#farm worker rights

[whenweallvote]

Today is Larry Itliong Day! Itliong was a Filipino-American labor organizer who is remembered as one of the “fathers of the West Coast labor movement.”

Itliong is best known for co-founding the United Farm Workers Union with fellow activist Cesar Chavez in 1967. He was also key in launching the 1965–1966 grape strike and boycott in California, which led to increased workers’ pay and protections.

We honor Larry Itliong and all who have tirelessly fought for the rights of farm workers, immigrants, and Asian Americans.

[too-many-blorbos]

[contentfarms]

an interview with two hornstromp employees has emerged!

this highlights the dark underbelly of working for an animation farm very very well, and knowing the intricacies of this is very important if you want to support exploited workers

animators for content farms are underpaid and overworked nearly 100% of the time

[reasonsforhope]

"California will begin paying for free legal help with immigration for undocumented farmworkers who are involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced this week.

The $4.5 million pilot program will provide qualifying farmworkers with referrals for legal help with their immigration status. 

Roughly half of California’s farmworker population is believed to be undocumented. Fear of deportation and difficulties finding jobs can discourage workers from filing labor complaints or serving as witnesses in cases alleging unsafe work temperatures, wage theft, or employer retaliation for unionizing, officials said...

Respecting immigrant rights

Farmworkers in labor investigations who qualify for the new state program will receive a direct referral to legal services organizations that already offer immigration services, such as the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County or the United Farm Workers Foundation, which spoke in support of the program. 

The free legal services workers could receive include case review, legal advice and representation by an attorney, according to Newsom’s office...

Deferred deportation

State officials said the pilot program aligns with a new Biden administration policy that makes it easier for undocumented workers who are victims of labor rights violations to request deferred action from deportation. Because the federal Department of Homeland Security can’t respond to all immigration violations, it exercises “prosecutorial discretion” to decide who to try to deport.

State officials said they won’t ask for workers’ immigration status, but noncitizens granted this deferred action may be eligible for work authorization.

This year, California labor department officials began supporting undocumented workers’ requests for prosecutorial discretion or deferred action from federal immigration officials, including when employers threaten workers with immigration enforcement to prevent workers from cooperating with state investigators. 

“The Department of Industrial Relations’ Labor Commissioner’s Office … was the first state agency to request deferred action from DHS for employees in an active investigation, and that request was successful,” Hickey said. “This is an important process for undocumented workers to be aware of.”"

-via CalMatters, July 21, 2023

[iww-gnv]

The Labor Department is investigating Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods — two of the biggest poultry producers in the U.S. — after reports that migrant children as young as 13 have been working overnight shifts to clean the companies' plants. The department told NPR that its Wage and Hour Division is looking into the matter and could not provide additional details. The inquiry comes after The New York Times Magazine published last week a harrowing account of a 14-year-old boy, Marcos Cux, whose arm was nearly torn off while working at a Perdue slaughterhouse on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. According to the Times, Cux was hired by one of Perdue's contractors tasked with cleaning operations. He and other middle and high school-aged children made up about a third of the overnight shifts at the plant — handling acid and pressure hoses to wash away blood and meat scraps from industrial machines.

[indiesellersguild]

New article: Is Dropshipping Indie Selling? (No.)

There has been a recent influx of social media accounts made to advertise The Wonders Of Dropshipping on any post mentioning ecommerce. Many of these seem to be bots, but a real person must be behind them -- so our very own Alex R. of @handmadehazefromtheheart decided to write up an article responding to the idea that these ecommerce "guru" types overlap with our member base of online indie sellers.

Excerpt:

To a consumer, the process of buying from big name versus indie online storefronts is the same: see the pictures, read the description, click “purchase,” and wait for a package. That standard makes it pretty easy for another kind of online seller to present you with a product on an original-looking webpage, accept your money in exchange for the promise of shipment — and then turn around and give (some of) that money to an actual supplier that sends you your purchase. [...] Ultimately, the Indie Sellers Guild seeks to be an online extension of the labor movement. In capitalism, things are often divided into a working class and an owning class, and we’re here for the working class. [...] [D]ropshipping is a way to claw at the benefits of being part of the owning class: gaining profit for nothing more than inserting yourself into a transaction that doesn’t need you to operate fairly. We don’t condone that, and we don’t represent that.

View it in full here.

For some insightful thoughts on print-on-demand selling -- something that we don't all agree falls under "dropshipping" but does overlap -- you'll find a link inside to another article by Valerie of Artisans Cooperative.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazilian singer Leonardo accused of having slave-like conditions on one of his farms

One of Brazil’s most iconic musicians, country singer Leonardo, is embroiled in a scandal involving the use of slave labor at one of his farms in the state of Goiás. The Ministry of Labor has included the artist’s name on its “dirty list” of employers who keep people working in conditions akin to modern-day slavery.

During an inspection of the property, federal authorities discovered six workers, including a 17-year-old, living and laboring under extremely degrading conditions. Located in the town of Jussara, the “Talismã” farm spans over 1,000 hectares and is valued at R$60 million (USD10.5 million).

Throughout his career, Leonardo  – whose real name is Emival Eterno da Costa – has expanded into the livestock and agriculture business. The farm in question is dedicated to raising cattle and horses. In addition to space designated for raising livestock, the farm also houses an extensive leisure structure for the artist’s family and friends, with volleyball courts, a swimming pool, and a large lake that surrounds the main residence of the farm and where it is possible to go jet-skiing.

In stark contrast to the luxury of the farm’s social spaces, the workers’ accommodations were found in a dire state. The house in which they stayed was dilapidated, lacked potable water, and had no proper sanitation. Inspectors reported that the workers slept on makeshift beds fashioned from wooden planks and pesticide barrels, while the quarters were infested with insects and bats, and reeked of a foul odor.

Continue reading.

[mbrainspaz]

guess who just wasted 2 hours drafting and deleting about a dozen text messages to their corporate boss who acted all sad and pitiable about being asked to pay them about $300 extra for two weeks worth of grueling overtime in the summer heat doing the full work of a barn manager while being paid like a teenage stable hand?

ya boy

[odinsblog]

To really understand the legacy of racism and exploitation in the U.S. Agricultural industry, we need to go back to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which became law nearly a century ago, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president.

This law fundamentally changed working conditions in the U.S., it gave us a minimum wage, a 40-hour work week, overtime pay –you know, the good stuff.

But these benefits didn’t apply to farmworkers, who at the time in the South were overwhelmingly Black.

In fact, you can draw a straight line from slavery, to the Fair Labor Standards Act, to the conditions we continue to see in agriculture today. Nearly a century later, farmworkers across the U.S., mostly Latino immigrants now, are still denied even the most basic federal protections, such as water breaks or access to shade in extreme heat. For many families, the effects of these racist exclusions are real, they’re tangible.

At the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles last year, President Joe Biden outlined his plan to reduce the number of migrants seeking asylum at the Southern border. His administration, Biden said, would help “American farmers bring in seasonal agricultural workers from Northern Central American countries under the H-2A visa program.”

What does that mean for a program that’s already plagued with wage theft and abuse?

Since Biden took office in January of 2021, he’s turned “safe and orderly migration” into a kind of mantra. He says it all the time. And just in February of that year, 2021, the White House assembled working groups to discuss the H-2A program. The idea is to divert asylum seekers from the Southern border and into this program. Here’s Biden talking about the plan last summer:

President Biden: “And on this jobs front, our Department of Agriculture is launching a pilot program to help American farmers bring in seasonal agricultural workers from Northern Central America countries under the H-2A visa program. To improve conditions for all workers.”

Here’s the main issue with that. The Biden Administration wants to offer this temporary worker program to migrants who are seeking asylum at our Southern border. A program that is riddled with abuse and trafficking is being offered to people who are fleeing violence and trafficking. 


“They’re only gonna be able to stay in the United States for 6, 7, 8 months outta the year. What happens during those other months of the year? Uh, they have to go back to their home country and they’re gonna be going back to a country that they fled.


Maybe because they were being persecuted, somebody in their family was murdered, you know, you’re gonna send them back to that situation and you’re gonna send them back to that situation with dollars in their pockets, which I think is just gonna make them targets for extortion.”

—Latino USA, Head Down

• Part 1, https://play.stitcher.com/episode/302009156

• Part 2, https://play.stitcher.com/episode/302310113

[chromatica000]

¡Viva La Huelga! ¡Viva Los Campesinos!

Celebrating the life and work of Cesar Chavez, 2024.

[thelofian]

Diligent Daily Booster Table (TTCC DBT) for 2024-03-15, Gag Farming Friday, 📞 World Contact Day | 😴 World Sleep Day | 🗣️ World Speech Day | 📜 World Consumer Rights Day | 👩‍⚕️ World Essential Workers Day

[woolandcoffee]

I'm reading this truly awful court decision right now, and the contempt with which the judge is speaking about a group of plaintiffs that represented farm workers who were concerned about links discovered between a widely used pesticide and neuro-developmental damage in their children is truly nauseating.

[richo1915]

Only two eggs again today.

I have been accused of running an old folks home and you know, nudge nudge wink wink. Snick thump of Madam Guillotine. To make way for more.

NEVER!

I do not care about their current production. The girls should be lauded as Hero’s of the Motherland for their service. I will care for and defend them until the end.

The oppressive lovers of Guinea Pigs (the rest of the family) soon forget all those lovely golden eggs the ladies provided for the house, friends and neighbours for all those years.

What have those Guinea Pigs ever done for us? What are the products of their labour? Social Media pictures and fertiliser. And even their ‘fertiliser’ is shithouse for the garden. Very Bourgeoisie.

Never forget the Worker.

The girls that produced rain, hail or shine. They put their all into their job. They produced the finest quality product. All they asked was a little food and shelter.

Well never fear girls! I will run the best damn workers retirement home I can!

You deserve it.

Look at those damn Guinea Pigs. Not producing for the greater society, only consuming.

Fat Bourgeois Capitalist Guinea Pigs….

[ifelllikeastar]

In 1968, fighting for the rights of farmworkers, Cesar Chavez organized a five-year “grape boycott,” working to ensure better pay and working conditions. His work helped to change the lives of millions of farmworkers.

[woodruff]

:(

[iww-gnv]

Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms, which together produce a third of the poultry sold in the United States, are under federal investigation into whether they relied on migrant children to clean slaughterhouses, some of the most dangerous work in the country. The Labor Department opened the inquiries after an article in The New York Times Magazine, published this past week, found migrant children working overnight shifts for contractors in the companies’ plants on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Children as young as 13 were using acid and pressure hoses to scour blood, grease and feathers from industrial machines. Meat processing is among the nation’s most hazardous industries, and federal law bans minors from working in slaughterhouses because of the high risk of injury. The Times article focused on one child, Marcos Cux, whose arm was mangled in a conveyor belt last year as he sanitized a deboning area in the Perdue plant. He was in the eighth grade.