Last week, our team led seven know your rights workshops for farmworkers in Maryland and Virginia. These trainings are part of the Farm Labor Stabilization Protection Pilot Program (FLSP), a USDA program to support employers in ensuring safe and healthy workplaces for farmworkers.
In just three days, we were able to train over 120 workers, including H-2A workers, using the toolkit we co-designed with Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, resource guides, and tailored training materials for migrant farmworkers on participating FLSP farms. By participating in this program, farms agree not just to uphold the law, but to provide additional worker protections beyond the law. Some offer sick leave. Others have a collective bargaining agreement or have agreed to participate in the Fair Food Program. Our trainings give workers the tools to hold employers accountable to their commitments under the FLSP.
Worker leaders share the critical information they receive in our trainings with other workers, extending the reach of CDM’s workshops. Earlier this year, we trained more than 50 community-based trainers who will then go on to educate thousands of workers in their communities.
Over the coming years, we expect that employers will turn more than ever to the H-2A program and the federal government will continue accelerating the program’s expansion. Workers and trainers trained through our FLSP workshops will have the tools to prevent abuses and defend their rights.
All of us at CDM are incredibly proud to be a part of this promising pilot program and to have co-designed a Know Your Rights curriculum that will support agricultural workers— no matter their immigration status— in learning more about their rights, building power and improving their working conditions.
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the energy, optimism and kindness of the workers who we’ve had the opportunity to meet through FLSP, some of whom, in true Thanksgiving spirit, shared with our team warm milk with honey– a tradition in their country of origin– in appreciation for the training session.
And we are grateful for you too. Thank you for supporting CDM’s work with farmworkers.