Protecting the Rights of Farmworkers Essay

Agriculture is an industry that has a great economic impact in many nations. The industry is a critical part of any nation since its citizens depend on agriculture to have an abundant food supply and at affordable prices. The agricultural industry also provides employment opportunities and plays a big role in the maintaining a healthy nation. Many people do not actually give any thought of where such supplies of fresh farm products come from; in a real sense, there are people (farmworkers) who go through a lot of trouble to make this possible for insignificant compensation. A farm worker that who carries out planting, cultivation, and harvesting of agricultural crops manually. In 2013, it was approximated that 2.5 million individuals worked at farms as farmworkers (Housing Assistance Council, 3).

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Farmworkers are among the groups that are termed as "poorest" having their rights as employees ignored by their employers. This is despite the farmworkers playing an integral part of the economy and the health of the nation. The job involves intensive physical involvement and the farmworkers are not adequately compensated by the employers (Housing Assistance Council, 3). The employees have poor workplace conditions, living conditions, and health safety since their employers have foregone such factors in order to cut down on costs translating to higher profits. The purpose of preparing this paper is to take a deep look into the challenges that farmworkers face in this nation and seek to find a way to improve farmworkers' lives. First, we discuss the challenges that the farmers face in the working areas, compensation, and the housing they are provided by employers. In the second section, the paper describes the possible solutions to the difficulty that the farmworkers face.

Challenges-Farmworkers are greatly exploited by their employers from wages to poor working conditions, this has a great impact on their livelihood. In this section, we discuss the difficulties that farmworkers in the national experience. Some of the difficulties come about due to the little pay that the workers get for their services.

First, the female farmworkers face sexual harassment when at work. Sexual harassment is defined as the act of requesting for sexual favors, forceful sexual advances, and verbal or physical sexual abuse. Women who are employed as farmworkers are outnumbered by the men in the industry and therefore they run the risk of sexual violence against them. By the year 2013, reports showed that approximately 1 out 5 women had been raped in their jobs as farmworkers. An example of such incident is Olivia Tamayo (a farm worker) who was raped while in the field. Olivia's supervisor raped her at gunpoint and promised to kill her husband if she would tell anyone (Kominers, 1). These cases are very prevalent in the worker's environment is remote therefore concealing any suspicions, in addition, most of the sexual harassment victims not reporting the incidents to relevant authorities. The female farmworkers get mental illnesses such as abnormal anxiety, stress, and depression (Kominers, 16). The impact is also felt by the victims' families because they may have to move in order to avoid future incidents and therefore the children have to detach from the home they have known, from friends and their school. The family members may have feelings of anger towards the criminal and may end up revenging (Kominers, 17). Therefore, sexual harassment is a big burden not only to the female farmworkers but also to their families.

Secondly, the farmworkers endure poor housing conditions. Farmworkers get their housing either from the private landowners or from their employers. Since the fields are mostly located in the rural areas getting proper, housing is usually a challenge. A large percentage of farmworkers access their housing through the private market. The private markets are mostly a disappointment since they have conditions such as depositing security, long-term commitments, and other difficult conditions. The private market units are also below standards since they are not subject to housing standards and regulations. The farmworkers cannot afford proper housing conditions since they are paid little money, hence they have to live in cheaper substandard houses. In extreme, some of the farmworkers are forced to live in crowded housing conditions because of housing being too costly. A survey did nationally on four thousand six hundred and twenty-five farmworkers show that thirty-three percent of the farmworkers lived in substandard housing conditions. The conditions that were discovered were not conducive for human habitation, which includes rodents and bugs, hazardous structures, unavailable running water and sanitary facilities, no plumbing resources and rust structures. The owners of the housing structures ignore the complaints that are made by the farm workers or their responses take long to be actualized. The owners have a tendency to close the housing units that are found to be inhabitable instead of renovating them, therefore, creating more housing pressure on the farmworkers. The farmworkers may also not made any effort to forward their concerns due to fear of being evicted. It is, therefore, evident that farmworkers experience poor housing conditions since they cannot afford the cost of having proper housing.

Third, many farmworkers have poor health conditions and cannot access healthcare services. Farmworkers suffer from diseases that are caused by diet imbalance (examples, diabetes, hypertension, and anemia) at higher rates compared to other workers. The workers have a big challenge in maintaining oral health, studies show that farmworkers have 150 to 300 percent more teeth that have decayed compared to other peer employees (Strochlic, R. & Rittenhouse, T, 7). The poor health conditions among farmworkers are as a result of the workers lacking or having limited access to health care services (ChangeLab Solutions, 1). The biggest hindrance to farmworkers is the cost of health services. There are other significant factors that also hinder the workers from getting health care services, they include; lack of affordable transport to health care centers, losing wages when one is sick, and the fear of one losing his or her job when out of work. Farmworkers, especially immigrant's show signs of increased alcohol consumption which leads to increased diet-related diseases. The farmworkers surprisingly lack access to healthy food such as fresh fruits and vegetables making them food insecure. Few workers are willing to take food stamps with most having fear of deportation, receiving aid, and the long process required to get the assistance (Strochlic, R. & Rittenhouse, T, 9). Farmworkers thus are poor health wise due to the challenges that come with poor pay and being allowed little time off work.

Solutions-The farmworkers who are exploited by their employers face many challenges that were outlined above. Farmworkers are just as any other employees and therefore there rights and welfare have to be taken seriously. In this section, we discuss the various ways in which the problems that were discussed above may be solved so that the workers live in better conditions.

Enforcement of labor laws in the case of farmworkers. There are national and state labor laws that cushion employees from exploitation by employers. The cause of the challenges in health and housing are majorly caused by low pay. The employers should be compelled to pay the workers the minimum recommended wage and overtime payments (U.S Department of Labor, 1). This would allow the farmworkers to have a proper diet, access to health care services and housing facilities.

The enforcement of the regulations also involves allowing the farmworkers join or create labor unions that will enable the workers to get solutions to their grievances. The labor unions would negotiate with the employers on the contract terms and working conditions for its members (O'Neil, P, 8). A union will is a better platform to fight sexual harassment to the female farmworkers since the workers can fight this menace collectively and bring it to public attention. It is therefore important for enforcement of the labor laws to be actualized in the farms and fields in order to end farmworkers' plights.

CONCLUSION

The sole purpose of preparing this paper is to show the difficulties that farmworkers have to endure in their daily work experience. Farmworkers have rights and welfare that has to be taken into consideration. Farmworkers endure several challenges in their work areas such as living in poor housing conditions, the women face sexual harassment and poor health state. The farmworkers cannot afford to pay for the basic housing facilities such as plumbing amenities, clean and adequate running water, and sanitary services because they are underpaid.

The women working on the farms are attacked by their superiors and co-workers and sexually harassed. The unfortunate part is that such behavior goes unpunished because they are concealed by the victims or the farms are too remote. This, in turn, brings anger and vengeance to the victim's family, who also have to move in order to avoid such incidents from happening later. Farmworkers also lack access to health care services and adequate healthy food which leads to deterioration of their health. Despite these challenges, there is hope for the workers, their problems may be addressed by the enforcement of labor laws. The best part of the laws is having labor unions that would represent the workers and fight for their rights.

Works cited

ChangeLab Solutions. Finding Common Ground on Health and Safety for Farmworkers and Farmers. Retrieved from: changelabsolutions.com, 2013.

Housing Assistance Council. Housing Conditions for Farmworkers: Rural Research Report. US: Housing Assistance Council, 2013.

Kominers, S. Sexual Violence against Women Farmworkers in the United States. US: OXFAM.

O'Neil, P. Labor Unions: A Benefit to Stakeholders? US: University of Colorado Springs, 2013.

Strochlic, R. & Rittenhouse, T. A Research and Outreach Agenda for Agricultural Workers in California. University of California: Agriculture Sustainability Institute, 2013.

U.S Department of Labor. Employee Rights: Under the National Labor Relations Act. US: Official Government Notice.