February 1, 2018 Edgar Franks
In the thick of Donald Trump’s first year as President, the U.S. labor movement scored an improbable victory.
The workers are mostly indigenous Mixtec and Triqui immigrants from Mexico, living in predominantly white, conservative rural counties famous as historic breeding grounds for the Ku Klux Klan. Their jobs are physically demanding and often dangerous. They have little formal power because, even though they are in the country legally, they cannot vote. And they can be deported at any moment.
Despite all this, the migrant farmworkers I work with in Washington State won union recognition. The only independent farmworker union in Washington State, Familias Unidas por la Justica, signed its first contract on June 16, 2017. […]
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