Belabored Podcast #139: Fighting Harassment on the Farm

Belabored Podcast #139: Fighting Harassment on the Farm

We talk with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers about organizing to fight sexual harassment of farm workers.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers Women's Group painting signs for a march (CIW / Flickr)

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We’ve been hearing a lot about sexual harassment lately, but it’s mostly been in a few industries: the media, Hollywood, politics. Far less attention has been paid to the industries where harassment and assault are rampant but access to news coverage is not: service work and in particular, farm work. This episode, we bring you a conversation with Coalition of Immokalee Workers member Oscar Otzoy, who tells us about the group’s organizing to fight sexual violence in the fields and economic violence throughout their member’s lives. 

We also look at the good news from the recent elections, a lawsuit against Microsoft for sex discrimination, the shutdown of DNAinfo and Gothamist as extreme union-busting, and a win for a gravedigger’s union. For Argh, we look at why unions haven’t been able to stop sexual harassment, and how business unionism brought labor to the brink of the Janus case. 

If you think our work is worth supporting as we soldier on through Trumplandia, please consider becoming a sustaining member of Belabored or donating or subscribing to Dissent. Help keep us going for the next 139 episodes!

  

News

Three Women Suing Microsoft for Bias Want to Add 8,630 Peers (Bloomberg)

Can Tech Workers Complain About Sexual Harassment? Depends What They Signed. (Buzzfeed)

Sarah: How Democratic Socialists Worked With Sanders Supporters and Grassroots Groups to Sweep November’s Elections (truthout)

Autocracy at Work: Understanding the Gothamist Shut Down (On Labor)

Gravediggers at L.A.’s Biggest Cemetery Unionized on Friday the 13th (LA Weekly)
 

Conversation 

Coalition of Immokalee Workers

700,000 Female Farmworkers Say They Stand With Hollywood Actors Against Sexual Assault (Time)

Harvest Without Violence

Global capitalism undermines progress in workplace safety in Bangladesh’s garment industry (The Pump Handle)


Argh, I Wish Id Written That!

Michelle: Lois Weiner, How Business Unionism Got Us to Janus (In These Times)

Sarah: Ian Kullgren, Why Didn’t Unions Stop Sexual Harassment (Politico)


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