At the table: NC farmworkers continue
their struggle
By Najwa Lynch
Nov. 8 (AGR) -- Hasta la Victoria! (Until Victory!)
Those three words can mean a lot to farmworkers and their families.
A month ago, farmworkers throughout North Carolina discovered just how
much it meant when they won the largest union contract in North Carolina
history and the first such contract with H-2A (guestworker) immigrant
farm laborers.
Last week, the North Carolina Council of Churches (NCCC), National Farm
Worker Ministry (NFWM), and Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) hosted
a rather celebratory public forum on farmworker issues in Durham, North
Carolina. Of course, there was a lot to celebrate. North Carolina has
the fifth most immigrant farmworkers in the country. Although North
Carolina has the single most H-2A laborers, a majority of the immigrant
workforce are undocumented workers from Mexico. Despite the obstacle
of trying to organize a very vulnerable and contingent workforce, FLOC
won its campaign to organize 8,000 farm laborers in the state, ending
a five-and-a-half year boycott of Mt. Olive Pickles.
Lori F. Khamala, of the NFWM, and Brendan Greene, a FLOC organizer,
told how such a historic victory was possible. Khamala explained that
it was a three-pronged approach to victory. First, there was the economic
pressure being placed by the boycott. Then there was the moral pressure
being put on the Growers’ Association by the NCCC. And finally
there was the massive legal pressure being placed. In the end, the NC
Growers’ Association decided it was cheaper and easier to sign
the contract.
But more than this, Greene explained, Mt. Olive has signed a neutrality
agreement for farmworkers that are not H-2A, allowing union organizers
safer and easier access to workers.
The scope of this victory was made clear by Leo Rodriguez, a Sampson
County farmworker and FLOC member. Rodriguez talked about his previous
jobs as a migrant worker. He first came to California in 1994 as an
undocumented worker. Coyotes, a term used for people who smuggle immigrants
across the US border, would charge thousands of dollars for a trip that
was not only more expensive, but less safe than legally crossing. Rodriguez
came back in 2000 to work for Carson Barns picking cucumbers in North
Carolina. Rodriguez was hired through the H-2A program.
When asked why employers would choose to hire H-2A workers at $8.06
an hour as opposed to hiring undocumented workers at $5.15 or less,
sadness appeared in Rodriguez’s face and a harsh reality was recounted.
The H-2A program gives employers a lot of power. It insured them a workforce.
For example, when a farmworker is given a visa through the program,
they are then signed into a contract with their employer. To receive
further visas, the farmworker must maintain a good relationship with
their employer. This meant that if a worker got hurt, complained, or
tried to organize, they were typically sent back to their country of
origin and repudiated from the H-2A program. If an entire workforce
tried to organize or file grievances, they could all be fired, deported,
and expelled and the H-2A program would immediately ensure the employer
a new workforce.
Undocumented workers, however, described themselves as free simply because
if they were unhappy with the working conditions or their employer,
they could leave without facing imminent deportation or exclusion from
any future work. Rodriguez echoed this sentiment while recounting his
own experiences.
When this season’s sweet potato harvest first began, Rodriguez
tripped and hurt his back (causing two herniated, slipped discs). He
reported the injury two or three times to his crew leader, but the response
he got was that he could die for all the crew leader cared. He worked
for about fifteen days until Brendan Greene took him to a clinic. His
injury caused him to be out of work for four weeks. He explains that
while he was working for Carson Barns in 2000, injured workers were
deported, leaving the workers to pool money to help their friends and
family travel back home. Thanks to their new union contract, however,
Rodriguez is able to continue work and has received $600 in worker’s
comp.
Greene explained how victories like this continue to be won in the month
since the contract was signed. More than 500 grievances were filed in
the following weeks, all of which have been won, including $6,000 in
back wages at one of the state’s largest farms. Many laws were
being broken before the union contract was signed. Illegal treatment
of workers, unsafe working conditions, inadequate compensation, unpaid
breaks, and so on. Now that is changing, the panel explained. As Brenden
Greene stated, “We are hoping to bring freedom back to contract
work.”
But the work is far from over, they explained. Although the Mt. Olive
boycott has ended, they are asking people to continue the boycott of
Taco Bell for their treatment of tomato pickers. And now that the first
victory is here, FLOC is to continue their aggressive campaign of talking
to and organizing farm laborers throughout the state, a campaign which
they explain require more and more volunteers. The farmworkers have
been successful in bringing management to the table; now the work is
keeping them there.
