Our ability to feed ourselves sustainably is one of our most valuable resources. However, sustainable agriculture doesnt just entail growing food in a manner that uses natural resources wisely; it also requires the fair use of human resources in a manner that protects farm workers health and safety and promotes agricultural communities with reasonable standards of living. As an organic farmer, I wholeheartedly support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) as a vital component to developing a sustainable food system that will protect not only our natural resources, but our human resources as well.
Although there is increasing awareness of the importance of organic and naturally cultivated food, the current lack of protection for farm workers rights within our own country is rarely discussed. This lack of awareness is ironic given the attention to Fair Trade products from import markets. Despite our nations obsession with Fair Trade coffee, bananas, and chocolate, nearly three-quarters of U.S. farm workers earn less than $10,000 per year and three out of five farm worker families have incomes below the poverty level, making farm work the second lowest paid job in the United States. Additionally, farm work consistently ranks in the top ten of most dangerous jobs in the U.S.
Unfortunately, existing labor laws, such as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), exempt farm workers from many of the key protections provided to other economic sectors, including overtime pay, health and safety protections, and the right to negotiate a union contract. Farm workers are subjected to greater risks, reduced freedoms, and lower standards of living than most other industrial or service workers. This lack of protection has permitted the exploitation and mistreatment of thousands of workers on factory farms. Even the USDA Organic Certification standards do not address labor conditions, and thus most organic food is grown by farm workers who are little better off than their counterparts in conventional agriculture.
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) can serve as an effective starting point to bridge this gap and bring our nations farm workers up to par with the rest of the economy. It has long been recognized that the first and most vital step to ensuring adequate worker benefits, wages, health and safety is the protection of workers rights to form unions with the power to negotiate contracts. For example, the United Farm Workers union successfully secured union contracts for field workers that require various protections against pesticide exposure and provide basic sanitation facilities and equipment. However, employers of farm workers are still not obligated to negotiate or dialogue with worker representatives, and farm workers who raise issues with their employers may be fired or discriminated against without recourse.
In order to achieve a sustainable and fair food system, we must ensure that farm workers are granted the same rights and privileges afforded to other laborers, provide them with a means to demand fair treatment and a safe workplace, and hold employers accountable for gross neglect or mistreatment of their employees. To this effect, the EFCA would provide a framework for some agricultural employees to organize based upon democratic votes, would impose meaningful penalties on employers who break the law during an organizing campaign, and would facilitate fair resolutions of first contract disputes.
Although the EFCA is far from a panacea to the problem of exploited farm workers, it would serve as a vital first step. It would cover other marginalized employees of the agricultural industry, including workers in food packing and processing plants or cooling facilities, or those involved in the transportation of farm products. In time, we can look forward to expanding the EFCA and NLRA to include the field workers who are responsible for growing and harvesting our nations food. For the health of our countrys farm and agricultural workers and our food system as a whole, the time is now to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.