This year, Farmworker Awareness Week will take place from March 28 through April 3. Farmworker Awareness Week (FAW) is a nation-wide week of action for students, community members, and congregations to raise awareness about farm worker issues during the week of Cesar Chavez' birthday. The week honors his legacy as a leader of the farm worker movement.

NFWM and NFWM-YAYA are co-sponsors of the week. We are planning activities and actions around the country. We encourage you to plan an activity too. Let us know what you are doing for FAW 2010 by emailing or calling the national office.

CLICK HERE for Ideas for Action. CLICK HERE to go to the Farmworker Awareness Week website.

The 2010 meeting of Reynolds Tobacco Shareholders will be May 7th in Winston-Salem, NC. As we have for the past two years, NFWM and FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee)and other allies will have a significant presence demanding that Reynolds meet with FLOC to improve conditions for tobacco farm workers. We will be both inside the shareholder's meeting and outside on the streets. Check back here later for more information.
 

On January 30th and 31st, the NFWM Board and Staff held it’s winter meeting at the United Methodist Church Life Enrichment Center near Leesburg, Fl. One of the highlights of the weekend was to have thirteen YAYAs (NFWM’s Youth & Young Adult Network) join us on Saturday.

On Tuesday, December 15, 2009, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D.-Ill.) introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill – Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP). CIR ASAP includes the AgJOBS farmworker immigration legislation, which would provide undocumented farmworkers an opportunity to earn legal status through continued work in agriculture. CIR ASAP has 91 cosponsors and is supported by the Congressional Hispanic , Black , Progressive , and Asian Pacific American Caucuses.

Take action now! Please call the White House and support Congressman Gutierrez' bill.

For the National Immigration Forum’s summary of the bill, click HERE

A little bit of effort can sometimes go a long way. This is one of those cases.

Workers are organizing for justice in their work place at Giumarra Vineyards. Giumarra is one of the largest table grape growers in the US. Employing nearly 3,000 farm workers in California, it markets its grapes and numerous other fruits and vegetables from around the world under the name Nature’s Partner. But it is no partner to the workers; Giumarra has one of the most egregious histories of abusing farm workers in the state. Two out of 15 farm workers who have died heat-related illnesses died while picking grapes for Giumarra. And a recent lawsuit against Giumarra filed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) alleges that the company permitted a 17-year-old girl to be sexually harassed and then retaliated against her and 3 other workers for coming to her defense by firing them. For more background information on this campaign, click HERE.

You can help support the workers at Giumarra by simply sending a letter. The UFW is talking to grocery chains about Giumarra’s treatment of its workers. One of the chains that has chosen not to respond to the UFW and unwilling to listen to the stories of workers from Giumarra is Cincinnati-based Kroger. In southern California, Kroger owns Ralphs and Food-4-Less and in 31 states owns several other grocery store chains. (see list of all Kroger owned chains and their locations here.) We are calling on individuals and congregations to send letters to the CEO of the Kroger Co. at their headquarters in Cincinnati, OH. As the second largest retail grocery store chain in the country, the need to take a leadership role and work with the UFW to protect farm workers at Giumarra Vineyards.

Click HERE to download the letter template and ask Kroger's CEO, Dave B. Dillon to take leadership and work with the UFW to protect the workers at Giumarra Vineyards!

Thank you for supporting farm workers! And PLEASE send us a copy of the letters you send either by fax to (323) 263-2807 or a hard copy in the mail to:
National Farm Worker Ministry
4545 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90022

Any questions, please contact Lucy Boutte (951-634-8817) or Christy Lafferty
(323-893-9605).

UFW Organizing team and a current worker leader at Giumarra Vineyards

Christy Lafferty, NFWM California staff member, spent 6 weeks in the area of Bakersfield and Delano, CA in the San Joaquin Valley during September and October this year. She worked alongside the UFW organizing team and worker leaders there as they worked on the current campaign at Giumarra Vineyards. After this unique opportunity to directly experience the successes and challenges in organizing farm workers, she wrote this reflection that you can download and read by clicking HERE. Here is an excerpt from Christy's reflection:

"When you shake a farm worker’s hand, you will feel the results of years of hard physical labor. But you will see in his or her eyes a humility and a gentle strength and ability to still hope for the day when they will receive the respect and just compensation for the work they do to feed their families. And that hope remains most when they join together and grows even stronger when they know that they have allies in the people who buy the fruits and vegetables they pick."

By John Munson, Director Oregon Farm Worker Ministry

Two workers active in an effort to form a union were fired over the weekend (August 15 - 16) by Ruby Ridge Dairy owners Dick and Ruby Bengen in Pasco, Washington. Four workers who had circulated pro-union pledge cards were fired in the last few weeks.

Workers report a climate of fear at the dairy, which employs some forty people. They also report that they received less than the wages to which they were entitled, that they were required to work long hours without rest or lunch breaks, were not allowed sick leave with or without pay, and that they were required to use machinery without proper instruction or protection. Bengen, who is vocal in his opposition to the union and who has stated that a union would "take the fun away from diary farming" alleges that the workers were fired for cause.

Several former workers from the dairy have filed a complaint against Ruby Ridge in the Superior Court of Franklin County, Washington.

On Friday August 7th, the Board and Staff of the National Farm Worker Ministry were joined by NFWM supporters and clergy from North Carolina for a day of activities in support of farm workers who toil in tobacco fields, inclulding a moving service held at a tobacco field honoring the sacrifices of farm workers.

On Tuesday, July 28th, about 200 farm worker supporters, including members of clergy from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim faith traditions gathered at the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market to raise awareness about the 15 heat-related deaths in the fields of California since 2004. The vigil was held on the 5-year anniversary of the death of Asuncion Valdivia, the first of the fifteen to pass away who died while he was picking grapes for Guimarra Vineyards. Virginia Nesmith, NFWM director, welcomed the crowd to the vigil, sponsored by NFWM and the UFW. Arturo Rodriguez, UFW spoke as well as farm workers, clergy and several politicians.

Two days later, the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) affiliates of Southern California and San Diego and Imperial Counties, and the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, filed a landmark lawsuit against the state and its Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Cal/OSHA) for failing to live up to their constitutional and statutory duties to protect the safety of farm workers. Click here for more information.