FRIDAY, MARCH 27.
PROGRAM # 7484 12:00 PM PT
Mexico Edition.
The mass strike of farm workers in San Quintín, Baja California, put a spotlight on the long workdays (12 hours), low pay (120 pesos a day) that farm workers endure. But less reported is the issue of labor trafficking. To guarantee that the export agricultural industry in 17 states of Mexico has qualified manual labor available, businessmen and Mexican officials provide tickets and buses to transport farm workers. Most workers are indigenous people, whose grandfathers started going this same route 30 years ago to pick tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and lettuce. Today, whole families travel, and the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Social Development don’t do anything to defend the rights of the farm working families, according to an advocate. Martha Elena Ramirez hosts Voz Pública from Mexico City.
Guest: (Pretaped) Margarita Nemesio Nemesio, Migrant Coordinator, Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan, Guerrero, Mexico, www.tlachinollan.org.
Photo: boerries nehe/Flickr
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