Monday, October 18, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR CALIFORNIA:
SETTING A BAD EXAMPLE:
Down in California the Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado is setting a rather bad public example in regards to worker safety at his own farm. Here's the story and appeal from the United Farm Workers.
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Take action against serious safety violations at California's Lt. Governor's strawberry farm
Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2010
Lieutenant governor's family farm has had many safety violations
A worker at Abel Maldonado's 6,000-acre Santa Maria operation was crushed by a tractor. The firm has had numerous other Cal/OSHA citations, plus tax liens. The Republican says some citations stemmed from overzealous regulation that harms California businesses.
Click for full story
Today's Los Angeles Times reported serious workplace violations and a farm worker death at Lt. Governor Maldonado's strawberry farm. Please read the below action alert and then immediately "take action" and send a e-mail to Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado.
With as many as 16 farm worker deaths due to heat illness alone during Governor Schwarzenegger's administration, the report of a farm worker death at Maldonado's farm is of deep concern.
According to the Los Angeles Times, "the run-in with regulators was part of a pattern for Agro-Jal Farming Enterprises, the farm in Santa Maria that pays Maldonado a six-figure salary to serve as controller. Maldonado, a telegenic former state senator, is running for the seat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to earlier this year.
Agro-Jal has accumulated dozens of violations from Cal/OSHA since 1990, hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax liens, and multiple citations for exposing workers to toxic pesticides and skirting clean water regulations, government records show. Four of the violations were for running tractors across the fields with no driver at the wheel and no means of steering or stopping the machines.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the lieutenant governor said in an e-mail, "that many of the violations against the farm are the product of overzealous regulators 'who put businesses out of business and dissuade new businesses from coming to California.'"
Lt. Governor Maldonado frequently serves as acting Governor. We need confidence that Lt. Governor Maldonado will be enforcing the law and ensuring the safety of farm workers laboring in California's fields--including his own.
Please e-mail Lt. Governor Maldonado today and encourage him to meet with UFW President Arturo Rodriguez so they can discuss how Lt. Governor Maldonado can support labor protections for farm workers that have real teeth in them.
http://action.ufw.org/maldonado
Take action against serious safety violations at California's Lt. Governor's strawberry farm
Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2010
Lieutenant governor's family farm has had many safety violations
A worker at Abel Maldonado's 6,000-acre Santa Maria operation was crushed by a tractor. The firm has had numerous other Cal/OSHA citations, plus tax liens. The Republican says some citations stemmed from overzealous regulation that harms California businesses.
Click for full story
Today's Los Angeles Times reported serious workplace violations and a farm worker death at Lt. Governor Maldonado's strawberry farm. Please read the below action alert and then immediately "take action" and send a e-mail to Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado.
With as many as 16 farm worker deaths due to heat illness alone during Governor Schwarzenegger's administration, the report of a farm worker death at Maldonado's farm is of deep concern.
According to the Los Angeles Times, "the run-in with regulators was part of a pattern for Agro-Jal Farming Enterprises, the farm in Santa Maria that pays Maldonado a six-figure salary to serve as controller. Maldonado, a telegenic former state senator, is running for the seat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to earlier this year.
Agro-Jal has accumulated dozens of violations from Cal/OSHA since 1990, hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax liens, and multiple citations for exposing workers to toxic pesticides and skirting clean water regulations, government records show. Four of the violations were for running tractors across the fields with no driver at the wheel and no means of steering or stopping the machines.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the lieutenant governor said in an e-mail, "that many of the violations against the farm are the product of overzealous regulators 'who put businesses out of business and dissuade new businesses from coming to California.'"
Lt. Governor Maldonado frequently serves as acting Governor. We need confidence that Lt. Governor Maldonado will be enforcing the law and ensuring the safety of farm workers laboring in California's fields--including his own.
Please e-mail Lt. Governor Maldonado today and encourage him to meet with UFW President Arturo Rodriguez so they can discuss how Lt. Governor Maldonado can support labor protections for farm workers that have real teeth in them.
http://action.ufw.org/maldonado
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THE LETTER:
Please go to this link to end the following letter to Lieutenant Governor Maldonado of California.
FWFWFWFWFW
Dear Lt. Governor Maldonado:
I was concerned to read today's Los Angeles times story entitled, "Lieutenant governor's family farm has had many safety violations."
In this story, you are quoted as saying, “My family never forgets that we started out as field hands.” We are writing to ask that you have an opportunity to put that memory to productive use.
It has been good politics for the Governor to allow you to take executive action when he is out of the state. Irrespective of the outcome of the November 2 election, you will have that opportunity again in the upcoming months.
While the Times reported that you assign blame for your farm’s repeated safety violations to “overzealous regulators”, our experience has been much different.
More farm workers have died from abuse at work under Governor Schwarzenegger than under any other Governor in California’s history.
We fail to see the overzealous regulators you refer to. Rather, the record points to unrepentant agricultural employers.
That record of 16 dead farm workers killed by heat, no one in jail, and fines lower than those for reckless driving indicate to us that regulations don’t work because meaningful punishment is never the consequence.
Would your farm have had a heat-illness prevention plan in place if the fine were $9,300 instead of $930?
We ask that at your earliest convenience you meet with United Farm Worker President Arturo Rodriguez. In this meeting we hope you will discuss several steps you can take as acting-Governor to honor the memory of Raul Garcia Osorno who died on your farm.
Thank you.
Labels: Abel Maldonado, American labour, California, labour., solidarity., United Farm Workers, workplace deaths, workplace safety
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CHILE USA:
MORE PRESSURE ON KROGER:
Molly has reported before on this blog about the campaign on the part of the American United Farm Workers to apply on Guimarra Vineyards via its customer Kroger. The Kroger supermarket chain claims an ethical code of conduct that it expects its suppliers to adhere to. As the following from the UFW makes plain Guimarra is in violation of this code both in its American operations and also in the 'off season' grapes it obtains from Chile. Conditions for farm workers are abysmal in both countries.
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Natures Partner Violates Kroger's Code of Conduct in Chile Too
Last week, thousands of farm worker supporters took action to tell the Kroger grocery chain* to hold a particular supplier accountable—Giumarra Vineyards, provider of Nature’s Partner produce.
In its 2010 Sustainability Report, Kroger features a Code of Conduct for its vendors which specifies standards that vendors must be able to demonstrate compliance with. As we demonstrated, Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, with its Nature’s Partner label, is not in compliance.
Now we want to share that these violations don’t stop with the California fields where grapes with the Nature Partner label are produced. The kinds of abuses workers report at Giumarra Vineyards trickle down throughout the company’s supply chain. Chilean companies that provide Giumarra with the off season produce you’ll see on Kroger’s shelves, under the Nature’s Partner label, are also out of compliance with the code.
Chilean field worker Magaly Luna describes the following:
"The first thing they tell you when you arrive at the company is that you can’t complain… they say is that ‘if you fall from the ladder this year you are of no use to me to thin the vine. You are nothing because if you limp, then what use are you? You will climb the vine, it will hurt, then you will get down. If before you made 100 vines, now you will only make 60 vines and will be of no use to me.’
"Another thing is when final paychecks are issued, we are left being owed money. We’re not paid for all of our work. We’re told the accountant will look into it, but nothing ever happens, they just keep our money."
It is clear that Kroger needs to have a much more thorough system for verifying that its suppliers are actually in compliance with its Code of Conduct. And it is important that Kroger not just take these companies’ own word at face value when it comes to verification—worker testimony must be taken into account.
Take action today by clicking on the green "participate" button on the top right and tell Kroger to find out what is really going on out in the ranches that put the food on their shelves.
* The Krogers grocery chain includes Ralphs, Food for Less, Fred Meyer, QFC, Frys, Baker’s, City Market, Dillions, Foods Co, Gerbes, Hilander, JayC Stores, King Soopers, Owen’s Market, Scotts Food & Pharmacy, Smiths Food & Drug, Smith’s Marketplace, Turkey Hill, and more.
Natures Partner Violates Kroger's Code of Conduct in Chile Too
Last week, thousands of farm worker supporters took action to tell the Kroger grocery chain* to hold a particular supplier accountable—Giumarra Vineyards, provider of Nature’s Partner produce.
In its 2010 Sustainability Report, Kroger features a Code of Conduct for its vendors which specifies standards that vendors must be able to demonstrate compliance with. As we demonstrated, Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, with its Nature’s Partner label, is not in compliance.
Now we want to share that these violations don’t stop with the California fields where grapes with the Nature Partner label are produced. The kinds of abuses workers report at Giumarra Vineyards trickle down throughout the company’s supply chain. Chilean companies that provide Giumarra with the off season produce you’ll see on Kroger’s shelves, under the Nature’s Partner label, are also out of compliance with the code.
Chilean field worker Magaly Luna describes the following:
"The first thing they tell you when you arrive at the company is that you can’t complain… they say is that ‘if you fall from the ladder this year you are of no use to me to thin the vine. You are nothing because if you limp, then what use are you? You will climb the vine, it will hurt, then you will get down. If before you made 100 vines, now you will only make 60 vines and will be of no use to me.’
"Another thing is when final paychecks are issued, we are left being owed money. We’re not paid for all of our work. We’re told the accountant will look into it, but nothing ever happens, they just keep our money."
It is clear that Kroger needs to have a much more thorough system for verifying that its suppliers are actually in compliance with its Code of Conduct. And it is important that Kroger not just take these companies’ own word at face value when it comes to verification—worker testimony must be taken into account.
Take action today by clicking on the green "participate" button on the top right and tell Kroger to find out what is really going on out in the ranches that put the food on their shelves.
* The Krogers grocery chain includes Ralphs, Food for Less, Fred Meyer, QFC, Frys, Baker’s, City Market, Dillions, Foods Co, Gerbes, Hilander, JayC Stores, King Soopers, Owen’s Market, Scotts Food & Pharmacy, Smiths Food & Drug, Smith’s Marketplace, Turkey Hill, and more.
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THE LETTER:
Please go to this link to send the following letter to Kroger management about this violation of their code of ethics.
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Dear Mr. Dillon,
According to the 2010 Sustainability Report featured on Kroger's website, your company expects its vendors to uphold certain standards. Additionally, the report states that these vendors must provide actual proof of their compliance.
Consumers are becoming increasingly interested in the origins of their food and expect that their grocers are aware of who their suppliers truly are.
I am writing you today to inform you that one of your vendors, The Giumarra Companies with its Nature's Partner label, is not in compliance with your Code of Conduct. Farm workers have indicated there are serious violations both here in the US and also with suppliers who provide Chilean imports. Allegations against Giumarra/Nature's Partner include sexual harassment, wage and hour violations and more.
Because these allegations are so strong and the evidence is mounting, I ask the Kroger Corporation to conduct a very thorough investigation into this company's practices and evaluate the Kroger-Giumarra relationship based on your findings. It is not enough to take this company's word for it--workers are speaking out and we hope Kroger is ready to listen.
Sincerely,
Labels: American labour, Chile, Giumarra Corporation, international labour, Krogers, labour., solidarity., United Farm Workers, USA
Thursday, September 02, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR:
TELL KROGERS TO DEMAND PROOF:
The United Farm Workers (UFW) have fought long and hard to unionize grape pickers at Giumarra Vineyards and improve the dismal working conditions there. As part of their campaign they have pressured Giumarra customers such as the Krogers grocery chain to live up to their ethical business statements in respect to Giumarra. The UFW have launched yet another public appeal for customers to demand that businesses such as Kroger live up to their statements and demand proof from the likes of Giumarra Vineyards. Here's the story and appeal from the UFW.
ALALALALAL
Krogers lets Giumarra violate their code of conduct
Since the beginning of this year, clergy and farm worker supporters have been expressing concern to the Kroger grocery chain (which includes Ralphs, Food for Less, Fred Meyer, QFC, Frys, Baker's, City Market, Dillions, Foods Co, Gerbes, Hilander, JayC Stores, King Soopers, Owen's Market, Scotts Food & Pharmacy, Smiths Food & Drug, Smith's Marketplace, Turkey Hill, and more) over widespread accounts of worker abuse at Giumarra Vineyards. Giumarra supplies Kroger with table grapes and other fruits and vegetables under their Nature's Partner label. Concerned consumers nationwide have sent letters, e-mails and even met with company representatives in order to urge Kroger to hold Giumarra accountable. Kroger has failed to respond. Take a moment to let this retail giant know that they have a responsibility to uphold the standards they have set for their vendors.
In its 2010 Sustainability Report, Kroger features a Code of Conduct for its vendors (page 19). In addition to listing out standards for suppliers, the code states that vendors must be able to demonstrate compliance. But, according to worker testimony, Giumarra is NOT in compliance:
☼Workers may not be exposed to unreasonably hazardous, unsafe, or unhealthy conditions.
Giumarra worker Juana Estrada describes an incident where the company was spraying a sulfur-smelling chemical near workers picking grapes: "It turned out that they were spraying, but by then some people were vomiting, others were feeling dizzy or had headaches."
☼The workplace must be free from harassment, which includes sexually coercive, threatening, abusive or exploitative conduct or behavior or harassment because of one's race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, or sexual orientation.
EEOC v. Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, et al, Case No. 1:09-cv-02255: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit that Giumarra Vineyards Corporation violated federal law by subjecting a teenage female farm worker to sexual harassment. Further, the EEOC said, the company retaliated against a group of other farm workers who came to her aid at its Edison, Calif., facility. All of the victims identified in the lawsuit are indigenous Indians from Mexico.
Krogers lets Giumarra violate their code of conduct
Since the beginning of this year, clergy and farm worker supporters have been expressing concern to the Kroger grocery chain (which includes Ralphs, Food for Less, Fred Meyer, QFC, Frys, Baker's, City Market, Dillions, Foods Co, Gerbes, Hilander, JayC Stores, King Soopers, Owen's Market, Scotts Food & Pharmacy, Smiths Food & Drug, Smith's Marketplace, Turkey Hill, and more) over widespread accounts of worker abuse at Giumarra Vineyards. Giumarra supplies Kroger with table grapes and other fruits and vegetables under their Nature's Partner label. Concerned consumers nationwide have sent letters, e-mails and even met with company representatives in order to urge Kroger to hold Giumarra accountable. Kroger has failed to respond. Take a moment to let this retail giant know that they have a responsibility to uphold the standards they have set for their vendors.
In its 2010 Sustainability Report, Kroger features a Code of Conduct for its vendors (page 19). In addition to listing out standards for suppliers, the code states that vendors must be able to demonstrate compliance. But, according to worker testimony, Giumarra is NOT in compliance:
☼Workers may not be exposed to unreasonably hazardous, unsafe, or unhealthy conditions.
Giumarra worker Juana Estrada describes an incident where the company was spraying a sulfur-smelling chemical near workers picking grapes: "It turned out that they were spraying, but by then some people were vomiting, others were feeling dizzy or had headaches."
☼The workplace must be free from harassment, which includes sexually coercive, threatening, abusive or exploitative conduct or behavior or harassment because of one's race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, or sexual orientation.
EEOC v. Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, et al, Case No. 1:09-cv-02255: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit that Giumarra Vineyards Corporation violated federal law by subjecting a teenage female farm worker to sexual harassment. Further, the EEOC said, the company retaliated against a group of other farm workers who came to her aid at its Edison, Calif., facility. All of the victims identified in the lawsuit are indigenous Indians from Mexico.
☼Workers at all times must be treated fairly with dignity and respect.
Giumarra worker Imelda Valdivia describes the following: "They put fear into the workers and so we force ourselves not to leave for water, because when the boss tells the Supervisor they stop us from working from one to two hours without pay."
Giumarra worker Imelda Valdivia describes the following: "They put fear into the workers and so we force ourselves not to leave for water, because when the boss tells the Supervisor they stop us from working from one to two hours without pay."
☼Wages paid to workers must meet or exceed legal and industry standards.
Class Action Complaint: Current and former employees of Giumarra Vineyards have filed a Federal class action lawsuit alleging that the company requires workers to work off-the-clock and provide their own tools and equipment with no reimbursement. Workers report not being paid for time spent maintaining materials necessary for harvest despite the company's requirement that they do so.
Tell Kroger to demand proof of compliance from Giumarra Vineyards--real proof. It is important that Kroger does not just take the company's word for it in the face of so much litigation and worker testimony. Let them know consumers expect true accountability.
ALALALALAL
Class Action Complaint: Current and former employees of Giumarra Vineyards have filed a Federal class action lawsuit alleging that the company requires workers to work off-the-clock and provide their own tools and equipment with no reimbursement. Workers report not being paid for time spent maintaining materials necessary for harvest despite the company's requirement that they do so.
Tell Kroger to demand proof of compliance from Giumarra Vineyards--real proof. It is important that Kroger does not just take the company's word for it in the face of so much litigation and worker testimony. Let them know consumers expect true accountability.
ALALALALAL
THE LETTER:
Please go to this link to send the following letter to Kroger management.
ALALALALAL
Dear Mr. Dillon,
According to the 2010 Sustainability Report featured on Kroger's website, your company expects its vendors to uphold certain standards. Additionally, the report states that these vendors must provide actual proof of their compliance.
I am writing you today to inform you that one of your vendors--The Giumarra Company with its' Nature's Partner label--is not in compliance with your Code of Conduct. Consumers and farm worker supporters nationwide are well aware of Giumarra's reputation as a company with outrageously unfair labor practices. You ought to be aware of the allegations against Giumarra, which include sexual harassment, wage and hour violations, worker exposure to pesticide sprayings, and more.
Because these allegations are so strong and the evidence mounting, you ought to conduct a very thorough investigation into this company's practices and evaluate the Kroger-Giumarra relationship based on your findings. It is not enough to take this company's word for it--workers are speaking out and we hope Kroger is ready to listen.
Sincerely,
Labels: American labour, Giumarra Corporation, Krogers, labour, solidarity., United Farm Workers
Thursday, July 15, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR CALIFORNIA:
SOLIDARITY WITH LAID OFF NURSERY WORKERS:
The following appeal for solidarity with laid off nursery workers in the USA comes from the United Farm Workers.
ALALALALAL
Stand in Solidarity with Laid Off Nursery Workers
Nurserymen’s Exchange is one of the nation’s largest wholesalers of nursery plants. Until recently they employed a work force of around 300. The situation at Nurserymen’s Exchange wasn’t great. There were ridiculous quotas, injuries and other problems, but workers still stuck around because it was a least a steady paycheck. Then in early July they laid off nearly half of their employees. Many of these workers were long time employees who worked with the company for decades.
Twenty-nine year employee and team leader, Lourdes Patino was one of these 132 laid off workers. She tells us to add insult to injury, the company told the employees the reason they were laid off was because there was no work for them, but in reality the company wanted to hire out of town labor contractor workers so they could pay cheap wages and no benefits. Lourdes told us she knew this because “on our last day, management told us they would give us the phone number of the farm labor contractor so we can talk to him and he could hire us to work again, paying us minimum wage and no benefits. I think it’s not fair for us because they want to bring us back to work for the minimum wage.”
Shortly after they were laid off, the workers contacted the union and we are doing all we can to help them get their jobs back. Help us take a stand to hold corporations like this accountable. A bad economy is not an excuse for sleazy behavior. Won’t you help?
Stand in Solidarity with Laid Off Nursery Workers
Nurserymen’s Exchange is one of the nation’s largest wholesalers of nursery plants. Until recently they employed a work force of around 300. The situation at Nurserymen’s Exchange wasn’t great. There were ridiculous quotas, injuries and other problems, but workers still stuck around because it was a least a steady paycheck. Then in early July they laid off nearly half of their employees. Many of these workers were long time employees who worked with the company for decades.
Twenty-nine year employee and team leader, Lourdes Patino was one of these 132 laid off workers. She tells us to add insult to injury, the company told the employees the reason they were laid off was because there was no work for them, but in reality the company wanted to hire out of town labor contractor workers so they could pay cheap wages and no benefits. Lourdes told us she knew this because “on our last day, management told us they would give us the phone number of the farm labor contractor so we can talk to him and he could hire us to work again, paying us minimum wage and no benefits. I think it’s not fair for us because they want to bring us back to work for the minimum wage.”
Shortly after they were laid off, the workers contacted the union and we are doing all we can to help them get their jobs back. Help us take a stand to hold corporations like this accountable. A bad economy is not an excuse for sleazy behavior. Won’t you help?
ALALALALAL
THE LETTER:
Please go to this link to send the following letter to Nurserymen's Exchange in California.
ALALALALAL
I am deeply disappointed in your company for laying off nearly half of your workforce--many of whom were with your company for decades. This is simply immoral. A bad economy is not an excuse for sleazy behavior. Trying to cover your company by paying workers the minimum compensation that the law requires you to pay anyway does not satisfy your responsibility to these workers.
Mass layoffs and then hiring back cheaper labor contractor workers is outrageous. Especially as it is reported that to add insult to injury, "on our last day, management told us they would give us the phone number of the farm labor contractor so we can talk to him and he could hire us to work again, paying us minimum wage and no benefits."
Immediately recall or rehire these 132 workers who have stayed loyal to your corporation through ridiculous quotas, injuries, foreman pressure and more.
Labels: American labour, California, labour, layoffs, Nurserymens Exchange, solidarity., United Farm Workers, US labour, USA
Thursday, June 24, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR CALIFORNIA:
HELP KEEP METHYL IODIDE OUT OF CALIFORNIA FIELDS:
The following appeal to help keep methyl iodide out of agricultural use in California comes from the United Farm Workers.
MIMIMIMIMIMIMI
Take Action to Keep Methyl Iodide Out of California Fields
Comment period expires in a week on June 29th
California is on the verge of approving a dangerous carcinogenic gas for use on strawberry fields and other food crops. Methyl Iodide is so toxic that scientists in labs use only small amounts and wear special protective equipment. In fact it’s so reliably carcinogenic that it’s used to induce cancer in the lab. It’s a fumigant so there is a constant threat of it drifting to farm workers and rural communities.
Yet the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is on the verge of approving its use in the fields. They are doing this despite their Independent California Scientific Review Committee (SRC) issuing a final report (PDF), which found (PDF) that "any anticipated scenario for the agricultural…use of this agent would…have a significant adverse impact on the public health."
Last Thursday a Sacramento hearing was convened by the California Senate Food and Agriculture Committee, where members of the panel testified. Dr. John Froines of UCLA who chaired the committee, said, "This is, without question, one of the most toxic chemicals on earth." DPR does not seem to be listening to the scientists they hired.
Please help. If Methyl Iodide use is approved, this toxic poison can be released directly into California’s air. We have to stop this. The DPR is accepting public comments on its proposal through June 28. Please take the time to send an e-mail to the DPR immediately and ask them not to release this toxin into our environment.
There is little to debate about Methyl Iodide’s toxicity. It is a known neurotoxin, disrupts thyroid function, damages developing fetuses, and has caused lung tumors in laboratory animals. California already classifies it as a human carcinogen. Fumigating fields with the gas, even with the strictest regulations, would no doubt still result in unacceptable exposures to farm workers and nearby communities.
We have one last chance to stop Methyl Iodide from being used in our fields. Please submit your comment today and tell DPR that we don’t want to be exposed to this poison.
Take Action to Keep Methyl Iodide Out of California Fields
Comment period expires in a week on June 29th
California is on the verge of approving a dangerous carcinogenic gas for use on strawberry fields and other food crops. Methyl Iodide is so toxic that scientists in labs use only small amounts and wear special protective equipment. In fact it’s so reliably carcinogenic that it’s used to induce cancer in the lab. It’s a fumigant so there is a constant threat of it drifting to farm workers and rural communities.
Yet the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is on the verge of approving its use in the fields. They are doing this despite their Independent California Scientific Review Committee (SRC) issuing a final report (PDF), which found (PDF) that "any anticipated scenario for the agricultural…use of this agent would…have a significant adverse impact on the public health."
Last Thursday a Sacramento hearing was convened by the California Senate Food and Agriculture Committee, where members of the panel testified. Dr. John Froines of UCLA who chaired the committee, said, "This is, without question, one of the most toxic chemicals on earth." DPR does not seem to be listening to the scientists they hired.
Please help. If Methyl Iodide use is approved, this toxic poison can be released directly into California’s air. We have to stop this. The DPR is accepting public comments on its proposal through June 28. Please take the time to send an e-mail to the DPR immediately and ask them not to release this toxin into our environment.
There is little to debate about Methyl Iodide’s toxicity. It is a known neurotoxin, disrupts thyroid function, damages developing fetuses, and has caused lung tumors in laboratory animals. California already classifies it as a human carcinogen. Fumigating fields with the gas, even with the strictest regulations, would no doubt still result in unacceptable exposures to farm workers and nearby communities.
We have one last chance to stop Methyl Iodide from being used in our fields. Please submit your comment today and tell DPR that we don’t want to be exposed to this poison.
MIMIMIMIMIMIMI
THE LETTER:
Please go to this link to send the following letter to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
MIMIMIMIMIMIMI
I am deeply concerned with the pending approval of Methyl Iodide for use on strawberries and other food crops in California. Methyl Iodide is a known human carcinogen, as well as a neurotoxin and disruptor of thyroid function. It can be especially damaging during fetal development, and it has no business being used as a fumigant in the open atmosphere.
I understand that the DPR has recently completed a study of the chemical. Scientists on the external panel that reviewed the DPR's findings on methyl iodide stated that agricultural use would ,"result in exposures to a large number of the public and thus would have a significant adverse impact on public health." I don’t understand how you can release this dangerous toxin into Californias’s environment, with these findings.
Even the strictest regulations on application will surely not prevent exposure of workers and nearby communities to this hazardous chemical.
Please do not go ahead with your proposed approval of methyl iodide. I ask the DPR to take responsibility and immediately withdraw the recommendation to approve its agricultural use. The public health of all Californians demands no less.
Labels: American labour, California, labour, methyl iodide, United Farm Workers, workplace safety
Monday, May 10, 2010
AMERICAN LABOUR:
SIGN THE PLEDGE FOR GUIMARRA WORKERS:
The United Farm Workers have been working for some time now to organize and improve working condition for farm workers at Guimarra Vineyards. They are asking consumers to "take the pledge" to stand with these workers and pressure Guimarra and their marketer Nature's Partner to treat their workers decently. Here's the story.
UFWUFWUFWUFWUFW
Sign the pledge to support Giumarra workers
With the table grape harvest just around the corner, farm workers at Giumarra urgently need a major public display of support. Consumers in this country are the ultimate power when it comes to requiring higher standards from companies--as we can always vote with our dollars. As a result of consumers raising their voice, grocery store shelves and coolers are now stocked more and more with sustainably, organically, and humanely produced and fairly traded items. We need you to raise your voice to help get the message to the mega-company Giumarra and their Nature’s Partner label. Giumarra markets their products as Nature’s Partner, but in reality they are anything but.
Data show that it only takes about 5-10% of a store’s customer base to impact purchasing decisions. Please help by signing our Giumarra/Nature’s Partner pledge. Without a push from consumers, farm workers will continue to have to deal with miserable conditions--inadequate shade and water, dangerous pesticide exposure, extremely low wages, and disrespectful treatment.
Please sign the pledge in support of the Giumarra Vineyards farm workers who are fighting to improve their conditions by getting a union contract. To pledge, go to this link and click on the gray "Submit Form" button to the right (below where you input your name, e-mail...).
Sign the pledge to support Giumarra workers
With the table grape harvest just around the corner, farm workers at Giumarra urgently need a major public display of support. Consumers in this country are the ultimate power when it comes to requiring higher standards from companies--as we can always vote with our dollars. As a result of consumers raising their voice, grocery store shelves and coolers are now stocked more and more with sustainably, organically, and humanely produced and fairly traded items. We need you to raise your voice to help get the message to the mega-company Giumarra and their Nature’s Partner label. Giumarra markets their products as Nature’s Partner, but in reality they are anything but.
Data show that it only takes about 5-10% of a store’s customer base to impact purchasing decisions. Please help by signing our Giumarra/Nature’s Partner pledge. Without a push from consumers, farm workers will continue to have to deal with miserable conditions--inadequate shade and water, dangerous pesticide exposure, extremely low wages, and disrespectful treatment.
Please sign the pledge in support of the Giumarra Vineyards farm workers who are fighting to improve their conditions by getting a union contract. To pledge, go to this link and click on the gray "Submit Form" button to the right (below where you input your name, e-mail...).
THE PLEDGE
Giumarra/Nature's Partner Pledge
I understand the power consumers have to affect change and bring about social justice. I therefore pledge my solidarity in support of farm workers at Giumarra Vineyards.
Labels: American labour, Giumarra Corporation, labour, solidarity., United Farm Workers, USA
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
AMERICAN POLITICS- ARIZONA:
PROTEST DRACONIAN ARIZONA ANTI-IMMIGRANT BILL
The following appeal to protest the recent anti-immigrant bill passed in the state of Arizona comes from the United Farm Workers Union. This bill will make the state the first in the union to declare that being an illegal immigrant is actually a crime and not just an administrative offense. It also mandates that police can stop and demand documentation from anyone they have a suspicion of being an illegal immigrant. This translates, of course, into "being brown". Sounds something like creeping totalitarianism to me. In addition the bill contains provisions that actually reach the level of bizarre. It will allow lawsuits against the police should any parties feel that they aren't enforcing the law vigorously. No direct injury need be adduced. I challenge anyone to come up with another example of such a provision anywhere in the world. Then there is another section that makes it a crime to knowingly drive an illegal immigrant. There's one exception. Those "driving illegal immigrants to church" are exempt from prosecution. I kid you not. Only in America ! Here's the appeal.
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Chilling new AZ law could be signed Friday. Take Action Now
Can you help us? An appalling bill with chilling repercussions, especially for Arizona Latinos, can reach AZ Governor Jan Brewer's (R ) desk by Friday.
According to a Los Angeles Times front page story, "The bill, known as SB 1070, makes it a misdemeanor to lack proper immigration paperwork in Arizona. It also requires police officers, if they form a 'reasonable suspicion' that someone is an illegal immigrant, to determine the person's immigration status...Immigrant rights groups say it amounts to a police state." Alessandra Soler Meetze, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said, "A lot of U.S. citizens are going to be swept up in the application of this law for something as simple as having an accent and leaving their wallet at home."
This means that anyone, even you, who walks in Arizona can be charged with a misdemeanor if you're not carrying identification to prove you are a legal resident.
The bill has just passed the Arizona House and could be on the governor's desk by Friday. Please send contact Gov. Brewer today and tell her not to sign the bill into law.
http://action.ufw.org/az410
Chilling new AZ law could be signed Friday. Take Action Now
Can you help us? An appalling bill with chilling repercussions, especially for Arizona Latinos, can reach AZ Governor Jan Brewer's (R ) desk by Friday.
According to a Los Angeles Times front page story, "The bill, known as SB 1070, makes it a misdemeanor to lack proper immigration paperwork in Arizona. It also requires police officers, if they form a 'reasonable suspicion' that someone is an illegal immigrant, to determine the person's immigration status...Immigrant rights groups say it amounts to a police state." Alessandra Soler Meetze, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said, "A lot of U.S. citizens are going to be swept up in the application of this law for something as simple as having an accent and leaving their wallet at home."
This means that anyone, even you, who walks in Arizona can be charged with a misdemeanor if you're not carrying identification to prove you are a legal resident.
The bill has just passed the Arizona House and could be on the governor's desk by Friday. Please send contact Gov. Brewer today and tell her not to sign the bill into law.
http://action.ufw.org/az410
Please go to the link above to read more and to ask the Arizona Governor not to sign this bill- Molly.
Labels: American politics, Arizona, immigrants, racism, repression, United Farm Workers, USA
Saturday, January 09, 2010
AMERICAN POLITICS:
TEXAS TEXTBOOK WAR COMING TO SHOWDOWN:
Last August Molly blogged on the present situation in the education system of the state of Texas where new "politically correct" (in a right wing sense) textbooks are aiming to eliminate all references to Hispanics from social studies texts ie pretend they never existed. As might be expected the United Farm Workers, with its heavily Hispanic membership, opposes such an attempt to falsify history. Here is a recent repeat of their appeal to join them in protest against this change.
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Stop Texas from erasing Cesar Chavez and Hispanics from school books:
We urgently need your help to stop the Texas state Board of Education from erasing Cesar Chavez and all Hispanic historical figures from public school text books. Since Texas is such a major textbook purchaser, such a move could have a nationwide impact.
We urgently need your help to stop the Texas state Board of Education from erasing Cesar Chavez and all Hispanic historical figures from public school text books. Since Texas is such a major textbook purchaser, such a move could have a nationwide impact.
This Wednesday, Jan. 13, the state board will take a preliminary vote to adopt new standards for social studies texts. These new standards would eliminate all Hispanics since the conquest of Mexico in the early 16th Century. Cesar Chavez, arguably the most important Hispanic civil rights leader of the 20th Century, is among the historical figures to be eliminated. One of Lowe’s so called "experts" said that Chavez "lacks the stature…and contributions" and should not be "held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation." Also eliminated are a number of key Texas history makers such as Irma Rangel, the first Hispanic woman elected to the state Legislature.
Board members and their appointees have complained about an "over representation of minorities" in the current social studies standards. This is ironic as Hispanics will soon comprise the majority of all Texas public school students.
Please take a few moments right now to send board Chair Lowe an e-mail. Tell the TX State Board of Education not to allow a handful of ideological extremists to revise history by eliminating people of color. Please act now.
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THE LETTER:
Please go to this link to send the following letter to the Texas Board of Education.
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We are outraged that the Texas State Board of Education is taking a preliminary vote Jan. 13 on a proposal to effectively erase Cesar Chavez and all Hispanic historical figures from the state’s public school textbooks. At a time when the majority of public school students in Texas will soon be Hispanic, how can the board allow ideological extremists to revise history by eliminating all Hispanic history makers since the 16th Century conquest of Mexico? It is important that our children learn about historical figures such as Cesar Chavez and Irma Rangel--the first Hispanic woman elected to the state Legislature.
As a supporter of the farm worker movement, please explain to me how Cesar Chavez "lacks the stature...and contributions of so many others" and should not be "held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation," as claimed by one of the "experts" advising your board?
Don’t let a handful of ideological extremists decide what is taught in the public schools by eliminating people of color. A full and accurate teaching of the diverse history of Texas is required in taxpayer-supported school textbooks.
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THE BACKGROUND:
Here's a little background on this issue from a recent edition of the Washington Monthly. Hopefully, after reading this, you may be more inclined to ass your voice to the protest campaign against this latest effort of the 'American Taliban'.
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Revisionaries
How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids’ textbooks:
By Mariah Blake
Don McLeroy is a balding, paunchy man with a thick broom-handle mustache who lives in a rambling two-story brick home in a suburb near Bryan, Texas. When he greeted me at the door one evening last October, he was clutching a thin paperback with the skeleton of a seahorse on its cover, a primer on natural selection penned by famed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr. We sat down at his dining table, which was piled high with three-ring binders, and his wife, Nancy, brought us ice water in cut-crystal glasses with matching coasters. Then McLeroy cracked the book open. The margins were littered with stars, exclamation points, and hundreds of yellow Post-its that were brimming with notes scrawled in a microscopic hand. With childlike glee, McLeroy flipped through the pages and explained what he saw as the gaping holes in Darwin’s theory. “I don’t care what the educational political lobby and their allies on the left say,” he declared at one point. “Evolution is hooey.” This bled into a rant about American history. “The secular humanists may argue that we are a secular nation,” McLeroy said, jabbing his finger in the air for emphasis. “But we are a Christian nation founded on Christian principles. The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan—he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes.” (by building up debt that has to be paid by future generations-Molly )
Views like these are relatively common in East Texas, a region that prides itself on being the buckle of the Bible Belt. But McLeroy is no ordinary citizen. The jovial creationist sits on the Texas State Board of Education, where he is one of the leaders of an activist bloc that holds enormous sway over the body’s decisions. As the state goes through the once-in-a-decade process of rewriting the standards for its textbooks, the faction is using its clout to infuse them with ultraconservative ideals. Among other things, they aim to rehabilitate Joseph McCarthy, bring global-warming denial into science class, and downplay the contributions of the civil rights movement.
Battles over textbooks are nothing new, especially in Texas, where bitter skirmishes regularly erupt over everything from sex education to phonics and new math. But never before has the board’s right wing wielded so much power over the writing of the state’s standards. And when it comes to textbooks, what happens in Texas rarely stays in Texas. The reasons for this are economic: Texas is the nation’s second-largest textbook market and one of the few biggies where the state picks what books schools can buy rather than leaving it up to the whims of local districts, which means publishers that get their books approved can count on millions of dollars in sales. As a result, the Lone Star State has outsized influence over the reading material used in classrooms nationwide, since publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the specs of the biggest buyers. As one senior industry executive told me, “Publishers will do whatever it takes to get on the Texas list.”
Until recently, Texas’s influence was balanced to some degree by the more-liberal pull of California, the nation’s largest textbook market. But its economy is in such shambles that California has put off buying new books until at least 2014. This means that McLeroy and his ultraconservative crew have unparalleled power to shape the textbooks that children around the country read for years to come.
Up until the 1950s, textbooks painted American history as a steady string of triumphs, but the upheavals of the 1960s shook up old hierarchies, and beginning in the latter part of the decade, textbook publishers scrambled to rewrite their books to make more space for women and minorities. They also began delving more deeply into thorny issues, like slavery and American interventionism. As they did, a new image of America began to take shape that was not only more varied, but also far gloomier than the old one. Author Frances FitzGerald has called this chain of events “the most dramatic rewriting of history ever to take place.”
This shift spurred a fierce backlash from social conservatives, and some began hunting for ways to fight back. In the 1960s, Norma and Mel Gabler, a homemaker and an oil-company clerk, discovered that Texas had a little-known citizen-review process that allowed the public to weigh in on textbook content. From their kitchen table in the tiny town of Hawkins, the couple launched a crusade to purge textbooks of what they saw as a liberal, secular, pro-evolution bias. When textbook adoptions rolled around, the Gablers would descend on school board meetings with long lists of proposed changes—at one point their aggregate “scroll of shame” was fifty-four feet long. They also began stirring up other social conservatives, and eventually came to wield breathtaking influence. By the 1980s, the board was demanding that publishers make hundreds of the Gablers’ changes each cycle. These ranged from rewriting entire passages to simple fixes, such as pulling the New Deal from a timeline of significant historical events (the Gablers thought it smacked of socialism) and describing the Reagan administration’s 1983 military intervention in Grenada as a “rescue” rather than an “invasion.”
To avoid tangling with the Gablers and other citizen activists, many publishers started self-censoring or allowing the couple to weigh in on textbooks in advance. In 1984, the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way analyzed new biology textbooks presented for adoption in Texas and found that, even before the school board weighed in, three made no mention of evolution. At least two of them were later adopted in other states. This was not unusual: while publishers occasionally produced Texas editions, in most cases changes made to accommodate the state appeared in textbooks around the country—a fact that remains true to this day.
The Texas legislature finally intervened in 1995, after a particularly heated skirmish over health textbooks—among other things, the board demanded that publishers pull illustrations of techniques for breast self-examination and swap a photo of a briefcase-toting woman for one of a mother baking a cake. The adoption process was overhauled so that instead of being able to rewrite books willy-nilly, the school board worked with the Texas Education Agency, the state’s department of education, to develop a set of standards. Any book that conformed and got the facts right had to be accepted, which diluted the influence of citizen activists.
Around this time, social conservatives decided to target seats on the school board itself. In 1994 the Texas Republican Party, which had just been taken over by the religious right, enlisted Robert Offutt, a conservative board member who was instrumental in overhauling the health textbooks, to recruit like-minded candidates to run against the board’s moderate incumbents. At the same time, conservative donors began pouring tens of thousands of dollars into local school board races. Among them were Wal-Mart heir John Walton and James Leininger, a hospital-bed tycoon whose largess has been instrumental in allowing religious conservatives to take charge of the machinery of Texas politics. Conservative groups, like the Christian Coalition and the Eagle Forum, also jumped into the fray and began mobilizing voters.
Part of the newcomers’ strategy was bringing bare-knuckle politics into what had been low-key local races. In the run-up to the 1994 election, Leininger’s political action committee, Texans for Governmental Integrity, sent out glossy flyers suggesting that one Democratic incumbent—a retired Methodist schoolteacher and grandmother of five—was a pawn of the “radical homosexual lobby” who wanted to push steroids and alcohol on children and advocated in-class demonstrations on “how to masturbate and how to get an abortion!” The histrionics worked, and the group quickly picked off a handful of Democrats. The emboldened bloc then set its sights on Republicans who refused to vote in lockstep. “Either you’d hippity-hop, or they would throw whatever they could at you,” says Cynthia A. Thornton, a conservative Republican and former board member, who refers to the bloc as “the radicals.”
It took more than a decade of fits and starts, but the strategy eventually paid off. After the 2006 election, Republicans claimed ten of fifteen board seats. Seven were held by the ultra-conservatives, and one by a close ally, giving them an effective majority. Among the new cadre were some fiery ideologues; in her self-published book, Cynthia Dunbar of Richmond rails against public education, which she dubs “tyrannical” and a “tool of perversion,” and says sending kids to public school is like “throwing them into the enemy’s flames.” (More recently, she has accused Barack Obama of being a terrorist sympathizer and suggested he wants America to be attacked so he can declare martial law.) Then in 2007 Governor Rick Perry appointed Don McLeroy, a suburban dentist and longstanding bloc member, as board chairman. This passing of the gavel gave the faction unprecedented power just as the board was gearing up for the once-in-a-decade process of rewriting standards for every subject.
McLeroy has flexed his muscle particularly brazenly in the struggle over social studies standards. When the process began last January, the Texas Education Agency assembled a team to tackle each grade. In the case of eleventh-grade U.S. history, the group was made up of classroom teachers and history professors—that is, until McLeroy added a man named Bill Ames. Ames—a volunteer with the ultra- conservative Eagle Forum and Minuteman militia member who occasionally publishes angry screeds accusing “illegal immigrant aliens” of infesting America with diseases or blasting the “environmentalist agenda to destroy America”—pushed to infuse the standards with his right-wing views and even managed to add a line requiring books to give space to conservative icons, “such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority,” without any liberal counterweight. But for the most part, the teachers on the team refused to go along. So Ames put in a call to McLeroy, who demanded to see draft standards for every grade and then handed them over to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank founded by his benefactor, James Leininger. The group combed through the papers and compiled a list of seemingly damning omissions. Among other things, its analysts claimed that the writing teams had stripped out key historical figures like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Pat Hardy, a Republican board member who has sat in on some of the writing-team meetings, insists this isn’t true. “No one was trying to remove George Washington!” she says. “That group took very preliminary, unfinished documents and drew all kinds of wrongheaded conclusions.”
Nevertheless, the allegations drummed up public outrage, and in April the board voted to stop the writing teams’ work and bring in a panel of experts to guide the process going forward—“expert,” in this case, meaning any person on whom two board members could agree. In keeping with the makeup of the board, three of the six people appointed were right-wing ideologues, among them Peter Marshall, a Massachusetts-based preacher who has argued that California wildfires and Hurricane Katrina were God’s punishment for tolerating gays, and David Barton, former vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party. Both men are self-styled historians with no relevant academic training—Barton’s only credential is a bachelor’s degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University—who argue that the wall of separation between church and state is a myth.
When the duo testified before the board in September, Barton, a lanky man with a silver pompadour, brought along several glass display cases stuffed with rare documents that illustrate America’s Christian heritage, among them a battered leather Bible that was printed by the Congress of the Confederation in 1782, a scrap of yellowing paper with a biblical poem scrawled by John Quincy Adams, and a stack of rusty printing plates for McGuffey Readers, popular late-1800s school books with a strong Christian bent. When he took to the podium that afternoon, Barton flashed a PowerPoint slide showing thick metal chains. “I really like the analogy of a chain—that we have all these chains that run through American history,” he explained in his rapid-fire twang. But, he added, in the draft social studies standards, the governmental history chain was riddled with gaps. “We don’t mention 1638, the first written constitution in America … the predecessor to the U.S. Constitution,” he noted as a hot pink “1638” popped up on the screen. By this he meant the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which called for a government based on the “Rule of the Word of God.” Barton proceeded to rattle off roughly a dozen other documents that pointed up the theocratic leaning of early American society, as the years appeared in orange or pink along the length of the chain.
Barton’s goal is to pack textbooks with early American documents that blend government and religion, and paint them as building blocks of our Constitution. In so doing, he aims to blur the fact that the Constitution itself cements a wall of separation between church and state. But his agenda does not stop there. He and the other conservative experts also want to scrub U.S. history of its inconvenient blemishes—if they get their way, textbooks will paint slavery as a relic of British colonialism that America struggled to cast off from day one and refer to our economic system as “ethical capitalism.” They also aim to redeem Communist hunter Joseph McCarthy, a project McLeroy endorses. As he put it in a memo to one of the writing teams, “Read the latest on McCarthy—He was basically vindicated.”
On the global front, Barton and company want textbooks to play up clashes with Islamic cultures, particularly where Muslims were the aggressors, and to paint them as part of an ongoing battle between the West ("western extremists" perhaps-Molly ) and Muslim extremists. Barton argues, for instance, that the Barbary wars, a string of skirmishes over piracy that pitted America against Ottoman vassal states in the 1800s, were the “original war against Islamic Terrorism.” What’s more, the group aims to give history a pro-Republican slant—the most obvious example being their push to swap the term “democratic” for “republican” when describing our system of government. Barton, who was hired by the GOP to do outreach to black churches in the run-up to the 2004 election, has argued elsewhere that African Americans owe their civil rights almost entirely to Republicans and that, given the “atrocious” treatment blacks have gotten at the hands of Democrats, “it might be much more appropriate that … demands for reparations were made to the Democrat Party rather than to the federal government.” He is trying to shoehorn this view into textbooks, partly by shifting the focus of black history away from the civil rights era to the post-Reconstruction period, when blacks were friendlier with Republicans.
Barton and Peter Marshall initially tried to purge the standards of key figures of the civil rights era, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall, though they were forced to back down amid a deafening public uproar. They have since resorted to a more subtle tack; while they concede that people like Martin Luther King Jr. deserve a place in history, they argue that they shouldn’t be given credit for advancing the rights of minorities. As Barton put it, “Only majorities can expand political rights in America’s constitutional society.” Ergo, any rights people of color have were handed to them by whites—in his view, mostly white Republican men.
While the writing teams have so far made only modest concessions to the ideologue experts, the board has final say over the documents’ contents, and the ultraconservative bloc has made it clear that it wants its experts’ views to get prominent play—a situation the real experts find deeply unsettling. While in Texas, I paid a visit to James Kracht, a soft-spoken professor with a halo of fine white hair, who is a dean at Texas A&M University’s school of education. Kracht oversaw the writing of Texas’s social studies standards in the 1990s and is among the experts tapped by the board’s moderates this time around. I asked him how he thought the process was going. “I have to be careful what I say,” he replied, looking vaguely sheepish. “But when the door is closed and I’m by myself, I yell and scream and pound on the wall.”
There has already been plenty of screaming and wall pounding in the battles over standards for other subjects. In late 2007, the English language arts writing teams, made up mostly of teachers and curriculum planners, turned in the drafts they had been laboring over for more than two years. The ultraconservatives argued that they were too light on basics like grammar and too heavy on reading comprehension and critical thinking. “This critical-thinking stuff is gobbledygook,” grumbled David Bradley, an insurance salesman with no college degree, who often acts as the faction’s enforcer. At the bloc’s urging, the board threw out the teams’ work and hired an outside consultant to craft new standards from scratch, but the faction still wasn’t satisfied; when the new drafts came in, one adherent dismissed them as “unreadable” and “mangled.” In the end, they took matters into their own hands. The night before the final vote in May 2008, two members of the bloc, Gail Lowe and Barbara Cargill, met secretly and cobbled together yet another version. The documents were then slipped under their allies’ hotel-room doors, and the bloc forced through a vote the following morning before the other board members even had a chance to read them. Bradley argued that the whole ordeal was necessary because the writing teams had clung to their own ideas rather than deferring to the board. “I don’t think this will happen again, because they got spanked,” he added.
A similar scenario played out during the battle over science standards, which reached a crescendo in early 2009. Despite the overwhelming consensus among scientists that climate change exists, the group rammed through a last-minute amendment requiring students to “analyze and evaluate different views on the existence of global warming.” This, in essence, mandates the teaching of climate-change denial. What’s more, they scrubbed the standards of any reference to the fact that the universe is roughly fourteen billion years old, because this timeline conflicts with biblical accounts of creation.
McLeroy and company had also hoped to require science textbooks to address the “strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories, including evolution. Scientists see the phrase, which was first slipped into Texas curriculum standards in the 1980s, as a back door for bringing creationism into science class. But as soon as news broke that the board was considering reviving it, letters began pouring in from scientists around the country, and science professors began turning out en masse to school board hearings. During public testimony, one biologist arrived at the podium in a Victorian-era gown, complete with a flouncy pink bustle, to remind her audience that in the 1800s religious fundamentalists rejected the germ theory of disease; it has since gained near-universal acceptance. All this fuss made the bloc’s allies skittish, and when the matter finally went to the floor last March, it failed by a single vote.
But the struggle did not end there. McLeroy piped up and chided his fellow board members, saying, “Somebody’s gotta stand up to [these] experts!” He and his allies then turned around and put forward a string of amendments that had much the same effect as the “strengths and weaknesses” language. Among other things, they require students to evaluate various explanations for gaps in the fossil record and weigh whether natural selection alone can account for the complexity of cells. This mirrors the core arguments of the intelligent design movement: that life is too complex to be the result of unguided evolution, and that the fossil evidence for evolution between species is flimsy. The amendments passed by a wide margin, something McLeroy counts as a coup. “Whoo-eey!” he told me. “We won the Grand Slam, and the Super Bowl, and the World Cup! Our science standards are light years ahead of any other state when it comes to challenging evolution!” Scientists are not so enthusiastic. My last night in Texas, I met David Hillis, a MacArthur Award–winning evolutionary biologist who advised the board on the science standards, at a soul-food restaurant in Austin. “Clearly, some board members just wanted something they could point to so they could reject science books that don’t give a nod to creationism,” he said, stabbing his okra with a fork. “If they are able to use those standards to reject science textbooks, they have won and science has lost.”
Even in deeply conservative Texas, the bloc’s breathtaking hubris—coupled with allegations of vote swapping (see “Money and Power on the Texas State Board of Education”)—have spurred a backlash. In May, the Texas state legislature refused to confirm McLeroy as board chair (Governor Perry replaced him with another bloc member), and, for the first time since he took office in 1998, he is facing a primary fight. His challenger, Thomas Ratliff, a lobbyist and legislative consultant whose father was the state’s lieutenant governor, argues that under McLeroy’s leadership the board has become a “liability” to the Republican Party. Two other members of the ultraconservative bloc are also mired in heated primary battles.
But to date few bloc members have been ousted in primaries, and even if moderates manage to peel off a few seats, by that time it will probably be too late. In mid-January, the board will meet to hammer out the last details of the standards for social studies, the only remaining subject, and the final vote will be held in March, around the same time the first primary ballots are counted. This means that no matter what happens at the ballot box, the next generation of textbooks will likely bear the fingerprints of the board’s ultraconservatives—which is just fine with McLeroy. “Remember Superman?” he asked me, as we sat sipping ice water in his dining room. “The never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way? Well, that fight is still going on. There are people out there who want to replace truth with political correctness. Instead of the American way they want multiculturalism. We plan to fight back—and, when it comes to textbooks, we have the power to do it. Sometimes it boggles my mind the kind of power we have.”
Labels: American politics, education, fundamentalism, religious right, school textbooks, solidarity., Texas, United Farm Workers, USA
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
AMERICAN LABOUR/ENVIRONMENT:
CHILDREN ARE NOT "PESTS":
The following story and appeal to pressure the US EPA about the use of farm pesticides near to schools and residential areas comes from the United Farm Workers.
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Help Protect Children From Toxic Pesticides:
Luis Medellin and his three little sisters, aged 5, 9 and 12, live in the middle of an orange grove in Lindsay, CA--a small farming town in the Central Valley. During the growing season, Luis and his sisters are awakened several times a week by the sickly smell of nighttime pesticide spraying. What follows is worse: searing headaches, nausea, vomiting.
Help Protect Children From Toxic Pesticides:
Luis Medellin and his three little sisters, aged 5, 9 and 12, live in the middle of an orange grove in Lindsay, CA--a small farming town in the Central Valley. During the growing season, Luis and his sisters are awakened several times a week by the sickly smell of nighttime pesticide spraying. What follows is worse: searing headaches, nausea, vomiting.
The Medellin family’s story is not unique. From apple orchards in Washington to potato fields in Florida, drifting poisonous pesticides plague the people who live nearby--posing a particular risk to the young children of the nation's farm workers, many of whom live in industry housing at the field's edge.
This situation also often exists in schools in agricultural areas where it's not uncommom to have a school next to a field. According to a November 7 article in the Salinas Californian, "When schools use pesticides on campus, they post a warning a day before. But when acres of farmland next to classrooms are sprayed with industrial-grade chemicals, often no sign goes up."
Gonzales resident Aurora Valdez said she's fearful pesticides sprayed near Gonzales High School, where her kids attend classes, will harm her teenage sons. She said she often prays to the Virgin of Guadalupe to keep her sons from experiencing what she said her husband, Francisco, went through 12 years ago after being exposed to pesticides. "I worry constantly about pesticides," Valdez said.
That's why the UFW and a coalition of environmental groups petitioned the government to set safety standards protecting children who grow up near farms from the harmful effects of pesticide drift--the toxic spray or vapor that travels from treated fields. We're also asking officials to immediately adopt no-spray buffer zones around homes, schools, parks and daycare centers for the most dangerous and drift-prone pesticides.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken the first step in addressing this problem--opening up the petition for public comment. It's a promising sign. The agency's leadership needs to hear that you think they're on the right track. Because they'll surely be getting an earful from the pesticide industry telling them to keep the status quo. In fact, industry interests like Monsanto and CropLife have already started weighing in. If we want EPA to do the right thing and put immediate pesticide buffers in place around homes, schools, daycare centers and playgrounds, we need to push back. Please help.
In the past, the EPA has not made this issue a priority--ignoring a law Congress passed that requires the agency to protect children from all exposures to pesticide, including pesticide drift. The agency is already three years overdue in setting safety standards that protect children from drift. But there is new hope with the Obama administration. Will you please add your voice to those calling for a change?
Thank you!
http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/drift
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THE LETTER:
Please go to the link above to send the following letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
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We appreciate the opportunity to submit comments on the Petition to Protect Children From Pesticide Drift and the Draft Guidance for Pesticide Registrants on Pesticide Drift Labeling.
After years of delay under the previous administration, I am heartened to see the first step toward making sure all of our nation's children are protected from exposure to pesticides.
After years of delay under the previous administration, I am heartened to see the first step toward making sure all of our nation's children are protected from exposure to pesticides.
In 1996, Congress required the EPA to set standards by 2006 to protect children from pesticides. This deadline passed 3 years ago and the job is only partially complete. It?s great that the EPA has made some progress banning the use of some pesticides in the home and on lawns.
However, you also must protect children from these same pesticides when they drift from treated fields into nearby yards, homes, schools, parks and daycare centers. The threat to children is real and these risks must be fully evaluated.
The EPA must adopt immediate protective buffers. Without these protective buffers, children face the risk of drift exposure to such dangerous pesticides. This is simply unacceptable and must be stopped now.
Finally, the proposed general label warnings, while welcome, are not adequate alone to protect children from pesticide drift. Please adopt immediate protective buffers for the most dangerous pesticides. It may be many years before this process is complete--and children are being threatened by exposure to pesticide drift right now.
Thank you for the opportunity to submit these comments. I urge you not to let another growing season go by without taking action. The children who live, play, and go to school near our nation's fields and orchards are counting on you to protect them.
Labels: American labour, environment, EPA, labour, pesticides, toxic chemicals, United Farm Workers, USA
Friday, October 16, 2009
AMERICAN LABOUR:
THE GRAPES OF....WALMART:
Molly has reported before on the struggle of the United Farm Workers for justice for the agricultural workers employed by the Giumarra company. Here's the latest front in this campaign. The UFW are asking you to pressure the dreaded WalMart to demand responsibility from their main grape supplier- Giumarra. I dunno. Sorta like demanding that Hitler ask Mussolini to be more humane. (Actually such a thing did happen-once-in the course of the Second World War when the Nazis were offended by the brutality of the Vatican/Italian backed Ustasi in Yugoslavia)Worth a try anyways, as it is only part of a much larger campaign.
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No smiley faces for Nature's Partner:
Tell Walmart to stop its supplier Giumarra's unlawful behavior
Walmart says it wants you to live better. But they apparently don't feel the same way about the workers who pick the grapes and other produce they sell in their stores. They sell grapes and other produce from Giumarra's Nature’s Partner label--despite knowing that this mega company abuses the grape workers who work in their vineyards.
Giumarra harvests approximately 1 out of every 10 bunches of grapes picked in the US. In addition they are a major label of imported and domestic produce. Combined with the market power of the Walmart behemoth, this huge conglomerate helps set the industry standard.
How does Giumarra abuse its workers? Here's an example. California law says a person needs to make twice the minimum wage before they can be required to buy equipment necessary to do their job. Giumarra workers make minimum wage plus on a good day perhaps an additional $8 a day piece rate bonus. Giumarra knows this law, but does that keep them from violating it? Not according to many workers we've spoken to.
Farm worker Monica Martinez, who has worked at Giumarra for the last ten years, tells the story:
"The equipment--gloves and scissors for grapes and other items--we must buy ourselves without any type of reimbursement or compensation. In 2005, after the election, they gave us the equipment for a while and then they stopped. Now they only give it when they want to. There are times when we need gloves and no one provides them. Making us work without gloves ruins our hands."
Enough is enough. Giumarra's illegal behavior must be stopped.
As a key buyer of Giumarra's imported and domestic produce--including grapes--Walmart has the ability to influence this produce giant. Please send Walmart an e-mail today and demand they exercise control over their suppliers by telling Giumarra/Nature's Partner to demonstrate corporate responsibility.
http://www.ufwaction.org/ct/n1zuCuF1DQa4/takeaction
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THE LETTER
Please go to the link above or to THIS LINK to send the following letter to WalMart.
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Walmart says it wants customers to "Save Money, Live Better". However, your good wishes do not appear to extend to the workers who pick the grapes and other produce you sell in your stores, because you sell produce under the "Nature's Partner" label from Giumarra--a company with a shameful record of abusing the grape workers who work in their vineyards.
Giumarra has a history of intimidating and bullying workers. Back in 2005, Giumarra's unlawful interference forced a union election to be thrown out by an administrative judge. This company's history with worker protection is also dismal with at least two farm workers dying from heat-related causes while laboring in their fields.
As a consumer, the "Nature's Partner" label doesn't mean good produce to me; it means produce brought to my table by a company, Giumarra, that consistently violates its workers' rights and endangers their lives.
Walmart can and should demand better from its suppliers. I ask you to exercise control over your suppliers by telling Giumarra/Nature's Partner to act responsibly towards its workers.
Labels: American labour, farmworkers, Giumarra Corporation, labour, solidarity., United Farm Workers, Wal-Mart
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
AMERICAN LABOUR:
MORE PRESSURE ON GIUMARRA:
The Giumarra Corporation is the world's largest supplier of table grapes. Despite their size and profitability they are determined to squeeze every last cent of profit out of their workers. The campaign of the United Farm Workers against abuses by this corporation was mentioned earlier this month on this blog. Here's another appeal from the UFW to sign their online petition against this high handed way of treating workers.
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We're almost there. Won't you help?:
We've been telling you about the situation that exists at Giumarra vineyards and the online petition we launched for the workers. Our goal is to get 25,000 signatures by the end of the month.
We've been telling you about the situation that exists at Giumarra vineyards and the online petition we launched for the workers. Our goal is to get 25,000 signatures by the end of the month.
We are almost there. With the number of signatures supporters have committed to turning into us this week, we have more than 23,000. We just have approximately 2,000 more signatures to go.
Please help: Sign the petition demanding that Giumarra treat its workers with dignity and respect!
Approximately one out of every ten bunches of grapes picked in the U.S. comes from workers for a single company--Giumarra. Yet, for all their hard work, Giumarra has for years refused to treat those workers with even the most basic level of respect.
Farm workers should have the same rights as everyone else. It's time Giumarra got that message loud and clear. Help pump up the volume by signing the workers’ online petition today.
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THE PETITION
Please go to THIS LINK to sign the following online petition to the Giumarra Corporation. Show them that the world is watching.
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Full Petition Text:
I am astonished and dismayed at the length that Giumarra goes to in order to keep workers under control. It reflects negatively on your company and the Giumarra Corporation's new label, Nature's Partner.
Full Petition Text:
I am astonished and dismayed at the length that Giumarra goes to in order to keep workers under control. It reflects negatively on your company and the Giumarra Corporation's new label, Nature's Partner.
Giumarra has a history of intimidating and bullying workers. Back in 2006, Giumarra's unlawful interference forced a union election to be thrown out by an administrative judge. Your history with worker protection is also dismal with two farm workers dying from heat-related causes while laboring in your fields. While charges are being filed left and right, your company continues to violate the law.
Instead of moving forth in a new era, under your new label, you have chosen to rise to new levels of bad behavior. Using this tactic to force workers to pick faster under triple digit temperatures or to retaliate against a worker who has the nerve to question a supervisor is just wrong. How can you be Nature's Partner when your absurd quotas and intimidation force workers to endure the searing sun and go without water, shade and breaks?
It's time for your company to realize that you are not above the law. The consumers of Giumarra and your new Nature's Partner label are watching you. Treat the workers laboring in your fields with dignity and respect and stop retaliating against UFW supporters.
Sincerely:
Sincerely:
Labels: American labour, farmworkers, Giumarra Corporation, labour, solidarity., United Farm Workers, USA
Friday, September 25, 2009
AMERICAN LABOUR:
THE LEGACY OF BUSH:
"The evil that me no lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones"
-Billy
The following appeal is from the United Farm Workers in the USA, and they want you to add your voice to the chorus for removal of one of the last evil acts of the reign of Emperor George Bush II.
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Help overturn Bush Administration's devastating H2A regulations:
Comment period ends Oct 5
Early this year we told you about the terrible actions taken by the Bush administration to change the regulations on H-2A guest worker program. The Bush administration regulations became effective on January 17 and have made devastating changes for farm workers.
Comment period ends Oct 5
Early this year we told you about the terrible actions taken by the Bush administration to change the regulations on H-2A guest worker program. The Bush administration regulations became effective on January 17 and have made devastating changes for farm workers.
Thousands of vulnerable farm workers in the United States—including both domestic and foreign workers--have suffered lower wages, lost benefits, reduced enforcement of their labor rights and lack of government oversight. The UFW, Farmworker Justice, PCUN and other farm worker organizations have challenged the legality of these regulations.
The H-2A agricultural guest worker program is supposed to ensure that U.S. workers are offered decent wages and working conditions before employers are permitted to hire foreign guest workers based on claimed labor shortages. But the Bush Administration’s changes gave agricultural employers access to cheap foreign labor with little government oversight.
On September 3rd, Department of Labor Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced a proposal to restore labor protections to the H-2A guest worker program.
It is absolutely essential that farm workers’ voices be heard in numbers as growers will fight to keep laws that do not protect farm workers.
Please take action today and submit a comment to the Department of Labor. Then take an extra step and ask your friends, colleagues and family to submit comments as well.
Help us fight for farm workers’ interests and overturn these harmful rules.
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THE LETTER:
Please go to THIS LINK to send the following letter to the US Department of Labour.
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We join the UFW and other farm worker organizations in supporting changes to the H-2A guest worker program regulations. The terrible actions taken by the Bush administration to change these regulations have made devastating changes for farm workers.
Thousands of vulnerable farm workers in the United States--including both domestic and foreign workers--have suffered lower wages, lost benefits, reduced enforcement of their labor rights and lack of government oversight.
The H-2A agricultural guest worker program is supposed to ensure that U.S. workers are offered decent wages and working conditions before employers are permitted to hire foreign guest workers based on claimed labor shortages. But the Bush Administration's changes gave agricultural employers access to cheap foreign labor with little government oversight.
The Bush wage provisions adopted a badly chosen method for the deliberate effect of lowering workers' pay. Many workers suffered a $2.00 per hour wage cut this season.
We support the reinstatement of the job preference for U.S. workers, the minimum-work guarantee and other processes and protections. We also support the effort to regulate employers' use of farm labor contractors who recruit and hire guestworkers for the benefit of employers. However, more must be done to stop the victimization of guestworkers during recruitment abroad. The employers must be responsible for what their recruiters promise.
It is essential that the administration immediately overturn negative changes made last January. Farmworkers should not be forced to suffer another season under these unfair and unlawful policies.
Thank you.
Labels: American labour, American politics, farmworkers, George Bush, guest workers, immigrants, labour, solidarity., United Farm Workers
