Picket demonstration in front of Reynolds Headquarters (Fight Back! News/Staff)

Winston-Salem, NC – On a hot morning, May 3, over 200 people gathered in front of the R.J. Reynolds (R.J.R) Headquarters in opposition to the very severe working conditions forced on North Carolina tobacco farmworkers. In response, the police surrounded the front of the headquarters, along with every street corner near it.

R.J.R. has a long history of abusing North Carolina tobacco farmworkers through terrible working conditions, such as sub-minimum wages, pesticide and nicotine poisoning, uninhabitable housing and a lack of water and breaks, all of which result in numerous fatalities.

R.J.R. is also a corporate sponsor of the ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), which is known for its right-wing anti-immigration policies, such as Arizona’s S.B. 1070, along with advocating imprisoning undocumented workers, which private prison corporations profit off of. All of this is documented in a recent report by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), A state of fear: Human rights abuses in North Carolina’s tobacco industry.

At 9:00 a.m. a group of various organizations, including the FLOC, Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers (MSFW), the Youth and Young Adult (YAYA) Network of the National Farm Worker Ministry, Occupy Winston-Salem, along with religious leaders, gathered inside the R.J. Reynolds Headquarters to attend their shareholders meeting. Inside, as the CEOs discussed all the massive profits they’ve accumulated in the course of a year, FLOC continuously disrupted their meeting by standing up, calling for a “Point of information,” and asked serious questions which R.J.R. refused to tackle, in order to pressure them into actually meeting with FLOC to discuss and come to an actual agreement with tobacco farmworkers.

When asked on how well the action at the shareholders meeting went, Justin Flores, who is an organizer and Director of Programs for the FLOC, stated “Reynolds finally agreed to meet directly with FLOC, so we saw yet another step in the right direction. This is a direct result from all the campaigning that our supporters have helped us with around the country to shed light on the labor rights abuses happening in North Carolina. However, as the president [Baldemar Velasquez] has said, we don’t talk just to talk, so this campaign will continue until Reynolds comes to an agreement with FLOC on how to end labor rights abuses in their supply chain.”

Dida El-Sourady, a farmworker health outreach coordinator for the MSFW, commented similarly, stating “The shareholders meeting went really well. We got to ask a lot of good questions, which made them really uncomfortable. We had a very good presence there, with a lot of organizers talking about justice for farmworkers.”

As soon as the meeting was over, the various groups that attended made their way outside the R.J.R. headquarters and joined with the rest of over 200 people, ranging from farmworkers, Occupy, the religious community and even dedicated activists from both Ohio and Florida, and held a picket demonstration to continue the pressure on Reynolds. Chants like, “Reynolds Tobacco, you get rich. We get sick!” and “Qué queremos? Justicia! Cuándo lo queremos? Ahora! (What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!),” could be heard all along the street surrounding the front of R.J.R. headquarters.

By 11:00 a.m. everyone left the picket and marched to the Civic Plaza, where several different speakers of the FLOC spoke to the crowd, denouncing Reynolds’ abuse to tobacco farmworkers and undocumented immigrants. One speaker, James Andrews, who is President of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, commented, “I have a simple message to all of you today: don’t give up, don’t blink, don’t bat an eye, look at them eye-to-eye, not as trembling slaves, but as equals.” Another speaker, Baldemar Velasquez who is the founder and president of the FLOC, spoke passionately, “There has to be a way in which people can make all the money they want to make, but they cannot do it at the expense of people dying in the fields!”

As soon as all the speakers finished, everyone gathered again onto the streets and marched throughout Winston-Salem, chanting, “When I say people, you say power. People – Power! People – Power! When I say worker, you say power. Worker – Power! Worker – Power! When I say immigrant, you say power. Immigrant – Power! Immigrant – Power!” The march ended at Lloyd Presbyterian Church, where food and refreshments awaited and people got to rest and converse among comrades.

There was a microphone for anyone who wished to say a few words regarding the demonstration or any other topic that was dear to their hearts. A member of Occupy Winston-Salem spoke on the FBI raids of the 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists’ homes in September of 2010, along with the May 2011 raid of Chicano leader Carlos Montes’ home, mentioning the upcoming trial on May 15 in Los Angeles, California.

When asked his thoughts of the Reynolds-Farmworker situation as a whole and the demonstration held in response, Tony Ndege of Occupy Winston-Salem said “The heavily indoctrinated belief that labor is somehow bestowed upon us by our corporate overlords – that we should not only be grateful for having employment, but to fear and venerate those who exploit us at all costs – is what drives the enslavement of the overwhelming majority of humanity. The richest 1% of America now owns three times the wealth of the poorest 80% and that is an undeniably unsustainable fact. In a country with such unbelievable wealth, the fact that any human being is forced to work and live under such abusive and deplorable conditions, to save pennies on the dollar, is an abomination.”

Ndege continued, “In addition to benefiting from abusive farm labor, Reynolds American has begun another wave of firing full-time employees and hiring temps for a fraction of the labor costs. This shows that Reynolds American has no true allegiance to any of its workers. The brown-white labor divide created a false sense of security which has been smashed by the economic downturn. This is why it was so great to see so many groups – labor, church, occupy and El Cambio – present today. When it comes down to it, whether we are documented or not, we are all treated as cogs in the giant corporate wheel. And the only way we can stop this wheel from crushing us is to collectively throw a wrench in it.”

Source and photo gallery: FightBackNews.org, “Winston-Salem picket and march in support of NC tobacco farmworkers” by B.J. Murphy, 6 May 2012.

HASTINGS, Fla. — A First Coast potato grower is in hot water, accused of labor trafficking.

Florida Legal Services and Farmworker Justice filed a federal lawsuit against Bulls-Hit Ranch and Farm on behalf of two farm workers who said they worked at the Hastings ranch from 2009-2010.

The suit alleges that the farm’s labor contractor recruited drug-dependent men from Jacksonville area homeless shelters and put them in decrepit housing at a crowded labor camp.

It claims the farm took money from the men’s wages to cover their rent, food and drugs.  The suits says this left the farm hands destitute and says the men feared for their safety if they tried to leave.

Source: FirstCoastNews.com, “Suit Claims Hastings Ranch Exploited Drug-Addicted Workers” by Jessika Lewis, 27 April 2012.

BENZIE COUNTY [MI] — A farmers plans to improve housing for his migrant workers in Benzie County has sparked a lawsuit and charges of racism. Loy Putney, a fruit grower in Benzie County wants to reuse a vacant motel in Village of Elberta and transform it into new living space for his workers. But Village council members are denying his requests.

Putney and his family have been growing fruit in Benzie County for more than 150 years and like most farmers, they depend on migrant workers year-round, to get all the work done.

These workers need somewhere to stay but Putney says his current housing units are falling apart. So three weeks ago, he bought the old Bay View Motel, a vacant building, which has sat empty in the village of Elberta for 4 years.

His plan was to convert the units into housing for his workers. But before any work could be done, Putney says village officials told him he needed a special use permit — but when he filed for the permit, he was denied.

Village of Elberta council members refused to talk to 7&4 News about this story, but Putney says they told him that the special use permit was denied because it defines transient housing as being open to the public, not migrant workers.

In a recent meeting, Putney says one village official took things too far and made a comment that shocked him.

Putney says, “He said we’re not going to allow rhubarb in this town, whatever that is and we’re not going to allow a trash house in this town. I just could hardly believe it. I feel it is very racist, it’s hard to believe the situation that has developed here, but it is what it is, were just trying to work through it…”

After this comment, Putney hired an attorney to represent him and filed a lawsuit against the Village.

Putney also requested an investigation by the Michigan Civil Rights Department against the Village of Elberta – which is currently underway.

Source and video report: UpNorthLive.com, “Farmers migrant housing plan leads to lawsuit” by Kate Fox, 9 Apr 2012.

RIVERSIDE — A commercial farming operation and four of its contractors face accusations of cheating Coachella Valley-area migrant workers of pay and failing to provide them with basic living amenities.

Calandri SonRise Farms, headquartered in Lancaster, is being sued in federal court for alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the California Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act.

Former field hands Adalberto Gomez and Ignacio Villalobos are named as plaintiffs in the civil action filed last week in U.S. District Court in Riverside. They’re being represented by Coachella-based California Rural Legal Assistance and the Oxnard-based law firm Nava & Gomez.

The suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages and a change in Calandri’s operations, claims the onion grower and its contractors — Maria Castillo, Teresa Castillo, Juan Munoz and Mary Ocampo — repeatedly committed labor abuses, including underpaying workers and allowing them to live in unhealthy conditions.

Calandri Director of Operations Brandon Calandri told City News Service the family-owned concern had only received word about the lawsuit on Monday and was “still trying to figure out what the heck is going on.”

The company’s attorney released a statement saying “SonRise has always maintained a safe working environment at its farms and has complied with state and federal wage and hour laws.”

The suit claims Calandri — which operates throughout Southern California — and its contractors manipulated records and pay stubs to short field hands on their compensation. Workers were also allegedly denied reimbursements for tools used in planting and harvesting.

“Workers were made to live in squalid, makeshift camps on the edges of the onion fields, (and) workers … resorted to bathing in irrigation reservoirs and other unsafe places because their employer-provided housing lacked running water or adequate toilet facilities,” according to a statement released by California Rural Legal Assistance.

The firm is seeking to have the suit certified as a class action.

Megan Beaman, with California Rural Legal Assistance, said Gomez and Villalobos represent “thousands” of unnamed farmworkers “who face the same abuses on the job every day.”

“Growers who play by the rules shouldn’t have to compete with employers … who try to help their bottom line by breaking the law,” Beaman said.

Source: MyDesert.com, “Farming operation accused of cheating workers” by Desert Sun Wire Services, 2 Apr 2012.

Steve Shrabel, an employee with Dalke Construction of Salem, uses a trackhoe to clear a five-acre property in Forest Grove. When it opens in December, Juniper Gardens will feature 24 living units dedicated to area farmworkers. The $5 million project is being operated by Hillsboro-based Bienestar.

FOREST GROVE — A continued downturn in the region’s housing market is producing an unexpected upside in the form of 24 new apartments dedicated for farmworkers.

Officials at Bienestar, a nonprofit organization based in Hillsboro, held a groundbreaking ceremony today for Juniper Gardens, a $5 million project that, when finished in December, will address at least a portion of western Washington County’s unmet demand for farmworker housing.

Helping drive the project was a combined loan and grant of $3 million from the rural development arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The award, received through a national competition, was the only one in Oregon and one of only 10 in the United States, said Karen Shawcross, Bienestar’s executive director.

Yet as important as the grant is to the project’s success, she said, no less a factor was the availability of the property upon which it is being built.

The land had been the focus of several development projects, all of which ended in foreclosure once the housing downturn hit in 2006. Bienestar, using a $750,000 grant from the Washington County Office of Community Development, ultimately bought the property from the bank that held title to it at the time.

Before the recession, an acre of land in Washington County was selling for about $400,000 to $500,000, Shawcross said. Bienestar, taking advantage of the downturn, ended up paying $110,000 an acre for the site.

“Those reduced land prices were a huge benefit to us,” she said. “We wouldn’t have been able to afford it otherwise.”

Juniper Gardens is just the first phase of the project. Construction of additional 22 units on land immediately west of the first phase is expected to get under way in January.

The units themselves all will have two, three, or four bedrooms, meaning families will reside there. The lack of studio apartments means no single adults will live in the complex, Shawcross said.

To qualify for residency, at least one adult family member must earn $4,800 annually in farm-related income. Qualifying income has been expanded in the past few years to allow those working in food services to live there, as well.

Rents for two-bedroom units range from $725 to $750 per month. However, rental assistance money provided through the USDA grant guarantees that no family will have to pay more than 30 percent of its monthly income in rent.

Juniper Gardens will provide far more than just shelter to its occupants.

Adult offerings include English as a Second Language tutoring, computer and financial literacy classes, community gardens, a job club, free income tax preparation and nutrition classes.

Children in the complex can participate in homework and science clubs, summer reading programs, soccer and basketball teams, and a nature camp sponsored with help from the Audubon Society.

Neighbors living around the property appear to have mixed views on the project. Some complained about not receiving notices prior to construction getting under way. Others, living closer to the five-acre site, said they did get regular notices but say they worry about traffic and noise likely to be generated on and around the site.

Three neighbors interviewed would not give their names for publication, saying they didn’t want to get off to a bad start with Juniper Gardens’ future occupants.

Juniper Gardens, while a welcome addition to the county’s farmworker-dedicated housing inventory, will put only a dent in the total demand for such dwellings, Shawcross said. A market study conducted prior to groundbreaking indicated that at least 720 such units are needed immediately in Washington County, she said.

Still, any new construction at all will be welcome, given the alternative.

“There are still migrant labor camps in Washington County that have just horrible conditions,” she said. “They are deplorable.”

Shawcross and other agency officials try to make regular tours of those camps, but they face dangers themselves when doing so, she said.

“Camps with families packed into little sheds,” Shawcross said. “No heat. No water. Communal bathrooms. It’s like living in a Third World country.”

Bienestar, which turns 30 this year, operates seven projects in Aloha, Cornelius, Forest Grove, Hillsboro and Scappoose. Future projects, in addition to more farmworker housing, are expected to focus on low-income seniors.

“They represent another segment of the population that has been hurt by the recession and need some new options,” Shawcross said. “We’re hoping to help meet their needs, as well.”

Source: OregonLive.com, “Bienestar will build new housing for farmworkers in Forest Grove” by Dana Tims, The Oregonian , 27 Feb 2012.

When Margaret Leon Espinoza’s family first moved to Surprise in the 1950s, the community was an agricultural blip on the map compared with other Phoenix suburbs that were beginning to bustle.

The primary occupation was cotton farming. There were no traffic lights until you hit Glendale. Virtually no one had air-conditioning (residents hung wet sheets around their porches to stay cool, hoping a breeze would blow the moisture).

Her father, Fidel Leon, was one of the many migrant farmers who found opportunity in Surprise and the far West Valley. A Mexican immigrant, he began working cotton fields in the area around the 1930s. He later saved enough to buy machinery and start his own farming operation.

Leon’s entrepreneurial spirit persisted. In 1974, he opened one of the first recreational-vehicle courts in the area, Leon’s Park West RV Park, to cater to crowds of retirees flocking to nearby Sun City. The business flourished and the family ran it until they sold in 2005.

For Espinoza, vice president of the Surprise Historical Society, her father’s story is just one of many that tell the role migrant farmers played in building the West Valley. They came to harvest crops and ended up laying down roots of their own.

“If he had a third-grade education, he was lucky,” Espinoza said of her father. “He was a self-educated, persistent man. He helped establish the city.”

Several of the region’s cities, now booming with large populations and major sports venues, began with small groups of farmers who came to harvest cotton, citrus and vegetable crops. They often settled along waterways, such as the Agua Fria River, and were an early backbone of Surprise, El Mirage, Avondale and other communities.

Avondale Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers is the daughter of migrant workers and has spoken widely about how she grew up picking cotton and onions in the fields where City Hall sits. In July, President Barack Obama recounted her story as an example of the “promise of America.”

However, some have been critical of how predominately Latino neighborhoods founded by original migrant workers have fared as larger, more affluent subdivisions have sprung up around them. In both Surprise and El Mirage’s original town sites, there are dilapidated buildings, many residents are low-income and some lament that they have been left behind.

Surprise Councilman Roy Villanueva, who began representing the city’s old town area in 1978, has stressed the need for more revitalization efforts. He has advocated for the council to once again dedicate a portion of its property-tax revenue to old-town improvements.

Before the economic downturn, about 10 percent of property tax revenue was reinvested into the neighborhood through capital improvement projects, he said. New streetlights and street signage have been added in recent years, with help in the form of federal grants.

Source: AZCentral.com, “Migrant workers came, stayed to help area grow” by Dustin Gardiner, The Republic, 15 Feb 2012.

After day of field work, men rest in crowded barracks on industrial farm near Woodburn, Oregon. Bunk beds are supplied with thin pieces of carpet. © 1988 John Bauguess

View the photo gallery.

Farmworkers who travel hundreds of miles to Oregon to find work in the Willamette Valley often endure the hardships of labor camps.

During summer 1988, I joined members of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN, or Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworker’s United) on visits to camps in the Salem, Mount Angel, Silverton and Woodburn areas. With assistance from union organizers Ramon Ramirez (currently president of the union) and Leoni Bicchierri, we talked with workers and photographed them living in abandoned automobiles and crowded shacks, motels, and trash-filled camps, their sweltering barracks cramped with bunks cushioned with thin rug pads to support backs in need of rest. In old abandoned cars, long overdue for the scrap yard, workers stretched out in the tattered, moldy seats for which they paid rent to the camp “motel” owner.

Nearby in the same camp lot was a house where a man and woman or perhaps even their children could throw down sleeping bags in one of the crowded rooms. At another barracks near Mt. Angel stood men whose beds were a few yards from open garbage pits dug next to drinking water and outdoor cooking grills.

Sadly, despite improvements in worker housing more than two decades later, the same kind of photographs can still be made.

John Bauguess

Source: LibWeb.UOregon.edu, “Migrant Oregon” by John Bauguess, 11 Jan 2012.

Delta, Colo.—Several years ago, southwestern Colorado growers decided to act on the pressing need to give farm workers affordable housing close to where they grow and harvest grapes, peaches, apples and corn. That spurred the development of a new farm worker housing community called Alta Vista de la Montana in Delta, Colo., which officially celebrated its opening on January 12th.

Denver-based Community Resources and Housing Development Corporation (CRHDC), a statewide non-profit housing development corporation that became an integral participant in the initiative, developed the 40-unit community.

“We had been working up there for four years with local growers and community groups,” CRHDC executive director Al Gold tells MHN. “The growers expressed concern about the lack of affordable housing for farm workers, and felt that to attract the quality workers they needed quality and affordable rental housing.

“The whole process took place over four years, and the growers helped fund a market study. They selected Delta because it was centrally located among the corn growers, grape growers and wineries in that area.”

According to Gold, Delta is situated about 350 miles west-southwest of Denver, near Grand Junction, Colo.

Traditionally, growers tended to provide some of the housing for farm workers, Gold reports. That still is the case, but on a much more limited basis. “Non-profit organizations have taken on that responsibility, because growers are not in the business of developing, maintaining and owning housing,” he says.

Among the amenities offered by Alta Vista de la Montana are central air conditioning, in-unit energy-efficient appliances and a community building. The apartments were designed and built using Energy Star-certified materials and appliances. Energy-efficient roofing, windows and doors, as well as high-grade insulation, have been incorporated throughout Alta Vista de la Montana.

The $7.9 million project was financed with a mix of public and private financing. But getting the tax-credit investor lined up proved a major challenge, Gold says.

“We had an investor who worked with us for six [or] seven months, and 30 days before closing pulled out,” he recalls. “We had to start from scratch in finding another investor. One of our consultants was able to contact an investor he knew, who was interested in the tax credits, came aboard and provided the financing we needed.”

Among those entities providing funding for the community were USDA Rural Development, RCAC, NeighborWorks America and CHFA.

Another hurdle was identifying land in the proper location and possessing proper zoning, Gold says. Only such a parcel would allow those involved to avoid having to go through a public meeting. “We were able to identify a piece of property with the proper zoning, but it took a while to find,” he notes.

Applications are being encouraged from those who would like to live at Alta Vista de la Montana. To qualify, applicants must earn 50 to 65 percent of their annual incomes from agricultural work, and must be legal residents of the U.S. Rents are determined on the basis of applicants’ yearly incomes, and will not exceed 30 percent of annual earnings, according to CRHDC.

“This is a quality-built development that will help stabilize the work force in Delta, and surrounding communities,” Gold says.

“These are all three- and four-bedroom units, and they’re designed so that if for some reason the crops happened to dissipate, [the development] could accommodate the general public as rental housing.”

Source: MultiHousingNews.com, “Fruit of Their Labors: New Farm Worker Housing” by Jeffrey Steele, Contributing Writer, 18 Jan 2012.

The Colorado cantaloupe grower-shipper linked to the deadly 2011 listeria outbreak has been fined for housing migrant workers in substandard conditions.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division fined Granada, Colo.-based Jensen Farms $4,250 for failing to meet safety and health requirements under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, according to an agency news release.

Investigators from the agency’s Denver office found overcrowded rooms without beds, windows that didn’t open, inadequate laundry facilities, unsanitary conditions and a lack of smoke detectors, all in violation of the act.

In 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that unsanitary conditions at Jensen Farms’ packing facility were likely contributors to the listeria outbreak, which killed 30 and sickened 146 people in 28 states.

Jensen Farms co-owner Eric Jensen could not be reached for comment Jan. 20.

Source: ThePacker.com, “Jensen Farms fined for substandard housing” by Andy Nelson, 20 Jan 2012.

Napa County’s housing director is asking the Board of Supervisors to spend about $110,000 to study the housing needs of farmworkers in the Napa Valley.

The board is slated to vote on the proposal at its meeting Tuesday, and the money would come from the county’s affordable housing fund.

The study would look at:

• How many farm workers are employed in Napa County;
• Whether they’re in the valley full-time or seasonally;
• Where they live in the county, or if they and their families live outside of the county and commute;
• How much they’re willing to spend on rent or mortgages; and
• How immigration policies are affecting the labor market for farm workers.

Larry Florin, director of the county’s Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs Department, said the study will be used by vineyard owners who tax themselves $10 per planted acre to support affordable housing for their farm workers.

The last study, completed in April 2007, is outdated due to the drastic economic changes that have occurred since then. The county would use the study to guide how it loans money from the affordable housing fund.

It could guide the next five to 10 years of decision-making on how to supply housing to farmworkers, Florin said.

That $10-per-acre tax is up for a renewal vote in June, and Florin said the owners will need the study to determine whether to renew it and if they need to pursue a higher taxing rate to supply more affordable housing.

State law sets the $10-per-acre rate, so they would need to lobby lawmakers in Sacramento to raise it, Florin said.

Florin said he hopes to have preliminary results from the study by June, with final results by fall. The county would contract with Bay Area Economics and California Human Development Corporation to conduct the study.

Source: NapaValleyRegister.com, “County will fund study of farmworker housing” by Peter Jensen, 9 Jan 2012.