Photo Credit: Edgar Franks
A recent article describing how farmworkers are resisting attacks on immigrant workers features LNS board member Edgar Franks, the political director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia in Washington State, an independent union of primarily Indigenous Mexican farmworkers.
Edgar Franks:
When we first formed around a decade ago, Donald Trump was ascending to the presidency, but we were still able to organize and win some victories for farmworkers and immigrants here in Washington. We’ve won overtime rules, heat and smoke rules, and paid rest breaks for farmworkers. All this was possible only because of strong worker-led organizing and not necessarily because of which party was in power.
We faced retaliation when we were first forming our union. Immigrants faced a harsher environment because of Trump’s rhetoric. Despite that, workers who are well organized can count on each other for protection. Organizing is the way we keep each other safe. When we have unity and solidarity, the community will be emboldened to step up. Fear always exists, but you can’t let it immobilize you. The best way to fight fear is to confront it and push back.
We’re also worried about gains around climate protections and pesticides being rolled back. Getting rid of those regulations puts farmworkers at risk. Stacking the Supreme Court even more to the right could also really hurt workers and make it easier to greenlight the kind of anti-labor or anti-immigrant measures in Project 2025.
This is a difficult moment, but it also opens up the possibility of new organizing strategies and new energies. People’s lives are at risk, and we need to fight even harder on all levels — on the policy front, in the streets and in the workplace. Trump won a lot of the working-class vote, but we know he won’t deliver for workers. We need to push for things like rent control and child care and a higher minimum wage. We shouldn’t be watering down our demands now. We should be even bolder. There are different ways of participating in democracy that go beyond voting, whether that be workplace organizing, marching and protesting, or community assemblies.
When farmworker communities organize together, we are really powerful. We hold a very important place in the food system and the economy. If we organize ourselves and recognize the leverage we have, we can really make progress, no matter who’s the president. We need to recognize that we’re in a position of power, not weakness, because we hold the levers of the food system in this country.
For full article: Farmworkers Are Organizing to Resist Trump’s Attacks on Immigrant