Contract labor in the food system
A job is a job right? Wrong. Increasingly, permanent, economically secure, jobs have become a thing of the past, rapidly being replaced by temporary, short-term contract work. Typically, large firms hire someone else to provide them with temp workers, who fill many of their low-wage, low-skill jobs. Why? All personnel, insurance and labor issues relating to those employees automatically become the domain of the contract agent. In this way, big corporate brands like Dole Foods, Safeway, Lucky, etc.
Department of Justice and USDA Workshop on Issues of Concern to Farmers
November 13, 2009
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND USDA SET DATES FOR WORKSHOPS TO EXPLORE COMPETITION AND REGULATORY ISSUES IN THE AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY.
This poultry industry workshop to be held in Normal, Alabama.
Specific areas of focus may include production contracts in the poultry
industry, concentration and buyer power.
This is the second in a series of workshops convened by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Workshops to be held in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin.
Department of Justice and USDA Workshop on Issues of Concern to Farmers (and Consumers)
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND USDA SET DATES FOR WORKSHOPS TO EXPLORE COMPETITION AND REGULATORY ISSUES IN THE AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY.
This margins workshop will look at the discrepancies between the prices received by farmers and the prices paid by consumers. As a concluding event, discussions from previous workshops will be incorporated into the analysis of agriculture markets nationally.
This is the fifth and final workshop in a series of workshops convened by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Department of Justice and USDA Workshop on Issues of Concern to Farmers (and Consumers)
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND USDA SET DATES FOR WORKSHOPS TO EXPLORE COMPETITION AND REGULATORY ISSUES IN THE AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY.
This workshop is on the Dairy Industry. Specific areas of focus may include concentration, marketplace transparency and vertical integration in the dairy industry.
This is the third in a series of workshops convened by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Workshops to be held in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin.
Department of Justice and USDA Workshop on Issues of Concern to Farmers (and Consumers)
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND USDA SET DATES FOR WORKSHOPS TO EXPLORE COMPETITION AND REGULATORY ISSUES IN THE AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY.
This livestock industry workshop will be held in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Specific areas of focus will address beef, hog and other animal sectors and
may include enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act and concentration.
This is the fourth in a series of workshops convened by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Workshops to be held in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin.
Food Workers—Food Justice: Bridging the food justice, labor, and immigrant rights movements
The global food crisis—made worse by the financial crisis—has exposed the roots of an inequitable, unsustainable and unhealthy corporate food regime. Rapidly-growing food movements for neighborhood food security , food justice , and even food sovereignty reflect widespread discontent with the state of the U.S. food system.
Hunger, Jobs and Water Wars
By Eric Holt-Gimenez and Zoe Brent
Originally published on the Huffington Post
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA: Food aid is rolling in to the breadbasket of California. In Fresno County, the state’s most productive agricultural area, a hunger crisis has been unfolding for the better part of a year. Some 90,000 people a week lined up at local food banks this holiday season, many of them farm workers. Owing to what he declared a “drought disaster” California Governor Schwarzenegger delivered $4 million in food aid to Fresno last June. This winter he pledged to extend the aid indefinitely.
Hunger, Jobs and Water Wars
Huffington Post
January 7, 2010
By Eric Holt-Gimenez and Zoe Brent
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA: Food aid is rolling in to the breadbasket of California. In Fresno County, the state's most productive agricultural area, a hunger crisis has been unfolding for the better part of a year. Some 90,000 people a week lined up at local food banks this holiday season, many of them farm workers. Owing to what he declared a "drought disaster" California Governor Schwarzenegger delivered $4 million in food aid to Fresno last June. This winter he pledged to extend the aid indefinitely.
Immigrant labor in the food system
Low-wage jobs in the US are increasingly filled by immigrant workers and people of color. Because of the vulnerability of workers with guest visas, or without documentation, the potential for exploitation is high.
It's the season of new faces showing up in the DC Labor world, thanks to Obama's series of new appointments
Along with the breath of fresh (pro-worker) air that many of these nominees bring, we are seeing a lot of Republican foot dragging and opposition to a Department of Labor that is now more pro-labor! Workers in the food system need allies, so keep 'em comin' Obama.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5074/mccain_slaps_hold_on_pro-...
http://ufcw.blogspot.com/2009/10/the-dread-possibility-of-labor.html