Monday marked the beginning of Labor Rights Week in the US, lasting from August 27th-31st leading up to Labor Day. This year’s theme determined by the US Department of Labor is “Promoting Labor Rights is Everyone’s Responsibility.” This could not be more true, especially when it comes to the most vulnerables workers out there: the estimated 400,000 children who work as migrant farmworkers.
David Strauss, the Executive Director of AFOP (Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs) an organization we have worked with many times on the outreach for The Harvest/La Cosecha, wrote a wonderful blog post about America’s “Unfinished Business in the Fields.” Farmworkers make up about 2.5 million of our huge workforce performing work that is vital to our economy and to the food needs of our population. What the US needs to do is end the separate and unequal status of America’s farmworkers and bring them into parity with the rest of working Americans.
Watch this video message from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis then be sure to reach out to your legislators and make sure they know there is work to be done: