2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhy the United Farm Workers Are Not Feeling the Bern
Today the United Farm Workers endorsed Hillary Clinton. Although they appreciate Senator Sander's contributions to the economic debate, they are are not feeling the bern because of his work against their chances for a path to immigration reform. They are also very concerned by his exploitation and willingness to put aside his professed aversion to the guest worker program as long as it benefits his home state of Vermont.
In 2007 The United Farm Workers WANTED the comprehensive immigration reform bill. But, according to Arturo Rodriguez, President of the United Farm Workers:
"We came close to winning comprehensive immigration reform when a bipartisan bill by Sens. Edward Kennedy and John McCain nearly passed the Senate in 2007. That measure, which would have granted legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants... [it] would have let undocumented farm workers earn the right to permanently stay in this country.
If that proposal--which President George W. Bush pledged to sign -- had passed in 2007, would there still be 11 million undocumented immigrants living today in fear and constantly subjected to mistreatment? There would not be.Would Donald Trump and most Republican presidential candidates be appealing today to bigotry and rancor by scapegoating immigrants?
Sen. Sanders voted against the Kennedy-McCain bill and led the push for amendments that killed the measure because he opposed the conditions pushed by business interests for guest workers, he said during the Feb. 11 debate.
But Sen. Sanders' opposition to abusive guest worker programs didn't extend to a bill he cosponsored in 2011, to allow agricultural guest workers into his home state's largest farm sector -- Vermont's dairy industry... So the Sanders-backed measure could have let dairies replace all current domestic farm laborers with foreign guest workers -- with the same damaging impacts on wages and working conditions for both domestic and foreign guest workers Sen. Sanders decried in other industries."
Although Sen. Sanders opposes use of guest workers because of concerns over exploitation, is he willing to make an exception for "guest workers in agriculture" in Vermont?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arturo-s-rodriguez/questions-farm-workers-ha_b_9259846.html
PonyUp
(1,680 posts)Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)we're working hard on reaching those workers, regardless of union membership status. Although Dolores Huerta's contributions can never be diminished everyone needs to make up their own minds as to who they support for the nomination.
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Response to PonyUp (Reply #1)
Kip Humphrey This message was self-deleted by its author.
Haveadream
(1,630 posts)itself says this:
Leaders elected by UFW members under union contracts Maria de Jesus and Guillermo Garcia of Ventura County (Calif), Liliana Herrera of Sonoma County (Calif.), Efren Fraide and Justo Tovar of Monterey County (Calif.), Agustin Garcia of Fresno County (Calif.), Jose Sanchez of San Joaquin County (Calif.), Efren Ayala of Tulare County (Calif.), Beronica Rivas and Salvador Castillo of Kern County (Calif.), Gerardo Rios of Yakima (Wash.) and Raul Esparza of Hermiston (Ore.) were among those who asked questions of Secretary Clinton and made motions to her for President. They can be made available for comment.
Here are some of the "leaders" you are impugning. Maybe you consider them to be too "establishment?" Their names are in bold for respect.
*Here's Liliana Herrera with her son. She drives a tractor:
https://www.facebook.com/unitedfarmworkers/photos/a.121511671546.103894.111918396546/10153326877606547/?type=1&theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153326877606547
*Raul Esparza is the Secretary General of the UFW. Esparza de la Paz is a worker at a company where he labors feeding dairy and meat cows in eastern Oregon. A father of four with ten grandchildren.
*Here's Efrain Fraide. He has been picking broccoli, with his wife, for 25 years:
*This is Jose Sanchez. He picks tomatoes:
One of his campaigns was for water for workers:"You can save farm workers lives this summer
Friday we shared our most recent victory with you, a settlement with the state of California that will protect farm workers from extreme heat. Hopefully these enhanced regulations will mean we will never see another farm worker heat death. But for this to happen, we need to have UFW organizers go out to the fields and look for violations as well as to talk to farm workers about their rights.
This past weekend, temperatures in the San Joaquin Valley exceeded 100 degrees. And farm workers were out there laboring to harvest the food we eat. Jose Sanchez has worked in the tomatoes since he was young"."
Si Si Puede!!
lunamagica
(9,967 posts)But Sen. Sanders' opposition to abusive guest worker programs didn't extend to a bill he cosponsored in 2011, to allow agricultural guest workers into his home state's largest farm sector -- Vermont's dairy industry... So the Sanders-backed measure could have let dairies replace all current domestic farm laborers with foreign guest workers -- with the same damaging impacts on wages and working conditions for both domestic and foreign guest workers Sen. Sanders decried in other industries."
hmmmm...
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Whenever I hear protectionist policies pertaining to guest workers I get a chill through my body. This whole "they're taking our jobs" rhetoric is not my cup of tea. What exactly is an "American job"? Is it owed to you only because you were lucky enough to be born on one side of a border? Im not saying this is Bernie's thoughts on this, its just an observation about this type of rhetoric across both sides of the political spectrum.
lunamagica
(9,967 posts)"It exploits them" the latter sounds nicer, and panders to immigrants.
Funny he didn't mind them being exploited in VT.
WhaTHellsgoingonhere
(5,252 posts)and brings in unqualified H-1B workers who actually need to be trained by Disney's staff before Disney can lay them off... Did unemployment go up? Yes. Were jobs created? No. Who lost the jobs and who got the jobs? If the American workers were unionized, what would have happened?
You're struggling with this? You must be a libertarian if this doesn't bother you.
pandr32
(11,447 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)mmonk
(52,589 posts)with unions because the Democratic Party says so.
mmonk
(52,589 posts)I have stayed within it's parameters while the Democraric Party has shifted to the corporations and Union heads have surrendered to their enemies in hopes of a not so bad decline in wages and benefits. There is no alternative to facts. Only beliefs there is.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,705 posts)We should do anything we can to ease their burden.