Racism against Farm Workers

 Statement of Teresa Romero, President, UFW

House Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee
From Excluded to Essential: Tracing the Racist Exclusion of Farmworkers, Domestic Workers, and Tipped Workers from the Fair Labor Standards Act
May 3, 2021 

Because of our nation’s racism and history of discrimination against farm workers, agricultural work has long been perceived as undesirable work. As a result, many of the country’s most vulnerable individuals work as farm workers. Roughly half of the nation’s 2.4 million farm workers are undocumented23 and approximately 10% of the workforce are H-2A workers, nonimmigrants whose ability to work and remain in the country is dependent on the employer that petitioned for them.24 The lack of immigration status and citizenship means farmworkers are often too fearful of retaliation and immigration enforcement to draw attention to themselves by complaining about workplace violations or seeking improved conditions. In this way, our nation’s racist exclusion of farm workers from key labor protections has perpetuated the vulnerability of agricultural workers, including by depriving them of the political power needed to improve their circumstances. 

In conclusion, now end the discriminatory treatment of agricultural workers regarding overtime pay and minimum wage in 

the Fair Labor Standards Act. The legislation would phase in overtime pay over a period of 4 years and would give smaller employers additional time to adjust to these changes. 

32 See, e.g. Colorado SB21-087, Oregon HB 2358
33 “How much would it cost consumers to give farm workers a significant raise?” Daniel Costa and Phil Martin, EPI Working Economics Blog, October 15, 2020, available at https://www.epi.org/blog/how-much-would-it-cost- consumers-to-give-farmworkers-a-significant-raise-a-40-increase-in-pay-would-cost-just-25-per-household/.

is the time to right wrongs that can no longer be justified or tolerated in a 

society where equal rights and equal justice are supposed to be more than academic theories or 

political rhetoric. In a world that is ever more conscious of the structural racism underpinning 

our society, we must end the racist exclusion of farm workers from FLSA’s overtime protection. 

We call on Congress to enact legislation such as Rep. Grijalva’s and now Vice President Harris’send the discriminatory treatment of agricultural workers regarding overtime pay and minimum wage in 

the Fair Labor Standards Act. The legislation would phase in overtime pay over a period of 4 years and would give smaller employers additional time to adjust to these changes. 

 

https://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/from-excluded-to-essential-tracing-the-racist-exclusion-of-farmworkers-domestic-workers-and-tipped-workers-from-the-fair-labor-standards-act

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgfOuLk6e20

 

Assembly Votes for Farm Worker Overtime - Local Assembly men vote No

Now, it  is up to Governor Brown.

The California Assembly on Monday sent Gov. Jerry Brown a hard-fought and historic expansion of overtime rules for farmworkers, but it remains uncertain whether the Democratic governor will sign off.

A nearly identical bill fell three votes short of passage on the Assembly floor in May, with 15 Democrats voting against the measure or declining to vote. But on Monday, an amended version of the measure, now contained in Assembly Bill 1066, passed on a 44-32 vote. 

1 of 2

Agricultural workers already receive some overtime pay under California law thanks to a 2002 state directive that entitles them to extra wages if they more than 10 hours in a day or more than 60 hours in a week. AB 1066 would expand that to bring it more in line with other industries, offering time-and-a-half pay for working over eight hours in a day or 40 in a week and double pay for working more than 12 hours a day. The pay boosts would kick in incrementally over four years and the governor could suspend them for a year if the economy falters.

Business groups quickly condemned the vote. “We are deeply concerned with the passage of AB 1066 today and the devastating impacts this bill will have on our small, independent farmers and the workers they employ,” said Tom Scott, state executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business. “This mandate does not consider the thousands of agricultural workers who will lose their jobs and the billions of dollars in lost crop production resulting from these new overtime regulations.”

In the final vote, local Assembly men Ken Cooley,  District 8;  and Jim Cooper , District 9 ( Elk Grove) voted No.  They voted against the farm workers.  We should remember them in the next election.
For a detailed description of changing Latino power in California see
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/marcos-breton/article98954247.html

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article98703612.html#emlnl=Todays_Top_Stories#storylink=cpy

#Overtime4Farmworkers

Tell Assemblyman Ken Cooley. 

Assemblyman Ken Cooley - Vote for Farm worker justice

The Assembly did not vote on the bill on Thursday.

an editorial in the Sacramento Bee
By Marcos Breton
mbreton@sacbee.com

This is the week that California’s progressive values will be put to the test. Are these values genuine? Or do they exclude the state’s most vulnerable workers because legislators typically eager to support labor causes will deny laborers who are poor and of Mexican origin?

That’s where we are in California. It’s 2016, and we’re still arguing about granting the basic right of overtime pay for agricultural workers who labor beyond an eight-hour workday.

A watered-down version of the bill, AB 1066, loaded with concessions, barely squeezed through the state Senate on Monday and is headed to a critical vote Thursday in the Assembly. That’s the same body that shot down the original bill in May.

The bill, by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat, would extend to farmworkers the same overtime rights as every other hourly wage group in California. That means getting paid time and a half for every hour they work over eight in a day or 40 in a week. Working more than 12 hours a day would mean double pay.

So Thursday is a judgment day of sorts in California. How progressive are we really? How much longer will the bluest of states perpetuate an injustice rooted in a shameful past?

Farm Workers Deserve Labor Protections- Overtime pay

TAKE ACTION: Farm worker overtime bill JUST passed CA Senate.  Bill before the California Assembly.  Call Assemblyman Ken Cooley. (D)  916- 319- 2008.  Tell him to support workers rights.

“As farm workers, we work during the hot summers and the cold winters. I believe that we deserve the 8 hour day like any other American worker has."

-

-Daniel Navarrette,
Strawberry Worker

Breaking news. The new farm worker overtime bill just was voted on in the CA senate and passed 21-14! It next moves on to the full Assembly floor for a final vote that has to happen before August 31. Can you help us pass this legislation by sending your email today to your CA Assembly person and ask them to support this vital bill?

The bill must be voted on before the legislative session ends on or before August 31 or CA farm workers will continue to be excluded from overtime laws enjoyed by most American workers.

Farmworker Overtime Bill Heads to Another Vote

By David Bacon
Capital and Main, August 11, 2016
http://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2016/08/farm-worker-overtime-bill-heads-for.html
http://capitalandmain.com/latest-news/issues/labor-and-economy/farm-worker-overtime-bill-heads-for-another-vote-0811/



A farm worker harvests romaine lettuce near Mecca, in the Coachella Valley, where the temperature this summer reached 115 degrees. Workers cutting lettuce in this crew are paid by the piecerate, and work so fast they are almost running through the field, bent over double all day.


The fight for farm worker overtime is going down to the wire in California's current legislative session, which will adjourn at the end of August. And as Assembly Bill 1066, which would require it, moves through the legislature, Jewish and African American organizations have made a commitment to win the votes it needs for passage.

A bill that would have phased in overtime pay for farm workers, Assembly Bill 2757, passed the State Senate earlier this year, but then failed to pass the State Assembly in a vote on June 2. Since then a new bill, AB 1066, has progressed through the Senate's Appropriations Committee, and may be sent to the Assembly within days.

The bill would then need to pick up the four votes by which AB 2757 failed in June. They will have to come from either the eight Democrats who voted "no" or the six who failed to vote at all.

UFW Seeks Help on Overtime Bill

Tell Assemblyman Cooley. We are waiting.
One month left to pass CA farm worker overtime in 2016

We have just started the critical month for farm worker overtime. Either farm worker overtime will pass in August before the legislative session ends on/before August 31st or that’s it for 2016. Can you help us make this happen?

Today is August 1 and California legislators have just come back from recess and are in their Sacramento offices. Our overtime bill, AB 1066, is in the CA Senate, where it will be heard next by the Senate Appropriations Committee. After that it goes to the full Senate floor and then over to the Assembly floor. The bill must be voted on before the legislative session ends on or before August 31 or CA farm workers -- who perform some of the most physically-demanding jobs -- will continue to be excluded from overtime laws enjoyed by most American workers.

The UFW is determined to change this. Despite the California State Assembly’s failure to pass legislation in June, we will do everything in our power to give the Assembly another chance to right this wrong in August. In June, the bill received a 38-35 vote, three short of the needed 41-vote majority. Fourteen Democrats sided with the Republicans, including six who chose not to vote at all -- when they knew their vote was needed.

Farm Worker Overtime Pay

TAKE ACTION: CA farm worker overtime bill to reach Assembly Appropriations Committee Friday

“It’s very tiring to work 10 hours, then have to work another two to three hours extra. The body doesn’t handle it. If we could get a law for eight hours and after that the hours would be paid extra for the field work in California, it would be a great relief to all the farm workers.” --Salvador Rodriguez

AB 2757 “The Phase-In Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act of 2016” to ensure farm workers get overtime pay after eight hours -- the same as almost every other California worker is about to be voted on in the Appropriations Committee. Please send your email today to the committee chair and bill author Lorena Gonzalez. Tell her we’re behind her all the way and ask her to do all she can to make sure the bill passes and moves on to the full Assembly floor.

Farm workers toil for low wages hour after hour, often in extreme temperatures and under dangerous conditions. California is the biggest agricultural employer in the nation and one of a handful of states with any overtime protection at all for farm workers. However, these laborers only receive extra pay after working a grueling 10 hours a day.

AB 2757 is a vital bill that would gradually move toward paying California farm workers overtime if they labor more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week by the year 2020. We’ve had two previous efforts to enact an eight-hour overtime law in California. We can’t have more delays. Farm workers are not beasts of burden. They work hard and deserve the same overtime other workers get.

Please help Salvador and thousands of farm worker who labor in California’s fields by sending your email to Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez today.

http://action.ufw.org/otac

After you take action, please ask your friends and family to take action too. You can send them an e-mail, post this campaign on your Facebook and/or Twitter page by clicking here.