Farmworker Rights

Synonyms

Farm labor conditions; Farm labor rights; Farmworker unionism

Introduction

The scholarly conversation about farmworker rights tends to be concerned with fair wages, workplace safety protections, and protecting those working within agriculture from threats, violence, or forced labor (Loo 2014; Weissman 2010; Gottlieb and Joshi 2010). Indeed, several of the worst disparities within the global food system involve how farmworkers are treated by their employers (Loo 2014). Farmworkers are consistently poorly paid, overworked, labor under dangerous conditions, mistreated by their employers, experience employment insecurity, and are often de facto slaves (Loo 2014).

Within California, which sells an average of $35 billion of agricultural products per year, the average farmworker only earns between $5000 and $8500 per year (Brown and Getz 2011)\and, though they work in one of the most agriculturally productive regions within the United States, over half are food insecure...