Immigration Reform and Farmworkers

Last week, President Obama and members of Congress have been laying out their principles for comprehensive immigration reform. Millions of families' lives hang in the balance, including farmworkers across the country. Our food system relies heavily on an undocumented, marginalized workforce to provide the necessary labor for growing fruits and vegetables. It's vital that any serious reform include provisions for protecting all workers - including farmworkers - from discrimination and unfair treatment. Farmworkers should be included along with all other immigrants in the roadmap to citizenship. 

Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice, made the following statement:

With the announcement yesterday of a bipartisan group of Senators and today’s speech by President Obama, momentum is building to pass immigration reform that includes a roadmap to citizenship.

Our nation depends on the hard labor of farmworkers to cultivate and harvest our crops. Meanwhile, the majority of these workers live in poverty, unable to afford the very fruits and vegetables they harvest. Immigration reform is desperately needed to empower farmworkers to improve their wages and working conditions, as the majority lack immigration status.

Farmworker Justice welcomes the President’s commitment to passing immigration reform. We will encourage the President and Congress to promote immigration policies that enable current and future farmworkers to attain a roadmap to citizenship. To ensure fair treatment of farmworkers and our nation’s food security, we will continue to advocate for equal labor protections for farmworkers in any immigration reform.

SAVE THE DATE: HKonJ, Feb. 9, 2013

Historic Thousands On Jones Street coming up Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013

Begin Assembly at 9:30 at Shaw University on South St. in Raleigh, NC

March to the Legislative building begins at 10:30am

For more information contact Rev. Curtis Gatewood, the HKonJ Coordinator at curtis.gatewood@naacpnc.org or call (919)682-4700

Visit the HKonJ website for more information and details on the HKonJ 14-point agenda.

Six years ago, the North Carolina NAACP began building a multi-racial, multi-issue alliance of progressive organizations in North Carolina to form the Historic Thousands on Jones Street People’s Assembly Coalition (HKonJ-PAC). The movement — made up of over 140 partnering organizations — will continue its anti-racist, anti-poverty and anti-war agenda with its annual march on February 9. Included in these partnering organizations are several farmworker advocate organizations and other groups committed to working with the Latino community and immigration reform.

The 7th Annual HKonJ march will take place on Saturday, February 9, 2013. Armed with the historic shout “We the People Shall Not Be Moved: Forward Together Not One Step Back!”, HKonJ aims to unite individuals from all walks of life. The HKonJ assembly will consist of African-Americans, Latinos, Whites, Native Americans, Asians, the young, the not-so-young, and all others who wish to unite and collaborate with a beautifully diverse coalition of caring individuals. All are welcome to participate.

Citizens will march in support of voting rights, equitable education, collective bargaining, affordable housing, health care, environmental justice, and the protection of the rights of immigrants. The movement is centered around a 14-point People’s Agenda,  including “Protecting the Rights of Immigrants from Latin America and other Nations” and “Livable Wages and Support for Low Income People.” The Farmworker Advocacy Network supports these positions as farmworkers deserve better housing & workplace standards, and all people who immigrate to our state deserve health care, education, workers rights and protection from discrimination. We invite you to come out and walk with us with the mission to reduce poverty and turn back the tide of economic injustices!

FAN welcomes the Farmworker Caravan

This past week the Farmworker Advocacy Network, along with farmworker advocates throughout the Triangle, met with the Forward With Your Promise caravan at Student Action with Farmworkers, one of our partners, in Durham. The caravan traveled from Florida to DC for Obama's inauguration to demand that President Obama keep his promise of comprehensive immigration reform. To learn more about the caravan's purpose watch this video and then sign their petition. 

It was wonderful to share a meal with them and hear their stories. We wish them the best on their return home!

 

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month

“When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick.” -César Chávez 

Governor Perdue has issued a proclamation declaring January “Human Trafficking Awareness Month” in North Carolina. Nationally, President Barack Obama has declared January “National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.” Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, severe forms of trafficking in persons is defined as (A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Trafficking has many faces including child prostitutes, men or women forced to work in brothels, domestic workers held in a home or farmworkers forced to labor in the fields. Forced labor manifests itself in a variety of ways, but each is alike in that it strips its victims of their essential, inalienable right to human dignity and freedom. Governor Perdue’s and President Obama’s proclamations remind us as we enter into a new year that modern-day slavery continues to exist in our country and our North Carolinian communities.

North Carolina ranks as the 8th most likely state in the United States for human trafficking to take place. North Carolina has a vast highway interstate system, many military bases, a growing immigrant population, a large coast with several port cities and flourishing tourism industry, and its booming agricultural industry that relies on heavily on migrant labor. Human traffickers target society’s most vulnerable, i.e., invisible populations who are marginalized by society and unable to fight back against oppression. For this reason, victims often include immigrants, and in North Carolina these immigrants frequently work in agriculture.

Victims of human trafficking in agriculture include men and women, adults and children, undocumented or permanent residents or those on H2-A visas. Farmworkers often face difficult conditions including low wages, harsh working conditions, and exposure to unsafe pesticides in their work and their homes. However, unsafe and, at times, abusive conditions do not necessarily constitute human trafficking. Exploitation in agriculture becomes trafficking when the employer uses force, fraud or coercion to control workers and make them believe that they have no option but to continue working for that employer. These methods include: enticing a worker to migrate and leave the safety of home with false promises about living or working conditions; isolating workers from their peers, family members, or service providers; controlling a worker's movement inside and outside of their home and their communications with individuals in the community; and verbal, psychological, physical or sexual abuse.  If that worker is from another country, a trafficker may attempt to control a worker by confiscating his or her passport or identification documents; exploiting that workers’ lack of education or familiarity with the language, laws and customs of the U.S.; or threatening the worker with deportation or other harm to the victim or the victim’s family back home.

(Image via Legal Aid of NC, Farmworker Unit)

Farmworkers are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking for a variety of reasons. First, farm work often occurs in rural areas where farmworkers are geographically isolated and living in employer-provided housing. Under these circumstances, employers often control their migrant workers' access to transportation, medical care, food, religious services, and, thus their ability to meet their own basic human needs. Unlike other low wage workers, farmworkers are often exempt from basic labor protections, such as overtime pay, the right to organize and bargain collectively, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, most occupational safety and health protections, and farm work has less restrictive child labor laws. Moreover, the protections that farmworkers are afforded by the law are often not adequately enforced. Finally, the immigration status of farmworkers makes them vulnerable to human trafficking. Although immigration status is not determinative of whether or not someone is a victim of trafficking, it is often used to physiologically coerce an individual to remain in a situation against his or her will.   Undocumented workers can be threatened with arrest or deportation by employers who seek to intimidate them from reporting labor violations or from finding a new employer. Workers who are legally working on guestworker visas such as the H2A visas are restricted to working for the one employer who sponsored their visa, limiting the options if workplace conditions are abusive. 

The Farmworker Advocacy Network believes that all people, including farmworkers, deserve safe places to live and safe places to work. You can help work to prevent those conditions that make farmworkers in NC vulnerable to exploitation by endorsing the Harvest of Dignity campaign. For those interested in learning more about agriculture and exploitation, “Trafficking 101” is an online training created by Farmworker Legal Services of New York. To take action, you can also write your local supermarket to tell them that you support efforts to end modern-day slavery in the fields (for a sample letter see the CIW website) or you can trace products on Anti-Slavery International’s interactive map in order to see the economy of modern slavery in action and hold businesses accountable. Locally you can attend an event sponsored by NC Stop Human Trafficking in order to get involved in your community and to connect with organizations working to fight human trafficking in our state.

Do you know where your Christmas tree comes from?

North Carolina is known for its Christmas trees and, therefore, Christmas trees are a very profitable business. Christmas tree production and sales is over a $100 million industry in North Carolina with 5-6 million trees harvested annually. North Carolina is the second largest producer of Christmas trees (after Oregon) and leads US production of the iconic Fraser fir variety. In fact, this year’s White House Christmas tree is a Fraser fir from Peak Farms in Ashe County. Fraser firs grow in the mountains particularly in Ashe, Allegheny, Avery, Watauga, and Jackson Counties in western North Carolina. Growing Christmas trees requires a considerable amount of work, and the people who are hired to this work are often seasonal laborers from the Guest Worker program supported by the North Carolina Grower’s Association. North Carolina has come to depend on the H2A visa program to provide seasonal laborers, the majority of whom are Latino.

Christmas tree production is very labor intensive. It includes planting, mowing, weeding, applying insect & disease control, shearing (or shaping), and packaging for marketing. First, a worker must walk around the mountains and mark which trees will be cut down, after which a crew of 8 men cut down the tree with chainsaws and drag the tree to the sides of the field. Then the bailing process begins, a process in which twine is wrapped around the trees so they are easier to transport. Finally, as many as 600 trees are loaded into trailers and driven to the loading yard to be unloaded, counted and sorted.  See this photographic essay for a visual representation of the process.

Farmworkers apply pesticides at a Christmas tree farm. Photo courtesy of SAF (2007)

Obviously this is very difficult, heavy work that occurs in cold, wet conditions. Workers work 12-14 hour days during peak season, stooping down, lifting heavy trees and carrying them in the fierce cold of the North Carolina mountains. Much of the work is seasonal, so the workers must find new work after the holidays. Moreover, there are 25 different pesticides used in Christmas tree farming that can have adverse health effects for workers who apply them, if pesticide standards and trainings are not enforced. 

For more on Christmas tree farming, watch this video from SAF fellow Robyn Levine about migrant farmerworkers who live and work on a Christmas tree farm in Boone, NC.

La Vida Diaria / The Daily Life from SAF on Vimeo.

 One way to help farmworkers this holiday season is by being a socially conscious consumer and purchasing a Christmas tree that is grown in a sustainable manner, as well as investigating the living and working conditions of farmworkers on farms where your tree is grown. Here is a list of retailers that sell organic and low-spray Christmas tree and wreaths from Toxic Free NC. 

Photo credit: Ana Duncan Pardo (Toxic Free NC) at "What Fir! Tree Farm"

If you do choose to use a real tree, be sure to recycle it after the holidays! Some areas offer curbside recycling and most places have free drop-off recycling centers. Here are lists of recycling locations in Durham & Wake counties ; Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough offer tree recycling at the curb as part of regular brush collection. 

Or check out some of these alternative Christmas trees that we found via Pinterest. You don’t even need a traditional tree with expensive ornaments—lots of ordinary household items make great decorations!

• Ladder Christmas Tree
• Cardboard DIY Christmas Tree
• Hanging ornament mobile Tree 

   

There are lots of ways to be creative! (Need more?) Let us know  on our Facebook what you are doing this Christmas to make a change!

Where is Home for the Holidays?

This time of year, fields where sweet potatoes were gleaned for Thanksgiving feasts are now freezing over and empty, and many migrant farmworkers and their families move on to another home, another state, perhaps another country. They pack up their belongings and what little hard-earned money they were able to save during their stay.

Little money as it may be, it’s one reason some families are victims of robbery and other crimes; migrant farmworkers are often targets of theft because their savings are in cash, or assumed to be. Their housing–trailers or houses in need of repair- is often insecure and easily broken in to. Fear of reporting crimes to the local authorities is another common factor in why farmworkers are singled out.

A tragic example of such targeted violence recently occurred in Sampson County, NC, when four homes occupied by migrant workers were burglarized and a four-year old boy was shot. The boy’s family was preparing to depart the next day for their Florida home. Now this holiday season, their home will likely be the hospital where the child is recovering from intensive surgery and remains in critical condition.

For many of us the holidays are a time for reflecting on and sharing our blessings, perhaps giving to those in need. The Farmworker Advocacy Network works closely with the national Harvest of Hope Foundation to manage an emergency fund for North Carolina farmworkers. Funds are then requested - by farmworkers, advocates or other friends working on their behalf-when emergencies like the Sampson County incident arise. To donate now to the fund, click here. Please write “North Carolina Emergency Fund” in the comments to designate funds for North Carolina farmworkers, and/or “Vargas Family, NC” to assist the family whose child was shot in the recent burglaries.

Gratitude for Farmworkers on Thanksgiving

"Is it possible that we think too much in terms of charity, in terms of Thanksgiving Day baskets, in terms of Christmas baskets, and not in terms enough of eliminating poverty?" – Harvest of Shame 

The day after Thanksgiving in 1960 the documentary, “Harvest of Shame,” first aired on American television. The documentary by Edward R. Murrow revealed the disturbing plight of migrant agricultural workers. Time magazine quoted the producer, David Lowe, saying "We felt that by scheduling the program the day after Thanksgiving, we could stress the fact that much of the food cooked for Thanksgiving throughout the country was picked by migratory workers. We hoped that the pictures of how these people live and work would shock the consciousness of the nation." As we approach Thanksgiving over 50 years later, little has changed, as our documentary, “Harvest of Dignity,” demonstrates.

This Thanksgiving, we again encourage people to thoughtfully consider where their food comes from as they sit down to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner and to give thanks for the people who harvest their food. On our Pinterest account, we feature a board called “Food for Thought,” which takes popular recipes and highlights facts about where the ingredients in those recipes come from. We do this in order to remember the hard work that goes into bringing the feast to our family table. Likewise, let us consider some of the common ingredients used at Thanksgiving to remember that farmworkers also have a place at our table.

Common Thanksgiving foods & where they come from

 1. Turkey- The turkey is the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal; however, getting the turkey from farm to table is not an easy process. Poultry processing is one of the most hazardous jobs in existence. OSHA reports that 100 poultry workers have been killed on the job in the past decade and over 300,000 have been injured, a rate higher than that of manufacturing as a whole. Moreover, OSHA officials admit that 2-3 times as many injuries have probably gone unreported.  There are approximately 28,000 poultry processing workers in North Carolina, that produce 3,723,730,000 lbs. of chicken meat, making North Carolina the 4^th most productive state in terms of chicken raising and slaughtering. For more on “the human cost of bringing poultry to your table,” read The Cruelest Cuts in The Charlotte Observer. 

2. Sweet Potatoes- North Carolina is the number one producer of sweet potatoes in the United States. More than 40% of the national sweet potato supply originates in our state, making sweet potatoes the official state vegetable. Johnston, Nash and Wilson counties produce the most sweet potatoes. The people who pick these large numbers of sweet potatoes, however, are paid very little. Farm workers are paid 40¢ per bucket (5/8 bushel), which means a farmworker must pick and haul two tons of sweet potatoes just to earn $50.

3. Cranberries- Wisconsin and Massachusetts are the main producers of cranberries, but New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington also produce the berries that will become cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. Cranberries grow in wetland areas called “bogs” and require a complicated system of flooding and harvesting. Few people realize, however, that immigrants from the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of West Africa, built the cranberry bogs. Before the invention of modern machinery, the Cape Verdeans cleared land for the bogs, lined them with sand using wheelbarrows, and harvested the berries, all with their own hands. Farm work has always been dependent on immigrants! 

4. Apples- As American as apple pie, apples are a national icon. Apples are grown in each state, with 36 states producing apples commercially. While apples are abundant, the wages that farmworkers are paid for harvesting them is very low. In North Carolina, farmworkers are paid 50 cents per bushel of apples picked. Also, apples are at the top of the “Dirty Dozen,” a list produced yearly by the Environmental Working group to call attention to the produce with the most pesticides. Farmworkers face greater threats from pesticide exposure—including poisonings and long-term effects such as cancer, birth defects and learning disabilities—than any other sector of society.

5. Onions- There are few Thanksgiving recipes that don’t call for onions. However, onions are getting harder to come by, especially if your recipe calls for Vidalia onions from Georgia. In Georgia, anti-immigration laws such as HB 87 forced out workers and left crops rotting in the fields with no one to pick them. With other states considering passing detrimental immigration laws, it is possible that there will not be workers to harvest the crops in the coming years.

These are just a few of the foods made available by farmworkers which many people will be buying this coming week.  While we pause to be grateful for the availability of this bounty, let us also stop to remember the dedication and honest labor that goes into picking our food. This Thanksgiving there are several ways you can thank a farmworker:

• Buy local & organically grown foods that don't expose workers to dangerous pesticides. Visit your local farmers market when doing your Thanksgiving meal shopping!
• If you do shop at a supermarket, join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ “Thanksgiving Week of Supermarket Action” by dropping off a Campaign for Fair Food letter to the manager of your local supermarket. 
• Bless your meal by remembering the hands that picked the food. A list of non-denominational blessings can be found at the National Farmworker Ministry
• Host a Harvest of Dignity screening party along with your Thanksgiving meal!
• After dinner take a photo postcard of your friends and family explaining why they support farmworkers and upload it to our website

While the meaning of Thanksgiving is in taking time to be grateful for food, health, friends and family, let us also be aware that the greatest expression of gratitude is through action.  As we count our blessings on Thanksgiving Day, may we also make this a time to give back to help others who may not be so richly blessed.  One way of giving back is in donating to your favorite charity.  If you would particularly like to give back to benefit the farmworkers who are responsible for producing the food you are enjoying, be aware of the following organizations that support farmworkers and their families: 

• Farmworker Advocacy Network 
• Student Action with Farmworkers 
• NC Field 
• Episcopal Farmworker Ministry 
• National Farmworker Ministry 

25th Anniversary East Coast Migrant Stream Forum

Guest post by Magdalena Fernandez

Last month the North Carolina Community Health Center Association (NCCHCA) was once again proud to host the annual East Coast Migrant Stream Forum.  In celebration of the Forum’s silver anniversary participants were invited to reflect on the theme, “A Rededication to Health Harvests”, as they remembered the rich history of the conference and joined together to create a strong vision for the future of migrant health.

Every year since its inception in 1988, the East Coast Migrant Stream forum has brought together a broad spectrum of migrant health professionals from outreach workers and promotoras to clinicians and administrators representing Migrant/Community Health Centers, community-based and faith-based organizations, as well as government officials from across the nation.  The conference is targeted towards participants from eastern states in order to increase communication and partnerships between organizations that serve farmworkers who migrant in the Eastern Stream.  The fellowship and camaraderie that is inspired through East Coast motivates participants to collaborate and learn from each other in order to better serve their patients. 

This year’s forum hosted 174 participants and 21 innovative workshops that covered a wide range of current issues relevant to migrant health professionals.   Popular workshops included: “Tools for Preventing HIV and STD Infection among Seasonal and Migrant Farmworkers”, “Intensive Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment Programming in Rural North Carolina”, “Building on Common Ground: How to Strengthen Collaborations among Migrant Health Centers, Hospitals, and Public Health”,  “The H-2A Guestworker Program – An Overview for Migrant Health Care Providers”, “How to Use the Pesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkit in Your Health Center: A Train-the-Trainer Workshop”, “Clinica en el Campo: Taking Medical Care and Medical Residents to the Fields”, and “Promotoras de Salud [Lay-health workers] Promoting Early Breast Cancer Detection, Health Literacy and Care Access in Hispanic Immigrant Communities”.   

In celebration of the conference’s 25th anniversary, the opening plenary featured a panel discussion entitled, “25 years: Reflecting on our Past, Envisioning our Future”.  The panel was composed of five individuals whose dedication to farmworkers has shaped the field of migrant health.  The presenters reflected on the history of migrant health and their experiences working with migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families.  They then each presented their vision for the future by focusing on five areas of farmworker health: clinical, administrative/programmatic, outreach/ lay health, research, and policy.  The insights of the panelists sparked a great deal of discussion among participants and helped to set a tone of both reflection and innovation for the conference.

Participants also had the opportunity to see a powerful performance of, “The Stories of Cesar Chavez”, performed and written by Los Angeles based actor, Fred Blanco.  Featured in theatrical venues throughout the US and Canada, the one man show employed both humor and drama to bring to life the California farmworker struggle of the 1960s.  From youthful zootsuiters and humble farmworkers to racist teamsters and angry radicals, the audience relived the struggle of the labor movement through a parade of captivating characters.  The bilingual show was developed by Fred Blanco from interviews with members of the Chavez family and other individuals including Dolores Huerta who fought alongside Chavez.  Participants left the show with a deepened appreciation for the great triumphs that came at the price of terrible suffering and sacrifice.

Mark your calendars for next year’s East Coast Migrant Steam Forum to be held October 17-19, location TBD.  It is always an incredible opportunity for migrant health education and networking with fellow migrant health professionals.  Scholarships and special rates are available for students and lay health workers.  For more information on the forum including the full program and educational session handouts, go to www.ncchca.org under calendar.