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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Farmworkers Are Saying “No More” to Exploitation

Benito, a founding member of Familias Unidas and part of its leadership committee, said he now earns about double the pay for the same work—10 to 12 hour days, seven days a week—as a result of union organizing. “Many work rules are changing,” he told In These Times.

[...]

Building on the union’s success, Torres and three other members of Familias Unidas launched a farmworker-owned cooperative last year with a vision of creating better working conditions, autonomy, and adequate access to healthy food for farmworkers.

“We have to go ask for [food] stamps. We have to go to food banks. And it’s not just,” Torres said. “A farmworker who picks watermelons in the end can’t buy the watermelon because he doesn’t earn a fair salary to afford it.”

[...]

For Torres, Familias Unidas’ worker-owned cooperative, called Tierra y Libertad, is a first step toward tackling farmworker food insecurity at the root. Protecting farmworkers from exposure to toxic pesticides by planting organic crops and keeping children studying instead of toiling in the fields at young ages are also big motivating factors, he said.

Tierra y Libertad already grows four acres of organic strawberries and 20 acres of blueberries on rented fields, and the cooperative is looking to purchase farmland to increase workers’ control over production. According to Torres, the long-term goal is to create a network of cooperatives that foster mutual support among farmworkers and show that worker-owned alternatives are possible.

“Everything we are doing is to help farmworkers,” Torres said. “We’re tired of so much exploitation.”

Read the rest at In These Times

 

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