Windmill Farms workers seek to organize with UFW

Among all workers in US, farmworkers probably suffer the most exploitation and abuse. Often undocumented immigrants, they toil for long hours at poverty wages harvesting the food we eat. In one of the great inequities of the American economy, most of us enjoy access to produce at unsustainably low prices, subsidized by the low cost of farm labor. If any workers deserve the full protection of our labor laws, it’s farm workers – yet farm workers are excluded from coverage under the National Labor Relations Act, the law that protects other US workers when they want to form a union.

That doesn’t mean that farmworkers can’t organize, but it makes it much harder. Case in point: the mushroom farm workers of Windmill Farms in Washington State. They have been fighting to form a union with the United Farm Workers for more than two years, with union activists facing constant harassment, discrimination and retaliation for their efforts.

Today Windmill Farms is owned by a Canadian private equity investor, Instar Asset Management. Recently Catholic Labor Network board member Fr. Clete Kiley addressed a letter to Instar CEO Gregory Smith. Having met with some of the workers, Fr. Kiley expressed his deep concern regarding the ongoing labor abuses at Windmill and concluded:

I urge you to meet with [UFW President] Teresa Romero and the folks from the UFW as soon as possible to resolve these issues. I have to believe your investors would expect you and your team to take every action to resolve this situation and provide a fair and safe workplace for these workers. My deepest hope is that soon and very soon you will have met with the UFW and the workers and resolved these concerns.

Please keep the Windmill Farm workers in your prayers.