Thousands of dads in British Columbia will spend Father’s Day far away from their children as they tend and harvest local food crops, typically for minimum wage.
To mark the day, migrant workers and their families have posted photos of themselves on social media platforms holding signs asking Canadians to support their fight for more rights.
“My name is Esmeralda and my dad is named Benigno Orozco Rojas. He has to abandon his home in search of a better life. He is a migrant farm worker in Canada for the last six seasons.”
“Hi! I’m Nahomi, daughter of Mario Peralta Barrera. My dad had to leave to give us a better life. My mom and I miss him a lot but we have to get through it because he is the only breadwinner in our house. We ask that you help all the migrant workers like my dad defend their rights!”
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It some good comes out of all of this current pandemic mess, perhaps these workers all over the world will get a better deal.
From The Desert Sun:
Enrique Rangel sleeps with a bandana over his nose and mouth, his work boots next to the bed. The Salton City farmworker wakes up at 4 a.m., well before the sun rises, grabs a rag from a bucket filled with water and bleach, and wipes down his plastic mattress and pillow.
Then he joins other workers outside the Galilee Center’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Shelter in Mecca. Each sits at their own table with a Styrofoam cup of coffee in their hands, and a face covering hugging their chin.
The shelter has provided beds, as well as hot meals and laundry services, for up to 65 farmworkers each night since it opened in 2017. The facility was a vast improvement for migrant workers in the region, who had long slept in fields or parking lots during the region's grape harvest, which typically runs between May and July.
After the coronavirus pandemic hit, however, the nonprofit reduced the facility’s capacity to 30 to allow for social distancing between beds and at meals. To prevent the spread of the virus inside the shelter, founder and president Gloria Gomez said staff disinfect surfaces “as much as we can.” Staff also take workers’ temperatures multiple times a day — before they go to work, when they return from the fields and before they go to bed.
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https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2020/06/20/california-farmworkers-weigh-new-protocols-health-grape-harvest-peaks/3198450001/?utm_source=desertsun-Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_briefing&utm_term=hero
