Category Archives: Wage Slavery

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I took a trip to the grocery store the other day and, admittedly, I had a hard time accepting the increased cost of food. Im sure were all struggling with the same question, how is everything increasing except our pay?

Did you know that the same grocery items cost more in Jamaica, than they do in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Why does food cost more in Jamaica than in any of these countries - twice as much as in the UK? Better yet, how do we continue to afford this?

For a Jamaican earning minimum wage, it costs 25 hours of work to cover the same food bill, compared to the three hours (or less) spent by their counterpart in the UK, USA or Canada. Why is labour worth more within the migration triangle? In Jamaica, is work worth less?

Jamaica has cheap labour. This is something the economists often say, but is this labour cheap or just underpriced? In June 2023, the Government of Jamaica increased the national minimum wage from J$9,000 to J$13,000. This is commendable, considering that the new rate represents a 44 per cent increase the largest in 20 years (JIS, 2023). On the face of it, this is a significant increase, but lets consider that the hourly wage is 10.42 in the United Kingdom, $16.55 in Canada, and as much as $15 in some US states.

Ive spent some time living outside of Jamaica. In that time, Ive observed that, even without all the degrees, years of experience and links, the average Canadian, for instance, can manage to afford food. The federal government enforces a living wage which ensures its people can afford clothes, rent/mortgage, safety, and even a likkle car. On the other hand, most Jamaicans have to move out to move up.

Why does Jamaica place so little value on the work that people do? More must be done to set us up for success.

I recall a campaign for us to Buy Jamaican, but are we now on sale for cheap? Over the years, we have seen a massive influx of BPOs. They create lower paying jobs but a significant number of our people with undergraduate degrees are employed there.

There are people among us who borrow money to cover the cost of getting to work. I wonder how they will make it to December. Yet, on the bright side, at least they have a job.

Are we jogging on the spot? Is this modern-day slavery? We get up and get dressed in unsavoury conditions. Economists explain, because I dont understand, how owners of means measure the worth of a man.

We have a lot of real work to do, as we are all stakeholders in this. Lets start by having the conversations that count. Each of us needs to better understand our worth and how our actions and attitudes can help or hurt our outcomes.

Our leaders can create more strategic linkages between the courses being pursued at the tertiary level and the jobs and industries that have demand. We must create more high-value jobs and careers to match the supply of high-skilled workers being produced.

Jamaica produces quality. We are reminded of this when a student migrates then quickly makes the honour roll, and again when a coworker migrates and swiftly lands a position with a well-established firm. This is how we guard against brain-drain, retain talent we produce, and help to build Jamaica.

Now, more than ever, we must endeavour to create a sustainable ecosystem.

JESSICA WILSON

Excerpt from:

Why are Jamaicans forced to live in poverty? - Jamaica Gleaner

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

BY THE TIME THE SUN CAME UP over the rolling green hills of Harrells, North Carolina, on June 23, 2021, a charred metal platform was all that remained of the old trailer. An investigation by the local fire department determined that the fire started at the electric stove in the kitchen. From there, it climbed the cabinets, spread to the living room, and tore through the two bedrooms. Within 30 minutes, the entire structure had been consumed by flames. A photo taken of the aftermath showed a pile of blackened debris, the charred coils of a mattress the only thing that suggested people lived there.

Parked beneath a thicket of tall trees and surrounded by miles of farmland, the trailer was where two cousins, Vicente Gomez Hernandez and Humberto Feliciano Gomez, were meant to spend the summer of 2021. They had traveled there from San Juan Mixtepec, a rural town in the Mexican state of Oaxaca where they were members of a Mixteco Indigenous community. Now theyd be returning in body bags.

Gomez and Feliciano were two of the hundreds of thousands of temporary agricultural workers who come to the U.S. each year through the H-2A visa program. Its the federal governments most important farm-labor pipeline and it gets bigger every year. Yet for many visa recipients, the promise of steady work and decent pay quickly devolves into a nightmare of labor trafficking, wage theft, and unsafe living conditions that can lead to injury or even death.

There are dozens of state and federal laws intended to protect H-2A workers.

KEY TAKEAWAY: The H-2A visa program is the federal governments most important pipeline for farm labor.

They are to be reimbursed by their employer for the cost of their travel, for instance, and be provided free and safe housing as well as a competitive hourly wage.

But too often these laws are poorly enforced at both the state and federal levels. That lack of oversight creates opportunities for workers to be exploited, cheated, and abused.

Once workers arrive at their destination in the U.S., theyre at the mercy of enforcement that varies depending on the resources available in that state. For instance, previous reporting from Investigate Midwest found that in Missouri, a lack of funding led to a lax inspection process that was easily abused and caused H-2A workers to live in deplorable conditions.

Should workers find themselves at the hands of an abusive employer they have few options. They are not allowed to seek employment elsewhere because their visa is tied to their original employer. If they leave that position, they forfeit their visa and risk deportation. If they report abuse, they can face retaliation and be blackballed by both H-2A recruiters and employers, making it difficult to ever return to work legally in the U.S.

H-2A workers, by the very nature of the program, dont have any control over their work environment, said Joan Flocks, an emeritus law professor at the University of Florida who specializes in agricultural labor.

For these reasons, experts say, most abuse in the H-2A program goes unreported, as too often workers are forced to choose between fair treatment and financial opportunity.

In September, the Department of Labor announced a set of proposed rules designed to strengthen protections for H-2A workers. These include making the recruitment process more transparent and giving workers options to advocate for better conditions, like working with unions. The rules are open to public comment until November and while workers rights advocates, including United Farm Workers, support them, it remains to be seen how effective they will be.

KEY TAKEAWAY: In September, the Department of Labor announced a set of proposed rules designed to strengthen protections for H-2A workers.

The H-2A visa is supposed to be a safe alternative to crossing the border illegally a win for both farmworkers and farmers. With the visa, Gomez and Feliciano expected to earn $13.15 an hour picking sweet potatoes and blueberries a fruit

theyd never tasted before coming to the United States.

Instead, the men were exploited from the start. When they finally began working, they were in debt, living in a squalid trailer, and were never paid the full wages theyd come all that way for. In the end they died in a fire, the exact cause of which remains unclear.

ACCORDING TO THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, the number of H-2A workers has grown steadily over the past decade. In 2022, some 300,000 came to the U.S., up 15% from the year before and more than triple the number of workers in 2012.

H-2A workers spend several months clearing fields, planting crops, and harvesting fruits and vegetables, often in exchange for wages that would be inconceivable in their home country. More than 90% come from Mexico, and without them much of the United States home-grown produce would not make it to the grocery store.

Yet problems like those that Gomez and Feliciano encountered have plagued the H-2A program since its creation, in 1986.

Cases of abuse and exploitation are well documented across the country. Examples from just this year include a 28-year-old man in Florida who died of heat exposure after employers failed to provide him with adequate water and rest. In Utah, the president of the local Farm Bureau was caught physically assaulting one of his H-2A workers and is now under investigation for human trafficking. And in California, workers had their visas recalled after speaking out about unsafe conditions. While these stories rarely make headlines, in 2021 a federal investigation, Operation Blooming Onion, brought the issue to the nations attention. The multiyear probe uncovered a transnational human trafficking operation, headquartered in Georgia, that forced more than 100 H-2A workers to endure deplorable living conditions and what investigators called modern day slavery.

KEY TAKEAWAY: A federal investigation, Operation Blooming Onion, brought unsafe farmworker conditions to the nations attention.

From 2018 to 2020, a hotline run by the Polaris Project, a nonprofit that fights human trafficking, identified 2,841 H-2A workers who had been subjected to labor trafficking.

Over half of these workers reported being threatened with deportation after demanding decent living conditions or the wages they were owed. Others alleged that their employers withheld or destroyed their immigration documents as a means of control.

In addition, nearly a quarter of the workers said the debt they incurred in order to get their H-2A visa, including invalid recruitment fees, was used to coerce them into working against their will.

Yet experts say that these cases dont capture the full scope of the problems with H-2A, in part because workers are reluctant to report abuse but also because the agencies responsible for preventing abuse are underfunded and understaffed.

According to research by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, the Department of Labors Wage and Hour Division, which is supposed to investigate reports of abuse in H-2A, has seen little increase in funding since 2006. In that time the number of H-2A workers has increased more than 500%.

As a result, the odds that an H-2A farm will be inspected are less than 1%, which can lead to a low level of compliance with labor laws, said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute and author of the report. Farms can pretty much do whatever they want and theres a very low likelihood theyll ever be investigated, he said in an interview.

In a written response, a spokesperson from the Department of Labor said the agency makes strategic use of the funds appropriated by Congress, and that it regularly carr[ies] out thorough investigations of employers and farm labor contractors.

When it comes to housing, the H-2A program also has strict regulations in place, but the reality is that those rules are often poorly enforced by the state agencies that oversee them.

In North Carolina, for instance, there were just eight compliance officers in 2022 responsible for the pre-occupancy inspections of 2,061 farmworker housing sites, according to the North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL). Each officer was responsible for 257 sites. Thats in addition to their other duties, such as enforcing a host of federal farming regulations and running training sessions across the state.

In an email, NCDOL acknowledged the rapid expansion of the H-2A program in the state and said it had received funding this year for two additional inspectors: As more agricultural employers rely on the H-2A program to meet their workforce needs, NCDOL ASH [Agriculture Safety and Health Bureau] expects the number of registered migrant housing sites to increase as well. We are grateful for the additional two positions given to us by the N.C. General Assembly in the last budget and of course, we would always welcome more inspectors to help the department meet its obligations.

At the trailer where Gomez and Feliciano lived, the NCDOL inspector found no deficiencies in a pre-occupancy inspection. Investigate Midwest reviewed a copy of the report, which was completed on Feb. 24, 2021, just months before the fire. It included no details about the condition of the trailer; a single box was checked stating that it met all federal standards. (According to its annual report that year, 51.9% of housing inspected by the NCDOL were found to have no violations.)

But a worker interviewed by Investigate Midwest, who spent the previous summer in the trailer where Gomez and Feliciano died, described it as barely livable.

The worker, whose identity we are protecting because he fears reprisal, said the floor was full of holes and the water and electricity would often go out. Washing clothes and dishes took place out behind the trailer, he said, with a plastic bucket and water spigot. According to the worker, there was no air conditioning or fans and the windows were covered with plywood. He said the trailer was infested with cockroaches and at night, as the workers lay on bare mattresses on the floor, the scurry of mice was loud enough to keep them awake.

Once workers are living in H-2A housing, a state inspector may return to make sure the housing is being properly maintained. However, follow-up inspections during the growing season are rare.

According to NCDOLs 2022 annual report, only 16 of the states 2,052 permitted sites just 0.7% were randomly inspected once workers were living there.

Thomas Arcury is a public health scientist at Wake Forest University who has spent close to 30 years researching issues pertaining to farmworkers in the state. As part of his research, Arcury inspected many housing sites while workers were living there in the 2010s. He found that 41% of housing inspected post-occupancy did not meet state safety standards for everything from rodent infestations and broken appliances to having more occupants than the permit allows.

Even if it passes inspection, he said in an interview, you wouldnt want to live there. If you want my impression, farmworker housing is dangerous.

IT WAS ONLY IN THE LAST 15 YEARS that word of the visa program arrived in San Juan Mixtepec. Before that, a chance to work in the U.S. meant paying thousands of dollars to a smuggler and then risking your life to cross the border illegally. It was a path that many, mostly young men, chose as a means to escape the extreme poverty that plagues Oaxaca.

In 2019, Gomez learned about the visa through another cousin, Valentino Lopez Gomez, who worked as an H-2A recruiter and labor contractor. While U.S. farms will often hire H-2A workers directly through recruiters, increasingly they work through labor contractors, like Lopez, who function as the official employer. Worker advocates say this provides farm owners plausible deniability if things go wrong. Lopez, who was certified by the U.S. Department of Labor, hired men and women from San Juan Mixtepec and brought them to North Carolina where he contracted them out to local farms.

Gomez was 39, with a wife and two kids, and he needed to earn more money. Surviving in San Juan Mixtepec was becoming even harder. Drought was killing the crops that had supported the community for millennia. He told Feliciano, who was in his early 30s and eager to start a family, about the opportunity. Initially, Feliciano didnt want to go. He was scared to travel so far away. But Gomez reasoned that the visa was safe and that Lopez was family. Surely they could trust him to look out for them in America.

In 2020, the two men joined 38 other workers from their village who had been recruited by Lopez to harvest blueberries on Ronnie Carter Farms and Hannah Forest Blueberry farms in North Carolina. Gomez and Feliciano lived that summer in the same trailer where tragedy struck the following year, along with the worker who described the trailers decrepit conditions to Investigate Midwest.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Many of the illegal recruiting fees were paid with high-interest loans, meaning the workers started the harvest season in debt.

Not much is known about the cousins experience on that first trip.

But family members said that they earned barely enough to cover the debts they incurred to get there.

In October 2022, 13 of the workers Lopez recruited in 2020 filed a civil complaint in federal district court for the Eastern District of North Carolina alleging that Lopez charged workers recruitment fees that were between $1,200 to $5,245. Again, under Labor Department rules, these fees are prohibited. Many of the fees were paid with high-interest loans, meaning the workers started the harvest season in debt.

Once the workers arrived in North Carolina, according to the complaint, Lopez confiscated their passports. This is how he allegedly coerced the workers; if they didnt do as he said, hed call immigration enforcement. The workers claim he refused to reimburse them for the cost of travel from Mexico, as is required by DOL rules. He also allegedly forced them to work while pocketing some or all of their wages. In one instance, the complaint claims, Lopez tried to extort a female worker for sexual favors.

The case is pending, but if Lopez is found liable the workers may eventually be eligible to receive special visas that would allow them to remain in the U.S. permanently.

Neither Lopez nor his lawyer responded to multiple requests, via email and phone, for comment.

Caitlin Ryland, who represents the workers in the case, has spent the last 15 years at Legal Aid of North Carolina, a nonprofit that offers pro bono legal services. In that time shes seen H-2A workers increasingly become targets of criminal behavior, including debt bondage, fraud, and human trafficking.

Year after year we hear the same gruesome set of facts from farmworkers that are recruited to work on North Carolina farms and our docket of federal trafficking cases reflects that, Ryland wrote in an email to Investigate Midwest.

Gomez and Feliciano were not plaintiffs in the civil complaint, but according to Ryland they were among the workers from 2020 who the federal Department of Labor had identified as being owed either wages or travel costs that Lopez never paid or reimbursed.

KEY TAKEAWAY: An attorney said U.S. authorities are reluctant to go after illegal recruiting because it takes place in a foreign country.

Nevertheless, the two men decided to return the following year. According to interviews with their families, going to North Carolina was still the best option they had.

This time, the families said, the cousins each needed around $2,000 up front for Lopezs recruitment fee and for travel costs. In a town where most people earn around $12 a day, this was a small fortune. The cousins borrowed money from several community members at 5% interest. It was a gamble, but if everything went as planned they could pay off the debt and still bring home around $3,000 each.

The cousins experience is fairly common in the H-2A system. In 2019, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM), an international workers rights organization, interviewed 100 H-2A workers about their experience in the program. More than a quarter said they had paid a recruitment fee. Abigail Kerfoot, an attorney with CDM, said the real number is likely much higher and that this abuse is so pervasive in part because U.S. authorities are reluctant to go after this activity because it takes place in a foreign country.

Obviously, theres a country-to-country relationship with Mexico that the United States has to take into account, she said.

In a written response, a Department of Labor spokesperson said that while the agency can fine and debar labor recruiters caught charging illegal fees, the division has no enforcement authority over entities located outside of the U.S. and its territories.

ON A TUESDAY AFTERNOON IN LATE JUNE 2021, Gomez and Feliciano got back to their trailer after a long day spent digging sweet potatoes. A third worker, Luis Rojas, was staying with the cousins at the trailer. Rojas slept in the living room, while the cousins each had a bedroom. According to a statement Rojas gave to the county fire marshal, the men marked the end of the day with three beers each. Then, as they often did, they called their families over WhatsApp.

Around 8 p.m., the men made a dinner of fried fish and, according to Rojas, they each had two more beers before going to bed.

At about 1:30 a.m, according to his statement, Rojas awoke feeling an intense heat on his face. The trailer was filling with smoke and he saw that the kitchen was on fire. He ran to the back door of the trailer, but it wouldnt open. As Rojas struggled with the handle, he said he heard Feliciano shouting and saw him go to the bedroom where Gomez slept. Then the door swung open and Rojas stumbled into the night air. He ran across the street to a house where other workers lived to get help.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Mobile homes, especially older ones, are made of lightweight synthetic materials and burn quickly.

What happened that night has been pieced together from the Sampson County Fire Marshals Fire Origin and Cause Report, Rojas account, and several statements from other workers who witnessed the fire.

It isnt clear whether Feliciano went to bed or stayed up, but at some point he apparently decided to make something else to eat. He turned on the electric stove, which had only two working burners. According to the report, the fire most likely originated in the front right burner. The investigator said two possible causes of the fire that he could not rule out were failure of a component of the stove and occupant negligence. So its possible that Feliciano accidentally started a grease fire that quickly spread out of control. Or it could have been the stove that was faulty and sparked the first flame.

We know that Feliciano caught fire, and investigators suggested he might have run to the bathtub to try to extinguish his burning clothes. There is nothing in the report about whether the trailer had running water that night. All the while, Gomez apparently remained asleep in his room. The pre-occupancy inspection, carried out just months before, doesnt note whether the smoke detectors were tested, but Rojas said he doesnt remember hearing them. When Investigate Midwest asked to speak with the inspector for clarification, the request was denied.

Both the deputy and chief fire marshals also declined Investigate Midwests request to interview them about the case.

At 1:35 a.m. a worker living in a house next to the trailer ran to alert Lucas Carter, who lived nearby. Carter, who owned the trailer and was listed as the farms president in its annual report, called the fire department. Carter did not respond to three phone calls seeking comment.

Other workers attempted to rescue Feliciano and Gomez, but were repelled by the heat and flames. Mobile homes, especially older ones, are made of lightweight synthetic materials and burn quickly. Their narrow layout can trap people inside. The workers pulled off a section of the trailers siding, creating an opening into Gomezs bedroom. He was unconscious, so the men dragged him out on his mattress.

KEY TAKEAWAY: In the North Carolina case, investigators were unable to rule out the possibility that the broken stove was to blame.

Thirty minutes after the fire began, paramedics and firefighters arrived but were unable to resuscitate Gomez.

Feliciano was found dead in the bathroom.

In their report, investigators speculate that Feliciano likely started the fire as a result of being intoxicated. The county medical examiner determined that Feliciano had a blood-alcohol level of 0.3%, or nearly three times the legal limit in North Carolina, suggesting he was acutely intoxicated. Gomezs blood-alcohol level was around half that.

The scenario outlined by investigators is certainly plausible, but there are reasons to think that the trailers condition could have played a role in what happened that night not least of which are the well-documented problems with H-2A housing around the country. In this case, investigators were unable to rule out the possibility that the broken stove started the fire. And the condition of the trailer, as described by the worker who lived there with Gomez and Feliciano the previous summer, differs significantly from what is suggested by the pre-occupancy inspection report approved by NCDOL which found no violations. Rojas, too, in his witness statement, described the trailer as disgusting, said they had gone a week without hot water, and that he had never been told how to use the fire extinguisher or given any instruction on what to do in case of a fire or other emergency. Finally, while the NCDOL inspection report cited no problem with the trailers smoke detectors, Rojas said he did not hear them and according to the fire marshals report Lucas Carter, the owner of the trailer, could not confirm that it had working smoke detectors on the night of the fire.

ACCORDING TO THE WORKERS FAMILIES IN OAXACA, no one, not Lopez or Lucas Carter, called them after the fire. It was another worker, also from San Juan Mixtepec, who called a member of Gomezs family to tell him the news. The disaster was so far away and so abstract that for weeks many family members didnt believe it had actually happened. They would anxiously check their phones, hoping for a WhatsApp message from one of the men to clear up what must have been a misunderstanding. But a month later, when their bodies arrived home, everyone was forced to accept the new reality.

In San Juan Mixtepec its customary to pray over the body of the deceased for eight days while the family receives mourners. Each day, some 200 people came to pay their respects to Feliciano, and the family poured sodas and served menudo soup and sweet breads. Similarly, Gomezs family mourned his passing by hosting loved ones and praying over his remains.

At the end of eight days, Feliciano was buried and the family could finally find some closure. But now, in addition to the cost of funeral services, they had to contend with Felicianos debt, which was around $11,000.

Felicianos family borrowed money, interest-free, from relatives in the U.S. to pay back what he had borrowed from neighbors. Now Felicianos father is working on other farms to pay back the family, leaving his own crops and animals unattended.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Recruiters are local to San Juan Mixtepec and they charge their neighbors anywhere from $1,000 to over $5,000 for visa applications that are supposed to be free.

Each year, as many as 250 people are recruited from San Juan Mixtepec for H-2A visas.

Like Lopez, the recruiters are locals and they charge their neighbors anywhere from $1,000 to over $5,000 for visa applications that are supposed to be free.

The towns leaders agree that the H-2A program provides much needed economic opportunity, but theyve grown concerned about abuse.

According to Rey Martinez Lopez, who spoke as a representative of the San Juan Mixtepec community, many workers will return from a season in the U.S. without having earned enough money to repay the recruitment fee. When this happens, the recruiters extort them, and in the worst scenarios they are blackmailed and threatened, even though the companies in the U.S. already pay the recruiters for each person they bring in, he said.

Martinez says that none of the families of workers who die while working on H-2A visas are compensated by the U.S. government or by the farms that hired them. He believes the workers should receive life insurance so that their families will be taken care of financially. More importantly, Martinez said, he wants the U.S. government to investigate and punish corrupt recruiters.

In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor debarred Lopez from working as an H-2A foreign labor contractor for three years after an investigation determined that he confiscated workers passports immediately after they arrived, failed to pay weeks of wages to more than a dozen workers, did not pay the inbound and outbound transportation expenses for workers, and charged workers fees between $150 and $8,000 to participate in the federal program during the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons. It also fined him $62,531 in civil penalties. The investigation also led to the recovery of $58,039 in wages owed to 72 workers. His debarment will last until 2025, at which point he could be allowed to resume his work as a labor contractor.

KEY TAKEAWAY: In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor debarred, or banned, a recruiter from working as an H-2A foreign labor contractor for three years after an investigation.

In San Juan Mixtepec, meanwhile, where most homes have dirt floors and no indoor plumbing, Lopezs house sits prominently on the side of a hill. The two-story structure, built of cement and white stucco, is surrounded by a tall cinder block wall with an imposing iron gate.

People in the community say its been years since Lopez has visited. In his absence, the house is a reminder for community members and neighbors of dreams that ended in misery.

This story was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, an independent, nonprofit news organization.

Ripe for Reform, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante. Accessed Oct. 17, 2023.

Interview with Thomas Arcury, Aug. 4, 2023.

Interview with Kelle Barrick, Aug. 3, 2023.

Interview with Daniel Costa, Aug. 4, 2023.

Interview with Joan Flocks, Aug. 7, 2023.

Interview with Abigail Kerfoot, Aug. 8, 2023.

Interview with family members of Vicente Feliciano Gomez, March 30, 2023.

Interview with family members of Humberto Gomez Hernandez, March 30, 2023.

Emailed responses from Kaitlin Ryland, Aug. 10 and Oct. 2, 2023.

Written responses from Rey Martinez Lopez, Aug. 9, 2023.

Emailed responses from officials at the North Carolina Department of Labor. Sept. 9 and Sept. 12, 2023.

View original post here:

The ultimate price - The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Only have a minute? Listen instead

MISSION Illegal immigration is a disaster of unprecedented proportions, and the blame lies squarely at the feet of President Joe Biden.

That was the message that a small delegation of Republican senators led by Texas own John Cornyn and Ted Cruz conveyed to a gaggle of media at Anzalduas Park during a brief stop of their border tour on Friday.

The Rio Grande Valley is one of my favorite places to come. This is a vibrant part of our state. Its unique, Cornyn said as the waters of the Rio Grande flowed placidly behind him.

Texas senior senator said hes fond of bringing colleagues to the Valley to show them its role in binational trade, but also to see what he characterized as the disastrous effects of illegal immigration.

We have something special here, but, unfortunately, its being spoiled by the Biden administrations reckless policies that do nothing to deter illegal immigration, Cornyn said.

Moments earlier, the senators had arrived at the county parks docks in five U.S. Border Patrol SAFE boats which had wended across a deep U-shaped bend in the river.

Their paths cut directly past a group of men who were recreating on the Mexican side. One pair of men stood languidly casting fishing lines while another pair explored what a wooden dock overgrown with carrizo cane and a lone, but tenacious palm tree.

By the time the senators had disembarked, however, the fishermen and swimmers were gone.

Cornyn arrived first aboard a boat with Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Border Patrol RGV Sector Chief Gloria Chavez, who did not join the senators ashore.

Meanwhile, Cruz arrived in another boat accompanied by Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts.

South Texas is an extraordinary place, Cruz said, echoing Cornyns earlier comments from a lectern bearing a sign that read SECURE THE BORDER.

And South Texas is paying the price for the disaster of the open borders under the Biden administration, he added.

Over the course of the next 20 minutes, the four conservative senators detailed the disasters they said are fueled by historic levels of illegal immigration, from concerns over women and children being sexually assaulted, to forced labor, to fears that Hamas and Hezbollah extremists could sneak into the country to wage terrorism here.

The senators bolstered those concerns by noting that migrant demographics are changing.

Historically, immigration was poor people coming from Mexico, Central America, that wanted to work in the United States, Cornyn said.

Today, people are traveling literally from around the world and showing up at the ports of entry and claiming asylum, he continued.

Statistics released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection bear that out.

Between January and September of this year, border agents have had nearly 2.05 million encounters with migrants, according to CBP data.

Of that number, approximately half, or 1,026,419, hail from Mexico and the Golden Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Another 1,019,419 come from other countries, though the data does not break down which counties specifically.

With three months still left in the year, the number of migrant encounters is on pace to exceed 2022s nearly 2.21 million encounters.

But while the numbers have risen along the southwest border as a whole, things in the Valley have looked quite different.

Here, the numbers tend to fluctuate, said McAllen Assistant City Manager Jeff Johnston, who is in charge of operating the citys migrant respite center.

Over the last 18 months, the center has temporarily housed varying numbers of migrants in tents located just a few hundred yards from where the senators spoke Friday.

After a brief spike when Title 42 ended in May, the number of migrants passing through the respite center dropped throughout the summer before ticking upward to a peak of about 775 per day in September, Johnston said.

Right now, that number is probably somewhere between 175 and maybe 275 per day, so its dropped quite a bit just in the last couple of weeks, he said, adding that less than a hundred migrants are currently housed at the center.

CBP data shows that migrant encounters have remained higher in the El Paso and Del Rio sectors for several months.

Some of the senators other talking points contained similar levels of mixed accuracy.

For instance, both Cornyn and Cruz derided the Biden administration for allowing a policy of catch-and-release to proliferate.

Because of the sheer volume of people coming across, the Biden administration is simply releasing them into the interior of the United States without any real consequences, Cornyn said, further characterizing the practice as the president outsourcing immigration to drug cartels.

Cruz echoed those sentiments minutes later when speaking of how frustrated Border Patrol agents have become.

Theyre deeply frustrated because they risk their lives apprehending people only to turn around and see them let go over and over and over again, Cruz said.

But the practice isnt unique to the current president.

Instead, the phrase catch-and-release first originated during the presidency of George W. Bush by former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to describe an immigration policy practice that was then already decades old.

The senators also expressed their concerns for the tribulations migrants go through on their journey to the United States particularly women and children, some of whom suffer sexual abuse along the way, they said.

This is a modern-day form of slavery and it is allowed to go on by Joe Biden. Its that simple, Ricketts, the Nebraska senator, said.

This is a humanitarian crisis. South Texas sees the thousands of children abused, sees the thousands of women sexually abused, sees the dead bodies, Cruz said alluding to an earlier meeting the senators had had with Brooks County Sheriff Urbino Benny Martinez.

The sheriff had shown the congressional coterie photos of bleached bones, Cornyn said human remains left behind by migrants who have died trying to circumvent the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint in the unforgiving Texas ranchlands.

Excerpt from:

Cornyn, Cruz lead another GOP delegation on border tour of RGV - Brownsville Herald

JCWI contributed to a collaborative report with The Landworkers' Alliance, Focus on Labour Exploitation, The New Economics Foundation, Sustain, and a farmworker solidarity network which highlights working conditions under the Seasonal Worker Visa in UK horticulture.

"It is migrant farmworkers who experience the agroindustrialsystems worst injustices."

Download the report from The Landworkers' Alliance

This report has identified drivers of exploitation at the level of the farm, the supply chain, and the migration system. To ameliorate these, our collaboration has developed a series of recommendations for the UK government, labour market enforcement (LME) bodies, supermarkets, and for trade unions and social movements who want to campaign for better conditions for farmworkers.

Restricted Visas

There is clear evidence that risks of exploitation are inherent in restrictive, temporary and sector-specific visas. To protect workers safety and rights, we call on the government to move away from this approach. All UK work visas should include option for renewal, theability to change jobs easily without losing the right to stay in the UK, pathways to permanent settlement and access to public funds. However, while the Seasonal Worker Visa remains in place, we recommend the following reforms to reduce the risks of poor andexploitative working conditions. It is crucial that existing risks in the Seasonal Worker Visa are addressed before any further expansions of the scheme are introduced.

All SWV holders should be able to switch to jobs on the shortage occupation list including outside of the agricultural sector.

Scheme operators should ensure workers can move to other farms, and ensure this process is straightforward and accessible.

Workers should not be made to leave the UK earlier than planned or to stop working if a scheme operator loses their licence or cannot provide them with a minimum of 32 hours per week. A mechanism should be established for workers to change their visa sponsors.

Debt and Broker Fees

Workers shoulder visa and travel costs associated with the SWV, and often enter into debt to pay these. In some instances, workers are being charged thousands of pounds to participate in the SWV, leaving them burdened with high amounts of debts and a loss of money overall. Debt increases the risk of labour exploitation as workers may be unable to leave exploitative conditions due to needing to pay off their debt. This is intensified when schemeoperators are operating in new countries and may lack the knowledge necessary to vet local recruiting practices.

The UK government should research and develop new approaches to seasonal work migration in consultation with current and former SWV holders, including considering working with sourcing countries to establish government led institutions as the main point of recruitment.

Up front costs make debt an unavoidable necessity for participation in the scheme. Charges for visa applications should be abolished and holders should not face any up-front costs for their journey. The government should consider if travel costs should sitwith the state, employer or lead supply chain buyer.

Funds accrued to the UK government via the farm recruitment fee should be dedicated to a worker support fund for compensation for cases of illegal broker fees and hardship funds in cases of destitution.

Rights Enforcement and Worker Led Social Responsibility (WSR)

Existing labour market enforcement practices have been ineffective in responding to the volume of violations.

Funding for labour market enforcement should be increased to ensure regular inspections of SWV workplaces. Inspections should focus on compliance with standards and UK laws rather than only on breaches which constitute Modern Slavery.

It is essential this comes alongside the government implementing a clear separation of immigration enforcement from labour market enforcement, so that all workers can safely report abuse regardless of immigration status.

Labour market enforcement should be backed up by legally binding codes of practice drawn up in consultation with workers and a new supply chain enforcer. This was anticipated in the Agriculture Act 2020, but has yet to be implemented.

The UK government should work with LME agencies in sourcing countries to research and develop a coordinated strategy for monitoring recruitment processes and conditions on farms in the UK.

The UK government should ensure that terms and conditions of employment contracts (e.g. employers details, working hours, remuneration, accommodation costs and other deductions, etc.) are shared with SWV workers in their country of origin, translated into workers primary languages, and signed by employers and workers before travel. Contracts should detail compensation options for workers if work offered does not match work in the contract.

This report further recommends the adoption of a worker-led enforcement system to empower workers and workers organisations to enforce standards for working conditions. This system should be backed up by market sanctions against farms which violate standards.

Education sessions on workers rights and means of redress should be held at a neutral venue before workers start on the farm. These sessions should be independent from scheme operators, employers, and the state. These education sessions should be developed by workers with experience on the SWV route.

An independently run audit body and hotline shouldbe established which is closely embedded with farmworkers and informed by their perspectives

Standards should be enforced by a legally bindingagreement that supermarkets will not source from farmsthat violate rights until action is taken to rectify this.

Supermarket Dominance and Low Farmworker Pay

Supermarkets capture the lions share of the valueproduced by UK horticulture. Given their dominant position in the market for produce, supermarketsshould pay extra for produce to fund wage increases in order to reflect the true price of their products.

This can take the form of a penny per punnet premium, where supermarkets pay a small charge per item of produce sourced from a farm to fund wage increases.

As the largest beneficiaries of the efforts ofworkers, supermarkets should also pay into aworker support fund to compensate workersfor broker fees and in cases of destitution.

More effective competition policy should beimplemented to address concentration in the grocerymarkets. Stronger fair dealing regulations for thesupermarkets and others in the supply chain should be introduced to avoid abusive practices along thesupply chain. The Grocery Code Adjudicator shouldintroduce new legally binding codes and applyits fining capabilities more often to deter abuse.

There should be investment, support anddevelopment of new routes to market thatdeliver better, values-led and more diversefood retail and trading enterprise growth.

Establishing a Farmworkers Organisation

Farmworkers need their own organisation which isable to campaign and advocate for their rights:

Barriers in the immigration system which preventthe formation of farmworker organisations should be removed. This includes the requirement to haveworked for 3 months before receiving support from a trade union. Threatening the loss of visasponsorship for taking strike action or for complaining about conditions must be explicitly banned.

Establishing a farmworkers bulletin, through whichworkers can communicate with each other about the situation on their respective farms, can help toincrease worker unity and solidarity across the sector.

Trade unions should develop strategies in collaborationwith workers to provide support to disputes on farms.

Farmworkers campaigns should place pressureon leading supermarkets to improve pay and conditions in their supplier farms.

Review the impact of the absence of an AgriculturalWages Board in England and the redistribution of resources and responsibility over worker welfareacross all actors in the food supply chain.

Debt, Migration, and Exploitation: The Seasonal Worker Visa and the Degradation of Working, Catherine McAndrew, Oliver Fisher, Clark McAllister, & Christian Jaccarini (2023)

Read the original here:

Landworkers' Alliance Report: Debt, Migration, and Exploitation - Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Wendell Berry beloved for his novels (Jayber Crow), short stories of Americas rural past, essays on ecological responsibility (What Are People For?) and his memorable nature poetry (The Peace of Wild Things) brandishes a bias that challenges conventional thinking. That attitude reveals itself in the middle section of his insightful new book, The Need to be Whole: Patriotism and the History of Prejudice.

Berry compares racism to puritanism, but in a twist he defines prejudice as our cultural preference for industrial wage slavery instead of policies that favor smallholders who build communities and engage in genuine homemaking.

The nations dominant ambition to never dirty our hands in mind-numbing physical labor inspired slave owners and sparked the Civil War, he asserts. Berry lauds as a true patriot Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was offered leadership of the Union army, for his refusal to raise his hand against his birthplace, his home and his children. He is also critical of the North for introducing the industrial concept of treating everyone as replaceable by machines as well as promoting the nascent concept of nationalism.

Slavery was indefensible, Berry states, but his hottest anger in this new book is reserved for industrialism that loosed a virulent racism across the nation and brought about the next era of wage slavery. In his view, the Civil War was a battle between industrialism and agrarianism.

Seen as an agrarian, pacifist and eccentric Christian, Berry has often spoken up for the dispossessed. The Need to Be Whole continues the work he began in The Hidden Wound (1970) and The Unsettling of America, (1977) which explored how the wealth of the mighty few who govern this nation was built on the underpaid labor of others. In Kansas, we may feel echoes of this resentment when we hear elites referring to our homeland as mere fly-over country.

Berry has been a frequent guest speaker at the Land Institute at Salina and counts as a friend Wes Jackson, founder of that research facility that explores and promotes perennial, diverse and regenerative agriculture. Sarah Smarsh, the fifth-generation Kansan who wrote Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, has defended Berry from criticism by leftist economist Paul Krugman writing in the New York Times.

Born in 1934, Berry hails from Henry County, Kentucky a border state in the Civil War where he farms and writes (more than 50 books so far). Hes one of the few writers reminding us that country life is far more complex than most believe, that industrial progress is PR, and that living in the country and working with the land represents a rightful existence.

Both sides of Berrys family had cultivated the same land for generations and counted slave owners among their ancestors. He grew up working alongside hired Black laborers on his grandparents farm, gleaning from them many of the pleasures and skills and responsibilities of farm work. Its this section of his book, examining his familys connection to slavery and his revisionist interpretation of history, that raises eyebrows.

The Need to Be Whole poses Berrys old question yet again: How can we live among our fellow creatures in a way that is honorable, just, and as sustaining of our souls as of our material needs? wrote Daegan Miller in Slate on November 5, 2022.

Berry began The Unsettling of America with this observation, continued Miller: One of the peculiarities of the white races presence in America is how little intention has been applied to it. As a people, wherever we have been, we have never really intended to be.

He traces the conflict of two different tendencies that he sees as defining American history: the exploitative one characterized by the pioneer, the trader, the land speculator, the extractor, the investor, the tycoon and stock trader and the nurturing one exemplified by small, subsistence family farms as well as small shops and stores (smallholders). The exploiters stick around in one place as long as theres easy profit to be made, but the nurturers stay put. Berry seems to be casting American history as a conflict between capitalism and something more social, communal, and rooted in the earth, what he calls agrarianism.

We are now reduced to one significant choice, Berry writes. We can take our stand either on the side of life or on the side of death.

This extended synthesis of the history of agriculture, the history of race and the history of work is something new for Berry, who argues that violence is so far our historys dominant theme, that the willingness to exploit people is never distinguishable from the willingness to destroy the land and that our race problem is intertangled with our land and land use problem, our farm and forest problem, our water and waterways problem, our food problem, our air problem, our health problem.

Everything is connected, he observes, and what connects it is exploitation. That represents both Berrys despair, but also his hope. For if everything is connected through the violence of American-style capitalism, then it can be reconnected according to love not rustic sentimentality but the radical love that Berry learned from his conversations with the late writer bell hooks, a fellow Kentuckian.

Miller notes that this elemental conflict between capitalism and agrarianism drives the tension in The Need to Be Whole, with Berry recounting the staggering loss of topsoil; the concentration of agribusiness sometimes enabled by collusion with researchers at land-grant universities; the increased reliance on heavily polluting, toxic fertilizers and pesticides; deforestation; mountaintop removal; climate change the whole litany of environmental costs.

Berry details how attempts to modernize agriculture, driven for 50 years by the federal governments policy of get big or get out, has led to the virtual elimination of Black farmers as well as the devastation of a once more or less independent rural culture.

Berry may be guilty of conflating the legacies of slavery and romanticizing agriculture and rural life. Nonetheless, if we want to understand the backlog of resentments exploited by todays right wing, it behooves us to explore the linkages he presents between our deeply fractured society and our history of disdain for those who do manual labor, as well as our utter disregard for those who want to practice loving husbandry of soil, air, water, plants and animals.

Suppose that our economy should attempt to found itself upon peace and thrift instead of war and waste, Berry writes. Such changes, perhaps necessary to our mere survival, cannot be possible until the good of families and communities can outweigh the malleable and spongy claims of public interest and individual freedom.

Dave Redmon is a retired journalist and educator reared in southeast Kansas and living in Manhattan. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

More:

Searching for wholeness in a nation fractured by capitalism and ... - Kansas Reflector

After an end-of-summer visit to Ecuador, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Olivier De Schutter called on authorities to continue efforts to curb drug-related crime in the country and to increase investment in the education, healthcare, and social protection sectors.

In his report, De Schutter cited poverty as the root cause of the continual increase of crime, violence, and insecurity in Ecuador. This explainer will explore the history of slavery in Ecuador, the current state of poverty in the country, and how poverty implicates slavery.

What is the history of slavery in Ecuador?

Slave ships first arrived in Ecuador in 1526. Between 1526 and 1822, enslaved Ecuadorians worked on plantations and in gold minds. By 1822, slavery was abolished when the country gained independence. However, the legacy of slavery continues to impact the descendants of enslaved Ecuadorians, particularly Afro-Ecuadorians.

What does the current state of poverty in Ecuador look like?

According to De Schutters UN report, in June 2023, the countrys Gini index stood at 0.467, indicating an inequal distribution of income among individuals and households within the Ecuadorian economy. Urban areas experienced a slightly lower Gini index, at 0.440, while rural areas experienced a higher index at 0.479. Income poverty rates during the same time period were higher in rural areas, at 46.4%, while urban areas experienced 18% income poverty. The national rate for income poverty was 27%.

Among Afro-Ecuadorians, De Schutter highlighted multidimensional poverty rates. Multidimensional poverty measures the ratio of households in a given country that experience monetary poverty, educational poverty, and depravation of basic infrastructure services. While the multidimensional poverty rate across Ecuador was 38.1% in 2022, Afro-Ecuadorians experienced a multidimensional poverty rate of 54.3%. Similarly, Afro-Ecuadorians experienced the second-highest percentage of income poverty, at 33.7%.

De Schutter also called attention to women as experiencing disproportionate rates of poverty in Ecuador. Income poverty rates in 2022 had a gender gap of 1.6%, which suggests inequality in the labor market, inequal wages, more women working unpaid jobs, and more time spent on childcare. Also indicated by higher poverty rates among women are a lack of access to education and lack of employment opportunities for women. Within the women population, Afro-Ecuadorian and indigenous women experience higher rates of poverty.

How does poverty in Ecuador implicate slavery?

The current poverty rates implicate a lack of economic opportunity and social protection initiatives from the Ecuadorian government. According to De Schutters report, Ecuador spends 9.6% of its GDP on social protection, resulting in health insurance, disability pension, and overall benefit disparities for those in the workforce.

Similarly, Ecuadorians who are not covered by social insurance rely on social assistance, which fails to protect the lowest income group and does not effectively protect individuals from poverty. This results in the exploitation of workers who already live below the poverty line, leaving them with little choice but to continue working without benefits or adequate pay.

Enforcement of labor law also contributes to poverty rates in Ecuador. The UN report cites that Ecuadors Ministry of Labor and Employment reported that there are a mere 140 labor inspectors to enforce labor law in a country with a population of 18 million. Likewise, there are 100 social security inspectors to enforce social security protections in the country. This disparity results in existing labor law not being enforced and further worker exploitation.

An example of the consequences of a lack of labor law enforcement is seen at the Furukawa farms in the abaca plantations in Ecuador. Owned by the Japanese company Furukawa Plantaciones C.A., the plantations were alleged to have slavery-like conditions. According to the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, most workers at the plantations are Afro-Ecuadorian. They lack employment contracts and social security and are housed in territories that are owned by the company that lack water, electricity, public lighting, and sanitary and toilet facilities.

Bonded labor, in which people give themselves into slavery as security against a loan or inherited debt, is prevalent in Ecuador. It is found in different sectors, such as the sugar cane, avocado, fruit, maize and beans industry. According to the UN report, it is alleged that in these industries, Afro-Ecuadorian households perform work for wages significantly below minimum wage as a form of debt bondage. This starts for individuals as early as 12 years of age.

How does Ecuador alleviate its current state of poverty and slavery?

De Schutter recommends that the Ecuadorian government take several steps to alleviate the existing plight of poverty and slavery in the country. An increase of the minimum wage is recommended to combat in-work poverty. He also recommends an increased monitoring and enforcement of labor law to ensure protection and equality for workers.

De Schutter also recommends that the government increase its social investment. This looks like an improved quality of education, improved targeting of social assistance, a more progressive and efficient tax system, and rationalizing fossil fuel subsidies.

The wealth of Ecuador, De Schutter concluded, is not in its subsoil; it is in its people and the priceless wellbeing they derive from their environment.

More:

Explainer: The State of Poverty and Slavery in Ecuador - JURIST

"In my point of view, it is digital slavery." Sorry Servitude

AI has a dirty secret: the people hired to train it are making literal pennies on the dollar, tantamount to slave labor.

As Wired reports, AI-labeling workers often live in places like Venezuela and the Philippines and even in refugee camps in Lebanon and Kenya where wages are low and people are in dire need of work. The "microtasks" they find with the gig apps that employ them, however, often end up paying even less than those countries' paltry minimum wages.

Oskarina Fuentes, a Venezuelan national who eventually moved to Colombia to escape poverty, told Wired that working for the Australian data services company Appen, she nets $280 on a good month while working 18-hour days from her bed, which is just shy of her adoptive country's $285 monthly minimum wage.

Fuentes described waking up as early as two in the morning in attempts to get first pick of Appen's tasks, which involve tagging algorithm training data for companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. The tasks pay out between two and 50 cents each, and in a typical hour-and-a-half of work, she'd receive about one American dollar though when work is slow, she'll sometimes make only make a dollar or twoper day.

Mutmain, an 18-year-old from Pakistan, told the magazine that he used a family member's ID to start working on Appen when he was only 15. Today, he works outrageous hours: 8am until 6pm, and then again from 2am until 6am and still often only doesn't make more than $50 per month.

"I need to stick to these platforms at all times," the teen toldWired, "so that I don't lose work."

Because micro-gig companies like Appen and its competitors Clickworker and Scale AI only pay for actual hours worked, Mutmain said that tasks can end up taking multiple hours when accounting for research while only netting him a dollar or two.

"One needs to work five or six hours to complete what effectively amounts to an hour of real-time work, all to earn $2," he said. "In my point of view, it is digital slavery."

An Appen spokesperson toldWired that the company is taking steps to reduce its gig workers' difficulty finding tasks, but it nevertheless must find a "careful balance" between the rapid completion of tasks its clients want and the consistency of work its laborers need.

Though this is far from the first time we've heard about the horrors of AI data-training gigs, it's nonetheless shameful that these well-funded companiesare outsourcing their labor for such incredibly low wages.

When the gig economy meets uber-cheap labor markets, the result can sound a lot like the sorry state of American prison labor.

More on AI and labor:LinkedIn Laying Off 700 as Microsoft Pivots to AI

Excerpt from:

That AI You're Using Was Trained By Slave Labor, Basically - Futurism

click to enlarge

Mark Oprea

Cooks at Miega on Thursday. The restaurant was one of the cohort to win grant money.

On Thursday, on the second floor of the Asia Town Center off East 38th and Superior, Mayor Justin Bibb awarded $5,000 to the winning restaurants in City Hall's partnership with One Fair Wage, a national coalition seeking to raise the sub-minimum wage for servers to a meaty $15 an hour.

The restaurants given the award were:

To the mayor, who bussed at Toby's Kitchen as a teenager, the first series of grants are a precursora "pilot program," he saidthat could act as a legislative rallying cry to bring a $15 minimum wage to the whole state of Ohio.

"I'm really excited about the conversation, the hard but important conversation we're having right now about a fair wage," Bibb told the crowd standing in front of Miega's front door. "And that is not just about putting more money in people's pockets, because that's important, especially in this economy. But this is about dignity."

Mark Oprea

Barbara Bradford-Williams, owner of JB Grill Soul Food. "We're looking to promote the neighborhood. We're looking to hire new employees, and we're looking to pay them $15 [an hour]," she said.

OFW and its campaigners are quick to compare Ohio's sub-minimum tipped wageabout $2.13 an hourto the country's history of underpaying waitstaff and cooks. It's a mentality OFW supporters approach in an anti-capitalist way, suggesting that servers are paid low because, well, the pay has always been that way.

"The sub-minimum wage here in Ohio and here in our entire country is a remnant of slavery, and we are all fighting in those remnants of slavery," Mariah Ross, an OFW campaign manager, told the crowd. "The sub minimum wage was first introduced due to emancipation when Black women and Black men were freed."

As for the meager $2.13 an hour? "That is what we're fighting to change," she added.

Restaurant owners and managers present at Asia Town Center said they'd use the $5,000 to either start or continue higher pay for staff.

"We're looking to build up," Barbara Bradford-Williams, owner of JB Grill Soul Food, said. "We're looking to promote the neighborhood. We're looking to hire new employees, and we're looking to pay them $15 [an hour]."

But both Bibb's and OFW's financial boost for the ten progressive-minded restaurants present brings up questions for those on the other side of receipt.

In a culture run mad with ubiquitous tip suggestions, with flipped iPads and Square terminals everywhere, it seems that tipped workers paid a fairwage might not elicit the same 15 to 20 percent restaurant goers are used to paying them.

Mark Oprea

Chris Nguyen (center) and his wife Claudine (left), owners of Superior Pho. The restaurant was one of 10 to receive a grant Thursday

"Tip percentages and menu prices don't change in the long run," Mikey Knabb, the national director of High Road Restaurants, a partner with OFW, told reporters.

Chris and Claudine Nguyen, owners of Superior Pho down the street, seemed to agree with this new model. They have been paying staff at least $14 an hour since 2021, and said the grant money given to them Thursday will only help bolster their employee pay philosophy. And keep ingredient prices, especially with inflation, manageable.

"Should it change the culture of tipping? I don't know," Nguyen said. "I think people tip if they want, and I think that they should have the choice to patronize businesses and tip if they would like to."

The second round of restaurants to win the $5,000 grant will be announced, the city said, later this year.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

Read more:

Bibb Announces Ten Winners of $5000 Restaurant Grants to ... - Cleveland Scene

This story was originally published byInside Climate Newsandis reproduced here as part of theClimate Deskcollaboration.

Christine Louis-Jeune knew she was home when she saw ash falling from the sky and onto her windshield.

She hadnt been back to her central Florida hometown of Belle Glade in six months. She was both exhausted after a six-plus hour drive from Tallahassee and excited to tell her parents about her first semester at Florida A&M University.

But as she saw the dark clouds of smoke, all she could think about was how to get out of the car without getting ash on her clothes or in her lungs. She looked for extra masks in her glove compartment. She began to worry about her family, and hoped they were safely at home with all the windows shut.

Her homecoming had been darkened by what Belle Glade residents call black snowash and soot that fall on the low-income communities south of Lake Okeechobee (also known as the Glades) during the six-month sugarcane burning season.

Every year fromOctober to March,farmers in South Florida set fire to over 400,000 acres of sugarcane fields in preparation for their harvest. Residents of the surrounding, predominantly Black towns have long complained of the accompanying smoke, and research has indicated adverse impacts on health. Community organizers and environmental experts propose green harvesting as an alternative to this widespread and controversial practice.

For Louis-Jeune, 21, an organizer for the Florida chapter of the Sierra Clubs Stop the Burn campaign, the black snow that welcomed her home was a reminder of why she had moved to Tallahassee to pursue an environmental science degree. Through organizing and advocacy, she hopes to mobilize young people against sugar crop burning.

These are my people. This is my home. I cant let someone drive me out, Louis-Jeune said. She recalled how she felt as she parked her car that evening amid the falling ash: Once you start trying to advocate for an issue, you cant just stop.

Louis-Jeunes parents immigrated from Haiti over 40 years ago and settled in Belle Glade, Floridas heartland for jobs in agriculture. She would spend large portions of her childhood under the cloud of black snow. Most of the families in Belle Glade share a similar story. The city has been a hub for Caribbean immigrants since the 80s, with agriculture being the most common source of work.

The sugar industry is the towns major economic engine. More than half of the countrys sugarcane is produced in Florida, and Palm Beach County, where Belle Glade is located, contains most of the statescommercial sugar acreage. The total value of agricultural products sold in Palm Beach is$901 million, higher than any other county in Florida. However, Belle Glade, whereover 60 percent of residents are Black and over 26 percent are Hispanic, has continuously been ranked as thepoorest town in Florida. The other cities in the countys GladesPahokee and South Bayshare asimilar story.

It is this same industryBig Sugarthat brings ash to the Glades through sugarcane burning. In this pre-harvesting practice, farmers set canes on fire for one to four hours a day to strip them of their leaves to make the crops less costly to transport. The industrial revolution of the 20th century brought anincrease in population and commercial sugar productionin the Glades, and sugarcane burning became a common practice.

The resulting ash also affected communities in the largely white and affluent Wellington and Royal Palm Beach area. Following complaints from residents there in 1991, the Florida Department of Agriculture banned growers from burning sugarcanewhen winds blow in the direction of those communities. However, for those in the tri-city Glades, sugarcane burning and the thick smoke and haze it brings persists.

You see [its] a prime example where the predominantly Black and brown communities have to disproportionately bear the toxic impacts and are held to a much higher standard of evidence than more wealthy and predominantly white communities are, said Patrick Ferguson, senior organizing representative for the Sierra Club.

Louis-Jeune, who joined Sierra Club Florida in 2020, says it has been a struggle to get any government attention on Belle Glade. Organizers consider this inattention, as well as the history and application of sugarcane regulations, a classic case of environmental racism.

Some communities are designated as worthy of more protection from harmful pollutants rather than others and the color of your skin has a big, big, major impact on the level of pollution protection that youd be afforded, Ferguson said.

If you aint got the right complexion, youre not going to get the protection, said Environmental Health scientist and University of Maryland Professor Sacoby Wilson, paraphrasing the aphorism first coined by environmental justice advocate Robert Bullard.

Environmental justice experts and organizers also maintain that this pollution is not merely negligence, but purposefula result of systemic racism.

I dont like to call it structural racism. I like to call it structured racism, Wilson said. It aint by accident, its by design, and so you see that across the country.

Sugar, once a luxury, became a highly profitable and universal commodity due to chattel slavery in the Americas. The European demand for white gold propelled the transatlantic slave trade which provided a continuous supply of enslaved Africans as dispensable labor. Sugar plantations were notoriously grueling and deadly sites with an average life expectancy ofseven yearsfor an enslaved person.

After abolition, sharecropping trapped many Black families in a cycle of poverty and debt. Some African-American families in Florida have cultivated the same sugarcane fields forgenerations. Families immigrating from other parts of the world have joined them. The economic and environmental conditions of these communities is proof suppression by the sugarcane industry remains, some say.

If its one of the largest employers in the area, why are people in poverty? That means theyre not getting living wage jobs, theyre not really getting the benefits, Wilson said. Youre using my community to host this operation of the sugarcane burning. I get no real benefit, but I get the externalities. Thats environmental slavery.

The Stop the Burn campaign, started in 2015, has pushed for a transition from sugarcane burning to green harvesting, an alternative involving mechanical harvesting machines that cut off the leaves and tops of the canes and leave them on the ground. The industry already practices green harvesting in smoke-sensitive areas located near schools and hospitals, including in Belle Glade, but it hasnt adopted the practice fully. Some sugar executives claim such changes in Florida will result inconsiderable economic impact. Big Sugar is thelargest employerin the area, and not all locals support a transition to green harvesting over fears of job losses.

The environmental justice movement has never been an anti-jobs movement, Wilson said. Its always been an economic justice [movement], about opportunity.

Despiteresearch showing multiple health risks associated with sugarcane smoke, Floridas sugar corporations claim it is safe, and the easiest and most efficient form of pre-harvesting.

Last year, residents of Glades, Hendry and Palm Beach countiesdropped their class-action lawsuitagainst several of Floridas largest sugar companies that claimed the burns lowered property values and emitted carcinogens. In response, U.S. Sugar Corporation spokesperson Judy Sanchez said, we believed the science, data and regulations that support our work every day would show that the air quality in the Glades is good the highest quality under federal regulations. Attorneys for the residents did not respond to questions from a reporter about why the lawsuit was dropped.

While sugar companies maintain the air quality of the Glades is in compliance with the Clean Air Act,a 2021 investigation by ProPublica and The Palm Beach Postdiscovered the single air quality monitor in the area had been malfunctioning for at least eight years.Researchers at the Florida Department of Health recommended a health-risk assessment to study the link between illnesses and air pollutants they found to be released during pre-harvest burning. Seven years later, no such study has been produced by the department.

Big Sugar, which includes Florida companies U.S. Sugar Corporation, Florida Crystals Corporation and Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, forms an influential political force in the state. Company billboards promoting the sugarcane industry are a familiar part of Belle Glades landscape.

Lets just say its taboo locally to speak out negatively against the sugar industry in any way, Ferguson said. They spread a lot of money around locally, and fears of being cut off from those sources of funding have definitely made some folks and organizations that would be natural allies want to maintain their distance, unfortunately.

Going against the sugar industry does not worry Louis-Jeune. She reminds herself of how different her town and upbringing would be if the practice was banned.

On days when her parents were at work, Louis Jeune would ask neighbors to drive her and her siblings across town to use the closest clothes dryer. Most families in her community didnt have one of their own. Her home didnt have air conditioning, eitherwhich meant sweltering heat on black snow days when all the windows had to be closed.

But if all the harvesting had been green, she believes, she could have had a normal childhood.

On the days where they did green harvesting, we were able to play sports we could walk home after school. But on days of sugarcane burning Glades Central High would sometimes pack all students in the cafeteria while the black snow was falling. In a state famed for its mild weather, her fondest wish became simply to eat lunch outside. On the days when they [burned sugarcane], she said, it was bad. It was terrible. It was unbearable.

So bad, she said, that she and her friends couldnt have birthday celebrations outside, or hang out after school outdoors.

Louis-Jeune remembers what drove her to join the Sierra Club campaign in 2020. She was working as an urgent care facility receptionist, and witnessed parents asking for nebulizers for their children in preparation for the sugarcane burning season. During this early stage of the pandemic, patients would come in unsure if their respiratory difficulties were because of COVID-19 or thelung-inflammatory ash. Theres a litany of potential deleterious health effects from exposure from burning of sugarcane fields, Wilson said.

Burning sugarcane releases tiny particulate matter into the air. Exposure to this particulate mattercalled PM 2.5can cause or worsen asthma, and lead to heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and other complications and diseases, according to a recent study by Florida State University. These pollutants can also impact fertility, increase infant mortality and decrease life expectancy.

Louis-Jeune says she and her family have developed allergies from the ash. That made her realize how black snow affects every aspect of life in her community. She decided to inspire other young people to push for green harvesting.

She began posting on social media, staffing information tables at community events, helping Muck City Black Lives Matter, and asking her friends to share pictures of sugarcane ash on their platforms. At Palm Beach State Collegean area where black snow no longer fallsshe handed out flyers with information on the Sierra Club Florida campaign.

It wasnt always comfortable; she initially felt intimidated as a young person in her hometowns Sierra Club organizing group. But, she said, Our message to young people is to not be afraid to be like an oddball.

Its easy to get caught up in a sense of defeatism and down spirits, Ferguson said. But I cant think of a better, worthwhile way to devote your time than advocating for the future that we all want and are working to create.

Louis-Jeune added: Theres strength in numbers.

She hopes black smoke will become an issue acknowledged and discussed outside the communities south of Lake Okeechobee. If we just put differences aside, and focus on the fact that these are people who deserve the bare minimum.

More here:

Sugarcane Burning Is a Plague on These Black Floridians Mother ... - Mother Jones

Alabama has beautiful beaches and the best southern hospitality. There is an atmosphere of peace at their Orange and Gulf Coast beaches that you cannot find anywhere else. Alabamians wear their hearts on their sleeves and carry kindness in their eyes. Coincidentally, there is a dark side that not many people know of. Here are 18 of the most haunted places in Alabama.

To be able to explain some of the scary occurrences that have happened within this state, I need to give you some of this states history.

Alabama became a state in December 1819, initially separating itself from the Mississippi Territory. Slavery did not end until 1865, almost 40 years later. They were littering the territory with plantations and enslaved person quarters. Several stories about the civil rights movement are told because it is a massive part of Alabamas history.

hafakot/iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

Subsequently, in addition to the states history, the culture that fills it has many depths. Storytelling was an essential piece of history with folktales of every generation. Stories of family ties and statewide politics. With such a rich cultural infrastructure, it should be no surprise that quilt-making and music are a considerable part of Alabamian history.

With storytelling and history being a big part of Alabamas framework, you should already be aware that not all the stories told are pleasant. Some will make the hair on your neck stand on end. They will give you a chill up your spine and goosebumps down your arm.

Stories that could never be untold and places that can never be unseen. These kind of things you will find in their history. Whether you spook easily or are incredibly brave, I have found something you can take to your grave.

During my research of the most haunted places in Alabama, you would not believe the amount of information that I found. It almost seemed endless. Every new search procured thousands of new stories.

Regardless of the reasonings for the hauntings, they happen. Stories upon stories of death and sadness and the darkness lurking in between the borders of this southern state.

TwilightShow/iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

Considering the large amount of information I came across when compiling my list, I found it easier to separate them into categories: Homes, Landmarks, Schools, and Places of Public Service.

These vary. Some are historical mansions that the government has preserved. Others are just homes whose walls are full of the lives theyve built. No matter the kind, they have one thing in common. Spirits have been lurking in their hallways.

mstroz/iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

The Sweetwater Mansion was built in 1828 in Florence for officers to use during the Civil War. While there, you can hear children playing that are not there in the house. People claim to see things being moved around the mansion without actually being moved. The TV Show Paranormal State has also investigated this location with its paranormal team.

According to WAFF48, a local New Station,

Architectural historians say it is one of Mobiles best preserved and elaborate examples of mid-19th century domestic architecture.

Found in Mobile, Alabama, and built in 1860, the state of Alabama is specifically preserving Richards DAR House as a museum. It was one of the first mansions built in the Italianate style. A steamboat caption had it made for his large family, with the home totaling 10,000 square feet. The American Revolutions Daughters have been running this house since 1973.

Reports for the haunted house have stated a ghostlike feature stands in the upstairs bedroom window. In the halls, you can hear laughter that is said to be a sound like something youve never heard. Sure enough to make you look in all directions.

This plantation house was built in the 1850s in Demopolis. It was the largest plantation house to be made in the county. That is why this home has garnered much attention. The home is said to be haunted by a former housekeeper from Virginia. You can hear her playing the piano in the music room from time to time.

Another plantation house on our list. Residents have claimed that a former housekeeper stands in the courtyard. Looking in your direction, almost right through you. A gentleman staying there had stated that a light attacked him, explained to be almost orb-like. This happened near the cemetery on the plantation.

These are public places in Alabama where something had happened to change its future. These locations hold so many secrets. Ones that we may never truly know.

Chris Pruitt / CC BY-SA 3.0 License

The Eliza Battle was a steamboat that could carry people and cargo. While on a run from Columbus, Mississippi, to Mobile, Alabama, carrying 60 passengers, 45 crew, and some cotton, the steamboat reportedly caught fire via the cotton bales at around 2:00 a.m.

The captain tried to steer the ship ashore but had difficulty seeing. All the smoke and fire made it hard for the people aboard to get to the lifeboats, causing people to jump into the freezing water and sink somewhere off Alabama Highway 114.

An author named Kathryn Tucker Windham had written about this event in her book called Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. In her book, Kathryn talks of how the steamboat can be seen floating down the river occasionally. Looking close enough, you can see that it is engulfed in flames while music can be heard in a muffled tone.

You would not expect to find a large tree growing out of a grave, but in Mobile, Alabama, that is just what you will find. In 1835, a 19-year-old kid was convicted of the murder of his friend. This kid was a poet and musician named Charles Boyington. Although he claimed his innocence until the end, he stated a tree would grow from his grave to prove such.

Two hundred years later, every year, on May 14th and 15th, the Bogington Oak Festival is held in honor of Charles. People visit his gravesite and the fantastic southern oak tree that has sprouted. Also, people visit his home and some of his favorite places he likes to go.

In the 1950s, a school bus full of children was on the way home from school. The bus came across train tracks while driving down Country Road 12 in Coy, Alabama. During their crossover of the tracks, a train hit the school bus, thus killing everyone on the bus.

Late at night, you can hear the screams of the children coming from the tracks. If you stop to hang out, you will see apparitions of the children walking the tracks.

Depending on your level of bravery, you can also see a glimpse of the ghosts in action by dusting baking flour over the trunk of your car. People say if you put flour on your trunk, sit on the tracks with your car off. Childrens handprints will be imprinted into the flour when you pull away.

In Hueytown, Alabama, you will find a ghostly man pacing Lilly Lane late at night. Wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans, he can walk up and down the lane all night. Some residents have even claimed to have found him in their houses.

In Rogersville, Alabama, at the Second Creek Bridge. A musician was trying to catch a ride after a jazz show in the area when he was struck by a car and killed. If caught crossing the bridge late at night, you might see him walking along, trying to flag people down, still looking for that ride. Zoot suit and all.

Locals say if you stop and offer him a ride, he will mumble something about his trumpet before disappearing.

Deep in the woods of Gadsden, a witch is said to wander around. This is as folklore tells us. They say she sold her soul to the devil for immense power. After collecting several photos, investigators found orbs floating down this path.

Victoria Tori Meyer/Shutterstock.com

A little girls death in the gym of an elementary school located in Bonneville, Alabama, has left the school with several reports of hauntings. The girls ghost can be found running up and down the halls outside the gym and in the bathrooms, where you can see her in the mirror. The girls locker room in the school had to be closed off due to her sightings. This was for safety reasons of the other students still attending the school.

Several children of this Fort Payne school died in a fire. They haunt the gym. The girls locker room has been a place of heavy activity. People say you can hear lockers slamming and benches in the locker rooms moving. Also, the showers and faucets will turn on and off in the locker rooms, and the toilets will randomly flush. Lastly, people have made claims to hear kids giggling.

A mansion built on a large plantation in the late 1850s, previously known as the Carlisle-Martin House. Edward Kenworthy Carlisle, a prominent lawyer and cotton grower, owned it before it became a school.

Throughout its lifetime, it is said that a previous housekeeper haunts the fourth floor. She waits in the window for her lover to return. Visitors have reported several testaments of this.

She was known to the staff and residents past and present as The Red Lady of Pratt Hall. Martha attended the college between 1900-1950. Martha loved the color red and would decorate the whole side of her dorm. Her bed, her curtains, and most of her clothing were red. Even though Martha enjoyed her studies and loved the colleges academics, she was not enjoying college life so much. She did not have any friends.

Shortly after, her roommate and the only person she could talk to moved out of the dorms, and people stopped seeing Martha around the school. She quit attending classes, and classmates reported not seeing her at lunch or the library. When concern started to hit peoples lips, her roommate returned to check on her. When she reached the fourth-floor dorm, she found Martha in her bed. She had committed suicide. It was documented that her blood had soaked everything around her. This meant the scene was considered red.

A cheerleader was on the football field taking her homecoming pictures when she climbed on top of the goalpost. Thinking these would make for some great photos, she started to pose, when suddenly she fell to her death.

On homecoming night, if you go out to the 50-yard line on the football field and call her name. This is when she will appear and walk towards you.

This hotel was built in the 1920s and has been known as a great tourist attraction. People from all over the world come to visit for two different reasons:

Hank Williams, the famous country musician, stayed his last night in the hotel before passing the next day in the back seat of his car in 1953. Williams ghost can be seen wandering the top floors, aka The Penthouse, late at night.

Claims of other paranormal activity throughout the hotel have also been reported. According to WHNT, a news station in Alabama,

Redmont guests have reported doors opening and closing, furniture or bags moving around, and even the ghost of a small dog roaming the hallways.

I found this place listed on several things revolving around The Most Haunted Places In Alabama. It is a National Landmark, being built in 1881. The Sloss Furnaces was a steel production plant. Once built, it offered a growing economy for the newly founded city of Birmingham. The steel was in high demand, for railways were the primary source of transportation at that time. Not only did it offer a product, but it also offered employment. Thousands of jobs had become available.

Although the work was hard and incredibly dangerous. The men employed there worked 12-hour days while getting paid a meager wage. Most cases reported only earning scripts they could use at the company store.

Johnny Cash wrote a song very fitting for this type of employment.

As previously said, the work was dangerous, causing several work-related injuries and often leading to death. One of the worst stories told is when a workers item of clothing got caught in the machine gears at the plant. As the gears turned, it dragged the man in click by click by click. Several of his coworkers stood around as they watched in horror, unable to do anything to help, watching him as he disappeared.

The Travel Channel talks of this place in detail, mentioning that,

Screams are heard, apparitions are seen, and on the second floor of the Blower Building, theres the sinister presence known as Slag, an overly cruel foreman who can still be heard belittling his crew.

Paul-Briden/iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

This was a mental health hospital, helping patients with their psychiatry needs. This is still currently a behavioral health center today. Staff and patients alike have reported hearing strange noises coming from the hospital. There have also been reports of large shadows and dark masses wandering around the facility.

Whether youre coming to Alabama to visit 1 of the 18 Most Haunted Places In Alabama or to swim in one of the great beaches you will find here. One of the things you will not be able to miss out on is the history that fills the place.

It will be hard not to hear of the hauntings of the schools, homes, and places full of such history. It is hard for people to want to leave it behind, so they choose to stay forever.

On a side note, if you want to swim while you are here, you must do your Alligator research. Not all of our waters are a safe spot to submerge yourself.

Read more here:

18 of the Most Haunted Places in Alabama - AZ Animals