Today in Labor History March 17, 1966: 100 striking Mexican American and Filipino farmworkers marched from Delano, California to Sacramento to pressure the growers and the state government to answer their demands for better working conditions and higher wages, which were, at the time, below the federal minimum wage. By the time the marchers arrived, on Easter Sunday, April 11, the crowd had grown to 10,000 protesters and their supporters. A few months later, the two unions that represented them, the National Farm Workers Association, led by César Chávez, and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, joined to form the United Farm Workers. The strike was launched on September 8, 1965, by Filipino grape pickers. Mexicans were initially hired as scabs. So, Filipino strike leader Larry Itliong approached Cesar Chavez to get the support of the National Farm Workers Association, and on September 16, 1965, the Mexican farm workers joined the strike. During the strike, the growers and their vigilantes would physically assault the workers and drive their cars and trucks into the picket lines. They also sprayed strikers with pesticides. The strikers persevered nonviolently. They went to the Oakland docks and convinced the longshore workers to support them by refusing to load grapes. This resulted in the spoilage of 1,000 ten-ton cases of grapes. The success of this tactic led to the decision to launch a national grape boycott, which would ultimately help them win the struggle against the growers.
Today in Labor History February 24, 1919: U.S. Congress passed a new Child Labor law. However, in 1924, the courts declared it unconstitutional. A similar law passed in 1917. The Supreme Court ruled that one unconstitutional, too. It wasn’t until the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act that modern child labor laws were enforced in the U.S. However, the law never banned child labor in agriculture. Consequently, 500,000 children pick roughly 25% of all the food harvested in the U.S. They often still work 10 or more hours a day. They are exposed to dangerous pesticides and die at a rate five times higher than kids in other industries. Barely half the kids working in agriculture ever finish high school.
Today in Labor History January 14, 1914: The trial of Suhr and Ford began on this date in Marysville, California. Suhr and Ford were IWW organizers who were ultimately convicted for their alleged role in the gun battle at Durst Ranch in Wheatland. Four died in the so-called “Wheatland riots” (Aug 1913) when police fired into a crowd of California farmworkers trying to organize with the IWW. The dead included the district attorney and sheriff, as well as two farm workers. The governor called in the national guard to restore order. At the time, Durst Ranch was the largest employer of agricultural laborers in the state. They grew hops for the British beer industry. Durst regularly hired seasonal pickers in the summers, forcing them to live in tents on a hot, barren hillside. Conditions were unsanitary. The closest water was a mile away. Durst’s brother exploited workers further by selling them overpriced lemonade, in lieu of water. They had to pay 75 cents per week in rent. Wages were under $1.50/day and Durst withheld 10% of each worker’s wages as insurance against them quitting before harvest season ended.
In #California, which has one of the toughest heat standards in the nation.
For most of July 2019, stifling heat hung over the agricultural fields of California’s Central Valley, as farmworkers like William Salas Jiminez labored under the sun’s searing rays. #Temperatures had dipped from 99 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit the last day of the month, when the 56-year-old Puerto Rico native
Today in Labor History September 14, 1930: More than 100 Mexican and Filipino farmworkers were arrested for union activities in the Imperial Valley, California.
Today in Labor History August 27, 1934: 7,000 Filipino lettuce cutters and mainly white packing shed workers went on strike against the powerful Salinas Valley growers and shippers, demanding union recognition & improved wages and working conditions. Many of the white workers were Dust Bowl refugees. Most of the Filipino workers had immigrated as U.S. nationals, after the U.S. took over the Philippines, in the wake of the Spanish-American War. There was rampant persecution of Filipino workers in California. Laws prohibited Filipino women from immigrating to the U.S. and prevented Filipino men from consorting with Anglo women. The American Federation of Labor initially refused to recognize or support the Filipino Labor Union (FLU). Scabs and vigilantes viciously beat Filipino strikers and chased 800 out of the Salinas Valley at gunpoint. They also burned down a labor camp. Police arrested picketers and union leaders for violation of the Criminal Syndicalism laws (laws that prohibited advocating any change to the economic and political status quo). The FLU ultimately won a raise and union recognition. However, discrimination and racist violence against Filipinos continued.
Steinbeck wrote about the plight of Filipino migrant farmworkers in the Salinas Valley in a 1936 series of articles for the San Francisco News called “The Harvest of Gypsies,” which formed part of the basis for his novel, Grapes of Wrath. He said they were among the most discriminated, and best organized, ethnic group in the U.S. Their organizing, he went on to say, brought on terrorism against them by vigilantes and the government.
investigative report tells how morbidly rich families, their companies, & their personal foundations are funding efforts to limit/restrict democracy across U.S.
'People who feed us are hungry': Ontario migrant worker support group seeing increase in need https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/farmworker-hub-notl-1.6933830
"The Farmworker Hub says it has seen a 27 per cent increase in demand this year.
An increasing number of migrant farm workers in Ontario's Niagara region, whose work helps bring local produce to market, are facing food insecurity, according a local organization that supports them." #onpol#MigrantWorkers#FarmWorkers#FoodInsecurity#Hungry
Truth: American farmers don’t want to prevent undocumented workers from coming to America; they want to keep their workers undocumented so they can underpay and abuse them. #farming#immigration#undocumented#farmlabor#farmworkers
#ExtremeHeat Is Endangering America's Workers—and Its Economy
"Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C., based consumer rights advocacy group, estimates that extreme heat contributes to between 600 and 2,000 deaths a year, along with 170,000 injuries, making heat one of the three main causes of death and injury in the American #workplace.
In most American states, you can be fined for leaving a dog outside without water or shade."
[Workers don't have such protection].
"Business groups and lobbyists have aggressively opposed efforts at state and federal levels to enact #HeaProtection standards for #workers.
#FarmWorkers and advocacy groups are also pushing to include heat protections for farm workers in the 2023 farm bill currently being considered by Congress. But with Republicans in control of Congress, such a measure is unlikely to pass."
Our Farmworkers Deserve Better Are we ready to listen? https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/thirst/2023/05/18/farmworkers-deserve-better The World Bank has described agricultural development as “one of the most powerful tools to end extreme poverty Conservation organizations report that sustainable agricultural operations can help preserve & restore habitats, protect watersheds & improve soil health & water quality Expanding urban agriculture can even help fight racism and increase health equity. #sustainability#farmworkers#Environment#Conservation
"#FarmWorkers are 35 times more likely to die of #HeatExposure than workers in other industries, according to the National Institutes of Health, but there is no federal heat standard that ensures their health and safety."
“It’s not normal to go through these #heatwaves and, you know, act as if nothing is happening,” he said. “And we just continue to normalize this, then, and nothing is going to be done to protect workers.”
Not sure if I mentioned this in my intro or my bio so I'll say it here:
If the workers go on strike, I will support them every👏🏽 time👏🏽.
If my packages arrive late, they arrive late. If my favorite show gets delayed, it's delayed. Services slow down, manufacturing shuts down, trains planes and automobiles cutting off, no strawberries at the supermarket, don't care.