|
Farmworker Justice has been using international labor
standards and international law forums, and collaborating with
international labor advocacy organizations, to empower
America’s
farmworkers to improve their living and working conditions. Such
international efforts are logical and necessary.
Agricultural workers in the
United States have
been a transnational labor force for centuries. Presently,
America’s farmworkers are predominantly an international labor
force. Most migrant and seasonal farmworkers are immigrants, the
majority from Mexico (increasingly indigenous people who do not
speak Spanish), but also Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, and Peru.
American agriculture is more and more a global business. The U.S.
Government uses taxpayer monies to help
America’s
farmers sell their products abroad. Growers’ demands for foreign
markets have significantly affected negotiations over the North
American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization and
other trade regimes.
Increasingly, international trade negotiations confront labor
issues. The North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC),
also known as the “NAFTA labor side agreement” is an example of an
(admittedly weak) international labor rights regime. With
globalization and the migration across borders of tens of millions
of people around the world, countries are increasingly looking to
international labor standards, including those of the International
Labor Organization (a unit of the United Nations).
Moreover, the substantial increase in policymakers’ interest
in “human trafficking” relates directly to the immigrant farmworker
experience. Between one-third and one-half of farmworkers in the
U.S. are
hired by growers through “farm labor contractors” or other labor
intermediaries. Many growers deny that they “employ” any of the
workers in their fields and disclaim liability for violations of
labor rights, immigration laws and criminal laws against slavery and
peonage. FJ has been a leader in domestic efforts to reduce abuses
under labor contracting by forcing growers to accept responsibility
as “joint employers” of the workers along with the contractors. We
also have been engaged in such work at the international level.
Farmworker Justice helps to provide farmworkers with a
greater voice in the development of international labor law and
human rights standards. We also help farmworker organizations and
other advocates engage in effective advocacy using existing
international standards to promote improvements in
U.S. farmworkers’
conditions and legal status.
Here we list some of
our major international labor rights efforts.
Symposia on Guestworker Programs
Farmworker Justice
recently sponsored two symposia on the history of foreign contract
labor systems. The first, held in October 2005, focused on
guestworker programs in the
United States.
The second, held jointly with Oxfam
America in March 2006, examined guestworker programs in
Western Europe and
Canada.
Several
Congressional proposals on immigration policy would create new
guestworker programs or expand existing ones to address the presence
of undocumented workers in this country and to regulate future
migration. In some proposals, legislators would grant a guestworker
status based on a temporary, nonimmigrant work visa, while others
advocate a permanent immigration status and path to citizenship.
These policy choices raise fundamental questions about the political
and economic freedoms held by people who live and work in the United
States. The experts gathered at these symposia provided attendees
with essential information about guestworker programs in the United
States and other developed countries to help conference attendees
evaluate legislative proposals and devise their own policy
suggestions.
The brief survey of
foreign contract labor systems revealed valuable lessons that should
inform current discussions about new guestworker programs. The
conferences demonstrated the vulnerability of the foreign workers
who hold restricted nonimmigrant status. Even when government
agencies have sought to impose substantial labor law requirements on
employers of guestworkers, the protections have often been
meaningless because the workers are unable to enforce the law or are
unwilling to attempt to enforce the law for fear of losing their job
or not being called back in a future year. Co-sponsors of the
events were the AFL-CIO, National Council of La Raza, Service
Employees International Union, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The symposia were also supported financially by The California
Endowment, the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and the Rosenberg
Foundation.
Hyperlinks to
North American Commission for Labor Cooperation
The Commission for
Labor Cooperation is an international organization created under the
North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), which is the
“labor side agreement” to the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA). The Commission comprises a Council of Ministers, a
cabinet-level body in charge of policy-setting and decision-making
consisting of the three nations’ labor ministers; and a tri-national
Secretariat that conducts research and provides other support to the
Council. The Commission works in close cooperation with the National
Administrative Offices (NAOs), created by each government within
their own labor ministry to implement the NAALC.
In February 2003, Farmworker Justice filed a petition with the
Mexican NAO asking the Commission to address the mistreatment of
H-2A guestworkers from
Mexico
employed in North Carolina agriculture. The NAALC obligates each of
the three NAFTA countries to comply with its own labor laws. The
farmworkers’ rights under this program were routinely violated in
North Carolina.
The NAALC also obligates each nation to provide “migrant workers”
with the same labor law rights as other workers in the country. Yet
the federal Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act
excludes the migrating H-2A guestworkers from coverage of this
important employment law. FJ submitted the petition jointly with
the
Central Independiente de Obreros Agrícolas y Campesinos
(CIOAC, or Independent Union of Agricultural Workers and Peasants),
an organization based in Mexico City.
This filing of this
petition added to the growing scrutiny and publicity about
farmworker conditions in
North Carolina
and pressured agricultural employers to respond to demands for
reforms. In September 2004, the North Carolina Growers Association
in Raleigh,
North Carolina
signed a historic labor agreement with the Farm Labor Organizing
Committee (FLOC), giving thousands of H-2A workers in
North Carolina
union representation. At the same time, the union also settled the
boycott of the Mt. Olive Pickle Co., which purchases cucumbers
picked by the NCGA’s H-2A workers. FLOC then went on to establish
offices in Mexico and North Carolina to serve its new members and
administer the agreement with the NCGA.
The Commission for
Labor Cooperation webpage also includes a number of reports and
studies about labor protections and rights in North America. One of
the reports addressed protections of migrant agricultural workers.
To view this report click
here. Other reports can be found at
http://www.naalc.org/english/reports.shtml
International Labor Organization
Convention on Safety and Health in Agriculture
In June 2001, the International Labor Organization (ILO) approved
the Convention on Safety and Health in Agriculture to promote
improvement of the occupational safety and health of agricultural
workers and their family members. FJ Executive Director Bruce
Goldstein participated, at the request of the AFL-CIO, as the U.S.
labor delegate to the Committee on Safety and Health, which
negotiated the convention. The conference took place in Geneva,
Switzerland.
The ILO recognized that agricultural employment ranks among the
three most dangerous occupations in the world and that many
governments fail to take effective action to prevent injuries and
illness among farmworkers. Indeed, national laws, including in the
United States,
routinely exclude agricultural workers from the minimum occupational
safety and health protections applicable to other occupations.
The new Convention’s standards are modest but, if they were followed
in the United States, could lead to important improvements in
employer practices and government policies, which would save lives
and reduce injury and disease among agricultural workers in the U.S.
and elsewhere. An ILO Convention is not binding on a country unless
it’s government ratifies it; the U.S. Congress has not ratified this
Convention (and rarely ratifies ILO Conventions).
Under this Convention, a ratifying nation must "formulate, carry out
and periodically review a coherent national policy on safety and
health in agriculture.” The national policy objective shall be
“preventing accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked
with, or occurring in the course of work, by eliminating, minimizing
or controlling hazards in the agricultural working environment."
A
ratifying nation’s laws and regulations must require employers to:
(a) carry out risk assessments, adopt preventive and protective
measures, and comply with applicable standards; (b) provide to
workers “adequate and appropriate training and comprehensible
instructions on safety and health,” including information on the
specific hazards at the workplace, “taking into account their level
of education and differences in language;” and (c) immediately cease
operations and evacuate workers where there is an imminent and
serious danger to safety and health.
Workers are entitled to several types of government programs and
activities and to certain standards of treatment by employers. In
addition, Article 8 states that workers in agriculture shall have
the right: (a) to be informed and consulted on safety and health
matters; (b) to participate in the application and review of safety
and health measures and, in accordance with national law and
practice, to select safety and health representatives and (c)
to remove themselves from imminent and serious risk of harm at work
without suffering retaliation..
The Convention also promotes recognition of labor unions and
collective bargaining in the agricultural sector, where government
policy often hinders workers from organizing unions. The ILO’s
tripartite system of representation from governments, employers and
employees requires that labor unions play a major role.
Click here for a link to the Convention.
International
Institute for Labour Studies
In April 2005, FJ
Executive Director Bruce Goldstein participated in a roundtable
discussion at the ILO in
Geneva,
Switzerland
entitled “Merchants of Labour: Policy Dialogue on the Agents of
International Labour Migration.” Participants included government
officials from sending and receiving countries, labor advocates,
academics, and one international labor contractor.
The ILO's
International Institute for Labour Studies compiled the papers
presented at the meeting into a new book, Merchants of Labour.
The book includes Bruce Goldstein’s paper, "'Merchants of
Labour' in Three Centuries: Lessons from History for Reforming 21st
Century Exploitation of Migrant Labour," about the history of
attempting to reform labor contracting.
Click here to download a copy of the book.
|
