In an Oct. 8 Speaking Out essay, Orange County
farmer Chris Pawelski made the claim that CITA (Centro Independiente
de Trabajadores Agricolas), a New York farmworker membership
organization based in Albion, Orleans County, does not represent
"genuine farmworkers."
I am a farmworker, as are my co-workers in
a struggle for rights and fairness.
We plant, care for and harvest the produce in this state.
We care for and milk the cows. We know that our work is
important, and that we do it well. We don't have an agribusiness,
power, influence or money. But we can speak for ourselves.
Most of us are poor, so we work as many hours as we can
- and there's no overtime pay. It's not much fun working
70 to 80 hours a week, but when you make so little you must.
We are often quietly let go if we are injured. We know
about burning eyes and nausea from pesticide exposure. We
often have no choice but to live in overcrowded, rundown
labor camps.
Without collective bargaining protections or a voice at
the workplace, we have little hope for fairer treatment.
We are asking for decent living conditions, respect in
the workplace and equal labor rights - a day of rest per
week, overtime pay, collective bargaining protections and
disability insurance. We want immigration reform that would
help bring many of our members out of the shadows.
We are both grateful and proud to have allies like Rural
and Migrant Ministry that are willing to walk with us because
they see that the current situation is not right.
We invite others to join with us.
Arango is president, board of directors, Centro Independiente
de Trabajadores Agricolas.
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In an Oct. 8 Speaking Out essay, farmer Chris Pawelski
attacked Rural & Migrant Ministry (RMM) and the Roman
Catholic and Episcopal dioceses of Rochester for standing
with farmworkers seeking just and fair living and working
conditions.
However, Pawelski neglected to mention that hundreds of
other religious congregations and groups in New York stand
together with farmworkers in their efforts, including Methodist,
Presbyterian, Jewish, Unitarian, United Church of Christ,
Quakers, Baptist, Pentecostal, Reformed and Lutheran, among
others.
He also failed to mention the support of hundreds of community
groups, student groups and labor organizations. For 25 years
RMM has actively committed to stand with farmworkers. Attacks
against RMM, or against the communities of faith, are nothing
new. Members of churches and faith communities, who put
their morals and values into action by seeking to build
a more just society, who struggled for women's rights, civil
rights and the abolition of slavery, were similarly attacked
and criticized in their efforts to work for justice and
to stand with their fellow brothers and sisters.
RMM, at the invitation of Centro Independiente de Trabajadores
Agricolas, or CITA, a farmworker membership organization,
and other allies, formed the Justice for Farmworkers Campaign
to struggle for farmworkers' rights and protections. It
took several years of petitioning Albany against a powerful
agribusiness lobby for farmworkers to gain the right to
the same minimum wage as other workers and access to on-site
restrooms and fresh drinking water.
The issue before us and our state legislators is a moral
one. Labor laws are meant to protect workers, but gross
inequalities in these laws as they apply to farmworkers
cast a dark shadow over agriculture.
Denied the same legal protections, farmworkers suffer abuses
and endure conditions unthinkable in other industries. Although
farmworkers perform some of the most physically demanding,
dangerous and vital work in our society, they remain mired
in poverty.
This reality raises glaring questions about our professed
belief in the dignity and worth of all human beings and
that honest labor should be justly rewarded.
Rose is pastor, First Baptist Church in Batavia, and a
board member, Rural & Migrant Ministry.
