Farm workers need legal status NOW.

Congress: Farm workers need legal status NOW Farm workers across America are pushing Congress togive farm workers legal status before the end of the year. Farm workers have proven themselves essential to America's communities, economy and food supply over and over again - putting their lives at risk to keep America fed.  Giving the farm workers who feed us the legal status they have earned is crucial to America's food security. Given the result of the midterms, this lame duck session is the last shot to get something done for farm workers before the House of Representatives falls into Republican hands. We need Congress to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act NOW.   The week before Thanksgiving, 19-year Mairi, a farm worker from Delano, California, came to Washington D.C. to ask Congress to act. Her parents, also farm workers, are undocumented and need Congress to pass legislation before the end of the year. Below is some of what Mairi told Members of Congress during her first trip to our nation's capital.  "I've been working in the fields since I was 12 years old," said Mairi. "Undocumented farm workers live with constant fear of being separated from their families. A few years ago, my neighbors were on their way to work when they were followed by ICE. They were scared of being separated from their family, so they drove away and ended up crashing and passing away. They left 6 kids behind, the youngest being 6 years old."  Mairi is referring to the 2018 deaths of two farm workers - Santos Hilario Garcia and Marcelina Garcia Profecto  - who were killed during a high-speed pursuit by ICE agents after dropping their teenage daughter off at school. As long as farm workers live without legal status, they will be vulnerable to exploitation and intimidation on the job - and tragedies like the deaths of Mairi's neighbors will continue. Congress must act before it's too late. "Farm workers deserve to be legalized," said Mairi. "They are essential workers who deserve to be recognized."   Please join the UFW in telling Congress that farm workers deserve legal status. We need our friends and allies across the nation to be ready to help us get the Farm Workforce Modernization Act across the finish line. Can we count on you? Sign the pledge today.

 

Newsom Signs Farmworker Election bill.

 

Alongside Farmworkers at the State Capitol, Governor Newsom Signs Law Expanding Farmworker Union Rights

Published: Sep 28, 2022

The Governor’s Office finalized an agreement with UFW and the California Labor Federation on clarifying language next year to ensure worker protection

SACRAMENTO – Today, alongside advocates and farmworkers outside the State Capitol, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation expanding union rights for farmworkers. This follows the Governor, United Farm Workers (UFW), and the California Labor Federation having agreed in a letter on clarifying language to be passed during next year’s legislative session to address Governor Newsom’s concerns around implementation and voting integrity.
 
“California’s farmworkers are the lifeblood of our state, and they have the fundamental right to unionize and advocate for themselves in the workplace,” said Governor Newsom. “Our state has been defined by the heroic activism of farmworkers, championed by American icons like Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong. California is proud to stand with the next generation of leaders carrying on this movement.”  
 
AB 2183 by Assemblymember Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay) creates new ways for farmworkers to vote in a union election, including options for mail-in ballots, and authorization cards submitted to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, in addition to the existing in-person voting process.
 
The supplemental agreement between the Newsom Administration, UFW, and the California Labor Federation includes a cap on the number of card-check petitions over the next five years, and will allow the ALRB to adequately protect worker confidentiality and safety. This additional agreement would be codified into law with a bill next year that would be supported by both the administration and the union. The agreement will be codified with additional legislation next year backed by the union and the administration.

Oppose a new Bracero Program

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Take action @ http://action.ufw.org/h2a1017 Rep. Goodlatte has just introduced the “Agricultural Guestworker Act” in the Judiciary Committee. This bill creates a modern day Bracero program and would undermine the wages and working conditions of all agricultural workers. This bill comes at the same time that other members of Congress are trying to use the appropriations process to expand the scope of the current H-2A program in a way that will harm both US and immigrant workers. Help the United Farm Workers and a broad coalition of almost 150 groups oppose this bill. Instead of taking agriculture back to the 1940’s, join us in asking Congress to refocus on the one thing that could stabilize agriculture quickly -- providing farm workers already laboring in the US with a path to lawful permanent residency and eventual citizenship. The unwise expansion of the H-2A program and the creation of a new guestworker program would result in the displacement of US agricultural workers. Neither would protect the farm workers who do some of the most difficult work in America. Instead they would import guestworkers who have even fewer labor and political rights.

Cesar Chavez Marches

UFW Cesar Chavez Marches

The United Farm Workers, Radio Campesina, The UFW Foundation and other community organizations, invite you and your family to march with us. We will join together on:

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 in:

Coachella, CA:
Coachella Plaza Shopping Center, Coachella, CA (in front of Pizza Hut & KFC) @1:30 pm.
FLYER

Yakima, WA: 
St. Paul Cathedral, 102 S. 12th Ave., @ 11 am; Information: (541) 564-2717 FLYER - English FLYER- Spanish