Pro-Farming Message Pt 2
I'm Bob Larson. An effort is underway to correct the numerous messages in the media portraying farmers in a negative light. Save Family Farming Director Gerald Baron says in order to influence the greatest number of people, groups like Bellingham-based Community to Community target the cities to spread their anti-guest worker agenda ...
BARON ... "So, that's why we launched the 'Farmworker Justice Now' dot org (farmworkerjusticenow.org) project to provide the information to those crucial audiences about what is really going on, why these guest workers are so important, why them having access to these high-value jobs where they're getting paid very good money and are being protected by numerous laws, why that's so important and why that represents justice for farmworkers."
In the recent case of one northwest berry farmer, Baron says Community to Community disrupted their ability to hire H-2A guest workers ...
BARON ... "Because the law says you cannot bring in guest workers from outside of the country until you have proven you have exhausted every effort to hire domestic workers. It's there to protect domestic workers. We understand that."
Baron says, in this case, it was just a dirty trick ...
BARON ... "But, most of them were university students who had no intention of working and, of course, when it came time to show up for work, they weren't there. But, by submitting them to the Department of Labor, saying oh here is your domestic workforce, they were able to basically prevent this farm from hiring any guest workers."
Baron says go their new website ... farmworkerjusticenow.org ... for the real story behind the latest attack against farmers.
