Migrant workers harvest strawberries at a farm near Oxnard, Calif. Ventura County is one of two counties where labor organizers hope to get a Bill of Rights passed to protect farm workers from abuse and wage theft.
Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images
Farm workers in two of the nation’s most important agricultural counties joined other low-wage food sector workers on Wednesday, demanding better wages with a new Bill of Rights.
The thrust of the bill, which is aimed at workers in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in California, is to establish a “rule of law” in the fields, observers say.
“There are rampant violations of farmworkers rights in agriculture,” says Bruce Goldstein, executive director of Farmworker Justice, a national advocacy group. “A lot of this is that a …