Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #wefeedyou

Most recents (15)

As you gather with friends and family this Thanksgiving, think about the farm workers who contributed to each dish. Tell us your favorite ingredients and we will show you the skilled work behind it. #WeFeedYou
While we wait for your submissions, you can donate here to fund change all year long: ufw.org/thanksgiving20…
Read through the comments below- we will continue to reply to your requests. We want to help you understand exactly what it takes to stock your kitchen and fill your #Thanksgiving table. #WeFeedYou
Read 3 tweets
As you shop and prepare your #Thanksgiving meals, we'd like you to know a little more about the work behind the ingredients and the people doing that work to put food on our tables.

Here's a thread for everyone who wants to thank a farm worker this week.

#WeFeedYou
Veggies make great sides on the #Thanksgiving table.

Here Teresa harvests beets in the Oxnard area. She spends her 8 hour workday on her knees on the damp earth.

#WeFeedYou
Sweet potatoes are mostly unearthed by harvesting machinery but then cleaned and sorted by hand. Here’s a video Raquel sent from Livingston, CA. #WeFeedYou
Read 30 tweets
Ever wonder where broccoli in your cruidité comes from? This is how it’s harvested. #WeFeedYou
Check out this carrot harvest! FYI: Produce doesn’t show up in Wegman’s by magic.
Unrelated (because it doesn’t belong in crudité) but if you’re curious, this is how asparagus is harvested.
Read 5 tweets
🚨OK JORTSDOM: I need ALL of you to step up for farm workers. On Cesar Chavez Day (3/31) United Farm Workers asked CA Governor Newsom to meet with them… and HE SAID NO.

They have a really important message, so we have to help them be heard. They feed us! A graphic with an orange cat holding a United Farm Workers f
What could POSSIBLY be more important on Cesar Chavez Day than meeting with the farm workers?!

Here’s a link where you can find and sign up for your local action on March 31. If the events aren’t local, join remotely or have your OWN event where you are!
bit.ly/jortsUFW A graphic with an orange cat holding a United Farm Workers f
Days like Cesar Chavez Day can turn into a mess of vague lip service instead of a day of service and action.

Set a calendar reminder for 3/31 to boost what the farmworker movement is doing now, with the union Cesar Chavez helped found. Sign up here: bit.ly/jortsUFW A photograph of farm workers holding UFW flags and signs alo
Read 5 tweets
As you are shopping, prepping and preparing your Thanksgiving meals, we'd like you to know a little more about the work behind every ingredient and the people doing that work.

Here's a thread for everyone who wants to thank a farm worker this week. #WeFeedYou
Many wine grape workers are paid piece rate, a set amount per unit harvested. Piece rates make heat dangerous as workers are less likely to take breaks. Fortino works under a union contract with @SteMichelle, a WA employer that takes worker safety (including heat) very seriously.
Esteban is paid minimum wage for his work in muddy, wet fields cutting pumpkin vines. Other workers will collect and sort the pumpkins by size.

Pumpkin (like okra and cucumber) has tiny hairs on the vines that are irritating to the skin and eyes.
Read 46 tweets
Just one day into farm workers’ march for Gov. @GavinNewsom’s signature, he has vetoed #AB616.

Workers are now marching towards the French Laundry, hoping to finally meet with the Governor.
Farm workers have been asking for a meeting with @CAgovernor since early June to discuss #AB616, without success.

AB616 would have allowed farm workers to form a union by casting a secret ballot in many of the same ways CA voters did in the recall. 2/
We will try again to meet with Gov. @GavinNewsom.

We will explain why this bill is as important to us as the Voting Choice Act was to the governor. #WeFeedYou
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Happy Labor Day.
Happy Labor Day. #WeFeedYou
Happy Labor Day. #WeFeedYou
Read 20 tweets
We often get asked why we cover our skin even in hot weather. Why do we need long pants, long sleeves and head/face coverings in 100+ weather?

Reason one: health experts advise anyone to dress in light layers to keep cool when working in the sun. (1/thread) #WeFeedYou
Even pre-covid, we covered our faces to protect ourselves from inhaled irritants and toxins. Pesticides, dust, or even crop debris such as the tiny hairs on okra vines can damage lungs. So can Valley Fever, a fungal infection caused by inhaled particles. aghealth.ucdavis.edu/news/research-…
Some crops are toxic in themselves, like tobacco. Handling fresh tobacco is hazardous — nicotine is readily absorbed through the skin and it is neurotoxic.

This is particularly dangerous to children (and yes it is legal for children to harvest tobacco). theatlantic.com/family/archive…
Read 10 tweets
WA does not require employers to provide us with the heat protections needed to save our lives. This must change.

It’s cherry season so conditions are incredibly dangerous. With labor needs at peak, workers from 12 years old to 70+ are out working. High tomorrow of 118° here. 1/
OR is in the process of creating better rules to protect us against heat injury, but the process won’t be finalized until September.

In the meantime, will farm workers die preventable deaths? These are unprecedented temperatures.
We are grateful to the volunteers helping us do emergency outreach, checking on worksites and distributing information, water and electrolytes.

Many are vineyard workers who are using a day off, helping migrant workers employed in other sectors. They shouldn’t need to do that.
Read 7 tweets
It’s peak cherry season in WA— so TEN MILLION pounds of cherries are being harvested each day, in this brutal, record-breaking heat wave.

Heat like this is hard on cherries and it’s even harder on the workers harvesting them. It’s terrifying.
(1/thread) seattletimes.com/seattle-news/w…
Cherries shrivel in extreme heat, so there’s pressure to harvest them as fast as possible.
Temps will reach 115* this week and even overnight it stays warm.

Heat like this can be fatal. In WA it’s legal to house workers in tents so the exposure is 24/7. nytimes.com/2020/08/12/mag…
Many folks know the risks and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. For most people, knowing what it takes to walk out the door and not die *today* is enough.

For us, it isn’t enough. The damage to our bodies is ongoing.
farmworkerjustice.org/blog-post/new-…
Read 10 tweets
Thread: Ever think about the logistics of the food on your plate and the human costs of our food supply? #WeFeedYou
When it rains, workers either wait (unpaid) for the storm to lift, or go to work in the rain among slippery, muddy rows. If they’re paid a piece rate, the work is slower but the piece rate stays the same.
When you see workers jogging, that’s because of piece rate economics. The rows are slippery, and the crates are also heavier. Sometimes double the weight.
Read 16 tweets
We not only need to open a path to citizenship for undocumented essential workers, we need to expedite it. #WeFeedYou
“Hundreds of immigrants in France working on the coronavirus frontline have had their service to the country recognised with fast-track citizenship”: bbc.com/news/world-eur…
“More than 700 have already been granted citizenship or are in the final stages of receiving it.

They include healthcare professionals, cleaners and shop workers.”
Read 4 tweets
Can confirm.

Also, have we told you about ‘celery blisters’ yet?
The juices from cut celery can cause a number of skin reactions that vary from person to person. When celery comes into contact with the skin, it creates a toxic sensitivity to sunlight.

After, even a small amount of subsequent sun exposure can cause severe blistering.
In addition to celery, carrots and dill frequently trigger photoxic reactions.

Cucumber, squash and okra plants have nearly-invisible hairs that not only irritate our skin but can also float into our eyeballs and cause severe inflammation.

Happy Thanksgiving! #WeFeedYou Image
Read 5 tweets
Average CA piece rate pay for parsley work is around $1.90 per crate of 60 bundles.

Many folks are shocked by piece rates, and ask how it’s legal to pay workers less than $2 per crate. Before we do reply-guy math, let’s talk about labor law!
#WeFeedYou

The Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938. It shaped basic labor protections most workers take for granted. Minimum wage, overtime, banning use of child labor... Laws to protect workers from harm and kids from exploitation.

Farm workers were excluded. (Domestic workers, too.)
The 1935 NLRA* had given workers the right to collective action and to form a union to protect themselves and bargain with their employer.

Farm workers had been excluded from THIS most basic set of labor rights too.

(*You can google the acronyms.)
Read 11 tweets
On solidarity:
The historic Delano grape strike was started when Filipino grape workers (led by Larry Itliong and the AWOC) and Mexican grape workers (led by NFWA) realized one thing:

As as long as those white growers could play them against each other, nobody would win. (1/)
The Filipino workers had already been organizing earlier in the season, and had established a minimum rate they could accept. They walked off together in Delano when this rate wasn’t accepted.

So, the growers replaced them with a new workforce, this time predominantly Mexican.
See, this is a classic tactic of holding onto power. Pit us against each other so we can’t fight back against the boss.

It’s especially effective to divide along cultural lines, when there isn’t an easy way for the workers to have a conversation all together, or to build trust.
Read 13 tweets

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