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App, Protests, And Farmworker Rights

farmworkers

From new technology to classic picket line protests, farmworker rights issues have been prominent in the news in recent weeks. Here are a couple of movements on our radar.

Farmworker Rights App To Launch This Summer

Farm work can be unforgiving - especially in the southern California sun, where high school senior Faith Florez grew up. Her great-grandparents worked on farms there when they arrived from Mexico. She knew the struggles they faced during that work, and how difficult it is enforce laws and regulations on farms that span thousands of acres.

So when she heard University of Southern California was soliciting social justice coding project proposals, she knew she had a project that could help farmworkers across the state: an app called "CalorApp."

It's a fitting name. Calor means "heat" in Spanish – a nod to perhaps the most dangerous element of a farmworker's job.

"Too many California farmworkers have died from extreme heat," said Arturo Rodriguez, President of the United Farm Workers, to Civil Eats.

California heat killed one farmworker and made another 63 sick last year.

Rodriguez says the app will "supply workers with an important tool with which to protect themselves."

CalorApp works by alerting farmworkers when the temperature reaches 95 degrees. At those temperatures, farmers are required by California law to give their employees 10-minute rest periods every two hours.

The app is set to launch this summer with grape and watermelon harvesting crews at Fabbri Farms in Bakersfield, Ca., and the Grapery in Shafter, Ca., before debuting on farms across the state.

Protests and Letters Bring Attention To Sexual Violence Against Farmworkers

Last month, as numerous sexual abuse accusations against powerful men came to light, and the #metoo hash tag campaign flooded social media, farmworkers saw an opportunity to take a stand of their own against sexual violence.

In Los Angeles, 700,000 members of the Latina farmworker organization Alianza Nacional de Campesinas wrote a letter of solidarity to the women and men who came forward about their experiences with sexual harassment in Hollywood:

We do not work under bright stage lights or on the big screen. We work in the shadows of society in isolated fields and packinghouses that are out of sight and out of mind for most people in this country. Your job feeds souls, fills hearts and spreads joy. Our job nourishes the nation with the fruits, vegetables and other crops that we plant, pick and pack.


On the east coast, The Coalition of Immokalee Workers marched in midtown Manhattan to protest Wendy's and its refusal to sign the group's Fair Food Program, which outlines humane wages and working conditions for farm workers. Wendy's is the last fast-food restaurant chain to sign on to the FFP, saying its own corporate code of conduct should suffice instead.

Wendy's says CIW's protests against them are part of a "commercial dispute," since Wendy's refuses to "pay fees to their organization" to support the FFP.

Sexual harassment and abuse of farmworkers by employers is widespread - though its hard to determine exact numbers due to underreporting. The FFP acts as a bill of rights for farmworkers and laborers, outlining standards for fair working conditions, job security, and a process for filing abuse claims.

"If there is a farm that is participating that is refusing to correct the situation in a timely fashion and bring swift consequences for abusers, then the market consequences kick in, because the corporations can no longer buy from those farms," said Oscar Otzoy, a CIW organizer, to In These Times (later reprinted in Salon).

Otzoy says the program's ultimate goal is to train and empower farmworkers to be their own advocates for their rights and safety.

Read More



  • An App for Farmworkers' Rights Makes its Way Into the Fields (Civil Eats)
  • Farmworkers demand freedom from sexual violence (Salon)
  • 700,000 Female Farmworkers Say They Stand With Hollywood Actors Against Sexual Assault (Time)


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