Farmworker ministry urges passage of AgJOBS
Washington, D.C., June 25, 2007--The National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM) last week joined with farmworker organizations from across the country at a news conference here to call for passage of the AgJOBS farmworker legislation.
The "Agricultural Job, Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act," sponsored by the United Farm Workers, represents a unique agreement between agricultural employers and farmworker organizations to provide a stable legal work force in the agricultural industry while protecting farmworkers from exploitative working conditions. The bill would provide hundreds of thousands of farmworkers and their families the chance to earn permanent legal status. Supported by both Democrats and Republicans, it is currently a part of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that is under consideration.
The well-attended press conference included two of the bill's sponsors, Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Also speaking were Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers, Mirna Vasquez, a citrus worker from Porterville, Calif., and Baldemar Velasquez, president, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO.
Vasquez announced that the farm workers were bringing plastic fruit to Senate offices to emphasize the point that "real fruit requires real farmworkers." Following the press conference 50 farmworkers and representatives of farmworker organizations from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, Oregon, and California delivered the fruit to their Senators to urge them to support AgJOBS and oppose any unacceptable alternatives during the upcoming debate. Many of them drove long hours to ensure that the Senators and the public knew how important this bill was to ensure a stable and secure food supply for their supermarkets and tables.
National Farm Worker Ministry is an organization of nearly 40 national denominations, regional organizations and religious orders representing thousands of people of faith and conscience throughout the U.S. Sharing the belief that in God's eyes, no human being is "illegal," and that we are called in Scripture to "treat the stranger as ourselves," NFWM has worked with the farmworkers for passage of AgJOBS for several years.
Other groups participating in the event were: United Farm Workers (UFW), Pineros Unidos del Noreste (PCUN), Farm Labor Organization Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC), El Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas (CATA), Centro Independiente de Trabajadores Agricolas (CITA) Farmworker Association of Florida, Centro Campesino, La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), the UFW Foundation and Farmworker Justice
----
For further information contact NFWM Executive Director Virginia Nesmith at 314-323-4002 or vnesmith@nfwm.org