From PCCNaturalMarkets.com, Joel Preston Smith, Jan 2012. January 2012 — Last July, when 16-year-old Nicholas Chavez collapsed in 106° F heat while picking bell peppers in Bakersfield, Calif., it was hardly national news. The story wasn’t covered by CNN, the Associated Press or Fox News. Chavez was just one more pair of hands in the … Continue reading
From VTDigger.org, 1 Dec 2011. Natalia Fajardo, VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project, 802.497.7027/802-658-6770 Brendan O’Neill, VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project, 802.825.1609/802-658-6770 VT Human Rights Commission Unanimously Finds State Police Discriminated Against Daniel Alejandro Lopez-Santiago During September Traffic Stop VT Farmworkers Welcome Decision As Another Step Forward for Community Thursday, December 1- Winooski, VT– The VT … Continue reading
From BusinessWeek.com, 29 Nov 2011. OXNARD, CA — One of the nation’s largest orchid growers is paying $200,000 to settle a sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The lawsuit says Hispanic women at Oxnard-based Cyma Orchids Inc. were groped and sexually propositioned during a pattern of harassment … Continue reading
From SacBee.com, The Sacramento Bee, 29 Nov 2011. FRESNO, Calif. – A central California almond and grape grower will pay nearly $1 million in a settlement with farmworkers for unfair labor practices. The settlement announced Tuesday requires H&R Gunlund Ranches, Inc. of Caruthers, Calif. to pay $915,000 to 82 migratory farmworkers and their attorneys. The settlement is … Continue reading
From TheDartmouth.com, Sophia Johnston, 28 Oct 2011. Monica Ramirez, director of the Immigrant Women’s Initiative at the Southern Poverty Law Center, shared stories of 150 women who were made victims of sexual exploitation while trying to earn enough money to feed their families in a Thursday afternoon lecture in the Rockefeller Center. Ramirez interviewed the … Continue reading
From CrossCut.com, Eric Scigliano, 26 Oct 2011. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sues a series of Northwest employers for letting foremen harass and assault immigrant workers. Civil rights attorneys say abused farm and janitorial workers are just starting to come forward. The rapes began the week the woman started working at Willamette Tree Wholesale in … Continue reading
From HawaiiReporter.com, Malia Zimmerman, 26 Oct 2011. U.S. District Judge David Ezra dismissed a complaint today filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on April 20, 2011, against six Hawaii farms, saying the government agency that is charged with prohibiting employment discrimination has not been specific enough in its allegations. He gave the agency’s Los … Continue reading
From OrlandoSentinel.com, “Jon Burstein, Sun-Sentinel, 25 Oct 2011. FORT LAUDERDALE— The operator of a now-defunct Margate company promised steady-paying jobs to Haitian workers, but left them in the U.S. desperately fending for themselves or living in trailers without electricity, according to federal prosecutors. Marie Nicole Dorval, the president of Manidor Financial Group Inc., was criminally charged … Continue reading
From PeoplesWorld.org, Mark Gruenberg, 21 Oct 2011. RALEIGH, N.C. – Fed up with years of terrible conditions in North Carolina fields, and a decade of neglect by that state’s pro-business labor department, a group of farmworkers there took their case to the federal government. And the U.S. Labor Department, which in August cited tobacco growers … Continue reading
From Lawrentian.com, Lawrence University, Marika Straw, Columnist, 21 Oct 2011. “Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.” Why is this a human right? If you’re asking this question, I would recommend you look into the histories of labor movements around the world. For centuries, … Continue reading
