workers win right to restroom and meal breaks
Jim Cook (posted by a union brother) , 24.01.2004 20:25
TO: Mid-Willamette Jobs with Justice members and supporters
FR: Jim Cook
RE: A victory for all of us! Farm workers win right to restroom and meal breaks
Some of you will remember seeing an email I sent out last summer when I attended a Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) hearing in Woodburn
concerning BOLI rules, then in place, which excluded agricultural workers from the right to restroom breaks and meal breaks during their work day.
Many of us who work in non-agricultural jobs found this exclusion astonishing and outrageous, and I spoke out strongly as Chair of Mid-Willamette Jobs with Justice in favor of changing the rule. Clearly,
the fact that farm workers are among the poorest and most exploited and least visible of Oregon's workers played a big role in allowing the denial of the basic right to eat and relieve themselves during work time. At the time, I also communicated to JwJ members and supporters urging you to contact BOLI and support the change.
In a victory for all of us, BOLI has changed the rules!
Many of us also have become somewhat jaded and cynical about politicians, even those who call themselves liberals, who all too often abandon working people at the first opportunity after we elect them.
We should be proud that one of those politicians, BOLI Commissioner Dan Gardner (a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers), stuck to his guns and pushed through a change in BOLI rules which now require the same meal and restroom breaks enjoyed by the rest of us, prohibit lifting of excessive weights, and require safe and clean work areas. To those of us who have had it all the time, this might seem like a small thing. But it is not. Thank you Dan, you've made me proud to call you a fellow Union member!
Dan Gardner can be reached at 503-731-4070 or at BOLI, 800 NE Oregon St. #32, Portland OR 97232 Please contact him and let him know you appreciate his work.
LINKS:
Portland Jobs with Justice
http://www.jwjpdx.org/
Bureau of Labor and Industries
http://www.boli.state.or.us/
PCUN
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United), is Oregons union of farmworkers, nursery, and reforestation workers, and Oregons largest Latino organization.
http://www.pcun.org/
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farmworkers right to organize 10.02.2004 - 23:41 Dear ROPnetters, Of recent, there are 2 issues in Oregon that impact the rights of immigrants and farmworkers. One to celebrate and one to organize around! As Mike Edera of Washington County has pointed out, while we organize for regime change in our communities and beyond, let's remember that we also need a program that makes people's lives better. As of Feb. 1st of this year, Oregon's farmworkers are legally entitled to paid breaks and lunch periods. This makes Oregon one of only five states to grant farmworkers paid breaks, and one of only sixteen to provide lunch periods. We struggled to pass this legislation this year in Salem. Though we were unsuccessful in the Legislature, our high level of organizing gave Oregon Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner the boldness to take action how he could and grant paid breaks and lunch periods to farmworkers through the Labor Commission. Eyes are now focused on Boardman, Oregon, where workers of the 3 Mile Canyon Dairy have been trying to organize. The Freedom Riders stopped in Boardman en route to Washington DC and marched with workers who were demanding that the dairy negotiate with the United Farm Workers (UFW). The UFW has been campaigning with workers from the dairy, whose efforts to unionize and improve their dangerous working conditions have met with denial from the dairy's management. Workers are demanding union representation and an end to the exploitative and abusive practices of the dairy, and its routine abuse of the animals housed there. See below on how to take action! Keep up the great work, Cara -------- The 3 Mile Canyon Dairy in Boardman has ties to The Bank of the West. The bank has extended a $101 million line of credit to the dairy and has since stated that it will not use its position as a lender to influence the company's labor practices. The UFW is asking that people contact the bank to call for improved labor conditions. The goal of the UFW's campaign is to put pressure on the dairy to negotiate with its workers. They have also met with the State of Oregon, which provided the dairy with state land to build on and two million dollars in start-up money, and which awards it the majority of federal dairy subsidies. Take action: Contact Bank of the West Bank customers and concerned consumers are encouraged to write to Bank of the West executives to urge them to sever ties with the dairy unless it negotiates with its workers and to question whether investing in such a company is a wise business decision. Contact: Steve Glenn Senior executive vice-president Bank of the West 1450 Treat Blvd. Walnut Creek, CA 94597 Dan Mikes Church loan division Bank of the West 201 N. Civic Dr, St. 3600 Walnut Creek, CA 94596 farmworker> |