Campaign for workers' justice

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Centro Campesino was founded with the philosophy that farmworkers, rural Latino/as and allies must work together to positively change institutional structures that create and maintain oppression.

In recent years, migrant workers have organized for and won improved salaries and housing conditions. During 2000-2001, Centro Campesino conducted an extended organizing campaign around wages, housing conditions and workplace safety for the more than 350 migrant farmworkers employed by Chiquita Processed Foods in Owatonna.

The hard-won changes in the migrant camp housing included: the installation of hot water in all individual units; the construction of a storm shelter and installation of a tornado alarm system; the complete remodeling of a Chiquita-owned housing unit to be used for Centro Campesino childcare, including the installation of a bathroom and air conditioning; and the implementation of a warning system before pesticide spraying occurs near housing camps.

The workers' justice campaign is by far the must aggressive of our campaigns since it works to defend the basic human, civil and labor rights of our members and the community. The scope of work includes:

• Increasing and promoting Centro's membership in order to have a powerful base that will be protected and united under that membership.
• Conducting workshops around southern Minnesota to teach workers their basic rights and how to proceed when those rights are violated.
• Work closely with allied unions to promote the workers' right to form a union and bargain in good faith with their employers to promote the end of injustice and mistreatment.
• Provide our membership with free interviews with workers' compensation lawyers.
• Utilize public direct action to put pressure on companies that refuse to negotiate with workers and listen to their demands.
• Defend our members and the community from any company or employer that exploits and oppresses workers.
• Develop leaders from the community that will act as justice promoters and promote workers rights in their communities.
• Urge workers into forming their own independent Unions that will give them the power to bargain and fight for their own cause.
• Work with allied representatives to promote the passage of legislation to protect migrant workers.