It's officially a crime (she was 17 and pregnant, 3 get involuntary manslaughter charges!)

[Omaha Steve]

After reading Maria's story last year, I stopped buying wines not on the UFW approved list. There are 2 brands in the Omaha area that are easy to buy.

The UFW approved food list: http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=organizing&inc=orga_label.html


SB789 Passes CA State Senate on Lobby Day.
Take the next step.

Involuntary manslaughter charges were filed today against three top officials of the defunct labor contractor company, Merced Farm Labor, in the case of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez--who died of a heat stroke last May 16.

The UFW applauds the District Attorney's decision to prosecute this as the crime it was. It never should have happened. An innocent young girl never should have died due to grower indifference. (Click to read Maria’s story.) http://www.ufw.org/_board.php?mode=view&b_code=hotissue&b_no=4304

However, violations occur every day and nothing is done. Last year five other farm workers died of heat related causes after Maria’s death. Complaints regarding lack of drinking water, shade and work breaks to make use of these simple but lifesaving measures are an everyday occurrence for farm workers. (Click to read farm worker stories http://www.ufw.org/_board.php?b_code=org_wv.) Farm workers can’t afford to wait until such an audacious violation such as Maria’s finally causes the state to react.

That's why farm workers need this bill that will give then the means to protect themselves. It's why SB789 is so vital. SB789, CA Employee Free Choice Act for Farm Workers (Steinberg) will make it easier for farm workers to organize and help enforce the laws that California's government cannot enforce.

SB789 just passed the California state senate yesterday. It will next be heard in the state assembly and then go to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Please send your e-mail to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today and let him know that people all over the country will be watching him. It is time to pass SB789, a bill that will give farm workers the power to protect themselves.

Please take action today. Help protect the men and women who are in the fields working under the sweltering sun working to put food on our tables.

http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/caefcafw409

Tell-A-Friend: Every e-mail sent makes a difference. Forward this message to at least 10 friends or family and ask them to send an e-mail too.

[havocmom]

1. Thanks for that UFW approved list link

And, what do you think of my new sig line? ;)

[Omaha Steve]

4. Looks great to me

IF only more people would buy with a thought about the people involved to bring them the things they buy.

[NV Whino]

2. I was surprised to see

CK Mondavi (aka Charles Krug) on the approved list. They treat their workers like shit. Every time a contract is up for renewal, the workers are on strike for weeks and sometimes months trying to get, or sometimes just maintain, their benefits. The last time, after almost a year, they finally agreed to return to work at very reduce benefits. Krug, owned by the Peter Mondavi family, has tried to break the union for years. Personally I won't buy their wines.

[Omaha Steve]

5. Charles Krug Mondavi wine

I knew about this too.

http://www.ufw.org/_board.php?b_code=org_vic


Charles Krug Mondavi wine boycott is over! Nearly two years after being fired, workers back on job and have new contract

April 2008: Nearly two years after being fired from Napa Valley’s Charles Krug-Mondavi winery, 24 employees have been reinstated with back-pay. In addition, the UFW has signed a four year contract between the company and the workers. In addition to back-pay, under the new contract the workers will receive an 18 percent pay increase over the four-year contract and the workers will have the same seniority and classifications they did at the time they were discharged. The contract also covers sub-contracted employees who will be paid wage rates equal to those a UFW employee. Sub-contracted employees will also be entitled to the grievance and arbitration procedure for disputes which arise.

[NV Whino]

7. Oh gosh, it was nearly 2 years!

I didn't realize it was that long.

[NV Whino]

3. As a note of interest

This year, for the first time, I have been seeing portable tents set up in the vineyards. (Those little aluminum things with folding posts and plastic top that are used at craft fairs and such.) It's not much, but it does provide some shade. There have always been portable toilets hauled around for vineyard workers and there are always vehicles with water containers. But portable shade is new.

Another note of interest: Because of the crackdown on illegal immigration, I see more women in the vineyards. Wives and siblings are joining the (legal) men of the family to take up the slack.

[dcsmart]

6. K & R...with a note from Marx

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
from the Communist Manifesto

Part 1

[readmoreoften]

10. to highlight a segment from your post...

in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes

I think the best evidence of this today is Monsanto's terminator seeds. Let's see how well the bourgeoisie fairs when these seeds globally pollute whole species of plants.

[dcsmart]

11. i just looked this up...i never heard about it before and you have to be

well, i will say it, fucking kidding me....

"With Monsanto's terminator technology, they will sell seeds to farmers to plant crops. But these seeds have been genetically-engineered so that when the crops are harvested, all new seeds from these crops are sterile (e.g., dead, unusable). This forces farmers to pay Monsanto every year for new seeds if they want to grow their crops."
http://www.ethicalinvesting.com/monsanto/terminator.shtml

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/suicide-seeds

http://www.globalissues.org/article/194/terminator-technology
these are just a few sites

how sociopathic have these companies become....i really want to :puke: . i never knew about this....i am sure there are organizations fighting this. one of the sites i found is Greenpeace.

capitalist PIGS......thank you for informing me about this.

i just found this post on DU......when i goggled the topic
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3830863&mesg_id=3832595

:cry:

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. Corporate / Factory Farming scares the shit out of me.

[ThomCat]

8. The cruelty that resulted in her death hardly seems involuntary.

:(

I know they didn't intend for her to die, but they certainly showed absolutely no concern for how much she suffered while she lived, working for them.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. Recommended.