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AMERICA NEEDS AGJOBS—Stop the Harvest of Shame
 
“If we do not have a dependable workforce now and in the future, the American specialty agriculture as we know it will little by little disappear to other countries...

We want to keep these farms and these jobs in America! We want our trained, experienced, and trusted workers to be able to keep working with us, to live openly in our society.” Agricultural producer Peter Orum, President, American Nursery & Landscape Association
 

“Farmworkers put food on the tables of Americans across this country. Our system of agriculture would be crippled without their hard work. It is time for farmworkers to be fairly rewarded and for labor laws to be properly enforced.” Lupe Martinez, Chair, National Farmworker Alliance

Benefits to the American agricultural economy

    ·   American agriculture relies heavily on migrant and seasonal labor.

    ·   Seasonal and migrant workers produce the food found on the dinner tables of all   

        Americans.  Each year this includes picking and harvesting:

  •          3,611,600,000 pounds of tomatoes

  •          10,972,200,000 pounds of lettuce

  •          5 billion tons of apples

  •          5.9 billion tons of grapes

  •          $1.47 billion worth of strawberries

   This threatened sector of the economy needs a stable workforce to keep America’s farms running and profitable.

   The AgJobs bill is supported by more than 500 organizations and business associations including:  U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Council of Agricultural Employers; United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO.

 

The Farmworker Crisis: Poverty and Harsh Working Conditions


   Farmworkers earn between $10,000 and $12,500 per year.   Farmworkers suffer from the highest rate of toxic chemical injuries of any workers in the U.S.

  • Farm work is one of the most dangerous occupations in the U.S.  Many farm workers suffer from electrocutions, injuries from unregulated machinery, exposure to pesticides, repetitive stress disorders and overall dangerous work conditions.
     

  • Only 8 percent reported that their employers provided them with any health insurance.
     

  • Thirteen states do not require farmworkers to be covered by workers’ compensation coverage for on-the-job injuries.
     

  • Only 48 percent report they would get compensated if they were sick on the job.
     

  • The majority of migrant and seasonal laborers are undocumented which threatens both their rights and the conditions of all farmworkers in America.

 

Solving the Crisis: The Win-Win Approach of AgJOBS

  • AgJOBS would stabilize the agricultural workforce.
     

  • AgJOBS would allow us to know who is performing agricultural work in this country, a critical component for our national security agenda
     

  • Its earned legalization program would permit some undocumented workers who have been contributing to U.S. agriculture to obtain a temporary resident immigration status; if they continued to work in U.S. agriculture for three to six years, they could become permanent resident immigrants, subject to restrictions in immigration law.
     

  • AgJOBS would reform the H-2A agricultural guestworker program by streamlining the employers’ application process while continuing to protect against labor abuses
     

  • A majority of U.S. Senators support the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act of 2005, a bipartisan compromise between Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Representatives Chris Cannon (R-UT) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA)