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Momentum is building across the country and across industries for fair livelihoods and decent work for all people - including farmworkers, who have historically been excluded from too many protections. As this movement for fair work spreads, we catch up with Crispin Hernandez of Workers\\u2019 Center of Central New York.  

Fair Trade USA\\u2019s new \\u201cfair trade\\u201d dairy label has been on Chobani\\u2019s Greek yogurt for nearly a year now, but little has changed for farmworkers. Instead, most of them don\\u2019t even know what \\u201cfair trade\\u201d is and haven\\u2019t seen the benefits that are getting sold to ethical consumers. But that\\u2019s not stopping Crispin and his allies from pushing for better protections for all farmworkers, including overtime pay at 40 hours/week. 

Topics covered include:

• The history behind a 40-hour work week and how farmworkers have been unjustly excluded from those workplace protections.
• Growing momentum across the United States for farmworkers to be paid overtime after 40 hours of work.
• Almost one year after \\u201cfair trade dairy\\u201d appeared on store shelves, farmworkers\\u2019 still don\\u2019t know what fair trade is or what benefits and rights they should have.
• What \\u201cfair trade committees\\u201d are, how they\\u2019re described in the press, and what workers actually experience.  
• Chobani\\u2019s commitment to charity, instead of changing the conditions that force people to depend on that charity. 
• The real physical consequences of overwork on workers\\u2019 health and wellbeing - and how hard it is to get healthcare, even on a farm in the fair trade program.
• The Farm Laborer Fair Labor Practices Act in New York state and the campaign to lower the overtime threshold to 40 hours for farmworkers. 
• How fear of retaliation continues under the fair trade program, and has far-reaching consequences

Do you work on a farm participating in the \\u201cFair Trade Dairy\\u201d program? We want to hear your perspective. Send a message to info@fairworldproject.org or call (800) 631-9980.

\\u201cMilked: Immigrant Farmworkers in New York State\\u201d is definitive research into the conditions on dairy farms in New York, presented by Workers\\u2019 Center of Central New York to Chobani: https://milkedny.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/milked_053017.pdf

Jacobin Magazine article highlighting the ways the new \\u201cfair trade\\u201d dairy program is failing workers: https://jacobinmag.com/2022/01/dairy-farmworkers-unions-safety-new-york-rwdsu-ufcw

Fair World Project\\u2019s report on the \\u201cfair trade dairy\\u201d label and the standards behind it: https://fairworldproject.org/choose-fair/certifier-analysis/fair-trade-usa-fair-trade-dairy-chobani-failings/

Margaret Gray\\u2019s op-ed on why so few farm worker voices were heard at the New York state wage board meeting: https://www.newsday.com/opinion/commentary/farmworkers-1.50487280

Report highlighting the connections between overtime for farm workers and workplace health and safety:  https://oregonfarmworkerovertime.org/

More on the origins of farmworkers\\u2019 exclusion from workplace protections, and the worker-led movements for change: