National Farm Worker Ministry an interfaith organization supporting farm workers as they organize for justice member organizations include nearly 40 national, state and local religious bodies
They shall not plant and another eat; - Isaiah 65:21
When we pray and act with them, we are changed also.
- Gen Cassani, SSND
NFWM Board
Oregon Farm Worker News
Oregon Farm Worker Ministry serves farm workers and their supporters in the Northwest, including Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) and the United Farm Workers (UFW). You can get involved with our work.
Contact us at the phone or email above to find out how!
Oregon Farm Worker Ministry
Calls on Whole Foods to Support Workers at Beef Northwest
Photo: Andrea Cano
After a prayer vigil and leafleting, NFWM supporters in Portland, OR (Ed Brandt, Bill Hayden, Sister Kathleen Walsh, Andrea Cano, Father Armando Lopez) delivering letters signed by customers to show their support for workers at Beef Northwest feedlot who fatten the cattle that become Country Natural Beef sold at Whole Foods. more
The letters urge Whole Foods to use their influence with Beef Northwest to stop workplace intimidation, offer recognition of the UFW as the workers’ representative and to begin immediate and civil contract negotiations.
Actions, including prayer vigils, passing out flyers, and/or the delivery of letters to the store manager occurred in Bend, OR; Orange County, Long Beach, and Palo Alto, CA; Denver, CO and Orlando, FL.
Visit to Whole Foods in Austin Leaves
Beef Northwest Farmworkers Optimistic
Farm workers from Beef Northwest, in Oregon, traveled to Austin, TX, to meet with executives at Whole Foods on Monday, April 14, 2008. They also as hosted a Sunday evening rally at Austin Congregational Church and a breakfast meeting with Austin community and labor leaders who promised to be vigilant about the Whole Foods response and the farm workers’ case. Beef Northwest is the last stop for the animals that provide the meat for Country Natural Beef which is marketed and sold in Whole Foods Markets.
At the meeting in one of the Whole Foods conference rooms, Santos Rodriquez and Fortunato Diaz, accompanied by United Farm Worker union staff and key community, religious, and justice leadership from the Austin Area, spoke on behalf of the nearly 100 workers from Nyssa and Boardman Oregon, and Quincy, Washington. The majority of the workers have signed cards seeking company neutrality in check card elections for union representation and binding arbitration for a contract when representation is won.
The workers brought with them 13,000 signatures from on-line and hard copy petitions asking that just as Whole Foods takes great care with the quality of the food it sells, Whole Foods will show the same care for the quality of life and dignity of the workers who produce that food.
Theodore R. Kulongoski, Governor of the State of Oregon, proclaims March 30 -April 5, 2008 FARM WORKERS AWARENESS WEEK in Oregon and encourage all Oregonians to join in this observance. Read proclamation
Organizations From Across Oregon Call on Congress for Swift Passage of AgJOBS - Press Release [pdf], Fri, 31 Aug 2007
ICE raid & worker round-up in Portland - June 12, 2007
After learning that over 100 ICE agents were converging in Portland early last week to conduct a raid and worker round-up, OFWM joined with a coalition of immigrant rights advocates, labor unions, church leaders, students, community activists, social service providers, and attorneys, among many others, within 24 hours to operate a round the clock network monitoring and documenting ICE activities and providing rapid response to the raids, rumor control, and follow-up to meet the needs of family and children affected by the raids. In response to the raid, the Jobs with Justice Faith & Labor Committee issued a Call to People of Faith.
The target for the raid was Fresh Del Monte which was featured in a Willamette Week cover story several weeks ago. On June 12, 167 workers were detained and three staff of American Staffing Resources, the North Carolina based contracting agency, were charged with falsifying documents. The workers sorted, cleaned, chopped and packaged fruits and vegetables for supermarkets and grocery stores, restaurants, and fast food outlets.
Leading voices condemning the raids included Mayor Tom Potter who refused authorizing Portland police to assist ICE, State Senator Avel Gordly, and Archbishop Vlazny of the Archdiocese of Portland, in addition to Tom Chamberlain, AFL-CIO, and numerous other organizations including the Portland Sanctuary Movement, and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.
The event and its consequences have been filling the pages and news programming of the English and Spanish press and media, editorials, commentaries, letters to the editors, blogs, and e-mail list serves. Series of articles in The Oregonian.
All of this activity comes in the wake of the Senate debate on immigration law reform that ended without a vote a few weeks ago, but is being revived anew.
UFW ELECTION VICTORY AT THREEMILE CANYON FARMS!! - November, 2006 Congratulations to the workers at Threemile Canyon Farms on their victory after 4 years of struggle! We are proud to be your partner. Thank you to all NFWM supporters who participated in this campaign! [Read full statement.
New Temporary Worker Proposals Unlikely to Meet U.S. Labor Needs - June, 2007 A policy brief from the American Immigration Law Foundation finds that an alternative program that allows workers to apply for permanent status would better address industry's need for a larger and more settled less-skilled workforce and would more likely discourage undocumented immigration in the future.
Emergency rule to protect workers in Washington state from heat stress will go into effect June 5- Capital Press, May 29, 2007 The emergency rule was prompted by the death of a farmworker in Yakima on July 18, 2005. The rule stresses worker training so workers can recognize the signs of heat stress,and it provides good clarity for employers. Steve Witte of Pacific Northwest United Farm Workers described the rule is an important step toward protecting workers. "This is definitely an issue we need to take a hard look at," he said. "Most of the rule sounds like pretty good common sense. As an industry, we're all concerned about these issues. It affects all of us - employers and workers alike." Full article
Oregon's largest dairy expected to begin negotiations - The Associated Press, December 2, 2006 Oregon's largest dairy is expected to begin negotiations with a union representing its workers, Gov. Ted Kulongoski's office announced Friday. If an agreement is reached, it would create the first large-scale union work force on an Oregon farm. The United Farm Workers union has been organizing workers at Threemile Canyon Farms near Boardman since 2003, but until now the dairy has refused to negotiate. Governor of Oregon calls agreement "a framework for collective bargaining in Oregon’s agricultural sector, providing stability for growers and fairness for farm workers.”
Oregon Farm Bureau president harshly criticizes union deal - Capital Press, December 5, 2006 In his main speech to the annual state Farm Bureau meeting held Dec. 5 in Bend, Ore., Bushue bluntly expressed his disappointment about the recent memorandum of agreement made between Three Mile Canyon Farms and United Farm Workers. Full article
Farmworkers and growers are uniting against a common foe: price pressure - Seattle Weekly, July 5, 2006 in the apple industry, after retailers, packers, and transporters get their cut from each dollar spent by consumers, the amount left for the farm was 11 cents. Nicholson, Pacific Northwest director of United Farm Workers of America, says his ultimate goal is to figure out a way to get more money back to the farm so that both workers and farmers can benefit. recognizing that common goal has led to farmworkers and their employers in the apple industry to communicate in ways that would have been unthinkable a decade or two ago Read the full article.
