death.

Last month, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration kicked off a national outreach initiative to educate workers and their employers about the hazards of working outdoors in the heat and steps needed to prevent heat-related illnesses. The initiative includes new training materials in Spanish and a smartphone app that workers and employers can use to monitor the heat index.

“For outdoor workers, 'water, rest and shade' are three words that can make the difference between life and death," Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said. "If employers take reasonable precautions, and look out for their workers, we can beat the heat."

Each year, thousands of outdoor workers experience serious illnesses such as heat exhaustion. For 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 4,190 workers suffered from heat illness and 40 died from heat stroke and related causes on the job. Although outdoor workers in a variety of industries are susceptible to heat illness, those in construction and agriculture are the most vulnerable.

Bringing It Home

In North Carolina, heat stroke killed seven farmworkers within a recent five-year period. One of those workers was Juan Jose Soriano, who died of heat stroke while harvesting tobacco in Wayne County on August 1, 2006.

The NC Department of Labor (NCDOL) investigation found that “the employer did not furnish to each of his employees conditions of employment and a place of employment free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees, in that employees were exposed to heat-related hazards without adequate provisions to protect them.”

The investigation also found that “12 migrant farmworkers were exposed to heat indices of 105-110 degrees without the opportunity to adequately hydrate or cool down” and that subsequently one worker died of hyperthermia. The grower has contested the findings and the proposed penalty of $2100. The Workers’ Compensation claim is currently denied by the grower’s insurance carrier. At the time of death, Juan Jose Soriano had 5 children, 3 under the age of 18.

Every farmworker should have access to clean water, breaks and shade when the temperature gets too hot. No one should be worked to death in our fields.

Get involved in the Harvest of Dignity campaign today.

Día de los Muertos Video

Check out this new video from our Nov. 1 Día de los Muertos event: