One of the primary goals of It’s Our Future / El Futuro Es Nuestro (IOF) is to ensure that workers know what to do and how to respond when their rights are violated. And indeed, from wage theft to extreme heat, workers are taking actions to stand up for themselves, individually and collectively.
Protesting Wage Theft in the Sweet Potato Harvest
An all too common form of wage theft in the sweet potato harvest is the denial of credit for a few buckets a day per worker. For every 35 pounds of sweet potatoes, workers are given a token worth just 50 cents. To meet their quota, workers must pick at least 28 buckets per hour. However, supervisors will sometimes take a full bucket of sweet potatoes from a worker, dump it into the truck, and then say that the bucket was not filled correctly and refuse to pay for that bucket.
IOF member Eduardo calculated that he was losing out on at least $2.50 worth of tokens per day, and he decided he would not put up with any more. To protest this wage theft, he walked out of the fields twice before getting the attention of the grower. Additionally, he delivered a letter to his grower after tokens kept being denied to him. Finally, after taking these actions, the supervisors have stopped denying the tokens.
Confronting Growers about AC & Wages
In another case, Daniel’s grower was charging $10 per week to be able to have air conditioning and gasoline for the work vehicle in his housing unit. Because the workers were working so few hours, this additional payment was too much for them. After multiple complaints, the grower responded by saying that if they did not like it, they could leave. Six out of eight workers decided to walk out, and the NC Growers Association was called. After realizing that he would lose the majority of his workforce, the grower gave in. The workers continue to advocate for their needs; they now have a plan to keep moving forward and ensure those needs are met.
IOF works to make sure that workers, including those at Daniel’s camp, are educated on how to calculate the “Three-quarters Guarantee” provision of the H2A contract (guaranteeing payment for at least 75% of the time they are promised work), as well as how to calculate minimum wage when working at a piece rate. With their knowledge of how the system works, Daniel’s coworkers have been noticing discrepancies, and have started documenting the issues so they can confront the grower to correct the problem.
Using Social Media Videos to Educate & Inform
IOF members have started posting regular videos with messages for other workers sharing their own experiences, and discussing concerns like health, heat, and reminding each other to take breaks. |