Trader Joe’s and CIW Sign Fair Food Agreement
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the grocery chain Trader Joe’s announced yesterday, February 9, 2012, that they have signed an agreement that formalizes the ways in which Trader Joe’s will work with the CIW and Florida tomato growers to support the CIW’s Fair Food Program. CIW’s Fair Food Program combines the Fair Food Code [...]
Ruby Ridge Workers & Supporters Deliver Petition to Darigold
Seattle March to Darigold Headquarters On January 27th, farm workers from Ruby Ridge Dairy and Occupiers from the Seattle area joined together to march through the streets of Seattle to Darigold’s headquarters. The crowd of nearly 1,000 delivered a petition with 20,000 signatures calling on Darigold, a large dairy cooperative which processes and markets [...]
MSNBC Reporting Describes Same Farm Worker Housing Conditions Seen by NFWM Delegation
On October 7th, NFWM led a delegation of religious leaders to North Carolina to visit farm worker labor camps there with staff of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee(FLOC). Members of the National Council of Churches Justice and Advocacy Commission and representatives of the United Methodist Church and the Alliance of Baptists saw for themselves the [...]
Oxfam & FLOC Release New Report
“A company’s responsibility to respect [human rights] applies across its business activities and through its relationship with third parties connected with those activities—such as business partners, entities in its value chain, and other non-state actors and state agents.” – James Ruggie, UN special representative On September 18, 2011, Oxfam America and the Farm Labor Organizing [...]
OCIC’s 47th Annual NFWM Fundraiser Event September 18 2011
The Orange County Interfaith Committee to Aid Farm Workers (OCIC) will hold its 47th annual fundraising event for NFWM this coming Sunday, September 18th at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, CA. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Michael Conroy, author of Branded! How the Certification Revolution is Transforming Global Corporations. The event begins [...]
A Happy Birthday to a Blessed Institution
by Olgha Sierra Sandman, CWU IL representative on the NFWM Board (The following article was published in the September 2011 issue of Church Women United Illinois Interpreter.) The National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM) is 90 years young! We celebrate the many years of hard and faithful service, the unchanging spirit of solidarity and advocacy. From 1920 [...]
Update on NFWM & CIW
by Bert Perry, NFWM Florida Over a decade ago the Coalition of Immokalee Workers called upon the Florida office of the National Farm Worker Ministry to accompany them to a meeting with the Governor’s office in Tallahassee. We have journeyed with the CIW since that time. NFWM was a founder in Religious Leaders Concerned which [...]
NFWM Remembers Richard Chavez, legendary farm worker organizer
The National Farm Worker Ministry joins the United Farm Workers, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, and the Cesar Chavez Foundation in remembering Richard Chavez and mourning his passing. Richard Chavez, Cesar’s younger brother, helped build the farm worker movement. He was a leader whose accomplishments were matched only by his kindheartedness. Richard shared his time and [...]
California Governor Brown Vetoes Farm Worker Bill
By Virginia Nesmith, June 29, 2011 National Farm Worker Ministry staff member Lucy Boutte was present with the United Farm Workers for the last 12 days in Sacramento, helping to organize prayer vigils, marches and fasts in hopes of persuading California Governor Jerry Brown to sign SB 104, the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act. [...]
Groundbreaking Report on U.S. Farm Labor Released
Bon Appetit Management Company Foundation and United Farm Workers Release Groundbreaking Report on U.S. Farm Labor
PALO ALTO, Calif., March 31, 2011 /PRNewswire
More and more Americans are asking questions about where their food comes from, but few are going so far as to think about who picked it. Farmworkers remain in the shadows. A groundbreaking new report released today, Cesar Chavez Day, in honor of the labor leader who fought tirelessly for farmworker rights, shines a light into these dark corners of our nation’s food system.
The Inventory of Farmworker Issues and Protections in the United States is the product of a unique for-profit/NGO joint venture of the Bon Appetit Management Company Foundation and United Farm Workers (UFW), with support from Oxfam America. By compiling and analyzing data from multiple federal, state, and private sources, it renders the most comprehensive picture yet of the reality faced by America’s least-valued yet critically important workforce.
Key issues faced by the nation’s 1.4 million crop farmworkers:
• Farmworkers are exempt from most federal wage and hour standards, and even existing regulations are rarely enforced, leading to rampant wage theft and other abuses.
• Children as young as 12 are legally allowed to engage in farm work, although it is one of the most dangerous employment sectors.
• Widespread use of subcontractors leads to lack of transparency and difficulty enforcing existing laws.
• Health and safety standards are inadequate, and even those that exist are rarely enforced.
• Most farmworkers are ineligible for unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation insurance that is granted to employees in other sectors.
• Farmworkers are explicitly excluded from laws that protect collective bargaining and free association.
In summary, the U.S. food supply depends on the labor of a socially and economically marginalized population working in often appalling, sometimes abusive conditions.
The executive summary and full report, along with high-resolution photos of farmworkers, can be downloaded from http://bamco.com/page/114/farmworker-inventory.htm.
