Immigrant Farm Wokers Say: Take Our Jobs!

A new campaign has begun to draw attention to the situation of the nation's farm working labor force, largely composed of immigrants from Mexico. They have endured harsh anti-immigrant campaigns and policies, becoming the favorite target of xenophobes and others.

However, now, through the launching of the "Take Our Jobs" campaign (http://www.takeourjobs.org/), the UFW invites people who claim immigrants are taking jobs away from citizens to apply for those same jobs. The UFW vows to help link job seekers with vacancies,

The invitation is as follows:

TAKE OUR JOBS There are two issues facing our nation--high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce--that many Americans believe are related. Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat - at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) - comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers. Agriculture in the United States is dependent on an immigrant workforce. Three-quarters of all crop workers working in American agriculture were born outside the United States. According to government statistics, since the late 1990s, at least 50% of the crop workers have not been authorized to work legally in the United States. We are a nation in denial about our food supply. As a result the UFW has initiated the "Take Our Jobs" campaign. Farm workers are ready to train citizens and legal residents who wish to replace them in the field, we will use our knowledge and staff to help connect the unemployed with farm employers. Just fill out the form to the right and continue on to the request for job application. Do we have any takers?