Saturday, August 1. 2009
Farm work is a dangerous occupation. Many farm workers suffer accidents
at their jobs, do not have many labor rights and many are exposed to pesticides.
Pesticide exposure is a severe problem that affects
the health of farm workers and their communities. Farm workers and their
families can be exposed to pesticides in many ways.
Farm workers in the fields
are exposed to pesticides when they pick crops that have pesticide residue.
Pesticide residue occurs when the pesticides applied to the crop dry and
stay on the surface of the crop in the form of a white powder. When farm
workers touch that powder, the pesticide is absorbed through their skin.
Farm workers are also exposed to pesticides when they breath them
in the air of the fields and nurseries where they work, when they touch them
every time they pick a crop, and they might even eat them or drink them if
they don’t
have the facilities to wash their hands at their workplace before lunch or
before taking a break.
In some cases, farm workers are directly exposed to
pesticides. This occurs when pesticides are sprayed in the fields while the
workers are present. Many farm workers have suffered severe burns and rashes
due to direct exposure.
Rural community residents are also exposed to pesticides either because
they become in contact with a farm worker whose clothes have been contaminated
with pesticides or because they have to breath the air that drifts from the
fields to their communities.
Pesticide exposure can cause horrible diseases
such as cancer, birth defects, infertility, autism, respiratory diseases,
neurological disorders, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and more. Exposure to
pesticides can also cause death.
It is important that we work to change the agricultural system in our country
so that the health of farm workers is protected.
YAYAs have supported farm workers by working on campaigns to ban the use of
some of the most dangerous pesticides currently used in our country, attending
government meetings, documenting cases of pesticide exposure in the fields,
training farm workers on how to protect themselves from pesticides, monitoring
pesticides in the air of farm worker communities and educating others about
the dangers of pesticide exposure in farm worker communities.
There are many ways in which you can join our efforts:
1. Join our newsletter: sign the petitions related to pesticides in the
"Take Action!" section, join us when we announce an action or if
you live in Florida volunteer to work on our Pesticide Project (a partnership
with the Farm Worker Association
of Florida).
2. Contact us for information on how to screen a movie or
how to set up a presentation about pesticide exposure in your community
3. Read the
news, visit our web site, stay informed. Pesticide
Action Network of North America's web site is
a great resource.
4. Support local organizations that are working on pesticide exposure issues
5. Buy a "Don't Poison Me" t-shirt or make
a donation to support
our work.
Our "Don't Poison Me" t-shirts represent the
food and the flower and foliage industries, where pesticides are heavily used.
When you wear them you support our work and advocate for the health consumers,
members of rural communities and farm workers.
T-shirts are available in sizes Small, Medium and Large. The tomato design
comes in a red t-shirt and the flower design in a black t-shirt. On-line forms
to purchase t-shirts coming soon!
If you can't wait contact us and let us
know how many t-shirts you want and where we should send them.
Remember, when it comes
to pesticides… say… don’t poison me!!!!
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Wednesday, May 13. 2009
If our broken immigration system isn't fixed, then farm workers will continue
to be abused, the agricultural industry will be without a stable workforce,
and the safety of the nation's food supply will be in jeopardy.
The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act (AgJOBS) is
the most important piece of legislation affecting farmworkers in decades.
AgJOBS
represents a major compromise between farmworker advocates (led by the United
Farm Workers) and major agricultural employers to address the agricultural
immigration crisis. It allows immigrant farm workers to earn the legal right
to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture
and reforms the current H2A guestworker program, providing growers with a
safe and stable workforce.
AgJOBS strengthens protections for workers' rights,
decent pay, and working conditions. It makes dangerous illegal border crossings
unnecessary for hundreds of thousands of workers and allows farm worker families
to stay together and fully participate in the society they help feed.
This
compromise only applies to workers in the agricultural industry and does
not address the needs of other undocumented workers. While this is a historic
compromise, it is only the first step to broader reform of our current immigration
system.
- Click
here to
contact you Congress Members and tell them to support AgJOBS
- Click
here to check our Action Alerts Page
- Click here to sign
up to receive our newsletter
For more information on AgJOBS:
- Click
here for a two-page summary of the original AgJOBS bill
- Click
here for a six-page summary of the original AgJOBS bill
- Click
here to visit the UFW's immigration page. |
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)
campaign focuses on bringing the giant fast food corporations, supermarkets,
food providers and the tomato industry to act as responsible corporations
throughout their supply chains and in fighting against modern day slavery
in the fields of Florida.
The campaign has three major demands that seek to improve the lives and working
condition of tomato pickers in Immokalee, Florida:
1. Farm worker wages must immediately
increase (they advocate for an increase of at least a penny more per pound of
tomatoes)
2. Farm workers should be entitled to participate as full partners in the
decisions that affect their lives.
3. An industry-wide Code of Conduct must be developed with the full participation
of farm workers (to prevent abuses at the work place, including modern day
slavery).
The
CIW has reached agreements with YUM Brands, McDonald’s, Burger
King, Subway, Whole Foods, Bon Appétit Co. and Aramark.
They are currently focusing on Kroger, Ahold (parent company of Stop & Shop & Giant)
and Publix in the supermarket industry, in Chartwells and Sodexo in the food
service industry and in Chipotle in the fast food industry.
Help us build
a world where workers in Florida's fields can enjoy a fair wage and dignified
working conditions.
Get involved!
- Click
here to check our Action Alerts Page
- Click here to sign up to receive our newsletter
- Click here to visit the CIW web page
- Click here to contact the CIW to receive post cards and other materials
to spread the word in your community.
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What is FLOC?
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)
is a farm worker union that was founded in the mid-1960s in Ohio, when farm workers
decided to organize to improve their working conditions. They had two critical
goals:
- Change the structure of society to benefit farm workers. In
particular, the labor union process places workers as equals across the bargaining
table, and provides an effective structure for self-determination.
- Build a strong popular base of supporters for justice. Corporations
have tremendous economic and political power, but, for example, millions of people
who boycott their products in support of justice can collectively tip the balance
of power to benefit farm workers.
Information about the RJ Reynolds Campaign
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is the second-largest tobacco company in the
United States, manufacturing about one of every three cigarettes sold in
the country.
While big tobacco makes billions, tobacco farm workers live in poverty, face
racism and harassment, nicotine poisoning, lethal pesticides and have hardly
any labor and human rights protections. For instance, due to lack of mandatory
water breaks for farm workers and the fact that nicotine increases your by
temperature, nine farm workers have died of heatstroke in the past few years.
The tragedies, which occur daily in the fields, are due to industry-wide
problems that need to be addressed by those who have control over the tobacco
market, RJ Reynolds being at the top of this list.
FLOC is calling on RJ Reynolds to take responsibility for the oppressive
conditions in which tobacco workers labor in North Carolina. Together with
FLOC, RJ Reynolds can use its tremendous power to initiate changes that will
improve the lives of growers and farm workers alike.
Despite several attempts by FLOC President Baldemar Velazquez and allies,
Susan Ivey, CEO of RJ Reynolds, has refused to meet with him to discuss conditions
for farm workers in North Carolina’s tobacco fields.
Take Action on
behalf of tobacco farm workers!
Click
here to check our action
alerts
Click here to sign up for
our newsletter
Click here to visit FLOCs webpage
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