#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]

[bitchesgetriches]

Read more:

Ethical Consumption: How to Pollute the Planet and Exploit Labor Slightly Less 

[onlytiktoks]

[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.

[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.

[thoughtportal]

Ice kidnaps labor and immigrant rights activists

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

GlobalG.A.P- certified lemon producer added to Brazil’s Dirty List of slave labor

In February 2024, twenty workers were rescued from conditions analogous to slavery on a lemon-producing farm in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul; besides being a rural producer, Valdinei Aparecido Roque owns an export company that has sold lemons to fruit distributors in the European market

A LEMON PRODUCER certified by GlobalG.A.P, a globally recognized label for good agricultural practices, has been added to Brazil’s Dirty List for slave labor, which the Brazilian labor ministry (MTE) updated this Wednesday (April 9). Published by the MTE since November 2003, the list makes public the names of individuals and legal entities held responsible for subjecting workers to conditions analogous to slavery.

Valdinei Aparecido Roque is the owner of Peru Comercial Exportadora de Frutas, a company that has sold lemons to major distributors in the international market. In February 2024, he was cited for keeping 20 workers—including a teenager—in conditions analogous to slavery according to Brazil’s law on Fazenda Pedra Negra, a property leased by the farmer in Aparecida do Taboado, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

According to Labor inspectors who inspected the farm, the rescued workers were not formally registered and harvested lemons without protective equipment. For nine days, the group was housed in a corral before being moved to a house in the urban area of the city, according to worker testimonies.

Even after being notified by the authorities, Roque remained certified as a GlobalG.A.P producer in the city of Itajobi, São Paulo state, where the Peru Frutas company is headquartered, according to documents accessed by Repórter Brasil.

Continue reading.

[raininyourblackeyes]

Men are such swines

[whenweallvote]

Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of labor rights activist César Chávez (1927-1993).

For more than 30 years, Chavez led the first successful farm workers union in American history. He inspired generations of people from all backgrounds and industries to organize, bargain, and expand opportunities for working people.

[chromatica000]

¡Viva La Huelga! ¡Viva Los Campesinos!

Celebrating the life and work of Cesar Chavez, 2024.

[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

[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

[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….

[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.