News Article Type: Latest News

Farmworker Justice Strongly Supports the “Fairness for Farm Workers Act of 2019” on Overtime Pay and the Minimum Wage

Farmworker Justice applauds Senator Harris and Representative Grijalva for their leadership in the introduction of the “Fairness for Farm Workers Act of 2019.” The bill would end the discriminatory denial of overtime pay and most remaining minimum wage exemptions for farmworkers.

As stated by Farmworker Justice President Bruce Goldstein, “We are pleased to support Sen. Harris’s and Rep. Grijalva’s Fairness for Farm Workers Act, which would right a historical wrong by ensuring farmworkers have equal rights to minimum wage and overtime protections. It is long past time for farmworkers to receive basic and fair compensation for the difficult and dangerous work that they do, for long hours, day in and day out, to feed our country. National legislation is necessary. Right now, amidst state-level efforts to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, some legislatures have discriminatorily denied farmworkers the improvements that would apply to other workers. Congress should pass legislation to finally grant farmworkers equal labor protections in recognition of their essential and valuable role in our economic and food security.”

Eighty years after the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), farmworkers should not still suffer exclusion from many of the basic workplace protections that other Americans take for granted. Yet, the FLSA still denies farmworkers time-and-a-half pay after 40 hours per week.  Even though most farmworkers were added to the minimum wage in 1966, it is inapplicable to certain agricultural employers. The Fairness for Farm Workers Act would remedy the discriminatory denial of overtime pay and the minimum wage to farmworkers under the FLSA and would put farmworkers on the same footing as most other workers.

Farmworker Justice is a national advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. that empowers farmworkers to improve their living and working conditions.

February 7, 2019 www.farmworkerjustice.org

Contact: Adrienne DerVartanian, adervartanian@farmworkerjustice.org

Read moreFarmworker Justice Statement on Fairness for Farm Workers Act of 2019

Below is a press release issued yesterday on the New Jersey legislature's decision to exclude farmworkers from the gradual increase to a $15 minimum wage.  You can take action: send a message to the Governor via email at https://nj.gov/governor/contact/all/  and phone at 1-609-292-6000, and tweet @govmurphy.  Join the tweet storm today 1pmET @farmwrkrjustice  @CATAMigrantes @ufwupdates

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Contact:  Bruce Goldstein, President                                                             January 31, 2019

Farmworker Justice 202-293-5420 ext. 304

bgoldstein@farmworkerjustice.org

Farmworker Justice Asks New Jersey Governor Murphy to Reject the Minimum Wage Legislation’s Discrimination Against Farmworkers

Farmworker Justice criticized today’s votes in the New Jersey Assembly and Senate on excluding farmworkers from the legislation that would guarantee a gradual rise in the minimum wage to $15 per hour.  Under the bill, farmworkers are not treated like most other workers who would receive the $15 minimum wage by 2024. Nor are they treated like the small-business’s employees or seasonal workers whose minimum wage will rise to $15 by 2026.  Farm operators, no matter how large, would only need to pay their farmworkers $12.50 an hour by 2024. After that government officials would decide how farmworkers are treated.

“The Governor should send the legislation back and tell the politicians to treat farmworkers equally with other workers.  They work in a dangerous job to put food on our tables. Inflicting sub-poverty wages on farmworker families for the next five years is unconscionable,” said Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice, a national advocacy organization.   

New Jersey’s minimum wage law hasn’t been discriminating recently and shouldn’t start now. 

The proposed compromise is out of step with the labor market, even for this low-paid occupation.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Labor Survey of field and livestock workers, in the region that includes New Jersey (along with Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania), the average wage for farmworkers during 2018 was $13.15 per hour.  Yet, five years from now, the pending proposal would set the minimum wage for farmworkers at a mere $12.50 an hour.   

A low minimum wage also harms many law-abiding, reasonable agricultural businesses that are trying to do the right thing by treating farmworkers with respect and compensating them fairly but compete against low-road businesses.

Goldstein added, “New Jersey’s elected leaders should demonstrate respect for the valuable role played by farmworkers who feed us and should not deprive farmworkers of the same rights as other workers. Farmworkers should have the same access to a guaranteed $15 minimum wage as other workers.”

Read moreFarmworker Justice Asks New Jersey Governor Murphy to Reject the Minimum Wage Legislation’s Discrimination Against Farmworkers

For Immediate Release                Contact: Bruce Goldstein, Farmworker Justice

January 17, 2019                              202-293-5420 ext. 304

Statement of Farmworker Justice on the Introduction of The  Agricultural Worker program Act of 2019

Bill would stabilize farm labor force, provide protections for immigrant farmworkers

(washington, dc)   Farmworker Justice welcomes the introduction of the Agricultural Worker Program Act of 2019 and strongly supports its enactment. We thank Senator Feinstein, Representative Lofgren and other Members of Congress for their leadership in support of reasonable, workable and fair immigration reform and their attention to farmworkers.

This bill builds momentum toward comprehensive immigration reform while addressing the unique and urgent needs of agricultural and rural communities. Americans depend on farmworkers for abundant, safe, healthy, and affordable food. Yet, the status quo for farmworkers and agricultural employers is untenable.  

“With a large portion of agricultural workers in the U.S. lacking immigration status, and farmworker families living under the threat of arrest and deportation, Congress must reform our broken immigration system. The opportunity for legal immigration status is crucial to enabling farmworkers to live and work productively without fear and to seek improvements to their working and living conditions.  The Agricultural Worker Program Act would help ensure a stable, legal workforce in agriculture, which is good for farmworkers, employers, consumers and the national interest,” said Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice.

The bill would establish an earned legalization program under which certain farmworkers who meet agricultural work requirements, national security clearance requirements, and other obligations are given temporary permission to work in agriculture for three to five years and the opportunity to earn immigration status with a path to citizenship.  Their immediate family members in the United States also would have an opportunity to convert their status.

The bill would not make any changes to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program.  The H-2A program, which allows an unlimited number of work visas each year, has modest but important protections against abuse of U.S. and foreign workers that should be strengthened and more effectively enforced. The Agricultural Worker Program Act would minimize the need for employers’ use of the H-2A guestworker program by providing a meaningful opportunity for immigration status for the hard-working undocumented farmworkers who put food on our table.    

Farmworker Justice is a national advocacy organization for farmworkers with over thirty-five years of experience serving the farmworker community regarding immigration and labor policy.

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For more information, contact

Bruce Goldstein, at 202-293-5420 ext. 304 or bgoldstein@farmworkerjustice.org,

or Adrienne DerVartanian at adervartanian@farmworkerjustice.org.

Read moreStatement of Farmworker Justice on the Introduction of the Agricultural Worker Program Act of 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                 Contact:  Bruce Goldstein, President

November 7, 2018                            (202) 293-5420 bgoldstein@farmworkerjustice.org

David Damian Figueroa, respected non-profit leader, activist and entertainment professional, will oversee Farmworker Justice’s corporate and foundation partnerships, giving campaigns, special events, and branding initiatives.

Washington, D.C. – Farmworker Justice announced the appointment of David Damian Figueroa as Director of Development. Figueroa will be based in California’s Coachella Valley and will report to the national organization’s president, Bruce Goldstein. Figueroa will be charged with increasing partnerships with foundations, corporations, and philanthropists.  He will also be responsible for enhancing Farmworker Justice’s, individual donor base, organizational capacity, and raising the visibility of the organization’s policy advocacy, impact litigation, training and education programs, and corporate responsibility initiatives.

“We are very pleased we have this opportunity to take advantage of David Damian’s many skills and resourcefulness. He is an accomplished innovator in philanthropy, non-profit communications, branding, and content marketing. He comes to Farmworker Justice with a background as a farmworker and a wealth of valuable experience and we are excited to have him as part of our senior team,” stated Goldstein.

Prior to joining Farmworker Justice, Figueroa was the AVP of Branding, Content Marketing and Strategic Alliances at Frontier Communications.  He served at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) from 1998 to 2001 and rejoined the organization as Vice President of Development and Strategic Communications from 2009 to 2015. Figueroa served as Associate State Director of the Los Angeles County Region for AARP California from 2002 to 2009 where he oversaw the implementation of social campaigns, community alliances, volunteer management and membership development. Figueroa also helped launch AARP’s Segunda Juventud bilingual magazine in Los Angeles.

“I’m excited and honored to have the opportunity to work for Farmworker Justice at such a critical time in our country.  In my youth, I spent most of my summers and many weekends working in the fields and orchards of southern Arizona. It is my intent to bring  the hardship of the farmworker to light and work with the team and key partners to identify and implement high-impact solutions that benefit our nation’s farmworkers,” said Figueroa.

For the past 26 years, Figueroa has served as a philanthropic advisor to numerous celebrities. He specializes in forging meaningful relationships with celebrities with non-profit organizations to heighten awareness for social impact campaigns.

Partnering with actors/activists Eva Longoria, Forest Whitaker, and author Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), David Damian has brought greater focus to the farmworker issue, working as executive producer on the critically-acclaimed documentary Food Chains, which focused on the corporate food supply chain and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Fair Food Campaign.  He was also was associate producer of The Harvest—The Children Who Feed America/La Cosecha—Los niños que alimentan America.

Prior to committing to service in the non-profit sector full-time, Figueroa achieved an influential role in the entertainment industry, fostering the success of clients including José José, El Show de Johnny Canales, Boyz II Men, Arista Latin, MCA Polygram, BMI Latin, Motown Latino, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Marc Anthony, and India for RMM/Universal.

Founded in 1981, Farmworker Justice is a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower farmworkers to improve their wages and working conditions, immigration status, health, occupational safety, and access to justice. For more information, please visit www.farmworkerjustice.org

Read moreLongtime Farmworker Advocate David Damian Figueroa to Lead Strategic Development at Farmworker Justice

Leading farmworker organizations and advocates for farmworkers in the United States and Mexico today are submitting a petition under the NAFTA labor side agreement challenging the failure of the United States government to comply with its obligations to protect international migrant workers who are hired under the H-2A agricultural guestworker program.  

The petition was submitted to the National Administrative Office in Mexico City for the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), requesting action by the North American Commission on Labor Cooperation (“Commission”), which the U.S., Mexico and Canada established.

The petition was submitted by Farmworker Justice; the United Farm Workers (UFW); the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC); and Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN, Oregon’s farmworker union), which are based in the United States, and Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales, A.C (ProDESC), which is based in Mexico.

Principle 11 of the NAALC, on Protection of Migrant Workers, states the parties’ goal of providing migrant workers in one nation’s territory with the same labor law protection that apply to its own nationals.  The Agreement also imposes enforceable obligations on the three nations to provide high labor standards; effective, impartial tribunals; effective remedies to achieve compliance with labor laws; and effective action by each government to enforce workers’ rights.

The principal federal employment law for farmworkers in the United States excludes H-2A agricultural workers from its protections and remedies.  That law is the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act of 1983 (referred to as “AWPA” or “MSPA”).  It was passed to address persistent problems faced by farmworkers and strengthened an earlier law.

The petitioners seek to reduce abuses in the H-2A program, which recently has been expanding rapidly, to over 200,000 agricultural guestworkers in 2017, mostly from Mexico.  Abuses in the H-2A program have been reported by many sources over many years, including in the Farmworker Justice report, “No Way to Treat a Guest,” and a series of articles in Buzzfeed.   

The AWPA establishes obligations on farm operators and other agricultural businesses, including farm labor contractors. The AWPA contains significant protections regarding recruitment, hiring, employment, payment of wages, transportation, and housing of migrant farmworkers.  Importantly, the AWPA authorizes victimized workers to file a lawsuit in U.S. federal courts to enforce its protections.  It creates several remedies to compensate workers, stop ongoing violations, and deter future violations, including monetary damages, special “statutory damages” and injunctive relief.  

The exclusion of H-2A visa workers from the AWPA deprives them of labor protections, remedies, and access to federal courts, all of which have been deemed important and effective to protect migrant workers in the United States. Although the law and regulations of the H-2A program require certain protections for U.S. and foreign workers at H-2A program employers, the AWPA provides different and additional protections and remedies for U.S. migrant workers.  H-2A guestworkers seeking to enforce their employment contracts are relegated to state courts and often to inferior remedies under state contract laws.

H-2A guestworkers, arguably among the migrant workers most in need of protection due to their vulnerability, should not be excluded from AWPA’s protections and remedies.    

The petition, formally known as a “public communication,” requests commencement of proceedings under the Labor Side Agreement, formally known as the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), to address the violations of the NAALC and obtain all appropriate remedies.  The petition seeks agreement among the U.S., Mexico and Canada, that the protections and remedies in the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, or their equivalent, will be extended to migrant workers employed in the United States under the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program.

Contact information:

 

Bruce Goldstein

President, Farmworker Justice

Washington, D.C. 20036

202-800-2521

bgoldstein@farmworkerjustice.org

www.farmworkerjustice.org

 

Leydy Rangel

Communications Specialist

United Farm Workers Foundation

California

lrangel@ufwfoundation.org / (760) 899-4604

(bilingual)

 

Elena Villafuerte

Responsable del Programa de Análisis e Incidencia

Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (ProDESC)

(5255) 52122229/ 52122230- 758608840/ 75860885

elena.villafuerte@prodesc.org.mx

Calle Zamora 169-A Condesa, México D.F.

Facebook /ProDESC.AC

Twitter: @ProDESC

www.prodesc.org.mx

(bilingual)

Read moreLeading Farmworker Organizations and Advocates in the U.S. and Mexico File Challenge under NAFTA Labor Side Agreement for U.S. Government Denial of Equal Rights to H-2A Agricultural Guestworkers

Farmworker Justice Statement on Rep. Goodlatte’s Anti-Immigrant Bill

Yesterday, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representatives McCaul, Labrador and McSally, released a hard-line anti-immigration proposal entitled the “Securing America’s Future Act.”  Farmworker Justice opposes this multi-faceted proposal, which incorporates Goodlatte’s anti-worker, anti-immigrant Agricultural Guestworker Act. The bill combines many of the worst elements of anti-immigrant policies, including building a costly border wall, increasing arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants, attacking sanctuary cities, and eliminating existing opportunities for family reunification as well as the diversity visa program. Although it purports to offer relief to Dreamers, the bill only offers a three-year, temporary legal status, without any permanent solution or path to citizenship.

The bill would also require employers to use E-verify, which would exacerbate discrimination against Latinos and foreign-born workers, who make up the majority of the farm labor source. If enacted, the agricultural guestworker provisions in the bill would replace the current H-2A agricultural guestworker program with a devastating new program, the H-2C program. The H-2C program would expand employer access to potentially millions of vulnerable new “guestworkers,” while slashing worker protections for hundreds of thousands of U.S. farmworkers, leading to job losses, lower wages and exploitation. Instead of providing experienced undocumented farmworkers with a path to immigration status and citizenship, the only option this bill provides is for those workers to self-deport with limited options to return as subjugated contract laborers under the new H-2C program.

Rep. Goodlatte, a long-time immigration restrictionist, is trying to push his extreme anti-immigrant agenda at a moment of bipartisan negotiations between legislators and the White House to reach a much-needed solution for Dreamers. Farmworker Justice President Bruce Goldstein stated: “Congress must reject the Goodlatte bill because it is anti-immigrant, anti-worker, cruel, impractical, costly and harmful to our food and agriculture systems.  Congress must provide a solution now for Dreamers, many of whom are farmworkers and from farmworker families. We must continue in the longer term to reform our broken immigration system through policies that respect our history as a nation of immigrants and our democratic and economic freedoms.”

Read moreFarmworker Justice Statement on Rep. Goodlatte’s Anti-Immigrant Bill