Saturday, May 10, 2008

One hundred plus farm workers evicted following news coverage

Via Prof BW.

From the United Farm Workers site:

Yesterday more than 100 migrant farm workers were living in an orchard. Tonight they have no place to go.
Why, you ask? These Washington state cherry pickers came to Shafter, California after being told by company representatives to come to Califronia for a job in the cherries. Consequently workers and their families traveled from Washington State to work at the Kyle Mathison Orchards. Kyle Mathison is part of the Wenatchee, Washington based Stemilt Growers Company--which, according to its web site, is the largest shipper of fresh-market sweet cherries in the world.
When these farm workers reached California, things were not as expected. A number of the workers were hired, but other workers were told to just wait and see if jobs were available.
[snip]
While in Washington, some of the workers were informed that housing would be available to them when they got to California. However, when they got here there was no housing. They had no choice but to sleep in the fields. Some stayed in tents, others in cars and still others slept on cardboard or simply the dirt.
[snip]
When workers went public about being left out in the cold, things only got worse. Last night Bakersfield area television stations showed the workers' bleak situation. Today, Stemilt company representatives' called the sheriffs to have the 100 plus workers and their property evicted from the orchard.
There is a message template at the UFW site.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This sucks. Thanks for posting about it.

Revelations and ruminations from one southern sistorian...