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Protest the 2015 California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard!
The California Strawberry Festival is one of the largest outdoor annual events in California that celebrates the success of the multi-billion dollar global agricultural industry. However, this success has come at the great economic, social and overall health expense to those who pick the berries. The growers have maintained a blatant disregard for workers’ rights and wellbeing and have also neglected to take a stand as stewards of the environment by stopping the use of harmful industrial chemicals that affect the larger communities in order to continue to reap record profits year after year.
In solidarity with San Quintin and in defense of our communities, PROTEST the Strawberry Festival in Oxnard!
Time and Place: Saturday, May 16th @ 10AM–Meet by Fresh & Easy Parking Lot: 1750 E. Channel Islands Blvd., Oxnard, CA 93033
The California Strawberry Festival is one of the largest outdoor annual events in California that celebrates the success of the multi-billion dollar global agricultural industry. However, this success has come at the great economic, social and overall health expense to those who pick the berries. The growers have maintained a blatant disregard for workers’ rights and wellbeing and have also neglected to take a stand as stewards of the environment by stopping the use of harmful industrial chemicals that affect the larger communities in order to continue to reap record profits year after year. The people of Oxnard believe that there is a better way to care for the environment and for farmworkers to have basic human dignity in their workplaces and that the only way to get there is to follow the lead of those who work the earth, grow and pick the fruit. In light of this reality, community members, workers’ organizations, and grassroots groups are uniting to demonstrate their resolve to boycott Driscoll’s strawberries and to follow the lead of farmworkers in their struggle for better lives at the California Strawberry Festival that is taking place in Oxnard on May 16th and 17th of 2015. According to an investigation by The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/1Qscx8N), in the Baja California farms operated by Driscoll’s and Reiter Affiliated Companies:
* Many farm laborers are essentially trapped for months at a time in rat-infested camps, often without beds and sometimes without functioning toilets or a reliable water supply.
* Some camp bosses illegally withhold wages to prevent workers from leaving during peak harvest periods.
*Laborers go deep in debt paying inflated prices for necessities at company stores. Some are reduced to scavenging for food when their credit is cut off. It’s common for laborers to head home penniless at the end of a harvest.
* Those who seek to escape their debts & miserable living conditions have to contend with violent guards, barbed-wire fences and threats of violence from camp supervisors.
* Major U.S. companies [like Driscoll’s, Reiter Affiliated Companies, and contractors like Sakuma] have done little to enforce basic worker protections such as clean housing and fair pay practices.
For these reasons, in March 2015, 50,000 farmworkers in the San Quintin Valley organized the Alliance of National, State and Municipal Organizations for Social Justice, and launched a general strike to see their eight-hour pay raised from between $7.66 to $8 to the modest amount of $13.33 (200 pesos). This was immediately met by armed repression from the corrupt government of Enrique Peña Nieto. On April 8, 2015 the Alliance released a second communique that announced their resolve to join the Washington-based Familias Unidas por La Justicia’s ongoing boycott against their employer Sakuma Brothers Farms, Inc. and their Driscoll’s contracts by launching a “boycott against Driscoll’s and against the companies that make a profit based on the exploitation of our labor power” on April 10, 2015. Meanwhile, in agricultural California regions like Oxnard and El Rio, the strawberry industry has cast a toxic cloud above our neighborhoods. According to a study by the Center for Investigative Reporting, millions of pounds of fumigants are pumped into local soil on a yearly basis. These fumigants are banned around the world, but are used heavily in Oxnard. They have been linked to cancer, developmental problems and ozone depletion:
* Chloropicrin was used as chemical warfare (“vomit gas”) in the First World War.
* California regulators consider 1,3-Dichloropropene to be a carcinogen.
* The strawberry industry’s most popular fumigant, methyl bromide, was banned by an international treaty in the 1990s for eating huge holes in the ozone layer. California strawberry growers are still among the only ones still using methyl bromide.
These poisonous fumigants now enshroud our communities, as well as schools like Oxnard High School and Rio Mesa. JOIN US as we protest to denounce the horrible mistreatment of farmworkers and disregard for public health that the strawberry industry represents!
BOYCOTT DRISCOLL’S BERRIES
REITER AND DRISCOLL’S – YOUR LIES ABOUT “SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY” AND FAIR TREATMENT OF WORKERS HAVE BEEN EXPOSED
WORKERS HAVE THE UNCONDITIONAL RIGHT TO ORGANIZE
DIGNIFIED WAGES AND UNION RIGHTS FOR ALL FARMWORKERS
END THE RAMPANT SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE FIELDS
END THE USE OF TOXIC PESTICIDES
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL LABOR SOLIDARITY & WORKING-CLASS RESISTANCE – THE WORKERS STRUGGLE HAS NO BORDERS!
Time and Place: Saturday, May 16th @ 10AM–Meet by Fresh & Easy Parking Lot: 1750 E. Channel Islands Blvd., Oxnard, CA 93033
The California Strawberry Festival is one of the largest outdoor annual events in California that celebrates the success of the multi-billion dollar global agricultural industry. However, this success has come at the great economic, social and overall health expense to those who pick the berries. The growers have maintained a blatant disregard for workers’ rights and wellbeing and have also neglected to take a stand as stewards of the environment by stopping the use of harmful industrial chemicals that affect the larger communities in order to continue to reap record profits year after year. The people of Oxnard believe that there is a better way to care for the environment and for farmworkers to have basic human dignity in their workplaces and that the only way to get there is to follow the lead of those who work the earth, grow and pick the fruit. In light of this reality, community members, workers’ organizations, and grassroots groups are uniting to demonstrate their resolve to boycott Driscoll’s strawberries and to follow the lead of farmworkers in their struggle for better lives at the California Strawberry Festival that is taking place in Oxnard on May 16th and 17th of 2015. According to an investigation by The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/1Qscx8N), in the Baja California farms operated by Driscoll’s and Reiter Affiliated Companies:
* Many farm laborers are essentially trapped for months at a time in rat-infested camps, often without beds and sometimes without functioning toilets or a reliable water supply.
* Some camp bosses illegally withhold wages to prevent workers from leaving during peak harvest periods.
*Laborers go deep in debt paying inflated prices for necessities at company stores. Some are reduced to scavenging for food when their credit is cut off. It’s common for laborers to head home penniless at the end of a harvest.
* Those who seek to escape their debts & miserable living conditions have to contend with violent guards, barbed-wire fences and threats of violence from camp supervisors.
* Major U.S. companies [like Driscoll’s, Reiter Affiliated Companies, and contractors like Sakuma] have done little to enforce basic worker protections such as clean housing and fair pay practices.
For these reasons, in March 2015, 50,000 farmworkers in the San Quintin Valley organized the Alliance of National, State and Municipal Organizations for Social Justice, and launched a general strike to see their eight-hour pay raised from between $7.66 to $8 to the modest amount of $13.33 (200 pesos). This was immediately met by armed repression from the corrupt government of Enrique Peña Nieto. On April 8, 2015 the Alliance released a second communique that announced their resolve to join the Washington-based Familias Unidas por La Justicia’s ongoing boycott against their employer Sakuma Brothers Farms, Inc. and their Driscoll’s contracts by launching a “boycott against Driscoll’s and against the companies that make a profit based on the exploitation of our labor power” on April 10, 2015. Meanwhile, in agricultural California regions like Oxnard and El Rio, the strawberry industry has cast a toxic cloud above our neighborhoods. According to a study by the Center for Investigative Reporting, millions of pounds of fumigants are pumped into local soil on a yearly basis. These fumigants are banned around the world, but are used heavily in Oxnard. They have been linked to cancer, developmental problems and ozone depletion:
* Chloropicrin was used as chemical warfare (“vomit gas”) in the First World War.
* California regulators consider 1,3-Dichloropropene to be a carcinogen.
* The strawberry industry’s most popular fumigant, methyl bromide, was banned by an international treaty in the 1990s for eating huge holes in the ozone layer. California strawberry growers are still among the only ones still using methyl bromide.
These poisonous fumigants now enshroud our communities, as well as schools like Oxnard High School and Rio Mesa. JOIN US as we protest to denounce the horrible mistreatment of farmworkers and disregard for public health that the strawberry industry represents!
BOYCOTT DRISCOLL’S BERRIES
REITER AND DRISCOLL’S – YOUR LIES ABOUT “SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY” AND FAIR TREATMENT OF WORKERS HAVE BEEN EXPOSED
WORKERS HAVE THE UNCONDITIONAL RIGHT TO ORGANIZE
DIGNIFIED WAGES AND UNION RIGHTS FOR ALL FARMWORKERS
END THE RAMPANT SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE FIELDS
END THE USE OF TOXIC PESTICIDES
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL LABOR SOLIDARITY & WORKING-CLASS RESISTANCE – THE WORKERS STRUGGLE HAS NO BORDERS!
For more information:
http://todopoderalpueblo.org/2015/05/09/in...
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Festival de la Fresa en California es el festival más grande en su tipo al que acuden miles de consumidores.
Los Angeles, CA.- Integrantes del Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB), el Proyecto Indígena/Mixteco de Organización Comunitaria (MICOP), Todo el Poder al Pueblo y otras organizaciones del Sur de California realizarán una manifestación de apoyo a los jornaleros de San Quintín este sábado 16 de mayo durante el Festival de la Fresa en Oxnard, al que acuden miles de consumidores del condado de Ventura, California y sus alrededores.
Los manifestantes harán un llamado a boicotear la compra de productos importados desde San Quintín luego de la violenta represión en contra de los trabajadores agrícolas, en su mayoría indígenas de Oaxaca, Guerrero y otros estados de la República Mexicana.
Ante la brutal represión contra los paristas, registrada el 9 de mayo, en la que resultaron lesionados con balas de goma, mujeres y niños, las organizaciones de migrantes indígenas de California manifestaron que acudirán a las instancias de derechos humanos como Amnistía Internacional, el Alto Comisionado de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) y la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos de México para que intervengan y se ponga un alto a la violencia en contra de los trabajadores que sólo demandan justicia.
Los Angeles, CA.- Integrantes del Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB), el Proyecto Indígena/Mixteco de Organización Comunitaria (MICOP), Todo el Poder al Pueblo y otras organizaciones del Sur de California realizarán una manifestación de apoyo a los jornaleros de San Quintín este sábado 16 de mayo durante el Festival de la Fresa en Oxnard, al que acuden miles de consumidores del condado de Ventura, California y sus alrededores.
Los manifestantes harán un llamado a boicotear la compra de productos importados desde San Quintín luego de la violenta represión en contra de los trabajadores agrícolas, en su mayoría indígenas de Oaxaca, Guerrero y otros estados de la República Mexicana.
Ante la brutal represión contra los paristas, registrada el 9 de mayo, en la que resultaron lesionados con balas de goma, mujeres y niños, las organizaciones de migrantes indígenas de California manifestaron que acudirán a las instancias de derechos humanos como Amnistía Internacional, el Alto Comisionado de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) y la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos de México para que intervengan y se ponga un alto a la violencia en contra de los trabajadores que sólo demandan justicia.
For more information:
https://iqmultimedia.wordpress.com/2015/05...
The following article was posted on April 29th, 2015, in the Santa Maria Sun - Volume 16, Issue 8
Driscoll's Berries faces Strawberry Festival protest
BY SEAN MCNULTY
Protestors gathered outside the gates to call for a boycott of the Santa Maria Strawberry Festival over the weekend of April 25. Colorful signs painted with strawberries and “HULEGA!!”—meaning ‘strike’ in English—waved as sharply-dressed families walked by.
They picketed in solidarity with massive strikes in Baja California, Mexico. Tens of thousands of berry pickers walked away from the harvest in the farming hub of San Quintín, some 200 miles south of San Diego. They are protesting low wages, limited benefits, poor working conditions, and human rights violations.
Many of those farms are operated by Oxnard-based berry distributor Driscoll’s and their Mexican affiliate Berrymex. They reap a sizeable share of the $7.6 billion in farm exports from Mexico to the U.S. every year. Driscoll’s has a major presence at the Strawberry Festival and large farms in the Santa Maria Valley.
Berrymex workers in San Quintín, many of them indigenous migrants from Mexico’s destitute southern states, are paid about $8 a day. In 2014, the LA Times reported that workers were trapped by barbed wire, armed guards, and debt peonage in labor camps without beds, running water, or functioning toilets. Workers claim that supervisors turn a blind eye to child labor and perpetuate rampant sexual abuse.
“There are literally thousands of children working in those fields, and these are American companies based on the Central Coast,” said local organizer Pedro Reyes. “Locally, there are a lot of people who have come together to say, ‘Look, we’re in support of those workers out there, and we also question the ethics of those major corporations.’”
On March 17, the first day of the strike, about half of San Quintín’s 75,000 workers walked away from the harvest. They blocked the Transpeninsular Highway, by which fruit is transported to the United States, and clashed with state police, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and hundreds of arrests.
Local chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union have dispatched truckloads of food and thousands of dollars to support the protesting jornaleros. Antonio Rivera, a representative from the UFCW Salinas office, was present at the protest.
“Driscoll’s, the company here, they exploit our people there in San Quintín. They are growing their crop for a cheap price, and they are coming here to sell their produce and make a lot of money,” he said.
Driscoll's Berries faces Strawberry Festival protest
BY SEAN MCNULTY
Protestors gathered outside the gates to call for a boycott of the Santa Maria Strawberry Festival over the weekend of April 25. Colorful signs painted with strawberries and “HULEGA!!”—meaning ‘strike’ in English—waved as sharply-dressed families walked by.
They picketed in solidarity with massive strikes in Baja California, Mexico. Tens of thousands of berry pickers walked away from the harvest in the farming hub of San Quintín, some 200 miles south of San Diego. They are protesting low wages, limited benefits, poor working conditions, and human rights violations.
Many of those farms are operated by Oxnard-based berry distributor Driscoll’s and their Mexican affiliate Berrymex. They reap a sizeable share of the $7.6 billion in farm exports from Mexico to the U.S. every year. Driscoll’s has a major presence at the Strawberry Festival and large farms in the Santa Maria Valley.
Berrymex workers in San Quintín, many of them indigenous migrants from Mexico’s destitute southern states, are paid about $8 a day. In 2014, the LA Times reported that workers were trapped by barbed wire, armed guards, and debt peonage in labor camps without beds, running water, or functioning toilets. Workers claim that supervisors turn a blind eye to child labor and perpetuate rampant sexual abuse.
“There are literally thousands of children working in those fields, and these are American companies based on the Central Coast,” said local organizer Pedro Reyes. “Locally, there are a lot of people who have come together to say, ‘Look, we’re in support of those workers out there, and we also question the ethics of those major corporations.’”
On March 17, the first day of the strike, about half of San Quintín’s 75,000 workers walked away from the harvest. They blocked the Transpeninsular Highway, by which fruit is transported to the United States, and clashed with state police, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and hundreds of arrests.
Local chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union have dispatched truckloads of food and thousands of dollars to support the protesting jornaleros. Antonio Rivera, a representative from the UFCW Salinas office, was present at the protest.
“Driscoll’s, the company here, they exploit our people there in San Quintín. They are growing their crop for a cheap price, and they are coming here to sell their produce and make a lot of money,” he said.
For more information:
http://www.santamariasun.com/news/13107/dr...
[Video: 2:15 minutes]
En varias ciudades de Estados Unidos inició ya el boicot a los productos de las empresas que explotan a los jornaleros agrícolas.
En los supermercados de diversas ciudades dio inicio el boicot a los productos de las empresas explotadoras de los jornaleros agrícolas y así se mantendrá hasta que no haya una respuesta del gobierno y de los patrones a sus demandas de un salario digno y reconocimiento a sus derechos humanos y laborales.
En varias ciudades de Estados Unidos inició ya el boicot a los productos de las empresas que explotan a los jornaleros agrícolas.
En los supermercados de diversas ciudades dio inicio el boicot a los productos de las empresas explotadoras de los jornaleros agrícolas y así se mantendrá hasta que no haya una respuesta del gobierno y de los patrones a sus demandas de un salario digno y reconocimiento a sus derechos humanos y laborales.
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/Desinformemonos/v...
Why Do We Protest?
The harvest of luxury crops such as strawberries that yield high profit for growers should be held to a higher standard. 16 hour workdays at less than 50 American cents per hour is a way of exploiting and dehumanizing the workers and contribute to the ongoing abuse of indigenous workers who are lured into the trap of an american income. The struggle in San Quintin has not been won by the workers yet, it has not created anything other than elevated consciousness and raised awareness of a transnational crisis where corporate interests have shown the extent of their greed by calling on armed forces to subdue the struggle of the workers and break the strikes through organized violence. The meager 200 Mexican pesos per day is not a living wage– rather it is a penance and a contract for slavery which renews the struggle. As the California Strawberry Festival looks to prosper from the broken backs and broken promises, who are on a “per need” basis lured with h2a visas to secure complete control and domination of the field laborer, today we stand in solidarity and continue the struggle on this side of the border in solidarity to all workers and indigenous voices.
Today the struggle of the strawberry farm workers in San Quintin is a sad reflection of our reality in California and across our nation when we speak of immigrant agricultural labor. There are millions of workers in our fields who are also being exploited and treated as expendable, recyclable and invisible. Today we are asking all growers, “contratistas” and law enforcers to be honest, and honor our constitutional, federal, state, and human rights. Today we are asking all American blue collar workers, unions, young people, and middle class consumers to stand up for justice and unite in demanding that all farm workers in our nation, in Mexico, and the rest of the world be treated as humans with respect. Because thanks to these blue collar workers we eat every day. Stand with us, stand with the American farm workers. Please help us by boycotting the strawberries that are grown in the modern-day slave plantations. Please stand for justice demanding workers and consumers’ rights, protection from pesticides and the end sexual assault and exploitation.
May 15, 2015
Oxnard, CA
--
Click to view slideshow:
The harvest of luxury crops such as strawberries that yield high profit for growers should be held to a higher standard. 16 hour workdays at less than 50 American cents per hour is a way of exploiting and dehumanizing the workers and contribute to the ongoing abuse of indigenous workers who are lured into the trap of an american income. The struggle in San Quintin has not been won by the workers yet, it has not created anything other than elevated consciousness and raised awareness of a transnational crisis where corporate interests have shown the extent of their greed by calling on armed forces to subdue the struggle of the workers and break the strikes through organized violence. The meager 200 Mexican pesos per day is not a living wage– rather it is a penance and a contract for slavery which renews the struggle. As the California Strawberry Festival looks to prosper from the broken backs and broken promises, who are on a “per need” basis lured with h2a visas to secure complete control and domination of the field laborer, today we stand in solidarity and continue the struggle on this side of the border in solidarity to all workers and indigenous voices.
Today the struggle of the strawberry farm workers in San Quintin is a sad reflection of our reality in California and across our nation when we speak of immigrant agricultural labor. There are millions of workers in our fields who are also being exploited and treated as expendable, recyclable and invisible. Today we are asking all growers, “contratistas” and law enforcers to be honest, and honor our constitutional, federal, state, and human rights. Today we are asking all American blue collar workers, unions, young people, and middle class consumers to stand up for justice and unite in demanding that all farm workers in our nation, in Mexico, and the rest of the world be treated as humans with respect. Because thanks to these blue collar workers we eat every day. Stand with us, stand with the American farm workers. Please help us by boycotting the strawberries that are grown in the modern-day slave plantations. Please stand for justice demanding workers and consumers’ rights, protection from pesticides and the end sexual assault and exploitation.
May 15, 2015
Oxnard, CA
--
Click to view slideshow:
For more information:
http://todopoderalpueblo.org/2015/05/16/wh...
¿Por Que Protestamos?
La cosecha de lujo como fresas que ceden la ganancia alta para cultivadores debería ser sostenida a un estándar más alto. Los días laborables de 16 horas en menos de 50 centavos americanos por hora son un modo de explotar y deshumanizar a los trabajadores y contribuye al abuso en curso de trabajadores indígenas que son atraídos en la trampa de unos cuantos dólares americanos. La lucha en San Quintín no ha sido ganada por los trabajadores aún, no ha creado nada además del conocimiento elevado y ha levantado la conciencia de una crisis transnacional donde los intereses de las empresas han mostrado el alto grado de avaricia pidiendo fuerzas armadas para someter la lucha de los trabajadores y romper las huelgas a través de la violencia organizada. Los 200 pesos mexicanos pobres por día no son un sueldo mínimo – mejor dicho es una penitencia y un contrato para la esclavitud que renueva la lucha. El Festival de Fresa de California espera prosperar de las espaldas rotas y promesas rotas, quienes están en “por necesidad” traídos con visados H2A para asegurar el control completo y la dominación del trabajador de temporal. Hoy estamos de pie en la solidaridad y seguimos la lucha en este lado de la frontera en la solidaridad con todos los trabajadores y voces indígenas.
Hoy la lucha de los trabajadores agrícolas de la fresa en San Quintín es un triste reflejo de nuestra realidad en California y en toda nuestra nación cuando hablamos de trabajadores agrícolas inmigrantes. Hay millones de trabajadores en nuestros campos los cuales son también objetos de explotación, reciclables e invisible. Hoy estamos pidiéndole a los productores, contratistas y agentes quienes enforzan las leyes que sean honestos, y honren nuestros derechos constitucionales, federales, estatales, y humanos. Hoy estamos pidiendo a la clase obrera, los sindicatos, los jóvenes, y especialmente a la clase media a levantarse por la justicia y unirse para exigir que todos los trabajadores agrícolas en nuestro país, en México y en el mundo sean tratados como seres humanos con respeto. Gracias a la clase obrera nosotros comemos a diario; apoyemos a nosotros, apoyen a los campesinos americanos. POR FAVOR ayudemos a BOICOTEAR las fresas de nuestros campos de esclavitud modernos, donde los trabajadores y consumidores siempre deben estar protegidos de los pesticidas, el acoso sexual, y la explotación!
16 Mayo, 2015
Oxnard, CA
--
Click to view slideshow:
La cosecha de lujo como fresas que ceden la ganancia alta para cultivadores debería ser sostenida a un estándar más alto. Los días laborables de 16 horas en menos de 50 centavos americanos por hora son un modo de explotar y deshumanizar a los trabajadores y contribuye al abuso en curso de trabajadores indígenas que son atraídos en la trampa de unos cuantos dólares americanos. La lucha en San Quintín no ha sido ganada por los trabajadores aún, no ha creado nada además del conocimiento elevado y ha levantado la conciencia de una crisis transnacional donde los intereses de las empresas han mostrado el alto grado de avaricia pidiendo fuerzas armadas para someter la lucha de los trabajadores y romper las huelgas a través de la violencia organizada. Los 200 pesos mexicanos pobres por día no son un sueldo mínimo – mejor dicho es una penitencia y un contrato para la esclavitud que renueva la lucha. El Festival de Fresa de California espera prosperar de las espaldas rotas y promesas rotas, quienes están en “por necesidad” traídos con visados H2A para asegurar el control completo y la dominación del trabajador de temporal. Hoy estamos de pie en la solidaridad y seguimos la lucha en este lado de la frontera en la solidaridad con todos los trabajadores y voces indígenas.
Hoy la lucha de los trabajadores agrícolas de la fresa en San Quintín es un triste reflejo de nuestra realidad en California y en toda nuestra nación cuando hablamos de trabajadores agrícolas inmigrantes. Hay millones de trabajadores en nuestros campos los cuales son también objetos de explotación, reciclables e invisible. Hoy estamos pidiéndole a los productores, contratistas y agentes quienes enforzan las leyes que sean honestos, y honren nuestros derechos constitucionales, federales, estatales, y humanos. Hoy estamos pidiendo a la clase obrera, los sindicatos, los jóvenes, y especialmente a la clase media a levantarse por la justicia y unirse para exigir que todos los trabajadores agrícolas en nuestro país, en México y en el mundo sean tratados como seres humanos con respeto. Gracias a la clase obrera nosotros comemos a diario; apoyemos a nosotros, apoyen a los campesinos americanos. POR FAVOR ayudemos a BOICOTEAR las fresas de nuestros campos de esclavitud modernos, donde los trabajadores y consumidores siempre deben estar protegidos de los pesticidas, el acoso sexual, y la explotación!
16 Mayo, 2015
Oxnard, CA
--
Click to view slideshow:
For more information:
http://todopoderalpueblo.org/2015/05/16/el...
Mexican farmworkers reach agreement after 2-month strike
by Ashoka Jegroo, May 16, 2015
After two months of striking, marching and blocking roads, farmworkers in Baja California, Mexico have finally reached an agreement with the Mexican government that may end their current struggle for better wages and working conditions.
Mexican government officials and farmworker leaders held an 18-hour meeting in Ensenada, Mexico starting on May 13 that ended the next day with the government agreeing to meet several demands of the striking workers. Among the demands being met by the government are requirements that companies get certification ensuring that they’re not using child labor, social security benefits for retired farmworkers, equal rights and pay for women, housing built for laborers, recognition of the farmworkers’ union, and healthcare for workers.
“This is an agreement that will help us construct an orderly, peaceful, respectful and responsible way to provide a better quality of life for those workers who live in the valley of San Quintin,” Baja California Gov. Francisco “Kiko” Vega de Lamadrid told the Los Angeles Times.
The agreement is set to be finalized on June 4, but the issue of wage increases, one of the strikes central demands, has not been fully settled yet. The workers have demanded a raise to 200 pesos ($13) per day. Government officials agreed to pay whatever wage increase for the farmworkers is not met by the agribusinesses that employ them.
“If [the growers] say they’ll pay 180 pesos, the federal government will pay the other 20 pesos,” Justino Herrera, a leader of the Alliance of National, State and Municipal Organizations for Social Justice, the coalition of indigenous workers that started the strike, explained to KBPS.
Nonetheless, Fidel Sanchez, the spokesperson for the worker coalition, remained hopeful about the agreement.
“Perhaps we haven’t achieved everything we wanted, however for us it is extremely important that we have immediate affiliation of the workers in the fields with the Mexican Institute of Social Security — in this way, farmworkers will be attended to,” Sanchez told FreshFruitPortal.com.
The agreement took place days after clashes between police and striking workers on May 9 left 70 injured. Images of workers injured and shot with rubber bullets during the clashes soon spread online, turning public opinion against the government. In addition to the strike, which has cost the region millions of dollars in unpicked produce, the farmworkers also called for an international boycott of the strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables they pick. U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas even introduced a “Stop Blood Tomatoes” bill to Congress, which aimed to end child and forced labor at farms that sell to U.S. retailers by requiring independent audits of these farms.
Labor leaders like Sanchez and Herrera also gained previous experience organizing workers during their time working in the United States. Herrera once led a work stoppage in Oregon against an abusive employer. Sanchez helped put together a boycott against tomato farmers in Florida. Many of the farmworkers in Baja California have also worked in U.S. fields and have seen the gains won by organized labor. As a result, many of them returned to Mexico fully aware of what could be achieved through the use of organized protests and have applied this knowledge in their current struggle.
“I don’t have educational experience. I don’t have an intellectual background,” Sanchez told the Los Angeles Times. “All I have is my education from life experiences, learning from others. Cesar Chavez was an example I learned from, that we shouldn’t live submissively.”
Ashoka Jegroo is a journalist born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He has bylines in The Santiago Times and the New York Times' The Local blog. He has covered protests in Santiago, Chile and New York City. When he's not causing trouble for the establishment, he's live-tweeting protests at @AshAgony.
Waging Nonviolence content falls under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2015/05/mexican-farmworkers-reach-agreement-government-2-month-strike/
by Ashoka Jegroo, May 16, 2015
After two months of striking, marching and blocking roads, farmworkers in Baja California, Mexico have finally reached an agreement with the Mexican government that may end their current struggle for better wages and working conditions.
Mexican government officials and farmworker leaders held an 18-hour meeting in Ensenada, Mexico starting on May 13 that ended the next day with the government agreeing to meet several demands of the striking workers. Among the demands being met by the government are requirements that companies get certification ensuring that they’re not using child labor, social security benefits for retired farmworkers, equal rights and pay for women, housing built for laborers, recognition of the farmworkers’ union, and healthcare for workers.
“This is an agreement that will help us construct an orderly, peaceful, respectful and responsible way to provide a better quality of life for those workers who live in the valley of San Quintin,” Baja California Gov. Francisco “Kiko” Vega de Lamadrid told the Los Angeles Times.
The agreement is set to be finalized on June 4, but the issue of wage increases, one of the strikes central demands, has not been fully settled yet. The workers have demanded a raise to 200 pesos ($13) per day. Government officials agreed to pay whatever wage increase for the farmworkers is not met by the agribusinesses that employ them.
“If [the growers] say they’ll pay 180 pesos, the federal government will pay the other 20 pesos,” Justino Herrera, a leader of the Alliance of National, State and Municipal Organizations for Social Justice, the coalition of indigenous workers that started the strike, explained to KBPS.
Nonetheless, Fidel Sanchez, the spokesperson for the worker coalition, remained hopeful about the agreement.
“Perhaps we haven’t achieved everything we wanted, however for us it is extremely important that we have immediate affiliation of the workers in the fields with the Mexican Institute of Social Security — in this way, farmworkers will be attended to,” Sanchez told FreshFruitPortal.com.
The agreement took place days after clashes between police and striking workers on May 9 left 70 injured. Images of workers injured and shot with rubber bullets during the clashes soon spread online, turning public opinion against the government. In addition to the strike, which has cost the region millions of dollars in unpicked produce, the farmworkers also called for an international boycott of the strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables they pick. U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas even introduced a “Stop Blood Tomatoes” bill to Congress, which aimed to end child and forced labor at farms that sell to U.S. retailers by requiring independent audits of these farms.
Labor leaders like Sanchez and Herrera also gained previous experience organizing workers during their time working in the United States. Herrera once led a work stoppage in Oregon against an abusive employer. Sanchez helped put together a boycott against tomato farmers in Florida. Many of the farmworkers in Baja California have also worked in U.S. fields and have seen the gains won by organized labor. As a result, many of them returned to Mexico fully aware of what could be achieved through the use of organized protests and have applied this knowledge in their current struggle.
“I don’t have educational experience. I don’t have an intellectual background,” Sanchez told the Los Angeles Times. “All I have is my education from life experiences, learning from others. Cesar Chavez was an example I learned from, that we shouldn’t live submissively.”
Ashoka Jegroo is a journalist born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He has bylines in The Santiago Times and the New York Times' The Local blog. He has covered protests in Santiago, Chile and New York City. When he's not causing trouble for the establishment, he's live-tweeting protests at @AshAgony.
Waging Nonviolence content falls under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2015/05/mexican-farmworkers-reach-agreement-government-2-month-strike/
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