Everyone Owes a #Debt to #Laborers
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/jim-goodman/107559/everyone-owes-a-debt-to-laborers

This #LaborDay, a day set aside as a national holiday in 1894, we commemorate the #laborunion movement, the demand for an eight-hour work day, better working conditions, #fairwages, and an end to #childlabor.
#Genderequality, #racialequality, fair #farmprices, and #farmworker rights are separate issues but all related to the struggle of the #unions for a fair wage and decent working conditions.

Today in Writing History August 31, 1908: Armenian-American writer William Saroyan was born. He won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1940 and the Academy Award for best screenplay for his story, “The Human Comedy.” Saroyan was born in Fresno, California, but spent several of his early years in an orphanage in Oakland. He was later reunited with family in Fresno. Many of his early stories were about Armenian farm workers, during the Depression, in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #FarmWorker #armenia #WilliamSaroyan #fresno #fiction #writer #books #author #novel @bookstadon

South #Florida mourns #death of another #farmworker as advocates fight for #heat protections https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/south-florida-mourns-death-another-farmworker-advocates-fight-heat-pro-rcna95378

Bill would raise threshold for #farmworker overtime

This is the second year that #farmworkers are eligible for overtime. Right now, if they work more than 48 hours in a week, they get paid time and half. Next year, they’ll be the same as everyone else — anything past 40 hours would count as overtime. But new proposed legislation in #OlympiaWA is trying to re-negotiate that.

https://www.kuow.org/stories/bill-would-raise-threshold-for-farmworker-overtime

Getting paid #overtime for when employees at farms worked over 40 hours was a hard-won battle for farmworkers in #Washington and the change is being slowly introduced to reduce the impact on farm owners

https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/state-politics/proposed-bill-limit-overtime-pay-farmworkers-washington-state/281-c80fe366-49cd-4813-97aa-296068b22e18

SB 5476 would allow employers to choose up to 12 weeks each year when farmworkers could work up to 50 hours without getting paid overtime #wages.

SB 5172 made farmworkers, who have historically been excluded from overtime pay regulations, eligible for overtime pay.

Farmworker Alfredo Juarez, who lives off his summertime wages in winter and picks up work in packing plants, believes the 12 weeks per year would invariably come during summer and fall harvests, meaning he would be working more and making less.

"It's not fair," Juarez said. "It's really not fair at all."

There's also a social justice component at play. The exemption of farmworkers for overtime came out of the Deep South in the 1930s, and some say it's a remnant of #racism that should be eradicated.

“It's hard to come by a more straightforward example of systemic racism and we must not be press forward with this,”

Wanted: locals to #network with (not in the LinkedIn way, although I will accept work, actually, but that's not the point of the exercise)

I live near the #Victoria / #SouthAustraila border, towards the southern end.
I recently left my community 400km away where I had been living, working, organising and advocating for over a decade.

I'm interested in mutual aid, food (and all resource) sovereignty, anarchy and community sufficiency.

I have a lot to offer: I'm a #teacher with lots of practical skills from #SexualHealth to #Chainsaw use, a strong physical worker, an #ArtsWorker with long established art industry connections, a #FarmWorker with lots of #AnimalHealth experience and a #UnionOrganiser (arts and #SW) with experience fighting for #WorkersRights.
On the flip side I also need a lot of community support: I have a #disability which requires regular medication and makes me totally incapable of working for short periods.

I would like to get more involved with local communities sharing similar interests so please #boost if you know #anarchists #artists #UnionOrganisers #SWers or #FoodSovereignty peeps in #GundijimaraCountry #JardwadjaliCountry #DjabWurrungCountry #BindjaliCountry #BuandigCountry #MountGambier #LimestoneCoast #Coonawarra #Hamilton #Portland #Warnambool
💕Thank you!💕

Forté et.al., in a 2021 study measured #clinical #biomarker levels among a #farmworker cohort in Northern #Thailand who use #pesticides. CBC & urine findings were consistent w/exposures to #chlorpyrifos #metal-axyl & #methomyl
1. Stat. signif. AChE decrease w/methomyl exposure
2. Stat. signif. increases in #eosinophil, urine creatinine, & MCV
3. Stat. signif. decreases in #monocytes #RBC & #WBC counts, and serum Ca2+
4. self-rptd 'dizziness' 'tremors'
5. Non-Std. PPE used
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/1348-9585.12222

#SCOTUS appears poised to undermine #farmworker #labor organizing rights, on private property rights arguments. At issue is the access rule passed in a 1975 labor law. https://www.salon.com/2020/11/27/the-supreme-court-poised-to-overrule-farmworker-union-rights_partner/