wokeculture:Happy Farmworker Awareness Week! National Farmworker Awareness Week works to promote d
wokeculture: Happy Farmworker Awareness Week! National Farmworker Awareness Week works to promote dignity, safe living and working conditions, and fair treatment under the law for all farmworkers. Here are some facts and statistics about farmworkers and the labor they endure: 85% of the world’s fruits and vegetables are handpicked - farmworkers truly feed the world. (x) 2-3 million men, women, and children work in the fields in the United States. Farms are present in every United States’ state, as is the presence of the agriculture industry. Despite this, farmworkers are virtually invisible, and are rarely appreciated or discussed. Farm work is the third most dangerous occupation in the United States. Farm work is rarely viewed to be a dangerous job, but farmworkers suffer from the highest rate of toxic chemical injuries of any other workers in the nation and have higher incidences of heat stress, dermatitis, urinary tract infections, parasitic infections, and tuberculosis than other wage-earners. (x) Farmworkers are neglected under the law. For farmworkers, things like overtime and unemployment insurance are not garunteed under federal law. Farmworkers were excluded from almost all major federal laws passed in the 1930s. The Fair Labor Standards Act was amended in 1978 to mandate minimum wage for farmworkers on large farms only and it still has not made provisions for overtime. (x) Farmworkers bring the world its fruits and vegetables- remember to appreciate them, and to continue to stand up for their rights. -- source link