Farmworkers are arriving in North Carolina every day, preparing the land, planting seeds and harvesting early crops. And the El Futuro Es Nuestro / It’s Our Future (EFEN/ IOF) team is also preparing the soil for a rich season of organizing for justice and dignity in the fields, in the H2A program, in union contracts, and in every employment agreement. To keep IOF supporters informed and engaged, look for periodic updates during the summer via this newsletter, Footnotes from the Field. This month's update is longer than usual to share on the Board meeting and new mission.

The Board of El Futuro Es Nuestro / It’s Our Future (EFEN/ IOF) met in Michoacán, Mexico at the beginning of April to evaluate, strategize, and plan for the upcoming season. Nine of the 12 board members attended (the other three had already left for NC), along with the three IOF staff/volunteer coordinators, Leticia Zavala, Maria Mejia, and Justin Flores.

Our Board members, coming from seven different states across Mexico and representing nine different labor camps in NC, spent three days together engaged in activities including: finalizing the IOF mission, reviewing finances and approving a budget for the coming season, participating in trainings on resolving issues on farms, how to speak to fellow workers about speaking up about problems they encounter, and strategies for empowering fellow workers to resolve issues themselves. Members also prepared themselves to participate in the collection of human trafficking surveys in collaboration with our allies and conducted a plan of action.

We all emerged from the meeting energized and ready to take on the challenges of a new season of work in the fields of North Carolina!

At the IOF Board meeting, members determined internal and external priorities for the 2023 harvest season. Internally, IOF will work to recruit new participants in the group; will train more workers in how to protect their own rights; and will also be seeking allied organizational partners. In the fields, IOF will focus on a few main issues: Forced meal plans, Wage theft, and Access to healthcare especially related to Covid. In each upcoming newsletter, we will go more in depth on a different one of the priority issues.

El Futuro es Nuestro is a clear and transparent, worker-led organization formed to seek fair working and living conditions, and to oppose the exploitation faced by H2A workers and immigrant farmworkers living and working in the Southeastern US, primarily in North Carolina; and to increase leadership within the farmworker movement and, more broadly, the labor movement in the United States. We accomplish this by developing leaders and building organizational capacity, and through education and training, outreach and organizing, direct action and mutual support through coalitions.

We seek a world where the human rights of farmworkers are respected and where we can work with dignity, fairness and self-determination. To accomplish this, we must combat the historical and deeply entrenched inequality that characterizes the US farm labor system, and all affected parties must be at the table to address the issues of the entire agricultural industry. Farmworkers must have a strong voice in decisions that affect them.