From strawberry pickers in California to mushroom workers in Florida, from North Carolina cucumber workers to tomato harvesters in the Midwest and berry workers in Oregon, farm workers are organizing to win union representation and to improve their living and working conditions. They are building coalitions with churches, community groups, and supporters throughout the country.
A union contract can mean decent wages, medical benefits, grievance procedures, and job security for farm workers. Consumers benefit also from contracts that require strict enforcement of sanitation regulations and that ban deadly pesticides, such as DDT. For many workers, a union contract means that they will be treated, for the first time, with the dignity and respect they deserve. It is their best hope for a better life.
National Farm Worker Ministry with several farm worker organizations, including the following:
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)
Coalicion de Trabajadores de Immokalee Kowalisyon Travaye nan Immokalee
Contact Information:
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
P.O. Box 603
Immokalee, FL 34143
Ph: 239-657-8311
Fax: 239-657-5055
Email: workers@ciw-online.org
Website: http://www.ciw-online.org/
The CIW is a community-based worker organization. Its members are largely Hispanic, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the Southwest Florida region. The CIW addresses the following issues: fair wages, gaining respect in the industries where they work, better and cheaper housing, stronger laws and stronger enforcement against those who would violate workers'rights, the right to organize without fear of retaliation, and an end to the abuse of undocumented workers.
Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)
Contact Information:
Farm Labor Organizing Committee
1221 Broadway Street
Toledo, OH 43609
Ph: 419-243-3456
Fax: 419-243-5655
Email: info@floc.com
Website: http://www.floc.com/
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee has successfully won multiparty contracts covering nearly 7,000 farm workers in the Midwest. In 2004, FLOC won a contract in North Carolina to effect similar benefits for more than 8,000 farm workers with guestworker visas. Farmers and agribusiness interests have acknowledged that support from the faith community was key to winning these contracts.
United Farm Workers of America (UFW)
Contact Information:
United Farm Workers of America
P.O. Box 62
Keene, CA 93531
Ph: 805-822-5571
Email: UFWofamer@aol.com
Website: http://www.ufw.org/
The United Farm Workers of America has over 25,000 workers under contract in California, Washington, Florida and Texas. With the passage in the fall of 2002 of historic legislation that strengthened the California Agricultural Relations Act, the UFW is beginning its biggest farm worker organizing drive in twenty years thoughout California.
Centro Campesino
Contact Information:
302-A 4th Avenue, NE
Austin, MN 55912
Ph: 507-446-9599
Email: migrante@rconnect.com
Centro Campesino, located in downtown Owatonna, Minnesota, is a non-profit, membership organization formed by migrant farm workers in response to problems they face in their working and living conditions. Centro Campesino works to improve the lives of agricultural workers and rural Latinas and Latinos in southern Minnesota through organizing, advocacy and service.
Centro Independiente de Trabajadores Agricolas (CITA)
Contact Information:
P.O. Box 109
Albion, NY 14411
Ph: 585-589-7460
Email: CITA@verizon.net
CITA is an independent farm worker membership organization located in upstate New York, the home of more than 40,000 migrant and seasonal farm workers and a multi-billion dollar agriculture industry.
Farmworker Association of Florida (FWAF)
La Associacion Campesina-Asosiyasyon Travaye Late
Contact Information:
Farmworker Association of Florida
815 South Park Avenue
Apopka, FL 32703
Ph: 407-886-5151
Fax: 407-884-6644
Website: http://www.floridafarmworkers.org
The Farmworker Association of Florida is a membership organization of 6,500 farm worker families. The Association addresses wages, benefits, and working conditions, as well as pesticides, field sanitation, disaster response, immigration, and other community-based issues.
Northwest Treeplanters and Farm Workers United
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN)
Contact Information
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN)
300 Young Street
Woodburn, OR 97071
Ph: 503-982-0243
Fax: 503-982-1031
Email: farmworkerunion@pcun.org
Website: http://www.pcun.org/
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste was founded in 1985 as Oregon's union of farm workers, nursery, and reforestation workers. In 1992, in response to grower retaliation against striking workers, PCUN launched a successful nationwide boycott against grower-owned NORPAC, Oregon's largest food processor. In another campaign, PCUN recently won the first farm worker contract in Oregon's history.
