As the Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s founder Morris Dees reminds us that as we sit down to give thanks for the bounty of our nation and for all the blessings we enjoy, we should remember those who do the backbreaking labor that puts food on our tables.
In response to the plight of migrant farmworkers, the Southern Poverty Law Center released an investigative report entitled “Injustice on Our Plates” which exposes the exploitation of poverty-stricken immigrant women working in our nation’s food industry.
The report not only tells the story of individuals it includes federal recommendations related to comprehensive immigration reforms that will ensure fairness for farmworkers and others who are feeding our nation with their labor.
Dees states that, in addition to wage cheating, sexual harassment in the workplace is a fact of life for the women he interviewed for the report. The report indicates that fear keeps these women silent, so their suffering is invisible to all of us who benefit from their labor every time we sit down at the dinner table.
Dees reminds us in his eye opening investigative report that, “We, as a nation, have allowed this shameful exploitation to continue for far too long. We have a moral obligation to recognize the problem and to take a stand.”
To learn more, please get the report and urge your lawmakers to take up comprehensive immigration reform and strengthen laws that will ensure fairness for farmworkers and others who are feeding us with their labor. With an equal amount of conscience, mind, heart, and collective action we can change the world. Photo Credit: Microsoft Clip Art
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