Seeds are not the only things subject to tinkering in the industry these days. In the fields, there’s an effort to change the workforce: to bring in agricultural guestworkers in ways that critics say could give corporate growers unlimited access to foreign workers and eliminate the modest protections that farmworkers have won under current law.

Just before recess, the Senate passed new legislation establishing a new guest worker program, and House members are set to vote on it soon after they return from summer break.

Guest:

• Dolores Huerta, Secretary Treasurer and co-founder, together with the late Cesar Chavez, of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO. She directed the 1970 grape boycott which realized the first collective bargaining agreements for farmworkers in California, and the 1975 grape, lettuce, and Gallo wine boycotts that led to the passage of the first state legislation protecting farmworkers’ right to organize. Call: UFW 1-800-342-1235 x-6244.

Related link:

• United Farm Workers

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