By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent
 
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Civil Rights Commission’s 2010 Report on the Conditions of Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers in Michigan paints a picture of “challenges” faced by Michigan’s seasonal labor force that is not a representative picture of all Michigan farms.

The report, released in late March, offers a skewed assessment of working conditions, and the Commission acknowledges this in its own report.

While investigating allegations about conditions faced by the farm workers, the Commission openly admits in the report that it “did not seek to assess the overall conditions under which all of Michigan’s migrant workforce labors.”

“It should be noted that the Commission did not intend this process to yield a statistically representative picture of all Michigan farms or farmworkers, nor do we now contend that it does ... The conditions we observed may or may not be ‘typical,’ but they are certainly prevalent enough to demand action,” the report states in footnote No. 16 on page 5.

Michigan’s agriculture industry annually employs about 45,000 migrant and seasonal farm workers, who are critical to harvesting perishable agricultural commodities, which cannot be picked by mechanical harvesters without running the risk of damaging the crop.

The study came about after Commissioners heard presentations from groups that work with, and advocate for, migrant farm workers, as well as farm workers themselves during a public forum in Kalamazoo last year. Commissioners decided to visit some migrant labor camps to see conditions for themselves.

“The Commission was disturbed to hear that some Michigan farm workers and their families were being subjected to conditions that, if true, could neither be ignored nor tolerated,” the report stated.
“We set out to determine whether those describing such offensive conditions could both substantiate the allegations and establish that they were not unique isolated instances.”

The report outlines a number of concerns uncovered during the investigation including housing conditions, discrimination, working conditions, language barriers, racial profiling and racism.
“Families were often living in housing that was extremely substandard, including structural defects, lack of clean running water, exposed wires, overcrowding, close proximity to fields (and thus pesticides) and poor sanitation,” the report stated. “The Commission heard testimony from many farm workers describing discrimination that they had endured. Farm workers related incidents of sex-based discrimination against women, sexual harassment, national origin discrimination and racial discrimination.”

Michigan Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization, is speaking out about the report, and said that suggesting prevalence of problems absent of scientifically sound data to back up the claims is jumping to conclusions.

“The buried footnote (footnote No. 16) needs to be brought to light because the report unfairly casts a damaging black eye on the hundreds of agricultural employers who abide by state and federal laws and provide high standards of living and working conditions for their valued migrant and seasonal farm workers who voluntarily return to their farms year after year,” said Rob Anderson, MFB legislative counsel.

“We are not discrediting the opinions or feelings of those migrant and seasonal farm workers, who were involved in the report,” said Anderson. “The Michigan Farm Bureau believes that every human being should be treated with fairness and dignity, and we have always urged our members to comply with existing laws meant to ensure that these basic principles are afforded to migrant and seasonal farm workers.

“But we are concerned with how this report is being promoted and interpreted, and we believe it provides a misleading and one-sided perspective,” Anderson said. “In the isolated incidences where infractions are uncovered and verified, we support full enforcement of existing laws.”

Commission Chairperson Matt Wesaw said the report is intended as a needs assessment.

“The Commission believes the recommendations and next steps released in conjunction with this report are sound and can only lead to improvements for migrant workers,” Wesaw said. “We observed and heard a number of issues, including unsafe housing, allegations of wage theft and difficulties accessing certain services due to language barriers. This report will be a vital step toward continued work in these and other areas.”

The report outlines a number of “next steps,” which focus on working with state departments and agencies to identify ways to improve migrant labor working conditions.

Visit www.michigan.gov/mdcr to view the report.