The Issues: Workers

 

The primary goal of industrial farms is to maximize profits – even if it threatens the well-being of farm workers, the men and women who help bring food to our tables. Workers on industrial farms and those in the food-processing industry are often subject to hazardous working conditions and unfair labor management practices. Sustainable farmers, on the other hand, understand that healthy and fair employment practices can yield better food and a stronger community.

sustainable TableAccidents, Injuries, and Health
Working conditions at confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are unhealthy, dangerous and extreme. Because the animals are often housed directly above the giant pits that store their manure, harmful gases such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon dioxide, and methane that are produced by the decomposing manure can contaminate the air that the animals and farm laborers breathe. In addition to these gases, dust and other irritants known as endotoxins—which come from the cell walls of the bacteria in the manure—are often found in very high concentrations on CAFOs.ii These substances can be hazardous to farm workers either through chronic (or long-term) exposure at low levels, or acute (concentrated) exposure at higher levels.

Among the health problems associated with chronic exposure, respiratory ailments are the most common. As many as 25% of all workers at confined animal feeding operations experience chronic bronchitis, while up to 70% will have acute bronchitis at some point during the year.iii Additionally, many other respiratory problems—such as asthma—have been linked to working for as little as 2 to 6 hours per day in indoor swine production facilities.iv Chronic exposure to hydrogen sulfide can cause many problems, most notably in the neurological and cardiological systems.v Regular inhalation of particulate matter such as dust can cause both respiratory symptoms like bronchitis and cardiological symptoms like arrhythmias and heart attacks.vi

Since most of the gases produced from decomposing manure are highly toxic, and can even be lethal in high concentrations, there is also a serious danger to workers who work near manure storage systems and animal houses that are improperly ventilated due to either neglect or equipment failure. Hydrogen sulfide is of particular risk because it can be deadly at even relatively low levels, and is not detectable by smell even at high levels.vii Ammonia and carbon dioxide can both asphyxiate a person at high enough concentrations.viii Deaths caused by breathing the accumulated manure gases in animal houses or by falling into manure storage tanks are infrequent but they do occur— from 1992 to 1997, there were twelve documented cases of worker deaths in manure lagoons in the US.ix Manure gases pose serious risks to workers beyond poisoning or asphyxiation; methane is highly flammable, and if not vented properly from manure tanks, it can explode.

Immigrant Workers’ Rights
Many farm workers in the United States are undocumented immigrants. Most assume that employment rights (such as overtime pay, safety training and worker's compensation) do not apply to them. Yet most federal and state labor laws protect all workers equally, regardless of immigration status.  Furthermore, there exists a specific law which allows farmers to recruit people in other countries to come to the US to perform farm work. Often referred to as a “temporary worker program,” or the H-2A program, this law provides visas for up to 45,000 agricultural jobs a year.

This program protects immigrant workers’ rights to fair wages, benefits and transportation, and regulates minimum-work guarantees, working conditions and housing for foreign workers. It even stipulates that workers who complete a farm season must be provided with transportation back to their home country. While this program seeks to protect both U.S. and foreign workers from abuse, violations of the law persist.xv

Father and son die
in manure pond

One night in March 2006, a dairy farm employee and his 8-year-old son went out to feed the farm’s calves and tragically drowned in the farm’s manure pit. Some expect they could have been overcome by noxious fumes, as was the case of the three other dairy workers who died in manure pits in California’s San Joaquin Valley in the last five years.

The adverse effects of industrial food production are not limited to farm workers.  Food manufacturing has some of the most dangerous jobs in the country. Workers in meat-packing plants suffer repeated trauma injuries at rates far higher than other industries (repeated trauma injuries involve small harms over a period of time in which there is no actual striking or wounding of the body).

In 1996, for example, the rate of repeated-trauma disorders at meat-packing plants was 27 times higher than the national rate for private industry as a whole, and almost six-and-a-half times the rate for all manufacturing jobs.xii While meat-packing had the highest rate of repeated-trauma injuries, poultry slaughtering and packing had the fifth-highest rate.xiii In 1995, meat-packing workers suffered injuries at a rate of 22.7 per 100 workers, making meat-packing the seventh-most dangerous industry in the United States in terms of non-fatal injury.xiv

Although protected by state and sometimes federal law, immigrant workers generally face hurdles in asserting their legal rights, due to limited English language skills, poverty, and lack of familiarity with the laws and regulations governing their work. They often fear punishment, including being fired by employers, if they assert their rights in the workplace. Workers whose immigration status is linked to their employment are reluctant to bring complaints against their employers because their legal status in the U.S. depends on their remaining in that job. The H-2A program requires employers to provide return transportation only for workers who complete their season of work, so a worker who complains and is either fired or leaves a job may have no way to return home. A temporary foreign worker who considers making a complaint about work conditions also often fears that he or she will earn a reputation as a bad worker, jeopardizing future opportunities to be recruited for work.xvi  

For undocumented workers, the barriers can be even greater, as the fear of losing their job is combined with the fear of being reported to immigration enforcement. In many cases, employers have threatened to - or in fact have - contacted federal authorities regarding workers' immigration status in order to intimidate workers into dropping charges of unfair labor practices. This has led the majority of migrant workers to remain silent rather than seek the protection of the law.

Furthermore, federal legislation has prohibited legal service agencies that receive federal funding from representing undocumented workers. This means companies can save money by not paying higher wages, adhering to safety regulations, and paying fines for safety violations, accidents and deaths. When undocumented workers die or are injured, employers can quickly replace them, creating near impunity for employers who skirt the laws. This “disposable workforce” (estimated at 53 - 90% of all farm workersxvii) is often migratory, uneducated and living at, or well below, the poverty line.xviii

In addition to perpetuating unsafe and illegal working conditions on industrial farms, the surplus of cheap and often undocumented labor has led to a reduction in both wages and the amount of available work. Between 1989 and 1998, the average inflation-adjusted wage of farm workers in the United States fell from $6.89 to $6.18.xix The number of weeks that the average farm worker was employed fell from 29.3 to 24.9 weeks per year during the same period.xx Workers in the food manufacturing industry saw a decline in inflation-adjusted wages of 2.24 percent from 2000 to 2005.xxi

What You Can Do
A truly sustainable farm treats farm workers with respect, pays them a fair wage, and protects them from unnecessary dangers. Which food you choose at the supermarket ultimately affects the lives of these farmers and workers. Though there are many local organic farms that support workers rights and even help unionize their workers, just because a farm is “organic” does not automatically mean that working conditions there are safe and fair. Getting to know the farm where you buy your food will help bring you closer to those who produce it, and enable you to know that you are supporting fair labor practices.

Some of the actions you can take to help improve the lives of farm workers include:

  • Visit a farmer’s market or find a local farm on the Eat Well Guide. Meet farmers or farm workers and ask them what their working conditions are like.
  • Buy Fair Trade Products.If you can’t buy local, buy fair trade. There are many popular food items that most Americans can’t buy locally: mangoes, bananas, coffee and chocolate to name a few. Look for a fair trade logo to ensure that your money goes to ethical producers who provide safe conditions and fair pay to their workers.
  • Buy food with the United Farm Workers label – this label indicates that products were produced fairly and by workers given decent wages.

Did You Know?

  • As of 1996, the rate of repeated-trauma disorders at meat-packing plants was about 921.6 cases per 10,000 workers, compared with only 33.5 and 144.0 cases per 10,000 workers in all private industry and manufacturing jobs, respectively.xxii
  • According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,“agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries. Farmers are at high risk for fatal and nonfatal injuries, work-related lung diseases, noise-induced hearing loss, skin diseases, and certain cancers associated with chemical use and prolonged sun exposure. Farming is one of the few industries in which the families (who often share the work and live on the premises) are also at risk for injuries, illness, and death.”xxiii
  • There were approximately 834,000 agricultural workers in the United States in 2004. xxiii

For More Information

  • To learn more about injuries to farm workers, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • Visit the United Farm Workers website to get updates on farm worker issues and learn more about how they improve working conditions on farms.
  • Iowa State University's "Livestock Confinement Dust and Gasses" contains detailed information on problems caused by dust & gases generated by factory farms.
  • This 2002 article from the Nation details both the hazards of the meat-packing industry and the struggles faced by those trying to organize workers to gain better working conditions.

Sources