Farmworkers
A Position
Paper of the
Florida Catholic Conference
Our Principles: Human Dignity and the Common Good
Every
human life is sacred and that respect for human dignity requires access to
necessities such as decent shelter, food, education, rest, and medical
care. Human dignity requires the right to earn a living wage and the
right to organize collectively to participate in decisions affecting one’s
employment.
Since every human being is valued and since the strong are best able to
protect their own human dignity, we judge a society by its treatment of
those who are poor or otherwise vulnerable.
We value the contribution entrepreneurs make to the common good. We
seek to balance the needs of business owners with the priority that all
individuals have ready access to opportunities for their own human
fulfillment.
As our nation’s bishops stated in 1986: "We judge any economic system
by what it does for and to people and by how it permits all
to participate in it. The economy should serve people, not the
other way around."
The
Common Good and Florida’s Economy
Agriculture is a multi-billion dollar industry in Florida, employing tens
of thousands of growers, field workers, contractors, suppliers, shippers,
retailers, and others. The agricultural sector of our state’s economy is
vulnerable both to weather and to the highly competitive commodities
markets. Moreover, as trade barriers drop, global competition with
Florida’s agricultural products is increasing. While recognizing the
challenges growers face and acknowledging their social contribution, we
believe their progress need not--and should not--come at the expense of
workers in the fields.
Conditions in Florida that Undermine Human Dignity
Farmworkers in Florida are among the poorest, least insured workers in the
state, working in one of the most dangerous and insecure of occupations.
Their basic human dignity is abused by: disrespect and discrimination on
the job and in the larger community; lack of affordable and decent
housing; exposure to toxins; and lax enforcement of existing workplace
safety and other labor statutes.
Despite their grueling labor, most
farmworkers live below the poverty line. Wages are significantly lower in
real terms than twenty years ago. Why? Global economic change pushes
unemployed people to migrate as a means to survive and support their
families. Local employers are happy to hire immigrants to do difficult
manual labor. Newcomers, unfamiliar with their rights and fearful of
deportation, submit to indignities and fall prey to the unscrupulous.
Bulk purchasers, such as giant grocery and restaurant chains, seek bargain
prices from farmers, without regard to whether those prices allow payment
of a just wage.
Wage levels are only part of the problem. Job insecurity and
discriminatory laws and practices further affect household incomes. For
example, undocumented immigrants pay employment and income taxes, but are
ineligible for most federal tax credits and social welfare benefits,
including Social Security. Weather and the seasonality of agriculture
cause periodic unemployment, but workers often do not qualify for
unemployment compensation. Federal law does not protect farm labor
organizing. Job benefits are rare. Sometimes workers, lacking leverage or
capacity to object, simply do not get paid.
Our
Approach
The
Catholic Church works to develop a consensus for meaningful change. We
seek an agricultural system that promotes respect for the farmworker and
the dignity of farm labor; protects the human rights of everyone in our
society, regardless of citizenship status; assures a healthy and
affordable food supply for consumers; promotes the overall economic
welfare; is environmentally sustainable; and protects a fair return on
investment and reward for labor for all those involved in agriculture.
We support efforts to reduce indebtedness,
health risks, violence, and coercion in the workplace and in our
communities. We work for policies that, while valuing security and the
rule of law, also acknowledge that immigrants and their children too often
get trapped between the rock of the global economy and the hard place of a
bureaucratic and discriminatory immigration system. We prefer immigration
reform to policies whose principle effect is to punish people of good will
who seek work and dignity.
Policies
Consistent with Our Principles
access to quality healthcare;
mechanisms
to assure farmworkers receive their full pay and to
deter debt peonage, particularly as it derives from trafficking
in human persons;
in-state
college tuition rates for graduates of Florida high schools,
regardless of immigration status;
access to
drivers' licenses and to secure forms of identification,
regardless of immigration status;
increased and
dedicated funding for affordable housing for farmworkers;
greater
enforcement of workplace, transportation, and housing safety
regulations, with due regard for the costs of enforcement to workers;
the right to
organize & bargain collectively and to participate in decisions
affecting one’s work;
reform of
federal immigration laws, including new legalization measures.
