Immigration Rights- Tonight's Meeting and Potluck

This evening Nick and I went to the screening of the film "Viva la Causa" ("Long Live the Cause"), a movie in English about Latin American grape pickers in Sacramento, CA who created a union 40 years ago-- and then we talked with Mexican immigrant dairy workers who were fired within the last year for trying to start a union here in Eastern WA.

The movie is very interesting. It talks about the minimally educated and soft-spoken Cezar Chavez, who started the United Farm Workers union as a response to the deplorable and inhumane working conditions in the Delano Valley of California. It also describes the very influencial but less famous Dolores Huerta, who worked with Chavez the whole time (how common that the woman doesn't get the credit). It talks about the concurrent Civil Rights Movement in the South being led my MLK. Chavez was influenced greatly by the nonviolent methods of Gandi and MLK.

Chavez led the farm workers to unite to strike on the grape farms, yet there was a constant stream of the other migrant workers coming in to take their place to pick grapes-- the "strike breakers" because they were desperate too. The strikes weren't that efficient, so they started going to towns to encourage everyone to boycott the table grapes from the farm they worked for. In an act of resistance to the boycott, the vineyard started paying to use the brand name of other grape growers. The picketers then escalated the boycott to all CA grapes, and to the stores that sold them. They were aided by a nationwide grassroots movement led by community organizers, who passed the word along in their own towns. Parallel to Ghandi's journey to the sea for salt, Chavez and Huelga led the strikers on a 25 day walk to San Francisco to gather support from workers at farms along the way. Amazingly, all of this went on for over two years and many frustrated strikers wanted to use violence against the threatening police and farm owners. Again, in parallel to Ghandi's strength and determination to rebel passively, Chavez fasted for 25 days until the violence ended.

OK, enough about the movie, which I really recommend. After the movie, four former workers of the Ridge Dairy in Pasco, WA (10 mi from here) joined the group and told us about the working conditions on the farm, how they were fired last year for trying to start a union, how the farm owner, Dick Bengen, and the farm manager (who is an illegal immigrant, but is paid better and treated better than the rest of the workers) ignore the worker's rights and push them to work in conditions resembling slavery. I'm writing this blog, not Nick because I was the only one there who knew enough Spanish to have a conversation with los campesinos.

I need to do a lot more research to understand the situation- for example the union is currently suing Dick Bengen- http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=10928395

THE INDIGNITIES:
1. work 9-10 hours/day but are only paid for 8-9. workers report hours on papers given to the manager (an illegal immigrant himself with more benefits than the others), but the manager underpays them and says "the wage calculating machine is broken."
2. no rest or meal breaks.
from the WA State Dep of Labor and Industries:
http://www.lni.wa.gov/WorkplaceRights/Agriculture/Breaks/default.asp

What are the rest break and meal period requirements for agricultural workers?

• One 10-minute paid rest break for each 4 hours worked.
• A meal period of at least 30 minutes if working more than 5 hours in a day.
• One additional 30-minute meal period If working 11 or more hours in a dayhttp://www.lni.wa.gov/WorkplaceRights/Agriculture/Breaks/default.asp

3. no health insurance
4. wages are $10-$11.50
5. fired for joining a union to stand up for their rights
6. once fired, put on a "black list" so that other farmers won't hire them.
7. the farm owner, Dick Bengen, keeps a gun in his truck, and has on one occasion threatened the workers with the gun.
8. Bengen uses foul language with the workers, and generally treats them demeaningly.

There will be two more meetings this month where the local attorney Tom Roach will talk about the status of immigration reform around the country. http://www.roachlaw.com/. I made sure that the four farm workers: Magarito, Rafael (and I have to get the names of the other two) know about these events and can come to be the faces of immigrant injustices.

This is a complicated matter and I don't want to support uncontrolled illegal immigration, however those workers who are here should be treated with respect and given some time to drink water and have lunch if a farmer has hired them.

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