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theculturedmarxist · 2 years

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MT. VERNON, WASHINGTON, March 28—Tulips and daffodils symbolize the arrival of spring, but the fields are bitterly cold when workers’ labors begin. Snow still covers the ground when workers go into the tulip rows to plant bulbs in northwest Washington state, near the Canadian border.

Once harvesting starts, so do other problems. When a worker cuts a daffodil, for instance, she or he has to avoid the liquid that oozes from the stem—a source of painful skin rashes.

Yes, the fields of flowers are so beautiful they can take your breath away, but the conditions under which they’re cultivated and harvested can be just as bad as they are for any other crop. “Tulips have always been a hard job, but it’s a job during a time of the year when work is hard to find,” says farmworker Tomas Ramon. “This year we just stopped enduring the problems. We decided things had to change.”

On Monday, March 21, their dissatisfaction reached a head. Three crews of pickers at Washington Bulb accused the company of shorting the bonuses paid on top of their hourly wage, Washington’s minimum of $14.69. Workers get that extra pay if they exceed a target quota set by the company for picking flowers.

The parent company of RoozenGaarde Flowers and Bulbs is Washington Bulb, the nation’s largest tulip grower.

“We’ve had these problems for a long time,” explains Ramon, who has cut tulips for Washington Bulb for seven years. “And the company has always invented reasons not to talk with us.”

Workers stopped work that Monday and waited from eight in the morning to see how the owners would respond. The general supervisor was sick, they were told. Someone from the company would talk with them, but only as individuals. “We didn’t want that,” Ramon says. “We’re members of the union, and the union represents us.”

UNION WHEREVER THEY GO

Over two-thirds of the 150 pickers for Washington Bulb work at the state’s largest berry grower, Sakuma Farms, later in the season—where they bargain as members of Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ), an independent union. Starting in 2013, farmworkers there struck and boycotted, and finally won a contract after four years. They formed Familias Unidas. At Washington Bulb there is no union contract, yet. But to Ramon and his workmates, they are members of FUJ wherever they go.

When the company wouldn’t talk on that Monday, 70 workers voted to strike the following day. Another 20 joined them the next morning, when they again demanded to talk with the company. This time one of the owners told them he wouldn’t talk if the president of Familias Unidas, Ramon Torres, was present.

“So we said, ‘If you won’t talk with our representative, we won’t talk without him,’” Tomas Ramon remembers. “‘We have a union and you have to make an agreement with him.’ So the owner got angry and left.”

That Wednesday the flowers were just waving in the breeze, waiting for someone to pick them. The day after, the company lawyer was on the phone to union attorney Kathy Barnard. With a commitment to begin negotiations, workers agreed to go back into the rows after the weekend, and talks got started.

“By the first day of the strike the workers had already met, elected a committee, and put their demands in writing,” said FUJ’s political director Edgar Franks. “After the four years of fighting for the contract at Sakuma Farms, they knew how to organize themselves quickly. They had community supporters on their picket lines after the first day. They had their list of demands, and finally forced the company to accept it.”

RUBBER BAND TIME

When the workers committee and Torres met with Washington Bulb president Leo Roosens on Friday, they went point by point over their 16 demands. Roosens made an oral commitment to resolve all except the demand over wage increases.

“The most important one for us was that they pay us for the time we spend putting rubber bands on the ring,” Ramon says. Workers have to snap a rubber band around each bunch of flowers they cut, from hundreds of bands held on a ring. Each worker harvests thousands of bunches a day, so putting the bands on the ring takes a lot of time.

“There’s never enough time, and supervisors don’t want people to stop during work time. So on breaks and at lunch we’re still filling the ring. They even give us a bag of bands to take home and do it there.”

The company doesn’t pay this extra time, so demand #7 says, “All work using rubber bands to bunch flowers will be performed during working time, excluding lunch and rest breaks. This work will not be performed off the clock.” “Workers knew they had a right to this, because the union won a suit forcing Washington growers to pay for break time, even for workers working on piece rates or bonuses,” Franks says.

PARKING, OINTMENT, AND BATHROOMS

Workers often have to walk half a mile from where they park their cars to the rows where they’ll work, which the company also won’t pay for. So point 3 says, “Workers will be paid the hourly rate from the time they leave their vehicles in the company’s parking lots until they return to their vehicles...at the end of their daily shifts.”

Gloves are $30 a pair, according to Ramon, and working without them means getting rashes from liquid from cutting daffodils. “The company has cream you can put on to help with that, but it’s in the office and they often won’t give it to you. Even if they do, they just give you a tiny bit, not enough.” So another demand is for company-provided protective gear, and ointment available in the fields.

Of the eight people on the union committee, two are women. There’s often just one bathroom for a crew of 50-60 people, and they included a demand for four bathrooms per crew, two for women and two for men, cleaned every day. They also insisted on a demand for better treatment, prohibiting favoritism from supervisors, who “will be trained to treat workers with respect ... and not pressure workers to pick flowers at unreasonable speeds.”

The last demand is that the company recognize Familias Unidas por la Justicia as bargaining representative for Washington Bulb workers. If agreement is reached on that point, it will make the company the second in the state with an FUJ contract.

STRATEGIC TIMING

The annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is set to start on April 1, and runs for a month. The lightning job action less than two weeks before presented the Roosens, the most prominent family in the tulip industry, with the prospect of picket lines in front of fields, as tourists arrive to take photographs and buy flowers.

Almost all Washington Bulb workers have at least three years doing this work, and some as many as 15. They knew the importance of timing and the company’s vulnerability. The fact that they were already organized made it easier to reach a quick decision on a job action.

The decision process relied on the collective traditions of the two indigenous groups from Oaxaca and southern Mexico who make up the workforce, Triquis and Mixtecos. Ramon, a Triqui, explains that “each community talked within itself. Each community has its own process, but we have the same kind of problems and the same experience. We all wanted to make things better, so we reached agreement.” In that process community members meet, discuss, and arrive at a decision on behalf of everyone.

At Sakuma Farms, women were not elected to the union’s leadership, and within the communities, women took a back seat. At Washington Bulb, however, two women were elected to the union committee, and made specific demands. “That’s a big step forward for us,” Ramon says. It also gives women in the fields suffering sexual harassment the ability to bring complaints to women in the union leadership, instead of men.

THE BOSSES’ BIGGEST FEAR

“Direct action is what makes things move,” Franks says. “People put up with a lot because they’re scared that they could be unemployed. But when workers go on strike, they lose that fear, they push back, and that’s what makes things move. Direct action is the most valuable tool we have, and the bosses’ biggest fear. When workers take that leap of faith they can see the world in a whole new say, and recognize their own true value.”

Today in western Washington, a growing number of farmworkers have had that experience, and FUJ is following them into new places and farms as a result. It’s not a new idea—in the 1940s, Larry Itliong followed Filipino cannery workers from Alaska, where their pitched battles formed Local 37 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, back to their work in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley. There, they became the heart of union organizing until the great grape strike of 1965. They eventually joined with Latino workers to form what is now the United Farm Workers.

“We’re trying to make sure not to force the issue with workers here,” Franks said. “The union is ready to support them once they’re ready to take the step. The issues have been present for 20 years, but now, because of Sakuma, there’s an ecosystem they can rely on. They can see workers winning and feel better about taking action than they would have years ago. They have a growing leadership, and don’t have to put up with this anymore.”

NOTE: At press time negotiations with the company had reached agreement on the workers’ list of demands. While the union is not the official bargaining agent, the company agreed to treat the union committee as the representative of the workers. Workers were set to vote on the agreement on March 29.

#labor unions #class warfare #workers rights

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allthecanadianpolitics · 3 years

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The New Democrats will nominate a longtime member of the B.C. legislature to serve as Speaker.

Premier John Horgan says Raj Chouhan, who represents Burnaby-Edmonds, will be put forward on Monday as the party's choice for Speaker when the legislature resumes sitting.

He was first elected in 2005.

Before entering politics, Chouhan was the founding president of the Canadian Farmworkers’ Union and was the director of bargaining for the Hospital Employees Union for 18 years.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#British Columbia #BC NDP #Raj Chouhan #cdnpoli #canada #canadian politics #canadian news #canadian

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worklabournewsresearch · 3 years

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Challenges Facing Agricultural Workers

“In California, union organizers can temporarily access an agricultural employer’s property outside of work hours in order to talk to farmworkers about their legally protected right to join a union. Two agricultural employers, however, contend that the regulation allowing that access is equivalent to an uncompensated and unconstitutional ‘taking’ of their property and should therefore be struck down. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in this dispute: In Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, two agricultural employers are challenging the 1975 California regulation that allows union representatives to visit private farms. The case could have implications for union organizing across the country.”

“Farmworkers are employed in one of the most hazardous and lowest paying jobs in the entire U.S. labor market, a fact that isn’t often mentioned in the mainstream coverage. ...[F]armworkers suffer very high rates of wage and hour violations, yet the number of inspections of agricultural employers has been cut in half in recent years... In addition, a majority of farmworkers either lack an immigration status and fear retaliation and deportation, or they are migrant workers who have a precarious and employer-contingent immigration status such as an H-2A visa, a temporary visa that ties them and indentures them to one employer—meaning that if they lose their job or their status, they become deportable. ... Being part of a union, however, would help ensure that their rights are protected and give them the freedom to speak up about employer lawbreaking.”

“...[W]hile the agricultural employers in question—along with their supporters like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and right-wing and libertarian groups—are arguing that the California regulation is an unlawful violation of their private property rights (in legal jargon, a “taking”), the regulation already greatly restricts the time, duration, and purpose of the access to the employer’s property. Union organizers must give advance notice to the employers, there are limits on how many organizers can be present on the property, and organizers may not disrupt the business operations of the employer.”

Economic Policy Institute, March 23, 2021: “Agricultural employers are asking the Supreme Court to make it harder for farmworkers suffering from poor pay and working conditions to unionize,” by Daniel Costa

SCOTUS Blog, March 22, 2021: “Justices try to draw lines in California property-rights dispute,” by Amy Howe

Vox, March 22, 2021: “The Supreme Court confronts a union-busting argument that’s too radical even for Kavanaugh,” by Ian Millhiser

The Farmer Shortage in Canada

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted fundamental gaps in our agricultural system. For the first time in generations, many Canadians saw empty grocery store shelves and became acutely aware of the challenges facing our domestic food system. What followed were COVID-19 outbreaks on farms and meat processing plants and temporary foreign workers who were delayed and stranded. The pandemic highlights vulnerabilities in Canada’s food supply-chain and the importance of a resilient agricultural sector. A central challenge to increase sustainability is the looming agricultural labour shortage, a problem that was on the rise long before the pandemic. Simply put, there are not enough farmers. There is a lot at stake.”

Action Canada, 2021: Growing the Next Crop of Canadian Farmers, by Jean-Sebastien Blais, Chardaye Bueckert, Phil De Luna, and Melana Roberts, (44 pages, PDF)

Photo Source: Kevin. (2021). [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/ziWzEyV5lss

#agriculture #agricultural unions #migrant workers #immigrant labour #worker's rights #unionization #unions

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

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Why Farmworkers Are Especially at Risk for COVID-19

Farm laborers from Fresh Harvest in a field in Greenfield, California | Brent Stirton/Getty Images

As hundreds of farmworkers test positive for coronavirus, many remain unprotected

This story was originally published on Civil Eats.

At the end of April, 71 fruit-tree workers at a large orchard in central Washington state were tested for COVID-19. None showed any symptoms of the novel coronavirus, except for four with a mild cough. But more than half tested positive, and the farm turned out to be one of the first confirmed clusters of the virus among agricultural workers.

The laborers were mostly guest workers from Mexico who were brought to the state under the H-2A visa program. They are believed to have caught the virus in the U.S., despite the fact that their employer, Stemilt Ag Services, one of the state’s largest ag labor employers, had from the start implemented extensive safety measures to minimize their risks.

While farmworkers are at risk for COVID-19 due to their living and working conditions, until recently relatively few have tested positive for the virus. To health officials and labor advocates, the Stemilt case signaled that the virus may be more widespread in the agricultural industry than is being reported. It also showed that the guidelines for preventing coronavirus spread in agriculture — most of them voluntary measures — are likely insufficient.

“Stemilt has actively implemented social distancing, symptom monitoring, and other recommended COVID control measures at its work and housing sites,” Chelan-Douglas Health District administrator Barry Kling said in a statement. “What these test results tell us is that asymptomatic cases are so common that these measures are not sufficient in these settings even when implemented well.”

The company told Civil Eats that after the outbreak it has continued to adopt all recommendations from federal and state agencies and has intensified its sanitation and social distancing measures.

But Edgar Franks, political director with Familias Unidas Por La Justicia, a farmworker union in Washington state, says most agricultural employers are not nearly as scrupulous and many aren’t taking the necessary precautions.

“I haven’t seen much enforcement of existing guidelines in the fields,” said Franks. “No social distancing, no giving out masks, too little spacing between rows and trees, and everyone huddling close together during crew meetings.”

Labor advocates warn that the virus could severely impact agriculture as tens of thousands of workers across the country take to the fields when harvest season begins this summer. And while no one is counting exactly how many farmworkers have contracted the virus, in recent weeks, several COVID-19 hotspots have come to light, revealing how the agricultural system could expose workers’ lives to the disease.

“I haven’t seen much enforcement of existing guidelines in the fields. No social distancing, no giving out masks.”

Despite Hundreds of Positive Tests, Real Impact is Unknown

Farmworkers have been designated “essential workers” by the Department of Homeland Security and they continue to report to work. And while working outside puts them at less risk than if they were in a meat packing facility, labor advocates say these workers are very vulnerable to the virus because they often work in close proximity, live in cramped, communal housing conditions, and commute to the fields in crowded vans and buses. Many also have pre-existing conditions and some have no sick leave or health insurance.

In Washington’s Yakima Valley, a major agricultural region and one of the rare localities where the public health district publicly tracks farmworker COVID-19 cases, at least 240 people who work in the food and agriculture industries have tested positive for coronavirus. With more than 1,600 confirmed cases and nearly 60 deaths, the county has the highest COVID-19 rate of all West Coast counties. While people in long-term care facilities account for about a third of the county’s cases, health experts say the large agricultural workforce is the main driver.

To stem the tide of infections, the Yakima Health District and industry groups have created a technical assistance team to work with ag employers. The team will visit worksites, observe prevention measures, and provide recommendations for improvement. The district is also working with local care providers to increase testing capacity in case there’s an outbreak at a guestworker housing camp.

Oregon’s Marion County, which is in the heart of the agriculturally rich Willamette Valley, also has the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the state. And while the county doesn’t release data about the employment of people testing positive, the two towns with the highest infection rates — Woodburn and Gervais — are also at the center of the state’s farmworker population.

In the San Joaquin Valley, one of the nation’s largest agricultural production areas, a rise in positive coronavirus cases in rural towns has led Congressional leaders to urge the National Institute of Health and Governor Gavin Newsom to prioritize COVID-19 testing for farmworkers and others in the food industry.

And in Monterey County, known as America’s Salad Bowl, health officials have reported that dozens of farmworkers have been infected. Ag workers compromise 35 percent of the county’s cases, Karen Smith, a spokesperson for the county health department, told Civil Eats. Last week, it received 750,000 masks from the state specifically for these workers. It also has added two new community testing sites.

But the outbreaks haven’t been contained to the West Coast. In upstate New York, 169 of 340 workers at Green Empire Farms, a giant greenhouse that grows strawberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers, tested positive for the virus earlier this week. Although two were hospitalized, the vast majority of the workers, most of whom are guest workers from Mexico, Haiti, and other countries were asymptomatic, health officials told Civil Eats.

The outbreak occurred despite the fact that Mastronardi Produce, the Canadian company that owns the greenhouse, had instituted a string of protective measures, including mandatory face coverings, social distancing, and sanitizing. Most of the workers, who live in hotels multiple workers to a room, are being quarantined there, said Samantha Field, Madison County Health Department spokesperson.

In New Jersey, 59 migrant workers at an unidentified farm in Salem County tested positive for the virus. Thousands of foreign guest workers arrive to the area every year for spring and summer harvest. In response, a local health center has launched testing of farmworkers in tents at various farms and in mobile testing vans; local health officials said they are planning more tests.

And in North Carolina, farmworkers at several strawberry farms also tested positive, including eight at Rudd Farm, which had mandated the use of gloves and masks for farmworkers and implemented a drive-thru service for customers. The farm, which had temporarily closed at the end of April, is back in business.

Labor advocates say it’s likely that this list of known cases is only the tip of the iceberg. Many workers don’t report feeling ill because they can’t afford to miss two or more weeks of work, said Marley Monacello, a spokeswoman for the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The organization knows of one Immokalee farmworker with COVID-19 who is in the hospital on a ventilator, but “we don’t have a long list of workers who have tested positive,” Monacello said. “Up until last week, the threshold for getting a test was very high.”

The group has been pushing for more testing and the state finally opened a new testing site in Immokalee last week, Monacello said. She said the hope is that farmworkers who test positive will receive the care and economic support they need.

“They’re feeding all of us and they deserve so much better,” Monacello said.

Brent Stirton/Getty Images

Farm laborers in masks their hands before work on April 28, 2020 in Greenfield, California

States Respond, But Guidelines Not Enough

Since the start of the pandemic, advocates have been putting pressure on local, state, and federal officials to find ways to protect farmworkers.

In Oregon, the response has involved a temporary rule that requires ag employers to identify a social distancing and sanitation officer to ensure at least six feet of separation during work activities, breaks, and meal periods, as well as in employer housing. Companies have also been required to increase the availability of toilet and washing stations, and bunk beds — long a common feature of farmworkers housing — have been prohibited. The rule, which will be implemented on June 1, also requires that workers and drivers wear facial coverings and sit at least three feet apart in employer-provided vehicles.

And in California, Governor Newsom issued an executive order that requires those who employ more than 500 food sector workers to provide up to 80 hours of paid sick leave to workers affected by COVID-19.

The order is a significant win for farmworkers, said Armando Elenes, the secretary-treasurer with the United Farm Workers (UFW), because California’s agricultural operations tend to employ thousands of workers.

“Now we need to make sure the law is real, that it’s enforced,” Elenes said. “And that workers know about it. If the workers don’t ask for the leave, the employers won’t volunteer it.”

Despite these wins, most ag states and localities have only issued recommendations on preventing the virus from spreading among farmworkers — and some haven’t even gone that far. Voluntary guidelines have come from Cal-OSHA, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Monterey County on California’s Central Coast, and Washington state, among others.

Labor advocates say such guidelines are not enough to protect workers. Some workers have gone on strike asking for more safety measures, including most recently at Allan Brothers Fruit, a Washington state packing house.

Lawsuit Seeks Emergency Rules on Transportation, Work Conditions

In mid-April, two farmworker unions — the UFW and Familias Unidas por la Justicia — sued the state of Washington for mandatory, stringent, and enforceable rules.

“Lack of enforceable rules regarding social distancing, protective face masks, access to soap and water, and to environmental cleaning allows conditions to continue in which the virus can spread easily and quickly” and “imperil the lives” of workers, reads the complaint.

As a state with a number of large agri-businesses producing labor-intensive crops such as apples and cherries, Washington brings in the most foreign guest workers. Through the end of March, more than 11,000 guest workers were sent to the state and another 15,000 or more will likely make their way to the state for harvest in the next few months, according to last year’s data.

Enforceable regulations are crucial during the pandemic, said Andrea Schmitt, an attorney with Columbia Legal Services who represents the unions, because many farmworkers don’t know the legal system. “The only way they know their rights is if the rules are crystal clear and specific,” she told the judge at a hearing last Friday.

Farmers have a vested interest in protecting workers, said Sarah Wixson, an attorney who represents several grower organizations who intervened in the lawsuit.

“There’s a farm labor shortage,” said Wixson. “No farmer wants their farmworkers to get sick and not be able to perform their jobs.”

“The only way they know their rights is if the rules are crystal clear and specific.”

A week after the lawsuit was filed, Washington’s Department of Health and the Department of Labor & Industries released a draft of emergency rules on farmworker housing that will be finalized in the coming days. They included cleaning and distancing plans and procedures for educating workers as well as identifying and isolating those who get sick.

But labor advocates said it makes no sense to improve housing while workers are still traveling and working in close proximity. So, the lawsuit asks the state to adopt emergency rules in those two additional areas.

Washington officials had indicated they were not planning such rule making. And Tim Church, a spokesman with the Department of Labor & Industries, declined to say whether the state would adopt additional emergency rules. But on May 1, a judge said he wanted to see the state make progress on transportation and work site rules by May 14. If not, he said he will consider issuing an injunction to force such rules.

Stemilt Case Provides Insight Into COVID Impacts

Worker advocates say time is of the essence when it comes to saving farmworkers lives and they point to the Stemilt case as a sign that more needs to be done to track the disease.

Stemilt Ag Services is an orchard management subsidiary of Stemilt Growers, one of the nation’s largest fruit producers. Every year, the company hires approximately 2,000 workers to work in its approximately 9,000 acres of apple, pear, cherry, and stone fruit orchards, and the majority are brought in as H-2A workers.

In early March, court documents show, the company adopted the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and separated the workers into several distinct crews that work, commute to work, and live in isolation together.

At that time, one of Stemilt’s domestic farmworkers tested positive for COVID-19; he and his five fellow crew members were asked to self-isolate at home for two weeks. A month later, six guest workers at one of the housing camps exhibited symptoms and all tested positive. In total, court records show, 53 guest workers tested positive while one domestic worker did.

The isolated workers didn’t exhibit major symptoms, none required hospitalization, and only one lost his sense of smell and taste. All of the workers are now out of isolation and back to work, the company’s spokesman Roger Pepperl told Civil Eats, and Stemilt currently has zero positive cases. In response to the outbreak, the company says it’s cleaning its housing more rigorously, has increased communication with workers about preventive measures, and continues to work on all aspects of social distancing. “We do have to remember that it is a 24-hours-a-day issue … not just at work and not just after work,” said Pepperl.

But health officials said those measures, no matter how well executed, may not be enough. Instead, testing farmworkers on a larger scale is what’s needed.

“We need to think differently,” said Kling, the Chelan-Douglas Health District administrator. “We also need to greatly increase testing of workers so that isolation and quarantine can be used when needed, and uninfected workers can continue to work.”

With Voluntary Guidelines, Farmworkers Have No Recourse

Labor advocates hope more testing will eventually protect workers. In the meantime, a ruling in Washington could spur other states to adopt similar mandatory rules to protect farmworkers.

Mandatory regulations could be a game changer for workers, said Nayamin Martinez, director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. The group organizes workers in the San Joaquin Valley and has been educating them about COVID-19.

Last month, said Martinez, a group of workers in the rural town of Madera was temporarily laid off after they insisted on working 6-feet apart from others in the mandarin orchards. “[The lay-offs] were in retaliation for asking that they be allowed to practice social distancing,” said Martinez. “Their field crew boss told them, ‘If you don’t like it, you can go home. I have others who are ready to work.’”

Martinez said she filed a complaint with the Fresno office of Cal-OSHA because the workers were too scared to do it, fearing they would lose their jobs. Although Martinez provided the agency with the address of the field where the crew was working, the agency declined to investigate. Cal-OSHA’s Fresno office did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Civil Eats.

“People are scared. Next time, they won’t report anything, since no one is enforcing the rules,” said Martinez. “And we’re talking about a disease that puts people’s lives at risk.”

• As Hundreds of Farmworkers Test Positive for COVID-19, Many Remain Unprotected [Civil Eats]

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Farm laborers from Fresh Harvest in a field in Greenfield, California | Brent Stirton/Getty Images

As hundreds of farmworkers test positive for coronavirus, many remain unprotected

This story was originally published on Civil Eats.

The company told Civil Eats that after the outbreak it has continued to adopt all recommendations from federal and state agencies and has intensified its sanitation and social distancing measures.

“I haven’t seen much enforcement of existing guidelines in the fields. No social distancing, no giving out masks.”

Despite Hundreds of Positive Tests, Real Impact is Unknown

“They’re feeding all of us and they deserve so much better,” Monacello said.

Brent Stirton/Getty Images

Farm laborers in masks their hands before work on April 28, 2020 in Greenfield, California

States Respond, But Guidelines Not Enough

Since the start of the pandemic, advocates have been putting pressure on local, state, and federal officials to find ways to protect farmworkers.

“Now we need to make sure the law is real, that it’s enforced,” Elenes said. “And that workers know about it. If the workers don’t ask for the leave, the employers won’t volunteer it.”

Lawsuit Seeks Emergency Rules on Transportation, Work Conditions

In mid-April, two farmworker unions — the UFW and Familias Unidas por la Justicia — sued the state of Washington for mandatory, stringent, and enforceable rules.

Farmers have a vested interest in protecting workers, said Sarah Wixson, an attorney who represents several grower organizations who intervened in the lawsuit.

“There’s a farm labor shortage,” said Wixson. “No farmer wants their farmworkers to get sick and not be able to perform their jobs.”

“The only way they know their rights is if the rules are crystal clear and specific.”

Stemilt Case Provides Insight Into COVID Impacts

Worker advocates say time is of the essence when it comes to saving farmworkers lives and they point to the Stemilt case as a sign that more needs to be done to track the disease.

But health officials said those measures, no matter how well executed, may not be enough. Instead, testing farmworkers on a larger scale is what’s needed.

With Voluntary Guidelines, Farmworkers Have No Recourse

Labor advocates hope more testing will eventually protect workers. In the meantime, a ruling in Washington could spur other states to adopt similar mandatory rules to protect farmworkers.

“People are scared. Next time, they won’t report anything, since no one is enforcing the rules,” said Martinez. “And we’re talking about a disease that puts people’s lives at risk.”

• As Hundreds of Farmworkers Test Positive for COVID-19, Many Remain Unprotected [Civil Eats]

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2yVFk7S via Blogger https://ift.tt/2WVd90H

#Blogger #cooking #Eater #food #recipes

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 1 month

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"In many ways, the Canadian Farmworkers Union (CFU) and its predecessor, the Farmworkers Organizing Committee (FWOC), operated like a trade union. The CFU executive chose three related areas on which to focus its organizing efforts: (1) improving working and living conditions, (2) eliminating the contractor system that further exploited already vulnerable workers, and (3) fighting to include farmworkers in the BC labour code, affording farmworkers rights to minimum wage and health benefits.

Working and living conditions constituted one of the main pillars that organizers rallied around to push their efforts. One story was often used in CFU documents as a rallying cry:

On July 16, 1980, little Sukhdeep Madhar lay sleeping in a cow stall converted into sleeping quarters when, unknown to her parents working in the fields close by, she rolled off her cot. The seven month-old baby drowned in a bucket of drinking water before being discovered. Ruling the tragedy as an accidental death, Dr. Bill Macarthur, Coroner, said that working conditions on the farm were like those found in Nazi concentration camps.

Further, while out in the field, workers found that many farms did not have running water or washroom facilities. Other farms did not have places for children who had to attend work with their parents (or for workers on breaks) to sit in the shade on hot days. In addition to unsafe working conditions in the field, workers who did not have enough money for housing would have to live in converted barn stalls on the farm where they worked. These stalls would often have simple hay and straw as flooring with small cots for sleeping. Some living quarters did not have running water, heating, or washroom facilities. Finally, it was not uncommon for farm owners and operators, or even for the contractors who acted as intermediaries, to withhold wages from workers until the end of the season (should they be paid at all).

Despite its small size, the CFU was relatively successful in improving working conditions, especially with regard to securing stolen wages. The first test for the FWOC was a dispute between Mukhiter Singh and the contractor that he had hired to provide a labour force. On 17 July 1979, workers contacted the FWOC to help set up a picket line after they discovered that Mukhiter was withholding $100,000 owed for six weeks of labour because he was unsatisfied with the pickers’ work. The FWOC immediately sent out “several dozen Committee members” and “joined two hundred workers on the picket lines.” After a tense standoff, Mukhiter offered to pay $40,000 in wages, but the farmworkers refused the offer. After roughly two hours of negotiations with Chouhan, Mukhiter paid the workers $80,000 and the dispute was settled. This incident was the first major victory for the FWOC.

The following year, a larger battle took place with a much larger grower: Jensen Mushroom Farms in Langley. On 18 July 1980, despite the grower’s assertion that “if they don’t like it [working conditions], they can quit,” Jensen Mushroom Farms became the first agricultural work site to be certified by the Labour Relations Board (LRB). While this did not mean the workers had a contract, the LRB ruling did mean that the union could negotiate on behalf of the workers. This was the first ruling of its kind in BC labour history. The first signed contract would come from a different farm, Bell Farms. The owner, Jack Bell, was relatively sympathetic to unions and did not offer any resistance to workers who organized for union representation. That LRB certification would come on 3 September 1980, and the first contract would be ratified on 18 November. While getting a certification was the first step, the process to signing a contract could be extremely drawn out. After nine months of negotiations at Jensen Farms with little progress, the CFU voted to strike on 14 April 1981. Here, Jensen demonstrated his resolve to prevent a union from entering his workplace. On the first day of picketing, an altercation between Chouhan and some of Jensen’s family members left Chouhan with a cut on his forehead, and each side pointed to the other as the instigator. A CFU organizer at the picket line, Sandi Roy, describes in a police report how Annie Hall, Jensen’s daughter, struck Chouhan in the head with keys, “causing him to bleed profusely.” Immediately after the altercation, Murray Munroe, Jensen’s son-in-law, “and at least three of the passengers of both trucks [that had transported Jensen’s family to the picket line] exited from the trucks and began running towards Mr. Chouhan and pushed him into a roadside ditch.” No legal action was taken by either party.

As the strike wore on, the CFU described “various forms of violence from name calling, to car pounding, to a physical scuffle, to telephone wires being cut, to trucks being chased at high speeds, to an attempt to burn down a trailer while a picketer was sleeping inside.” Despite ten workers scabbing (union strikebreaking) and extreme tension on the picket line, the line held strong until September 1981, when it was finally lifted. Formal contract negotiations would not recommence until May 1982, and on 30 July 1982, more than a year after the certification, a formal contract was signed. Getting a contract after a long strike was one matter, but managing to maintain certification with a stubborn owner was also a difficult task. According to the CFU, the fourteen remaining workers who returned to work at Jensen’s were evenly split on the issue of the union. In June 1983, ten months after the strike’s conclusion, the number of people who worked at Jensen’s had increased to forty seven, and the turnover rate was high. This meant that many of those who supported the union had left and that those who remained were now outnumbered in the workplace. Jensen also began to hire his immediate family members as employees to reduce the strength of the union. The family members intimidated workers who were worried about being identified to the employer as pro-union. When shop stewards were elected, Jean Hall – whose relation to the aforementioned Annie Hall is unclear – was elected for labourers and Rajinder Gill was elected for pickers. The CFU claimed that “the election of Jean Hall was orchestrated by Tove Nesbitt and Jens Jensen (Jensen’s daughter and brother).”

Clearly, Jensen was determined to break the union by inserting his family members into the union’s structure. Union meetings became difficult places to be and were reported by workers to be dominated by Jensen’s family members. According to the CFU, “at one time Jensen had nine family members working at the farm and on average there were seven.” Workers felt intimidated at meetings because they feared that their concerns would be passed back to Jensen and that they could be disciplined or fired. On 1 April 1983, Jensen’s employees applied to the LRB for decertification, and, despite the CFU’s confidence that the decertification vote would fail, on 8 July it passed by a count of 23 to 22. The CFU, understandably disheartened, put some blame on recent immigrants, who were “in awe of ‘authority’ figures” and did not want to appear pro-union to new employers.

During an investigation of Jensen Farms by the provincial government’s Ministry of Labour, R.F. Bone noted some troubling practices on the part of the employer. First, at the time of the strike, it was estimated that 90 percent of the workforce was South Asian and that most supported the union. During the strike, many of these workers left for other jobs because they needed to support themselves. After the strike, Bone noted: “all employees hired (approx. 17) have been non-East Indian, except for four young ladies, all related to the only two East Indians (Gurmit Kaur and Sukhbir Kaur) employed before the strike who then and still are strongly anti-union.” These hires were Euro-Canadians and Laotians. Since the mushroom farm had different greenhouses, Jensen had the Laotians working in areas away from the pro-union employees and had scheduled the pro-union employees to work during union meetings. This tactic allowed the anti-union workers who still attended meetings to elect Jean Hall and Gurmit Kaur, workers who scabbed during the strike, to be delegates for the CFU National Convention in April 1984. Both delegates were expelled from the convention after this revelation and were deemed members “not in good standing.” Finally, Jensen attempted to have the CFU barred from any certifications for one calendar year – an attempt that was denied by the LRB.

This battle had an underlying racist tone. As demonstrated by Jensen’s practices after the strike, Jensen was actively avoiding South Asians. Other anti-union employees also hinted at an ethnic divide. Fred Forman, a white worker hired after the strike, suggested: “if I had a grievance, I don’t think it would work because I’m the wrong colour.” Farmers, including Jensen, used the idea that the CFU was an exclusively South Asian union to discourage membership among newly hired Laotians and whites as well as to discredit the union among its current members."

- Nicholas Fast, ““WE WERE A SOCIAL MOVEMENT AS WELL”: The Canadian Farmworkers Union in British Columbia, 1979–1983,” BC Studies. no. 217, Spring 2023. p. 41-44.

#canadian farmworkers union #participatory democracy #union organizing #farm workers #agricultural workers #indian immigration to canada #immigrant workers #racialized workers #farming in canada #working class struggle #academic quote #strike #union politics #scabs #strikebreaking #reading 2024

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instantdeerlover · 4 years

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Why Farmworkers Are Especially at Risk for COVID-19 added to Google Docs

Why Farmworkers Are Especially at Risk for COVID-19

Farm laborers from Fresh Harvest in a field in Greenfield, California | Brent Stirton/Getty Images

As hundreds of farmworkers test positive for coronavirus, many remain unprotected

This story was originally published on Civil Eats.

The company told Civil Eats that after the outbreak it has continued to adopt all recommendations from federal and state agencies and has intensified its sanitation and social distancing measures.

“I haven’t seen much enforcement of existing guidelines in the fields. No social distancing, no giving out masks.” Despite Hundreds of Positive Tests, Real Impact is Unknown

“They’re feeding all of us and they deserve so much better,” Monacello said.

Brent Stirton/Getty Images Farm laborers in masks their hands before work on April 28, 2020 in Greenfield, California States Respond, But Guidelines Not Enough

Since the start of the pandemic, advocates have been putting pressure on local, state, and federal officials to find ways to protect farmworkers.

“Now we need to make sure the law is real, that it’s enforced,” Elenes said. “And that workers know about it. If the workers don’t ask for the leave, the employers won’t volunteer it.”

Lawsuit Seeks Emergency Rules on Transportation, Work Conditions

In mid-April, two farmworker unions — the UFW and Familias Unidas por la Justicia — sued the state of Washington for mandatory, stringent, and enforceable rules.

Farmers have a vested interest in protecting workers, said Sarah Wixson, an attorney who represents several grower organizations who intervened in the lawsuit.

“There’s a farm labor shortage,” said Wixson. “No farmer wants their farmworkers to get sick and not be able to perform their jobs.”

“The only way they know their rights is if the rules are crystal clear and specific.”

Stemilt Case Provides Insight Into COVID Impacts

Worker advocates say time is of the essence when it comes to saving farmworkers lives and they point to the Stemilt case as a sign that more needs to be done to track the disease.

But health officials said those measures, no matter how well executed, may not be enough. Instead, testing farmworkers on a larger scale is what’s needed.

With Voluntary Guidelines, Farmworkers Have No Recourse

Labor advocates hope more testing will eventually protect workers. In the meantime, a ruling in Washington could spur other states to adopt similar mandatory rules to protect farmworkers.

“People are scared. Next time, they won’t report anything, since no one is enforcing the rules,” said Martinez. “And we’re talking about a disease that puts people’s lives at risk.”

• As Hundreds of Farmworkers Test Positive for COVID-19, Many Remain Unprotected [Civil Eats]

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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The White House is finalizing details of a new free trade deal with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement — with or without Canada.

Scrapping NAFTA was one of President Trump’s central promises during his presidential campaign. He blamed the 24-year-old trade pact for decimating the US manufacturing industry and the loss of thousands of factory jobs (NAFTA only played a small role in the decline of American manufacturing, but that’s another story). The 1994 trade deal allows North American goods to cross the US, Canadian, and Mexican borders tax-free, adding up to about $1.2 trillion in annual trade.

So far, the new United States-Mexico Trade Agreement seems a lot like NAFTA, though Canada has yet to opt in as it continues negotiations. Agricultural products would remain tariff-free under the new deal, and there is still no required renegotiation every five years (which Trump wanted). It would be harder, however, for businesses to claim harm from unfair trade practices.

But there is one striking difference from NAFTA: The new pact includes several labor rules meant to benefit workers on both sides of the border. For example, Mexico has agreed to pass a law giving workers the right to real union representation, and to adopt other labor laws that meet international standards set forth by the United Nations. American auto companies that assemble their cars in Mexico would also need to use more US-made car parts to avoid tariffs, which would help US factory workers. And about 40 percent of those cars would need to be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour — three times more than Mexico’s minimum wage.

These are much-needed reforms, and they address a lot of concerns that US labor unions had about NAFTA. The problem is that they seem impossible to enforce. It’s one thing to make trading partners adopt strict labor laws, but making sure they enforce those laws has proven much, much harder. Unless the White House comes up with a dramatically different plan to sanction Mexico if it doesn’t keep up its end of the deal, companies on both sides of the border will continue to reap all the benefits of free trade at the expense of their workers.

First of all, it’s important to note that free trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico has had a small, but positive, impact on all three economies. That is something most economists can agree on. The controversy over NAFTA, which was enacted in 1994, involves its impact on workers. American labor unions worried at the time that allowing goods to cross the border untaxed would give US manufacturers too much incentive to move factories and jobs to Mexico, where wages were super low and environmental standards more relaxed.

Proponents of NAFTA pushed back against that idea, saying that boosting trade would raise wages for low-skilled Mexican workers, pulling millions out of poverty and making it less attractive for companies to move factories to Mexico. That definitely didn’t happen. Competition from US farms was largely responsible for putting more than 1 million farmworkers in Mexico out of work, and the unemployment rate in Mexico is higher today than it was back then.

On top of that, wages for workers in Mexico have hardly budged. Just look at this chart:

Center for Economic and Policy Research

In the United States, NAFTA didn’t lower overall US wages, as some feared, but it was linked to lower wages in some manufacturing jobs. The trade deal was also directly responsible for the loss of more than 840,000 US factory jobs, most of which were moved to Mexico. Just last year, Ford announced it was closing one of its auto factories and opening another one in Mexico.

US companies are still doing this because factory workers in Mexico are still making poverty wages. And one reason workers in Mexico are still living in poverty is because NAFTA’s labor protections have not been enforced.

When NAFTA was signed, it included labor protections for workers in all three countries. Basically, each country agreed to enforce its own labor laws and follow standards set by the UN’s International Labor Organization. But labor complaints filed through the NAFTA labor dispute process have led nowhere.

About two dozen complaints of workers’ rights violations were filed against all three countries in NAFTA’s first decade — the vast majority in Mexico, according to Human Rights Watch. Companies accused of violating local labor laws include General Electric, Honeywell, Sony, General Motors, McDonald’s, Sprint, and the Washington state apple industry.

In Mexico, those complaints included allegations of retaliation against workers who tried to unionize, denial of collective bargaining rights, forced pregnancy testing, mistreatment of migrant workers, and life-threatening health and safety conditions. None have led to any type of sanctions, which workers’ rights groups say is because there are no rules about how to resolve these disputes and government mediators have chosen to take a hands-off approach.

“Our research shows that agreements on labor will never work without the active support of the countries involved. In the case of NAFTA, these three countries have actually worked to minimize the impact of the labor provisions,” the report stated.

One of the biggest complaints against Mexico right now is that labor unions are largely controlled by employers, and workers are not even part of contract negotiations. So it’s no wonder why Mexican factory workers are earning so little. The average hourly wage for factory workers in Mexico is just over $2 an hour — and the country’s minimum wage is roughly $4.15 for a full day’s work. These low wages attract US companies to operate in Mexico.

The new labor rules in Trump’s pact with Mexico are supposed to remove the incentive to keep Mexican workers living in poverty. But it’s hard to picture how those rules would ever be enforced.

As part of the United States-Mexico Trade Deal, Mexico has promised to pass laws that will guarantee workers the right to form unions and negotiate their own labor contracts. If Mexican workers could do this without fear of losing their jobs, they would certainly negotiate better wages and working conditions.

Right now, workers in Mexico have the right to unionize, but they are often left out of the negotiating process. US manufacturers — and most other companies — end up dictating the terms of the contract with labor unions to their own benefit. Workers have also reported retaliation from employers when they try to create a labor union.

But even if Mexico does guarantee workers more union rights, the government does not have a great track record when it comes to enforcing its own laws. Bribing government officials to look the other way is common practice — even among US companies that operate there. Government employees in Mexico often earn poverty wages themselves, so slipping them money to bend the rules is considered part of the cost of doing business, as a 2012 New York Times investigation of Walmart’s operations there showed.

That’s why another labor rule in the new trade deal also seems too good to be true. It mandates that 40 percent of a car’s parts must be made by workers who earn at least $16 an hour to avoid tariffs. That means that many Mexican factories that make parts for US car manufacturers would have to pay eight times what they currently pay the average factory worker. And the trade deal does not mention how such a rule could be enforced. It’s not clear how the Mexican government, the US government, or even an independent council would be able to keep track of wages without an army of regulators.

“I don’t think it’s plausible at all,” says Monica de Bolle, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “At the moment, because there is no such legislation, enforceability is all but impossible.”

Original Source -> Trump’s trade deal with Mexico gives workers more rights than NAFTA. But there’s a catch.

via The Conservative Brief

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

Quote

Farm laborers from Fresh Harvest in a field in Greenfield, California | Brent Stirton/Getty Images As hundreds of farmworkers test positive for coronavirus, many remain unprotected This story was originally published on Civil Eats. At the end of April, 71 fruit-tree workers at a large orchard in central Washington state were tested for COVID-19. None showed any symptoms of the novel coronavirus, except for four with a mild cough. But more than half tested positive, and the farm turned out to be one of the first confirmed clusters of the virus among agricultural workers. The laborers were mostly guest workers from Mexico who were brought to the state under the H-2A visa program. They are believed to have caught the virus in the U.S., despite the fact that their employer, Stemilt Ag Services, one of the state’s largest ag labor employers, had from the start implemented extensive safety measures to minimize their risks. While farmworkers are at risk for COVID-19 due to their living and working conditions, until recently relatively few have tested positive for the virus. To health officials and labor advocates, the Stemilt case signaled that the virus may be more widespread in the agricultural industry than is being reported. It also showed that the guidelines for preventing coronavirus spread in agriculture — most of them voluntary measures — are likely insufficient. “Stemilt has actively implemented social distancing, symptom monitoring, and other recommended COVID control measures at its work and housing sites,” Chelan-Douglas Health District administrator Barry Kling said in a statement. “What these test results tell us is that asymptomatic cases are so common that these measures are not sufficient in these settings even when implemented well.” The company told Civil Eats that after the outbreak it has continued to adopt all recommendations from federal and state agencies and has intensified its sanitation and social distancing measures. But Edgar Franks, political director with Familias Unidas Por La Justicia, a farmworker union in Washington state, says most agricultural employers are not nearly as scrupulous and many aren’t taking the necessary precautions. “I haven’t seen much enforcement of existing guidelines in the fields,” said Franks. “No social distancing, no giving out masks, too little spacing between rows and trees, and everyone huddling close together during crew meetings.” Labor advocates warn that the virus could severely impact agriculture as tens of thousands of workers across the country take to the fields when harvest season begins this summer. And while no one is counting exactly how many farmworkers have contracted the virus, in recent weeks, several COVID-19 hotspots have come to light, revealing how the agricultural system could expose workers’ lives to the disease. “I haven’t seen much enforcement of existing guidelines in the fields. No social distancing, no giving out masks.” Despite Hundreds of Positive Tests, Real Impact is Unknown Farmworkers have been designated “essential workers” by the Department of Homeland Security and they continue to report to work. And while working outside puts them at less risk than if they were in a meat packing facility, labor advocates say these workers are very vulnerable to the virus because they often work in close proximity, live in cramped, communal housing conditions, and commute to the fields in crowded vans and buses. Many also have pre-existing conditions and some have no sick leave or health insurance. In Washington’s Yakima Valley, a major agricultural region and one of the rare localities where the public health district publicly tracks farmworker COVID-19 cases, at least 240 people who work in the food and agriculture industries have tested positive for coronavirus. With more than 1,600 confirmed cases and nearly 60 deaths, the county has the highest COVID-19 rate of all West Coast counties. While people in long-term care facilities account for about a third of the county’s cases, health experts say the large agricultural workforce is the main driver. To stem the tide of infections, the Yakima Health District and industry groups have created a technical assistance team to work with ag employers. The team will visit worksites, observe prevention measures, and provide recommendations for improvement. The district is also working with local care providers to increase testing capacity in case there’s an outbreak at a guestworker housing camp. Oregon’s Marion County, which is in the heart of the agriculturally rich Willamette Valley, also has the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the state. And while the county doesn’t release data about the employment of people testing positive, the two towns with the highest infection rates — Woodburn and Gervais — are also at the center of the state’s farmworker population. In the San Joaquin Valley, one of the nation’s largest agricultural production areas, a rise in positive coronavirus cases in rural towns has led Congressional leaders to urge the National Institute of Health and Governor Gavin Newsom to prioritize COVID-19 testing for farmworkers and others in the food industry. And in Monterey County, known as America’s Salad Bowl, health officials have reported that dozens of farmworkers have been infected. Ag workers compromise 35 percent of the county’s cases, Karen Smith, a spokesperson for the county health department, told Civil Eats. Last week, it received 750,000 masks from the state specifically for these workers. It also has added two new community testing sites. But the outbreaks haven’t been contained to the West Coast. In upstate New York, 169 of 340 workers at Green Empire Farms, a giant greenhouse that grows strawberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers, tested positive for the virus earlier this week. Although two were hospitalized, the vast majority of the workers, most of whom are guest workers from Mexico, Haiti, and other countries were asymptomatic, health officials told Civil Eats. The outbreak occurred despite the fact that Mastronardi Produce, the Canadian company that owns the greenhouse, had instituted a string of protective measures, including mandatory face coverings, social distancing, and sanitizing. Most of the workers, who live in hotels multiple workers to a room, are being quarantined there, said Samantha Field, Madison County Health Department spokesperson. In New Jersey, 59 migrant workers at an unidentified farm in Salem County tested positive for the virus. Thousands of foreign guest workers arrive to the area every year for spring and summer harvest. In response, a local health center has launched testing of farmworkers in tents at various farms and in mobile testing vans; local health officials said they are planning more tests. And in North Carolina, farmworkers at several strawberry farms also tested positive, including eight at Rudd Farm, which had mandated the use of gloves and masks for farmworkers and implemented a drive-thru service for customers. The farm, which had temporarily closed at the end of April, is back in business. Labor advocates say it’s likely that this list of known cases is only the tip of the iceberg. Many workers don’t report feeling ill because they can’t afford to miss two or more weeks of work, said Marley Monacello, a spokeswoman for the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The organization knows of one Immokalee farmworker with COVID-19 who is in the hospital on a ventilator, but “we don’t have a long list of workers who have tested positive,” Monacello said. “Up until last week, the threshold for getting a test was very high.” The group has been pushing for more testing and the state finally opened a new testing site in Immokalee last week, Monacello said. She said the hope is that farmworkers who test positive will receive the care and economic support they need. “They’re feeding all of us and they deserve so much better,” Monacello said. Brent Stirton/Getty Images Farm laborers in masks their hands before work on April 28, 2020 in Greenfield, California States Respond, But Guidelines Not Enough Since the start of the pandemic, advocates have been putting pressure on local, state, and federal officials to find ways to protect farmworkers. In Oregon, the response has involved a temporary rule that requires ag employers to identify a social distancing and sanitation officer to ensure at least six feet of separation during work activities, breaks, and meal periods, as well as in employer housing. Companies have also been required to increase the availability of toilet and washing stations, and bunk beds — long a common feature of farmworkers housing — have been prohibited. The rule, which will be implemented on June 1, also requires that workers and drivers wear facial coverings and sit at least three feet apart in employer-provided vehicles. And in California, Governor Newsom issued an executive order that requires those who employ more than 500 food sector workers to provide up to 80 hours of paid sick leave to workers affected by COVID-19. The order is a significant win for farmworkers, said Armando Elenes, the secretary-treasurer with the United Farm Workers (UFW), because California’s agricultural operations tend to employ thousands of workers. “Now we need to make sure the law is real, that it’s enforced,” Elenes said. “And that workers know about it. If the workers don’t ask for the leave, the employers won’t volunteer it.” Despite these wins, most ag states and localities have only issued recommendations on preventing the virus from spreading among farmworkers — and some haven’t even gone that far. Voluntary guidelines have come from Cal-OSHA, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Monterey County on California’s Central Coast, and Washington state, among others. Labor advocates say such guidelines are not enough to protect workers. Some workers have gone on strike asking for more safety measures, including most recently at Allan Brothers Fruit, a Washington state packing house. Lawsuit Seeks Emergency Rules on Transportation, Work Conditions In mid-April, two farmworker unions — the UFW and Familias Unidas por la Justicia — sued the state of Washington for mandatory, stringent, and enforceable rules. “Lack of enforceable rules regarding social distancing, protective face masks, access to soap and water, and to environmental cleaning allows conditions to continue in which the virus can spread easily and quickly” and “imperil the lives” of workers, reads the complaint. As a state with a number of large agri-businesses producing labor-intensive crops such as apples and cherries, Washington brings in the most foreign guest workers. Through the end of March, more than 11,000 guest workers were sent to the state and another 15,000 or more will likely make their way to the state for harvest in the next few months, according to last year’s data. Enforceable regulations are crucial during the pandemic, said Andrea Schmitt, an attorney with Columbia Legal Services who represents the unions, because many farmworkers don’t know the legal system. “The only way they know their rights is if the rules are crystal clear and specific,” she told the judge at a hearing last Friday. Farmers have a vested interest in protecting workers, said Sarah Wixson, an attorney who represents several grower organizations who intervened in the lawsuit. “There’s a farm labor shortage,” said Wixson. “No farmer wants their farmworkers to get sick and not be able to perform their jobs.” “The only way they know their rights is if the rules are crystal clear and specific.” A week after the lawsuit was filed, Washington’s Department of Health and the Department of Labor & Industries released a draft of emergency rules on farmworker housing that will be finalized in the coming days. They included cleaning and distancing plans and procedures for educating workers as well as identifying and isolating those who get sick. But labor advocates said it makes no sense to improve housing while workers are still traveling and working in close proximity. So, the lawsuit asks the state to adopt emergency rules in those two additional areas. Washington officials had indicated they were not planning such rule making. And Tim Church, a spokesman with the Department of Labor & Industries, declined to say whether the state would adopt additional emergency rules. But on May 1, a judge said he wanted to see the state make progress on transportation and work site rules by May 14. If not, he said he will consider issuing an injunction to force such rules. Stemilt Case Provides Insight Into COVID Impacts Worker advocates say time is of the essence when it comes to saving farmworkers lives and they point to the Stemilt case as a sign that more needs to be done to track the disease. Stemilt Ag Services is an orchard management subsidiary of Stemilt Growers, one of the nation’s largest fruit producers. Every year, the company hires approximately 2,000 workers to work in its approximately 9,000 acres of apple, pear, cherry, and stone fruit orchards, and the majority are brought in as H-2A workers. In early March, court documents show, the company adopted the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and separated the workers into several distinct crews that work, commute to work, and live in isolation together. At that time, one of Stemilt’s domestic farmworkers tested positive for COVID-19; he and his five fellow crew members were asked to self-isolate at home for two weeks. A month later, six guest workers at one of the housing camps exhibited symptoms and all tested positive. In total, court records show, 53 guest workers tested positive while one domestic worker did. The isolated workers didn’t exhibit major symptoms, none required hospitalization, and only one lost his sense of smell and taste. All of the workers are now out of isolation and back to work, the company’s spokesman Roger Pepperl told Civil Eats, and Stemilt currently has zero positive cases. In response to the outbreak, the company says it’s cleaning its housing more rigorously, has increased communication with workers about preventive measures, and continues to work on all aspects of social distancing. “We do have to remember that it is a 24-hours-a-day issue … not just at work and not just after work,” said Pepperl. But health officials said those measures, no matter how well executed, may not be enough. Instead, testing farmworkers on a larger scale is what’s needed. “We need to think differently,” said Kling, the Chelan-Douglas Health District administrator. “We also need to greatly increase testing of workers so that isolation and quarantine can be used when needed, and uninfected workers can continue to work.” With Voluntary Guidelines, Farmworkers Have No Recourse Labor advocates hope more testing will eventually protect workers. In the meantime, a ruling in Washington could spur other states to adopt similar mandatory rules to protect farmworkers. Mandatory regulations could be a game changer for workers, said Nayamin Martinez, director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. The group organizes workers in the San Joaquin Valley and has been educating them about COVID-19. Last month, said Martinez, a group of workers in the rural town of Madera was temporarily laid off after they insisted on working 6-feet apart from others in the mandarin orchards. “[The lay-offs] were in retaliation for asking that they be allowed to practice social distancing,” said Martinez. “Their field crew boss told them, ‘If you don’t like it, you can go home. I have others who are ready to work.’” Martinez said she filed a complaint with the Fresno office of Cal-OSHA because the workers were too scared to do it, fearing they would lose their jobs. Although Martinez provided the agency with the address of the field where the crew was working, the agency declined to investigate. Cal-OSHA’s Fresno office did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Civil Eats. “People are scared. Next time, they won’t report anything, since no one is enforcing the rules,” said Martinez. “And we’re talking about a disease that puts people’s lives at risk.” • As Hundreds of Farmworkers Test Positive for COVID-19, Many Remain Unprotected [Civil Eats] from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2yVFk7S

http://easyfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/05/why-farmworkers-are-especially-at-risk.html

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