Ten years after it conducted the first survey assessing the wages and living conditions of nearly 200 dairy farmworkers in Vermont, Migrant Justice has launched a larger effort.
In partnership with the Labor Center at UMass Amherst, dairy farm workers have already begun bringing surveys to their peers across Vermont. For the first time, they will also survey workers across New England, said Marita Canedo, program coordinator at Migrant Justice/Justicia Migrante, a nonprofit representing immigrant farmworkers statewide.
Canedo estimated Vermont has about 800-900 migrant workers (not counting their families) and said the survey will focus on them, although other farmworkers who want to participate may also be counted. The organization aims to interview at least 300 workers statewide this time around.
The data collected in June and July of 2014 found nearly half of the 172 dairy farm workers surveyed were paid below the state minimum wage (then $8.73); 40% worked seven days a week with no days off; 30% suffered a workplace injury or work-related illness; and 20% had experienced wage theft.
Regarding living conditions, 30% of the surveyed workers reported overcrowding and 35% said their housing was either in need of major repairs or so substandard that they needed a new home. Many reported not being treated equally to U.S.-born workers, not getting a meal break in seven hours and never getting a pay stub.
“The injustices faced by Vermont dairy farmworkers are often in violation not only of existing labor and housing laws, but more fundamentally of basic human rights principles,” stated the 2015 report on the survey results.
The goal of this year’s survey, the results of which are expected this fall or by the end of the year, is to reveal what has changed.
Canedo said she is hoping to see some improvement or at least a more comprehensive picture of workers’ lives and conditions at dairy farms.
“I don’t think that there are going to be big changes in vacation pay, sick days or health and safety, or even housing conditions. We know there is a crisis with housing, so I don’t expect to see a lot of changes there but at least I expect to see a better picture now,” she said.
The survey’s farmworker-to-farmworker interview method promotes a higher level of trust, Canedo said, allowing the interview subjects to speak their native language with someone who understands the culture and issues faced at farms.
After its 2014 survey, Migrant Justice launched its Milk with Dignity program, a campaign that promotes fair wages and dignity on farms across the state and has most recently targeted Hannaford, urging the grocery chain to improve conditions on the farms that supply its dairy products.
Migrant Justice also conducted a smaller survey in 2018-2019 looking at the working and living conditions of about 100 farmworkers outside the Milk with Dignity program, in collaboration with Tufts University researchers. The results indicated high rates of workplace injuries and illnesses and a serious lack of safety equipment and training. For example, 85% of workers surveyed reported facing harm from environmental risks such as extreme heat, extreme cold or slippery floors. And 78% of workers reported being hurt or affected by an animal-related risk such as being kicked, unsafe gates or transmissible diseases.
This year’s survey, which began on Feb. 14, will also focus on workers at farms that haven’t joined the Milk with Dignity program. Currently 20% of the state’s dairy farms participate in the program, according to Migrant Justice.
“We know that the farms in the program have higher standards and are paying the state’s minimum wage so we want to see the impact [on] farms outside of the program, if other farms are also improving conditions and have higher wages and other protections,” Canedo said.
The goal is to provide the most comprehensive data to date about working conditions in the Northeast’s dairy industry.
“There’s a lot of excitement to go and visit farms,” Canedo said. “There is a lot of excitement to be able to be talking and bringing all these materials to people, to kind of bring their voices up.”
