Farmworkers’ living and working conditions are dangerously inadequate. They face extreme poverty, endure dangerous working conditions, and struggle to enter into an immigration system that has historically targeted immigrants of color. The majority of farmworkers in the United States are immigrants from Mexico. The ones who feed America are immigrants of color who are often taken advantage of and exploited for cheap labor. Our work at the Council focuses on advocating for legislation that enacts equitable and positive change. Below you will find more information about our work surrounding farmworkers.
Farmworkers do backbreaking work, often in dangerous conditions for little pay. We believe that everyone, no matter their occupation, should be safe on the job, so we’ve been working to help improve living and working conditions for our state’s thousands of farmworkers for decades. That’s why we support the Harvest of Dignity campaign by the Farmworker Advocacy Network.
What does this work look like for us? Raising public awareness, publishing fact sheets and Bible-based curriculum, connecting seminary students with rural ministries and health clinics, sponsoring interns to document conditions, participating in dynamic statewide coalitions, even producing a public service announcement about child labor in the fields.
But we can’t do this work without you. Too little has changed in the fields over the last 50 years. Visit the Farmworker Institute website below and sign up for our “Faith + Immigration” newsletter to learn more and to get involved.
Join us and other faith-based individuals by signing this petition that supports farmworker legislation. This petition includes two important bills that would benefit farmworkers and their families:
- The Blue Card Bill would establish an earned legalization program under which farmworkers who meet certain criteria are given permission to work legally in agriculture with a path to citizenship.
- The Fairness for Farm Workers Act of 2019 would ensure farmworkers equal rights to minimum wage and overtime protections, not included in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that was passed eighty years ago.
Click here to sign the petition!
