https://secure.ufw.org/page/contribute/coachellaFarm workers in Coachella--the sweltering desert land about 130 miles east of Los Angeles--have come to us telling us abuses in Coachella are rampant and are asking us to open up a local office. Right now, the closest UFW office is in Oxnard, a five-hour drive away.
Workers tell us of laboring in the intense heat without even basic protections. “In the fields, the temperature is 108-110 degrees,” Martin Zavala explains. “The company provides umbrellas for shade – very little umbrellas. Sometimes the umbrellas are broken and the company takes three or four days to replace them.”
Guadalupe Felipe expresses the need. "It is very important to have an office in Coachella because there are some contractors and supervisors that put too much pressure on the worker and they abuse them. I have worked with supervisors where I rarely take time to drink water or go to the bathroom because I fear falling behind in my job and losing it. This office is important for us because I would know where to turn in these type of cases."
So many families, who harvest the food we put on our table, are enduring so much cruelty and disrespect that we want to open a UFW office in the Coachella Valley as soon as we can.
We have ambitious plans for the new Coachella office. Our staff there will support and organize local workers – and educate them on their rights, such as having clean, cool drinking water, access to bathrooms, and shade from the heat, along with fighting greedy growers who don't give workers the pay they have legally earned.
Luis Pozar is looking forward to getting help from the Coachella office. "It is very important this office that is going to open in Coachella because then I would know where to go for when sometimes we have important documents...If this office is open then we will have the help we need in these cases and know they will offer other services that may be of use to us."
A union office in Coachella will make all the difference for these workers. However, to get our new office up and running – in addition to everything else we’re doing to improve conditions for farm workers – we need you beside us once again.
As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving we urge you to send your gift to the UFW. Thank you.
Photos and take action at link above.
Check out our website at: www.ufw.org and keep up with the latest news.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
