This article originally appeared in Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship and was republished here with permission
Out of over 200 migrant dairy workers surveyed in Vermont this year, 77% say they have suffered an accident or injury at work and 87% make lower than the minimum wage, according to a report published recently by advocacy group Migrant Justice.
Those figures are among a host of problems immigrant workers say they face on dairy farms across the state, including poor wages, unsafe working conditions, inadequate housing and discrimination.
The survey, done with the University of Massachusetts Amherst Labor Center this spring and summer, focused on 212 Spanish-speaking migrants working on farms who haven’t joined Milk with Dignity, a Migrant Justice program that commits dairy producers to providing workers with better working conditions. The group says it covers about 250 workers across 54 farms.
The new study follows up on a survey the organization did in 2014, which helped spur the creation of the workers’ rights campaign.
Activists say that outside their program, migrants face human rights abuses — and the stats in the survey line up with expert opinion.
“Most workers face accidents, injuries and health issues related to work conditions,” the survey says. Almost half of workers surveyed have been hit or crushed by cows and almost one-third face exposure to chemicals, according to the survey.
“It’s a huge number,” said Marita Canedo, who coordinated the survey for Migrant Justice, pointing out that the rate of injuries has more than doubled since 2014.
In terms of wages and leave, 95% of surveyed migrants work six to seven days a week, and those who work six days spend an average of 72 hours per week at work, according to the survey. One-third of workers don’t receive pay stubs — which the state requires — and over a third never get a pay raise, the survey says.
On farms that partner with Migrant Justice, 96% of workers regularly receive pay stubs, and 88% make over minimum wage, according to data the group put out last year.
Outside work, almost all of the surveyed migrant dairy workers live in housing provided by their employer, according to the report. Over 80% of the workers in employee housing said they have safety, hygiene and structural concerns.
“I see a lot of trends that have been going on for a long time and, you know, are unfortunately all too common in workplaces,” said Teresa Mares, an anthropologist at the University of Vermont who researches labor conditions on dairy farms.
Over half of surveyed workers said they face discrimination based on language or country of origin. Forty-one percent said they lack access to translation services and 15% said they’ve been insulted or verbally abused by their employer.
Beyond discrimination at work, there’s a heightened “level of fear that farmworkers often experience,” said Mares, when it comes to living in a border state where federal authorities have broader scope.
“Being in public in Vermont as a very rural state, as a very white state, people are very visible,” she said.
Estimates of how many migrant dairy workers are in Vermont vary. Academic research from 2016 estimated between 1,000 and 1,200 migrant dairy workers of Latin American descent worked in Vermont, nearly all undocumented. The Vermont Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project, which became Migrant Justice, put the number of migrant dairy workers between 1,200 and 1,500. According to a VTDigger story earlier this year, Canedo estimated between 800 and 900 workers, not including their families.
Activists want the survey to educate consumers, Canedo told Community News Service. The goal is to show shoppers “the power that they have while paying for products that are with violations of human rights,” she said.
Some farms in the survey are run by Agrimark, which makes Cabot Creamery products, and Dairy Farmers of America, Canedo said. Both sell to Hannaford Supermarket, the subject of a series of Migrant Justice pickets through October in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine aimed at pushing the company to join Milk with Dignity.
To conduct the survey, the advocacy group used existing networks of current and former migrant farmworkers to interview people, said Canedo. The group sees the method as a way to promote leadership in the organization, get truthful testimonies and connect with more people, she said.
“We know that a worker is not going to share about a crappy housing situation, inhumane treatment, with someone they don’t relate,” Canedo said.
State agencies like the Vermont Department of Labor don’t consider populations like undocumented workers enough when collecting data and doing research, Mares said.
“These kinds of data are so few and far between, and it’s really important that they’re collected,” said Mares.
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Categories: Agriculture, Uncategorized
Not until the end is it noted that these workers are “undocumented”, ie, illegal. They’re not supposed to be here. They can – and should – go or be sent home.
Precisely. I’ve had two young men from Brazil stay at my house and work at a local farm – Legally – for the last three summers. They earn more than minimum wage and more in the five months they are here than they can earn in five years in Brazil. They are covered for accidental injuries on the job. Does their employer benefit? Yes. For one thing, H-2A workers must put in 65 hours in one week before they qualify for overtime. But they pay their taxes and abide by all laws.
Is it easy for employers and foreign workers to go through the process legally? Compared to what? Making the trip from the Darién Gap in Panama and making the trek through Central America and Mexico? I guess that depends on your perspective. But the legal workers I know are disgusted by the current illegal migration being allowed because the black-market competition is unfair, not to mention dangerous.
We have immigration laws for a reason. And the idiots in the U.S. who think illegal immigration is reasonable are just that… idiots. And they (the non-profit NGOs taking taxpayer dollars to ‘advocate’ and care for illegal immigrants) don’t accept any responsibility for the unintended consequences of their bogus policies or their actions. Those NGOs aren’t just idiots. They’re common thieves.
@purslane
In my email it states…
VT Illegal immigrant farm workers report unsafe work, low pay
By CHARLOTTE OLIVER on October 17, 2024
Can we talk about the people who employ these people??????
No, we are not allowed to discuss the extremely low penalties for hiring undocumented labor.
We are not allowed to mention that the federal database – e-verify is voluntary. employers are not required to check if their workers are here legally.
We are not allowed to mention that the pittance that these workers earn is often paid to their “agent”. The “agent” is likely a professional human trafficking operation which threatens to kill or otherwise harm the workers’ families back home if they misbehave.
Most of all, we are not supposed to realize that if the employers were fined meaningfully for illegal labor then the whole border disaster would be quickly resolved. Because they are trafficked to work here for next to nothing.
The “migrant” workers often request a minimum of 60 hour workweeks. That is overlooked in this report. Many workers paychecks can exceed $900.00 per week or $46,800 per year. That does not include EMPLOYER provided housing, utilities and internet service. What’s the value of THAT expense per month for the average Vermont resident?
If Vermont would REDUCE the ease to qualify for welfare and unemployment benefits, among others, maybe we could find LEGAL citizens to provide dependable labor on the states dairy farms and reduce the need of farmers to hire illegal workers who actually DO want to work!
So, they get housing, most are paid cash, so they collect state benefits, and are here illegally. Farmers should be fined / prosecuted, and illegals should be deported, end of story. Use the ones who are able bodied in the state on welfare to work the farms, done.
Most are paid legally according to IRS rules and have required taxes deducted from their gross just like you and I. If it weren’t so easy for able-bodied citizens to collect social assistance from the numerous programs available, AND, if they could be depended upon to actually show up at their appointed time and do a days work for a days pay, I would agree with you. It’s because of this that many industries including dairy farming have no choice but to hire illegal labor or go out of business.
@liggett1950
So let me get this straight, ILLEGALS… (most)…”are PAID LEGALLY according to IRS RULES…” ?
How does that work?
Pat Leahy served for 48 years in the US Senate and was often looked upon as a friend to agriculture, especially dairy. In all that time he, nor anyone else was able to set up a worker visa program for year-round dairy workers. There are ag worker visas for people who come to Vermont to pick apples seasonally, but no such program for those who come here to pull teats. The current lack of a program treats foreign dairy workers as if they dont exist, and therefore there are no standards for their living situations. Maybe someone should ask Kamala what would be her preferred policy for seasonal ag workers and see what kind of word salad spews forth…
Dairy cows need to be milked seven days a week, farming was and will continue to be a hazardous business, my grandfather was a dairy farmer and every year young men lost a limb or their lives working around equipment. If the migrants don’s like it, go home and see how things are in Central America.
It’s not rocket science, if you don’t like the job or the working conditions do what everyone else does, quit and go to work somewhere else.
They dont have the same options as legal residents of Vermont who can quit a job, get an EBT card, months-long stay in a free motel room, collect unemployment and enroll in ThreeSquaresVT food benefits…
They could go back home and work at home no? Even our most difficult jobs, our low paying jobs are better than what can be found in 95% of the world.
Our minimum wage in Vermont is higher than 97% of all wages in the world.
The real problem is Vermont is too expensive, and just like Agentina, we are suffering needlessly because of all the useless government spending. Milei was able to turn around an entire country in less than 2 years, so too could happen in Vermont.
We too could turn our state around. Farming is a 7 day a week job. Just goes to show how out of touch these people running surveys truly are.
I want to speak on behalf of at least some of the farmers that employ migrant workers. I know one farm in particular to which I will refer. One of the major reasons they hire these workers is because the majority of locals will not do that type of work, incl. the hours required. I observed the same situation with the crop farms in Calif. Also, the cost is a factor. Farmers are encountering serious conditions making it difficult to stay in business, ie. flooding destroying crops and weather conditions making it difficult to harvest crops. To add to all of that the significant increases in the cost of items, ie. fuel, equipment parts, feed for animals and seed items has seriously affected the cost of farming and why so many smaller ones have been forced to close so many family farms. Thus-without the availability of the “migrant workers” not many of the larger farms would be able to survive either.
All that being said, there may be some farms in the state that may not treat the workers as they should, but that is not true for all of them. The farm that I am most familiar with treats the workers with respect, incl. adequate housing and access to medical needs. I hope those type of workers have been interviewed. For the record, I grew up on a farm, which is now being operated by a resident farmer, so I frequently hear about how much it is costing him to do the work he loves. It is necessary for him to do other jobs with his equipment when he isn’t doing farm work.
The real reason is stated in your 3rd sentence. Social programs are too easy to be qualified for by our citizens.
The cows need to be milked and no one from around here will do that work for 2 reasons:
-the economics of the dairy industry dont allow for paying a decent living wage.
-there are far too many avenues for public assistance in Vermont that dont involve getting up early and working hard…or at all. Too many programs require no proof of need, based only on the honor system. Lyndon Johnson built the welfare model to benefit his democrat party and the COVID pandemic programs put the final icing on that cake.
Ahh. We get to the root of the problem…Government. Both Federal and State government regulation of all farming, from subsidy to penalty is so enmeshed in farming, it is a miracle that ag products are actually available. In much the same way as government creates dependency for the poor, government has ensnared the farmer.
So much truth in the comments.
as somewhat dairy adjacent i will note that a few have gone robot. i will also note that the VT LAND TRUST dislikes Mennonites (Amish) .
“Some farms run by Agrimart”
US Court of Appeals 09/25/1995: “Agri-Mark is a stock corporation organized under the laws of the state of Delaware. Plaintiffs are among the members of the Agri-Mark cooperative who supply Agri-Mark’s equity capital and directly elect its directors; but they are not stockholders of record. Persons who are not stockholders of a corporation have no right under Delaware statutory law to inspect the corporation’s books and records.” In other words, farmers labor and product for the profit of the corporation only – and the amount is none of your business. Sound familiar?
Hey Social Justice Warriors and UVM, you are biting the hand that feeds your coffers and installs your stooge representatives, how dare you?!”
Gee, working on a farm isn’t a lucrative, profitable endeavor in Vermont or anywhere else for that matter. Perhaps the Corporation and Corporate Government has made that to be the case by design. Seems the trafficked foreigners ushered into the United States handed smart phones, pre-loaded EBT cards, free health care, free housing, drivers licenses, and pre-filled voter ballots appears not enough for them. This is America – cheap migrant labor is no different than any other labor really – 1/3 to the grubberment, 10% for the grift, and whatever is left – buy some chemical-laden food. Welcome to America, enjoy the ride.
Just for giggles – here are some US aid to Guatemala numbers for the year 2022. Show us where in the Constitution it says that Congress can lift up the economy of a foreign nation by impoverishing its own citizens in the process.
The true annoyance is the fact that we give the central American nations our hard earned wages, only to have those nations export their people to America, where we end up paying for them twice.
Demography is not destiny, despite what those at that the Brookings institute believe.
https://foreignassistance.gov/cd/guatemala/
“Migrant Justice” needs to be careful that they don’t create more issues than they solve.
Yup, liggett1950.
I mean, “The group sees the method as a way to promote leadership in the organization… ”
Well, what else is new in social justice?
And, btw, any cashier at the supermarket can tell you that the migrants all pay in $100 bills, are smiling and happy, look great, and buy food, clothes, toys, even video games. Plus, they also send money “home.”
I personally have no problem with them. Why are these organizations always starting trouble among the “little” people?
And you know what else? If you explain anything with logical reasoning on most platforms in this public arena called the internet (social media, YouTube, online news media, etc), these trolls are all over the place reporting your comments and getting them deleted. They hate light shined on their insanity.
And if it continues in this direction, you know what else will happen to logical explanations and those who post them…
“VT ILLEGAL immigrant farm workers REPORT unsafe work, LOW PAY.”
Anything wrong with this statement?
“One-third of workers don’t receive pay stubs — which the STATE REQUIRES…”
Again, anything wrong with this statement?
The state requires PAY stubs yet not legal status of them??
Make it make sense!🙄
Did anyone see the carload of Mexicans that literally crashed into Lowe’s on Susie Wilson road Essex at 830AM yesterday? (Not kidding) Driver was arrested for Driving without License/Registration. Yay, now our liability insurance premiums are gonna be like NJ/MA soon too!