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Statement: Farmworker Justice stands with the LGBTQIA+ community

(Washington, D.C.) – Fifty two years ago this month, during the Stonewall Riots, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two transgender activists, among others, bravely took a stand against police violence and harassment of the LGBTQIA+ community. Pride gatherings are rooted in the struggle to overcome prejudice and lift up the voices of the LGBTQIA+ community in the ongoing quest for justice.

Each June, we are reminded of the strength and resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community with the celebration of Pride Month. While we as Americans often celebrate Pride as a way to support the LGBTQIA+ community, it is important to remember that Pride is an act of resistance. Farmworker Justice stands in solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community in the resistance against injustice.

We recognize the resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community and celebrate the work of our many partners who have committed to serving LGBTQIA+ farmworkers.

LGBTQIA+ “invisibility” within the farmworker community stems from strong cultural and religious taboos regarding sex in general, and sexual and gender minority identities specifically. It is common for LGBTQIA+ persons to hide their identity in order to protect themselves from shaming, assault, and isolation from their families and communities. Farmworker Justice has partnered with The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center at the Fenway Institute to address the unique challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ farmworkers and their inability to seek adequate healthcare.

Farmworker Justice and The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center have been working together to provide training and technical assistance to existing and potential Health Center Program award recipients and look-alikes (health centers). Because farmworkers tend to live in more isolated rural communities, there are few LGBTQIA+ support services available. Health centers should be familiar with the LGBTQIA+ resources in their communities to refer patients. Health centers may also function as a limited support system. It is possible that the health center provider is the only person with whom the farmworker can talk openly and seek assistance.

California Rural Legal Assistance’s LGBT program focuses on the wellness, education, and safety for LGBT students and families. CRLA works with families, students, school districts, District Attorney’s offices, housing authorities and local nonprofit organizations to achieve their goals of improving access to justice and expanding civic engagement opportunities for LGBT communities.

We would like to recognize CRLA’s LGBTQ+ Program Community Worker and former farmworker, Roselyn Macias. She has been a prominent figure in both queer and farmworker communities. Roselyn is a leader for Conexiones, a support group mostly made up of Latina trans women in Monterey County who are dedicated to raising awareness and visibility in the community for transgender, non-binary, and queer women of color. She is a passionate and active advocate in her community and for more than 7 years has worked with marginalized women to educate them about health and leadership, and to create safe spaces where they can express themselves. Roselyn also works with the Translatina Coalition on policy change and leadership development.

“Farmworker Justice stands with the LGBTQIA+ community and remains committed to using our voice, skills and resources to achieve change on a systemic level — through our advocacy work, assistance to community-based organizations and public education. In our work supporting the farmworker movement, we are committed to helping the LGBTQIA+ community’s struggle for justice,” Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice.

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Farmworker Justice is a national advocacy organization for farmworkers. FJ founded in 1981 is based in Washington, D.C. and collaborates with organizations throughout the country to empower farmworkers to improve their wages, working conditions, occupational safety, health, immigration status and access to justice. For more information visit the Farmworker Justice website at www.FarmworkerJustice.org and follow on Twitter at @FarmwrkrJustice.

Media Contact:

BA Snyder
Veritas Group for Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com

Statement: House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections Holds Hearing on Farmworker Exclusions in the Fair Labor Standards Act

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the House Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing entitled “From Excluded to Essential: Tracing the Racist Exclusion of Farmworkers, Domestic Workers, and Tipped Workers from the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

Farmworker Justice, a national advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., applauds the Subcommittee Chair, Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) for drawing attention to the history of these exclusions and the harmful impacts they have today.

As the hearing witnesses made clear, America’s history of agricultural exceptionalism is rooted in racist politics. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), established core labor protections including a federal minimum wage and overtime pay for most American workers. However, the bill’s sponsors excluded agricultural and domestic workers from the overtime
protections in an effort to appease legislators from Southern states. (Farmworkers also were excluded from the minimum wage until 1966.) At the time, the farmworker population in the South was predominantly African American and still suffered plantation-like living and working conditions. Today, the majority of agricultural workers are Latino, but the injustice of these discriminatory exclusions persists.

“There is no valid justification for excluding farmworkers from overtime pay protections that apply to other workers. Farmworkers should be paid fairly for the work that they do. For decades, we have understood that most working people’s fair pay means time-and-one-half pay after 40 hours of work in a week,” said Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice.

Eliminating the overtime exclusion would provide desperately needed economic security and stability for America’s farmworkers. Despite their status as essential workers, many farmworkers live in poverty. The most recent National Agricultural Workers Survey by the U.S. Department of Labor shows that 30 percent of farmworker families had household income below the poverty level. And the low wages paid to farmworkers only compound other challenges. The long, unpredictable hours and hazardous working conditions of farm labor make it one of the most dangerous occupations in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted additional harm.

“Employers in the agricultural sector should modernize their labor relations and build profitability based on treating farmworkers with the dignity and respect they deserve. Farming’s business models should not depend on exploitation and exclusions from labor protections,” said Goldstein. “More than 75 years of overtime pay obligations in other sectors, along with state-level overtime requirements for California farmworkers, have demonstrated that employers are capable of running a business and paying their employees a fair wage.”

Congress must act to correct these racist exclusions. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, a member of the Subcommittee, has led efforts in the House to pass the Fairness for Farm Workers Act, which would end the discriminatory denial of overtime pay and most remaining minimum wage exemptions for farm workers in the FLSA. Farmworker Justice supported the bill in the last Congress and strongly supports its re-introduction and enactment in the 117th Congress.

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Farmworker Justice is a national advocacy organization for farmworkers. FJ founded in 1981 is based in Washington, D.C. and collaborates with organizations throughout the country to empower farmworkers to improve their wages, working conditions, occupational safety, health immigration status and access to justice. For more information visit the Farmworker Justice website at www.farmworkerjustice.org and follow on Twitter at @FarmwrkrJustice.

Media Contact:

BA Snyder
Veritas Group for Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com

Farm Workforce Modernization Act reintroduced in the House of Representatives

(Washington, D.C.) – The Farm Workforce Modernization Act that passed the House of Representatives in 2019 was reintroduced on March 3 by Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, and Dan Newhouse, Republican of Washington.

Farmworker Justice assisted the United Farm Workers in the negotiations and strongly supported the bill that passed in 2019. The bipartisan, labor-management compromise passed the House in December during the last Congress with 34 Republicans supporting it. The Senate, then led by Mitch McConnell (R-KY), did not debate or vote on the bill.

“Farmworker Justice strongly supports the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. It would enable most undocumented farmworkers – the majority of the farm labor force we depend on for much our food – and their family members to obtain a legal immigration status and path to citizenship upon meeting stringent requirements. The bill also would modify the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program,” said Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice. “We are hopeful that with a lot of hard work and new leadership in the Senate and the White House, the House and the Senate will pass this bill and President Biden will sign it. This bipartisan, labor-management compromise would improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of farmworker families and help ensure our food security.”

The bill summary and language are available on Rep. Lofgren’s website. She chairs the House immigration subcommittee in the Judiciary Committee. Rep. Newhouse is a farmer in the Yakima Valley and former WA state secretary of agriculture.

Read the Farmworker Justice Fact Sheet on the FWMA. Also available in Spanish.

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Farmworker Justice is a national advocacy organization for farmworkers. FJ founded in 1981 is based in Washington, D.C. and collaborates with organizations throughout the country to empower farmworkers to improve their wages, working conditions, occupational safety, health immigration status and access to justice. For more information visit the Farmworker Justice website at www.farmworkerjustice.org and follow on Twitter at @FarmwrkrJustice.

Media Contact:

BA Snyder
Veritas Group for Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com

Biden’s Labor Department withdraws Trump administration’s final rule on H-2A guest worker program

(Washington, D.C.) – Early Thursday morning, the Department of Labor announced the withdrawal of extensive regulations written by the Trump Administration that would have changed the H-2A guestworker program. The withdrawal occurred before their official publication in the Federal Register and therefore these regulations do not take effect. The Trump administration’s Department of Labor had announced and released the rule by posting on its website on Friday. Farmworker Justice, the United Farm Workers and others strongly opposed the proposed rule and successfully advocated for the withdrawal.

Had the rule gone into effect, U.S. and foreign farmworkers would have suffered in many ways. The Trump regulations would have reduced opportunities for U.S. farmworkers to obtain jobs, reduced the reimbursement of transportation costs for farmworkers by millions of dollars per year, weakened the prevailing wage protection, and weakened housing safety.

A companion rule would have frozen wage rates under the H-2A program for two years, costing farmworkers tens of millions of dollars per year, and an estimated $1.6 billion over ten years. That companion rule was prevented from taking effect by a court injunction that Farmworker Justice and co-counsel at WilmerHale won in the case UFW v. U.S. Department of Labor (E.D. Calif.) To learn more about the lawsuit, click here. However, Friday’s rule included the same wage freeze that we would have had to challenge again.

Moreover, the Trump regulations would not have required agricultural employers to take any steps to address the health and safety of farmworkers who are facing the risk of COVID-19.

“The Trump/Scalia changes in the H-2A agricultural guestworker program would have been devastating to tens of thousands of U.S. and foreign farmworkers,” said Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice. “We immediately submitted a request for withdrawal to the Biden administration. This action is the result of joint advocacy efforts. We are grateful for the immediate response from the new Administration.”

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Farmworker Justice is a national advocacy organization for farmworkers. FJ founded in 1981 is based in Washington, D.C. and collaborates with organizations throughout the country to empower farmworkers to improve their wages, working conditions, occupational safety, health immigration status and access to justice. For more information visit the Farmworker Justice website at www.farmworkerjustice.org and follow on Twitter at @FarmwrkrJustice.

Media Contact:

BA Snyder
Veritas Group for Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com

Farmworker Justice Supports the U.S. President-Elect’s Nomination of Marty Walsh as Department of Labor Secretary

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Farmworker Justice supports the President-elect’s nomination of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to serve as the next Department of Labor secretary. Involved with organized labor since the age of 21 and a former local union president, Mayor Walsh understands workers’ needs and how to address them.

Farmworkers, most of whom are immigrants, have faced many difficult challenges over the past few years, often living in fear of arrest and deportation and forced to accept unfair and illegal working conditions. As Mayor, Marty Walsh signed a sanctuary-city law to stop Boston’s police forces from cooperating or sharing information with ICE. Mayor Walsh is also committed to fighting climate change, which poses a threat to farmworkers’ health due to high temperatures and wildfires.

In recent months, Farmworker Justice acted as co-counsel in the lawsuit that won an injunction against the Department of Labor for a new regulation freezing wages of more than 200,000 farmworkers at employers participating in the H-2A agricultural guestworker program. However, the White House is reviewing a multi-faceted regulation under the H-2A guestworker program that the DOL intends to finalize under Trump, harming tens of thousands of U.S. and temporary foreign farmworkers.

“We are hopeful that as Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh will reverse the many harmful policies adopted by the Trump Administration and resolve the pending lawsuits against the Department of Labor. We are also hopeful that the DOL under his leadership will improve enforcement of farmworkers’ rights and, adopt new policies and programs that help the nation’s farmworkers improve their wages, working conditions and occupational safety,” said Bruce Goldstein, president of Farmworker Justice.

Click here for more information regarding the court’s December decision on H-2A Guestworker wage-rates. Information about the H-2A program is available on our website resource center at https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/resources/h-2a.

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For more information visit the Farmworker Justice website at www.farmworkerjustice.org and follow on Twitter at @FarmwrkrJustice.

Media Contact:

BA Snyder
Veritas Group for Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com

As the country survives an attempted overthrow of our democracy, Farmworker Justice supports the U.S. President- elect’s nominations of Civil Rights Experts to the Department of Justice

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Farmworker Justice supports President-elect Biden’s selections for leadership of the Department of Justice. Biden has nominated a centrist with extensive experience in selecting Merrick Garland to be the next Attorney General. It is encouraging that Biden also plans to place Vanita Gupta, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Kristen Clarke head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to high-level positions in the Justice Department. These individuals have demonstrated expertise and commitment to the rule of law, will restore integrity to the Justice Department and are strong advocates for civil rights.

The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6 was an attempt to destroy our democracy that was enabled and encouraged by President Trump who used the Justice Department to thwart civil and human rights. Amid this crisis, President-elect Biden has chosen to nominate experienced people who will restore the Justice Department’s commitment to upholding the rule of law.

“Over the past four years, farmworkers have endured attacks on numerous fronts, including the erosion of their civil rights. The Justice Department has defended numerous illegal federal agency actions that courts have overturned. Farmworkers make up a large part of the agricultural workforce and have had to live in fear of persecution because of the Trump administration’s actions. We are hopeful that a Biden Justice Department led by Merrick Garland, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke will restore and improve protections for these workers and their families.” said Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice.

Farmworker Justice looks forward to working with the new Administration to advance the civil rights for the farmworkers who continue to work on the frontlines of this pandemic. We are hopeful that the treatment of these essential workers and their families will improve significantly under his leadership.

Farmworker Justice actively continues to follow President-elect Biden’s cabinet nomination process. Farmworker Justice supports the President-elect’s nomination of former governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack for the next Secretary of Agriculture. We’ve expressed our views on President-elect Biden’s Nomination of California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, as Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services and on the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas as Department of Homeland Security Secretary.

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Farmworker Justice is a national advocacy organization for farmworkers. FJ founded in 1981 is based in Washington, D.C. and collaborates with organizations throughout the country to empower farmworkers to improve their wages, working conditions, occupational safety, health immigration status and access to justice. For more information visit the Farmworker Justice website at www.farmworkerjustice.org and follow on Twitter at @FarmwrkrJustice.

Media Contact:

BA Snyder
Veritas Group for Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com

Federal Court Grants Farmworker Groups an Injunction Against U.S. Department of Labor’s Decision to Freeze Wages Under the H-2A Guestworker Program

(Washington, D.C.) On Wednesday, a federal court in California enjoined the U.S. Department of Labor’s decision to freeze, and effectively lower, several hundred thousand farmworkers’ wages employed at farms that use the H-2A agricultural guestworker program. A preliminary injunction was issued by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd in Fresno in a lawsuit filed by the United Farm Workers (UFW) and the UFW Foundation, represented by Farmworker Justice and the law firm WilmerHale. The new regulation was set to take effect on December 21 and regulate wage rates beginning in January 2021.

In announcing the new regulation, DOL estimated that nationwide H-2A guestworkers would suffer wage losses of $57 million in 2021, $139 million in 2022 and an average of $170 million annually over ten years. DOL also admitted that U.S. farmworkers (i.e., non-H-2A workers) would suffer wage losses, but made no estimates of how much those losses would be.

The H-2A agricultural guestworker program, which allows employers to hire foreign workers on temporary visas for seasonal jobs, has been expanding rapidly in recent years. In fiscal year 2020, the DOL approved over 275,000 H-2A positions and the State Department issued more than 204,000 H-2A visas in 2019.

The H-2A law prohibits the DOL from approving employers’ applications for guestworkers if the wage rates offered would “adversely affect” the job opportunities or wage rates of U.S. farmworkers. The principal H-2A wage protection is the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), which DOL had been setting for each state based on regional average hourly wage rates for field and livestock workers combined, as determined by the USDA Farm Labor Survey (FLS). This minimum wage applies to both foreign and domestic farmworkers working for H-2A employers. The DOL has been using the USDA FLS to set the H-2A AEWRs for decades because it is a measure of the current market rate wage for farmworkers.

In a related case, the United Farm Workers and the UFW Foundation sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its September 30 decision cancelling the FLS and the corresponding annual Farm Labor Report on which the AEWR is based. On October 28, Judge Drozd issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction prohibiting the USDA from cancelling the FLS and the annual Farm Labor Report. In the new case against the DOL, the court noted that the USDA data will now be available to continue the former regulation’s methodology.

The 2020 AEWRS vary by state, averaging $13.99 per hour. The AEWRs have been increasing modestly in most states in recent years based on the USDA FLS results; data for the first half of FY2020 show the rates rising by 3% from the previous year.

The new regulation would freeze wages for 2021 and 2022 at the 2020 AEWRs (which are based on 2019 FLS wage data). In 2023 and later years, DOL would adjust the 2020 rates by using DOL’s more general Employment Cost Index (ECI) instead of the FLS. DOL acknowledged that ECI, a broad measure of labor wages that excludes the agriculture industry, has been rising more slowly than farmworkers’ wages. In justifying its decision, DOL said the wage freeze would create stability and predictability for agricultural employers regarding wages.

The court ruled that the DOL’s new regulation violates the federal Administrative Procedure Act in several ways, including, by failing to comply with the legal requirement to prohibit adverse effects to farmworkers’ wages, and by selecting wage-setting methodologies that bear no relation to the farm labor market. The court also held that the DOL violated the APA by failing to give the public notice and an opportunity for comment on its new methodology for calculating wages, which was not previewed in the preliminary rule published in July 2019.

Because USDA had sought to cancel the FLS, the data necessary to determine the 2021 AEWR will be delayed until February 11. In its decision to enjoin the DOL regulation, the court asked the parties to address how to prevent wage losses for farmworkers during the delay.

Farmworkers’ wages are among the lowest of any occupation in the nation. About one-third of farmworker households’ incomes fall below the poverty line. In the last few years, farmworkers’ wages have been rising modestly. Judge Drozd concluded that farmworkers would be seriously and irreparably harmed in the absence of an injunction.

“We are very pleased that the court entered a preliminary injunction against the unjustified decision by Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia to lower wage rates of several hundred thousand farmworkers. Secretary Scalia’s decision to freeze farmworkers’ wage rates for two years is an utterly arbitrary and unlawful act that inflicts grave harm to some of the most vulnerable workers in the nation,” said Bruce Goldstein, president of Farmworker Justice, and one of the attorneys in both lawsuits.

Click here for more information regarding the DOL’s November decision on H-2A Guestworker wage-rates. Information about the H-2A program is available on our website resource center at https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/resources/h-2a.

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Farmworker Justice is a national advocacy organization for farmworkers. FJ founded in 1981 is based in Washington, D.C. and collaborates with organizations throughout the country to empower farmworkers to improve their wages, working conditions, occupational safety, health immigration status and access to justice. For more information visit the Farmworker Justice website at www.farmworkerjustice.org and follow on Twitter at @FarmwrkrJustice.

Media Contact:

BA Snyder
Veritas Group for Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com

Eva Longoria se une a Farmworker Justice para las festividades

Washington, D.C.- En esta temporada navideña, Eva Longoria y Farmworker Justice se unen para destacar el gran impacto que tienen los trabajadores agrícolas en la vida de todos los estadounidenses. Árboles de Navidad, rellenos, carnes asadas y pasteles de frutas son solo algunas de nuestras delicias navideñas favoritas que no estarían disponibles sin los miles de trabajadores agrícolas de este país.

“Este año ha sido difícil para todos, pero incluso antes del COVID-19, los trabajadores agrícolas trabajaban en condiciones difíciles por salarios inadecuados y estándares de seguridad en el lugar de trabajo insuficientes”, dijo Bruce Goldstein, presidente de Farmworker Justice. “La pandemia ha hecho que la vida de un trabajador agrícola sea mucho más difícil en los últimos 9 meses; se estima que 269,000 trabajadores agrícolas han contraído COVID-19 desde marzo. También continuaron trabajando durante los incendios forestales en California, exponiéndose a peligros aún mayores sin el equipo de protección personal adecuado”.

A pesar de estos obstáculos, los trabajadores agrícolas han persistido y, al hacerlo, han mantenido intacta nuestra cadena de suministro de alimentos. Farmworker Justice se ha mantenido firme junto a estos trabajadores, presentando demandas y presionando a los legisladores para que brinden a nuestros trabajadores agrícolas el alivio que necesitan y merecen.

“Los trabajadores agrícolas de Estados Unidos trabajan en algunas de las condiciones más opresivas y debemos apoyarlos a ellos y a las personas que luchan todos los días para mejorar sus vidas a través de la defensa y el sistema legal” dice Eva Longoria, actriz, productora y activista desde hace mucho tiempo en temas de inmigración.

Eva Longoria ha estado luchando apasionadamente por los derechos de los trabajadores agrícolas migrantes durante años, utilizando su plataforma para educar al público y recaudar fondos para las comunidades necesitadas. Produjo dos documentales, The Harvest (2010) y Food Chains (2014); The Harvest describe a tres niños trabajadores agrícolas durante las temporadas de cosecha y Food Chains profundiza en la campaña por salarios justos, centrándose en los trabajadores agrícolas en Immokalee, FL. Su trabajo de defensa la ha llevado a la Casa Blanca y al Congreso, donde ha abogado por cambios en el tratamiento de los inmigrantes en este país.

Vea su entrevista con el presidente de Farmworker Justice, Bruce Goldstein, sobre el estado de los trabajadores agrícolas durante el COVID-19 y el trabajo de Eva sobre el tema aquí.

Únase a Eva en esta temporada navideña y done a Farmworker Justice para que podamos continuar luchando para mejorar las vidas de las comunidades de trabajadores agrícolas de Estados Unidos.

Puede donar visitando https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/support-farmworker-justice/

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Farmworker Justice es una organización nacional de defensa para los trabajadores agrícolas. Fundada en 1981, Farmworker Justice tiene su sede en Washington, D.C. y colabora con organizaciones en todo el país para empoderar a los trabajadores agrícolas para mejorar sus salarios, condiciones de trabajo, seguridad ocupacional, estado migratorio, salud y acceso a la justicia.

Para obtener más información, visita nuestro sitio web www.farmworkerjustice.org y síguenos en Twitter @FarmwrkrJustice.

Contacto para medios

BA Snyder
Veritas Group para Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com

Eva Longoria joins Farmworker Justice for the holidays

Washington, D.C.- This holiday season, Eva Longoria and Farmworker Justice are coming together to highlight the vast impact farmworkers have on the lives of all Americans. Christmas trees, stuffings, roasted meats and fruit pies are just a few of our favorite holiday treats that wouldn’t be available without the thousands of farmworkers in this country.

“This year has been difficult for everybody but even before COVID-19, farmworkers worked in harsh conditions for inadequate wages and insufficient workplace safety standards.” said Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice. “The pandemic has made the life of a farmworker much more difficult in the past 9 months; an estimated 269,000 farmworkers have contracted COVID-19 since March. They also continued to work through the wildfires in California, exposing themselves to even greater dangers without adequate PPE.”

Despite these obstacles, farmworkers have persisted and in doing so, they have kept our food supply chain intact. Farmworker Justice has stood firmly alongside these workers, filing lawsuits and pressing lawmakers to give our farmworkers the relief they need and deserve.

“America’s farmworkers work under some of the most oppressive conditions and we need to support them, and the folks that fight each and every day to improve their lives through advocacy and the legal system,” says Eva Longoria, actress, producer and a long time activist for immigration issues.

Eva Longoria has been passionately fighting for the rights of migrant farmworkers for years, using her platform to educate the public and fundraise for communities in need. She produced two documentaries, The Harvest (2010) and Food Chains (2014); The Harvest profiles three child farm workers during the harvest seasons and Food Chains delves into the campaign for fair wages, focusing on the farmworkers in Immokalee, FL. Her advocacy work has brought her to the White House and Congress where she has advocated for changes to the treatment of immigrants in this country.

Watch her interview with Farmworker Justice President, Bruce Goldstein, regarding the status of farmworkers during COVID-19 and Eva’s work on the issue here.

Join Eva this holiday season and donate to Farmworker Justice so that we may continue to fight to improve the lives of America’s farmworker communities.

You can donate by visiting https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/support-farmworker-justice/

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Farmworker Justice is a national advocacy organization for farmworkers. Founded in 1981, Farmworker Justice is based in Washington, D.C. and collaborates with organizations throughout the country to empower farmworkers to improve their wages, working conditions, occupational safety, health immigration status and access to justice.

For more information visit the Farmworker Justice website at www.farmworkerjustice.org and follow on Twitter at @FarmwrkrJustice.

Media Contact:

BA Snyder
Veritas Group for Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com

U.S. President-Elect, Joe Biden Nominates Tom Vilsack for Secretary of the Department of Agriculture

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Farmworker Justice supports the President-elect’s nomination of former governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack for the next Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack is the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture who served under President Obama’s administration.

Farmworker Justice worked with Tom Vilsack during his time in the previous administration. He was the first Secretary of Agriculture to welcome farmworkers into the building to hear their concerns, a significant departure from the past and from the current administration in which the USDA views agricultural employers, but not farmworkers, as key constituents.

Former Secretary Vilsack named a plaza at the USDA headquarters after César Chávez, labor activist and leader of the United Farm Workers union. At the event, he described how being raised in an orphanage helped him recognize the “dignity of those who for far too long were orphaned in this country because they worked the land, picked our food, processed our food and packaged our food, sacrificing under extraordinary conditions.”

In 2016, in comments regarding a project to improve housing for farmworkers Vilsack praised farmworkers, many of whom are immigrants, saying,“America’s farmers, ranchers and the businesses supporting our rural communities depend on these hardworking individuals to ensure we remain a productive, food-secure nation.”

Farmworker Justice looks forward to working with Vilsack again to help farmworkers improve their living and working conditions, access to safe, healthy food and infrastructure in rural communities. “There is still much progress needed for farmworkers and their communities even before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately harmed these essential workers,” said Farmworker Justice President, Bruce Goldstein.

Farmworker Justice continues to actively follow President-elect Biden’s cabinet nomination process. Farmworker Justice Supports the U.S. President-Elect’s Nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas as Department of Homeland Security Secretary. We’ve expressed our views on President-elect Biden’s Nomination of California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, as Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services.

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For more information visit the Farmworker Justice website at www.farmworkerjustice.org and follow on Twitter at @FarmwrkrJustice.

Media Contact:

BA Snyder
Veritas Group for Farmworker Justice
512.630.6337
BA@TheVeritasWay.com