Stephen Colbert in Support of AgJOBS

Photo by Alex Brandon

Last week, comedian Steven Colbert caused a stir by testifying before Congress in support of the AgJOBS bill. Colbert’s larger than life persona brought a record number of cameras to the “Protecting America’s Harvest” hearing held by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security. While pundits and bloggers disagree about the appropriateness of Colbert’s appearance, very little is being said about the substance of the bill he went to Washington to support: AgJOBS. AgJOBS would provide a legal, stable labor supply and help ensure that farmworkers are treated fairly. The proposal contains two main parts:

1. An "earned legalization" program enabling many undocumented farmworkers and H-2A guestworkers to earn a "blue card" temporary immigration status with the possibility of becoming permanent residents of the U.S. by continuing to work in agriculture and by meeting additional requirements; and
2. Revisions to the existing H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program.

AgJOBS is a bipartisan bill that enjoys broad support in Congress. The AgJOBS compromise was carefully negotiated by the United Farm Workers and major agribusiness employers after years of intense conflict. AgJOBS is endorsed by major labor and management representatives, as well as a broad spectrum of organizations, including Latino community leaders, civil rights organizations, religious groups and farmworkers themselves.

AgJOBS represents a significant step forward for workers.  It has been on Congress' plate for several sessions and, with significant bipartisan and industry support, there is no reason that it can't move forward now.  If you believe that farmworkers should have more rights on the job and should have the opportunity to earn legal immigration status, please contact your Senators and Representative.  You can take action in support of AgJOBS here.

• For more background on AgJOBS, click here.
• Click here for a transcript of Colbert’s remarks.
• Click here to read "Colbert's Reminder: Immigration a Moral Issue" - a CNN Opinion article by Galen Carey, director of government affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals.

Here is the segment from The Colbert Report on Colbert's day spent as a farmworker:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Fallback Position - Migrant Worker Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

Another human trafficking case involving farmworkers

The NY Times recently reported on a massive human trafficking scheme that brought workers from Thailand to the U.S. in order to work the fields.  

The charges, prepared by Justice Department civil rights lawyers, were brought against the president, three executives and two Thai labor contractors from Global Horizons Manpower, which recruits foreign farm workers for the federal agricultural guest worker program, known as H-2A.

The indictment, which was unsealed Thursday in Hawaii, accuses Global Horizons executives of working to “obtain cheap, compliant labor” from guest workers who had been forced into debt in Thailand to pay fees to local recruiters. The company, according to the indictment, sought to “to compel the workers’ labor and service through threats to have them arrested, deported or sent back to Thailand, knowing the workers could not pay off their debts if sent home.”

North Carolina saw a similar case several years ago.  Here's the report from CNN on the NC case:

The sad reality is that conditions in this industry can sometimes lend themselves to the despicable tactics of traffickers.  For example, in many cases farmworkers are isolated, unable to speak English, and tied to a single employer who may or may not obey the law.  As long as workers remain disempowered from controlling their own circumstances, the possibility of abuse - even trafficking - will remain.  

This fall, FAN is launching a new campaign that will help to ensure that cases like this never happen again.  Join us today.

Click here for more information on the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' campaign against human trafficking.

Dirty jobs worthy of respect

Ruben Navarrette of the San Francisco Chronicle reminds us that farmworkers deserve society's respect for their hard work.  North Carolina is home to over 150,000 field and poultry workers, and this Labor Day we honor the daily, hidden sacrifices they make to create a better life for their families.

Just in time for Labor Day, a reader critical of my views on immigration sends along some career advice.

"You really need to find another line of work," he wrote. "You are not worth a (expletive) at what you are doing now. I hear they need strawberry pickers."

He signed the note, "A white legal American citizen."

It's interesting that the reader felt it necessary to identify himself as white. I plan to keep this letter - and others like it - handy for the next time someone claims that the immigration debate isn't about race. It sure sounds like it is to Mr. "white legal American citizen."

Yet, what was really troubling was when the reader suggested I go out and pick strawberries. This guy owes an apology - to strawberry pickers.

I don't know whether a farmworker could do my job. But, coming from a family of farmworkers, I'm absolutely sure I could never do his.

Read more here.

California Wants to 'Decriminalize' Immigrant Farm Workers

Here's one model of worker protections for North Carolina's leaders to consider, since we rely so heavily on immigrant labor to make agriculture work in this state:

​The California Department of of Food and Agriculture calls for a sweeping effort to protect immigrant farm workers -- including those who traveled to the U.S. illegally -- in a new plan outlining the state's agricultural future.

The plan, called AgVision 2030, asserts that immigrant labor is vital to the state's farm economy and advocates a raft of immigrant-friendly policies -- including "decriminalization" of farm workers without proper immigration documents, increased access to health care and education for immigrants, and fewer immigration raids on farms.

The plan affirms a commonly held view among immigrant-rights advocates -- that migrant laborers, many of them from Mexico, do jobs that U.S. citizens are unwilling to do. 

"Coordinated efforts at recruiting domestic labor have largely failed, despite high unemployment in many agricultural communities," the plan states. "Thus, an estimated 75 percent of California's agricultural workforce is foreign-born, primarily Mexican, and about half of the workers are believed to be unauthorized under current immigration laws." The plan goes on to state that the H-2A temporary visa program for farm workers is "cumbersome and ineffective."

The plan urges state officials to support federal immigration reform and take measures to protect immigrants from current federal policies. Among the recommendations: state and local authorities not conduct immigration-related inspections of farm sites; enable immigrant farm workers to obtain driver's licenses or identification cards; and establish policies that prevent families from being broken up by deportations.

Continue reading at SF Weekly.

40 years ago, workers won

Alvaro Huerta's recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer reminds us that the struggle for worker rights is difficult and long-term work.  At key moments, though, workers have won critical victories that have led to improved living and working conditions in fields and factories across this country.  

The question facing North Carolina today is whether we will have the courage to honor the legacy of Chavez and countless others by making vital improvements to the way we do business.  Will our children look back 40 years from now and be able to say that we won a great victory in our time?  Or will we keep doing business as usual, exploiting some of the most vulnerable workers in our society?

Forty years ago, workers in the United States won a great victory.

On July 29, 1970, the United Farm Workers of America ended its successful grape boycott when the growers agreed to sign the first contract with the union.

It seemed like an improbable outcome, as the battle pitted a mostly Mexican as well as Filipino immigrant workforce against powerful agricultural growers in California.

Led by the late Cesar Chavez and tireless Dolores Huerta, the UFW was founded in the early 1960s in response to the inhumane working conditions for farmworkers in California and other states, such as Arizona, Texas, Florida, and Washington.

While many American workers during this period enjoyed the right to organize, 40-hour weeks, a minimum wage, and relatively safe working conditions, farmworkers lacked these basic rights and protections.

In an effort to seek justice, dignity, and respect in the rural fields of America, UFW leaders, members, and sympathizers organized and joined picket lines and marches, signed petitions, supported labor laws, lobbied elected officials, distributed educational fliers, produced documentaries, penned songs, performed plays, held teach-ins, and generally supported the nationwide boycott.

The charismatic Chavez - who graced the cover of Time magazine on July 4, 1969 - engaged in numerous and lengthy hunger strikes to draw attention to the cause.

As was the case with the civil rights movement, many UFW activists were beaten up and a few were killed for the simple act of supporting the right of farmworkers to organize a union and negotiate for fair labor contracts.

But the rightness of their cause prevailed.

Click here to read more.

Heat Can Be Brutal To Farm Workers

On the drive into work this morning, the radio announcer warned of dangerously hot temperatures across much of NC today with heat indexes as high as 110.  For those of us who have the privilege of working in air conditioned spaces, this kind of heat poses little threat.  But for those who do some of the hardest work in the state, providing food for our tables and profits for our farms, this kind of heat can be deadly.  This story from NBC-17 explains:

Long stretches of heat can be deadly to farm workers. 

Three agricultural workers in North Carolina died from heat stress in 2006. 

None have died since then, according to the North Carolina Department of Labor. The department attributes it to extensive educational efforts, said Regina Cullen, Chief of the Agricultural Safety and Health Bureau at the Department of Labor.

"We do a heck of a lot of educating. And say, ‘this is the best way.' Nobody wants to have an accident. Nobody wants to have a fatality on their farm," Cullen said.

The department doesn't track heat illnesses. But the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs has received reports of symptoms of heat illnesses among farm workers this summer; and of workers without enough water, shade, or breaks.

"We have seen families that are sleeping under trailers to escape heat. We have seen slurred speech and slurred vision in a lot of the youth that are out there working in the fields long days," said Emily Drakage, the North Carolina Regional Coordinator for the Association's Children in the Fields Campaign.

The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs is a member of FAN.

Seasonal workers sue agricultural giant

Far too many farmworkers tell the same story: a recruiter promises them steady work and good pay, only to leave them more or less stranded in terrible living conditions with little work.  This story reported by The Monitor is just one example of a much larger trend.

As a day laborer, Raul Salas would often have to wait for odd jobs that were never steady and barely allowed him to make a living.

So he says he jumped at the opportunity when, last year on a June day, a fellow laborer named Pensamiento offered him a seasonal job detasseling corn in Indiana.

"He came up to me over there," said Salas, pointing to a spot in downtown Brownsville where day laborers were known to gather to wait for work. "He said it would be really good work for me."

Pensamiento took him and others from around the Rio Grande Valley to the Weslaco Branch of Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., an Iowa-based corn seed producer, Salas recounted, speaking in Spanish. There, a contractor named Juan San Miguel persuaded them to go to the fields near Warsaw, Ind., with the promise of high wages and substantial bonuses, he said.

But Salas, 69, is now one of 20 migrant workers who this month filed a federal lawsuit against San Miguel and Pioneer, which they said failed to pay them minimum wage, took illegal deductions from their wages and forced them to live in rundown, overcrowded hotel rooms.

Learn more about workers and wages here.

Lawsuit Seeks Ban of Common NC Farm Pesticide

From Public News Service:

RALEIGH, N.C. - From growers of hay, mint and onions to those who cultivate apples and cherries, some North Carolina farmers rely on a pesticide called chlorpyrifos. Its use is as controversial as it is common across the country, and a lawsuit seeks an outright ban by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

Chlorpyrifos, also sold as Lorsban, affects insects by causing nerve damage, and watchdog groups say it can do the same to humans. It was banned for household use in the U.S.about ten years ago. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pesticide Action Network have objected to its continued use in agriculture, saying the pesticide causes health problems in farm workers and farm communities, and they say the EPA has had their petition for three years without taking action on it. 

Those organizations' attorney, Kevin Regan with Earthjustice, which filed the suit on their behalf, says chlorpyrifos is bad stuff.

"As far as pesticides go, this is one of the worst of the worst. Science clearly shows that chlorpyrifos doesn't just poison insects, it poisons people. And our suit is attempting to get EPA to take action and make a decision, once and for all."

Learn more about how the abuse of pesticides affects NC farmworkers.