Farm Workers’ Strugglesand How One Organization Made

A Difference

By Kate Trevelyan-Hall&

Veronica Toscano

Cesar Chavez’s View

• “All my life, I have been driven by one dream, one goal, one vision: To overthrow a system that treats farm workers … as if they are not important human beings,” –Chavez.

Cesar Chavez’s View Cont.• “Unions to provide

contractually guaranteed wages and health and pension benefits to its workers, along with holiday and vacation pay, job safety protection, and grievance procedures.”

The Effects of Working Conditions

• Chronic effects of pesticide exposure may include adverse effects on neurological function, cancer, reproductive harm, reduced growth and development, and birth defects-

Women Working in the Fields

• Farm worker women "do nearly every kind of farm labor on every kind of farm. They routinely earn less money than men for doing the same work."

Children in the Fields• "The first field we visited

could have been mistaken for a day care center. There were many small children … some were picking strawberries just like their parents and older siblings. We saw a baby stroller which was advanced a few feet occasionally to keep up with the progress of the picking…” -- Scott Pike,

Living Conditions

• Two-thirds of our nation's migrant households, and seventy percent of our nation's migrant children, live below the federal poverty line… [because farm workers] have the lowest annual family incomes of any U.S. wage and salary workers.

• California Institute for Rural Studies CIRS show that over half of farm workers have not seen a doctor 47% to be exact and more than half 58% have not seeing a dentist in two years

Farm Workers’ Homes

Living Conditions Cont.

• They shall not plant and another eat;- Isaiah 65:21

• “…Providing food for all people and reducing poverty among…farm workers in this country…”

Dealing with Wages

• Farm workers on average earned between $10,000 and $12,499 per year. Farm worker families earned an average of $15,000 to $17,499 per years.

Entry Level Wage

San LuisObispo 2002

$6.75

Workers in Florida

• Tomato pickers receive about 40 cents for each 32 lb bucket they fill.

• To earn the equivalent of minimum wage they would have to fill 125 buckets…over 2 tons of tomatoes.

The True Meaning of Freedom

• Illegal immigrants often go unpaid.

• They don’t complain due to fear of deportation

Wages, cont.

• BELOW MINIMUM WAGE: “…farm worker Sergio Salazar said he and his brother and sister were set to be paid $72 total for their combined 21 hours of piece-rate labor --$3.43 an hour.”

• NO PAY: Isabel Lopez, 42, … lost a $362 unpaid wages … against farm labor contractor Rodolfo Ramirez.

A Fair Wage

• …The Sacramento Bee found that thousands of employers fail to pay tens of thousands of farm workers the minimum wage, the state issued only 11 citations…

Dealing with Wages Cont.

• The Bee’s review of court and state records turned up 18 instances over the past two years in which agricultural employers completely failed to pay an estimated 1,600 farm workers $820,000 in wages.

A lot to live up to…

• “Cesar’s moral vision centered on sacrificial service, solidarity through voluntary poverty, nonviolent confrontation, and faith in God and others.”

So you’re not Cesar Chavez…

• What can you do?

Consciousness + Commitment = Change

What should be done?

• In 1993 a group of workers in Immokalee, FL decided they’d had enough of poor working conditions and slave-like wages so they organized an organization that is now nationally known…

• The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)

CIW

• The organization had consciousness…the workers lived the reality every day

• They were committedto fight for a better life

• So how to bring about change?

Reality Check

• Fast Food companies such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Burger King are among the largest buyers of tomatoes

• Because of this they can set low prices for buying in bulk – the buyers and growers win, but it is the workers who suffer

Go to those with POWER

• The CIW decided to contact Yum! Brands, better known for being the parent company to Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Long John Silvers.

• As a large buyer of Immokalee picked tomatoes, CIW asked them to pay 1 cent more per pound, a request that could double a worker’s daily wages

Boycott Taco Bell

• When letters went unnoticed, and representatives refused to meet with the CIW, the organization realized they needed to do something BIG

• They called on the public to become aware of the injustices workers faced every day in the fields of Florida

Solidarity

• Students and Church groups around the country joined the Boycott

• Students worked to kick Taco Bell off over 20 college and high school campuses

A Modern Day David & Goliath Story

• After a 2 year boycott, Yum! Brands finally agreed to pay a penny more per pound…directly to workers

Consciousness + Commitment = Change

• Yum! Brands joined CIW to help improve the working conditions of farm workers

• Now the CIW is working to get McDonalds and Burger King to follow in their footsteps

Citations Slide 2 Pic.: http://www.now.org/nnt/05-98/berries2.jpg

Quote: Dalton, Frederick. Dalton, Frederick John. 2003. The Moral Vision of Cesar Chávez. Maryknoll: Orbis Press. (Page 8-9)

Slide 3 Pic: http://www.ufw.orgQuote: Dalton, Frederick. Dalton, Frederick John. 2003. The Moral Vision of Cesar Chávez. Maryknoll: Orbis Press. (Page 150)

Slide 4 Pic: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/dwd/DWDHistory/images/farm_workers_big.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/dwd/DWDHistory/default.htm&h=520&w=640&sz=114&tbnid=1RYxMdJie4kJ:&tbnh=109&tbnw=135&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFARM%2BWORKERS%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DTSHA,TSHA:2005-18,TSHA:en%26sa%3DNQuote: http://www.nrdc.org/health/kids/farm/chap1.asp

Slide 5 Pic: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cals.wisc.edu/wfsp/no-3/photo-1a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cals.wisc.edu/wfsp/no-3/3-1a.html&h=264&w=320&sz=21&tbnid=s11r37J2gQsJ:&tbnh=93&tbnw=113&hl=en&start=25&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522FARM%2BWORKERS%2522%2BCHILDREN%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DNQuote: http://www.nfwm.org/fw/housing.shtml

Citations Cont.Slide 6 Pic.:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/brooklyn/chavez/images/onionplanters1920%27s.gif&imgrefurl=http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/brooklyn/chavez/Links/workerscondition.htm&h=349&w=390&sz=150&tbnid=PW_qirqj_ZQJ:&tbnh=107&tbnw=120&hl=en&start=54&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522FARM%2BWORKERS%2522%2BCHILDREN%26start%3D40%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DNQuote: Scott Pike- http://www.nrdc.org/health/kids/farm/chap1.asp

Slide 7 Quote1:http://www.nfwm.org/fw/povertywages.shtmlQuote 2: http://www.cirsinc.org/rcr/spring2k1.pdf

Slide 8 Pic.:http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/calheritage/UFW/pictures/ammemdelano.jpg&imgrefurl=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/calheritage/UFW/&h=413&w=560&sz=50&tbnid=y7qvXVy22kAJ:&tbnh=96&tbnw=131&hl=en&start=40&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfarm%2Bworkers%2B%2B%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

Slide 9 Pic.: http://biblia.com/jesusm/isaiah-virgin.jpgQuote: National Conference of Catholic Bishops. 2004. For I Was Hungry and You Gave me to Eat: Catholic Reflections on Food, Farmers and Farmworkers. Washington, DC: USCC. (Page 11)

Slide 10 Pic: data collected from http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/occup$/ccoiswages/dclaw.cfm?occupation_code=798560Quote: http://www.ufw.org

Slide 11 Pic: http://www.ciw-online.org/about.html

Citations Cont.Slide 12 Pic.:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/calheritage/UFW/pictures/ammemdelano.jpg&imgrefurl=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/calheritage/UFW/&h=413&w=560&sz=50&tbnid=y7qvXVy22kAJ:&tbnh=96&tbnw=131&hl=en&start=40&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfarm%2Bworkers%2B%2B%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DNQuote: Furillo, Andy. Dirt Cheap. 2001

Slide 13 Quote 1: Furillo, Andy. Dirt Cheap. 2001 Page 4Quote 2: Furillo, Andy. Dirt Cheap. 2001 Page 7

Slide 14 Quote: Furillo, Andy. Dirt Cheap. 2001 Page 8

Slide 15 Quote: Furillo, Andy. Dirt Cheap. 2001 Page 6

Slide 16 Pic: http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/2005/04/graphics/statues_chavez1.jpg

Slide 17 http://www.ciw-online.org/images/images.html

Slide 19 Pic: http://www.ciw-online.org/about.html

Slide 23 Pic: http://www.foodfirst.org/images/progs/humanrts/boycottthebell.gif

Slide 24 http://www.ciw-online.org/tz_site-revision/breaking_news/2005conf.shtml

Slide 25 http://www.ciw-online.org/tz_site-revision/breaking_news/2005celebration.shtml