John Oliver discusses the conditions farmworkers face, how we’ve failed to protect them, and the Jolly Green Giant’s body hair.
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If it looks like slavery, swims like slavery, and quacks like a slavery, then it's probably slavery.
I usually hate how loose of a term slavery is sometimes like students complaining about their homework using slavery as an analogy or love songs saying lines like " I'll be a slave for you". The disrespect to what slaves actually were is crazy but your comment is actually very fitting
Same issue with the loophole that let's prisoners be slaves. Also..farming sim is the game for people way too uptight to relax and play Stardew haha
Same issue with the loophole that let's prisoners be slaves. Also..farming sim is the game for people way too uptight to relax and play Stardew haha
"That's like slavery but with extra steps" "BuT ThEy GeT PaiD"
Most successful rebranding campaign in amerikkkan history.
Family around the dinner table: "Jesus, thank you for this meal!" Jesus in the field: "denada!"
Probably the only way I'll say "Thank God for Jesus!" 🌽🖤😅🖤🌽
Underrated comment
Whenever people tell me that I need _Jesus_ in my life, I tell them that he already is. And he's bilingual. 😆
I was looking for this comment after watching this segment… not disappointed.
EXACTLY.
White boy, athlete... In the summer after my Sophomore year in high school, I took a seemingly well paid job picking strawberries and tomatoes. I thought I would die after the first two days, but I stayed with it and learned the techniques of REAL hard work... and I lasted all of 2 weeks. The amazing Mexican women and children I worked next to have my everlasting admiration. If you haven't done it, you have no idea what it takes.
I picked plums for a single day. It was extremely boring and since I was stressed out about things in my private life, my mind kept going back to that topic over and over an over. So there I was, spending at most four hours twice in one day, feeling terrible. That's just one thing that makes what you describe even worse.
I answered an ad for a job laying agricultural pipe on an industrial-size farm the deal was $1.75 per quarter mile of pipe laid $0.75 per hour during the season and $1 per hour when the harvest was in IF you were still on the crew when the harvest was finished that "IF" kinda raised fantasies of how easy it is for an employer to F*K with an employee until they finally quit or how easy it is for employers to fire someone and just lie about why if there is a legal dispute about the firing
Imma still say hard work deserves fair pay.
It seems weird to call yourself white boy. The term is a bit racist.
@@trevorgamar2229These types of jobs also offer those of us that have been broken by other people, meaningful work kinda independent of others, long as you got your shit together you get left alone, that feeling is wonderful once you have been subjected to enough horror 😂 fucked as it sounds, safe low wage employment based around simple tasks reduces the need for welfare
John, please cover the American foster system. I work with foster kids and every new thing I learn is something that you and your team desperately need to cover. It REALLY needs a hit from the John Oliver effect. But to give a few examples, knowing full well that this probably won't be seen: It was recognized as early as 1912 that we shouldn't be putting children into institutions and that putting kids with foster families if their original families weren't safe for them was in their best interests. Many times these days, children are taken from homes that are NOT actually abusive but merely "neglectful" though not because of failings of the parents - merely because the parents are poor, or frequently people of color. It is extremely difficult to get one's children back, but it is also difficult to properly *adopt* children from foster care as well, much of the time, meaning that many of the children in question wind up in legal limbo with no stable housing or stable living environment. Many states also vary their requirements for screening foster parents - some having very little, some having requirements that are excellent but excruciatingly expensive to fulfill - and in either case the requirements to pay falls on prospective foster parents. Which means that in many cases, children are EITHER put in horrible, abusive, unstable foster homes, OR put in a backlog because many states simply do not have adequate foster homes to accept them, which has led to ANOTHER problem - which is that despite that we were supposed to begin phasing out orphanages in 1920 and the last one DID close its doors in 1973, we began bringing them back in the 1980s and calling them "group homes" - some of the kids there are those who have serious mental helath issues, trauma, etc,. others are those who simply do not have placements. Many foster children who have experienced psych wards or juvie compare group homes unfavorably to the former two. We're still not done. Because many states are supposed to supply some kind of stipend for foster children to have money for after they leave the system or "age out" but it is *very* common for states - and frequently private agencies they hire - to straight up steal the money meant to go to those children. Alaska recently got caught up in one such scandal as it was the most brazen, but it is far from the only one. Also children in these situations can and are frequently subject to medical abuse or unnecessary use of antipsychotics for things like running away from abusive homes or fairly common trauma responses. Rehoming groups have also sprung up on facebook in which people essentially trade foster kids around when they are not getting along with the adoptive/foster parents' biological kids - this is technically not, strictly, illegal, though it is not strictly legal either. That, and hundreds of foster kids go straight up missing every year. Like we actually straight up do not know where they go. Texas is the most egregious in this regard, though it is, again, far from the ONLY one with this problem. Again, this is a system in dire need of the John oliver effect.
I'm definitely interested in hearing more on this, and I'm sure many viewers will! But maybe you could write an email to the production team, with more background information and examples to convince them that they have a story there. I doubt a KZhead comment will have much impact nor reach the team of writers.
@@pravindsegaran3209 I would actually love to do that, and have looked around on the website, and various social for the production team's contact. I have been trying to find a means of contacting them. If you know where I may be able to find it...
Hasnt he covered foster care before? Im in Texas and thought he covered it in the past. I mean another episode would definitely be needed.
@@junglegymcircusmonke he has not, he has covered family separation in immigration, but not foster care.
^
As a family member that comes from Mexican migrant parents who have worked in farming their whole life, thank you for this segment.
James Michener wrote about migrant farm workers in his book "Centennial" which was supposed to take place in Northern Colorado. The farm owners would tell the workers they would get paid when all the crops were collected & instead of paying them, he would call immigration on them & they would be deported back to Mexico. The migrants worked in the hot sun for 2-3 months while the farm owners enjoyed free labor & profits.
You shouldn’t thank for the segment. No one should, instead they should rather thank your parents! Just like those of us living in Europe should be thankful that we can rely on migrant workers to pick our food as well!
Hispanic, like from Spain?
@@Halcon_Sierreno really?
@@peterpain6625 Yes, that's what you call a Spanish person. You didn't know that?
I cried watching this. I was that kid picking cherries over 40hrs a week getting $100 cause the boss said that’s all I need. Thank you John for giving the people a glimpse of what it’s like for a lot of us.
Same except it was detasseling corn across several square miles of mosquitoes with the added benefit of razer sharp leaf edges with fiberglass-like silk hairs that'd stick in any exposed skin. Abso-fucking-lutely never again.
I'm so sorry that happened to you, I can't even wrap my head around how difficult that must have been
Exactly!!!!! Same
You didn't deserve such horrific treatment. I hope that things are better for you now. Hopefully more will be done to improve conditions for all farm workers. No one deserves to go through what you did.
All of that, and after having to make the treacherous journey in the first place just because our government keeps F-ing up their countries and installing corrupt dictators. That's how American Imperialism works.
If you care about this cause, I highly recommend volunteering at your local farmworkers association (especially if you speak Spanish). It was very rewarding for me. On my first day, I went to a berry farm to sign workers up for free medical and dental appointments and make sure they had transportation to get there. I witnessed the abhorrent conditions of their "housing." They were living in horse stables with bunk beds. There was no running water. There was no adequate protection from the elements. I knew then that it wouldn't be my last day volunteering. I saw many abuses, but also so much love and humanity. The other volunteers doing their best to help. The farmworkers themselves giving everything they had to help their fellow workers. Dentists, doctors, and nurses giving their time and expertise for free. Teachers and tutors giving free English lessons with their very limited off hours. It was heartbreaking, but also amazing. Again, please consider volunteering for this very worthy cause. ❤
I backup what you say. The area I grew up in was a big pickle growing region, four local pickling plants. The migrant worker barracks was basically four walls, a door and a couple windows. No flooring, no beds, no toilets (had shed outhouses), no running water. They were fed, but they had to be because to buy food would have taken all their wages so what would have been the point of them working. And now today people yell about immigrants but that's exactly who farmers hire. I moved back here from New England with equine management skills but there was no way I could get a living wage job because if it wasn't kids working off board it was Latinos from South America who would work for $2 an hour. Americans have no clue how cheap their food is even in this inflation and a lot of it is due to migrant workers and immigrants. And a lot of them are here seasonally to make enough money to take home to raise their families because they can't do it where they live because their countries are so poor.
Is there a website you used?
@@gafls3151 Exactly right. I grew up in TX very near the border & I can tell u with absolute certainty that every single rancher & farmer back then hired illegal immigrants & most of them probably still do. Back then we even called them “wet backs” a pretty derogatory term, although as a young girl I didn’t understand that. I loved those migrant ranch hands & they were always kind to me. I get pissed hearing some ppl talking so horribly abt about them, fearful of them; it’s ridiculous! I’d bet 90-95% of those waiting at the border just want to work hard & care for their families
@@patrickbutler334 You’re correct.. we can do both; volunteer to help when we can AND demand that our Govt reform/update our immigration policies. Like right now, instead of continuing to raise interest rates til they force small, med, & large businesses to lay off more workers in some fields while at the same time, the service industry can’t find workers so they are forced to keep increasing wages; why don’t they give “green cards” to asylum seekers & let them fill those empty jobs?? Dishwashers, line cooks, hotel housekeepers & lawn maintenance, waiters & waitresses, baggage handlers, as well as farm workers; all of these jobs could be filled by new immigrants & would help to slow inflation
It shouldn't be up to kindness that their basic needs depend on. Don't get me wrong that sounds great, but the government needs to step in and treat them like basic humans and workers. Nothing will change otherwise.
Ok when that guy said "we don't have no n words that work here" I literally almost choked on my water. Holy shit!
He just straight up said it with no hesitation or tiptoeing... to a black man...
As a first generation Mexican-American whose father worked in strawberry fields, thank you so much for this piece
Respect to all farmers and farm workers. People like your father keep our country fed.
Same here. My abuelos first job was picking watermelons 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for $20 a week. He was 7.
As a person who comes from Hispanic background, I'm just American. I've never seen anyone considered themselves Spanish European or African British.
Please tell tu familia gracias from the rest of us. What your dad did is important and it matters. I am personally very grateful.
@@SykotikShadow i understand the sentiment, but i would allow people to self identify. Much love!
For six years, prior to my retirement after many years managing operations for public transportation systems, I hired H2B Visa workers - most from Haiti and Mexico - to fill our needs for seasonal drivers during the busy summer months on Cape Cod. Some local residents complained about "all those foreigners" driving our buses so I went to one meeting with a group of them and after hearing their complaints I handed out - - job applications. I told them that we would even provide paid training so they could get CDL licenses. Surprise! Not one person in the complaining group submitted an application. Want a bus to be on time on Cape Cod in the summer? Be thankful for these H2B Visa drivers - - or walk. The meeting ended more quietly than it had begun. Duh!
People are so ungrateful 😤
Good on you for that. Too good to hear people swallow their own slander.
Beautiful!
Good for you.
Great work hiring legal workers. If the idiots complaining didn't bother to find out they were working legally and just assumed you hired illegal workers that's a shame. Despite political division you still need to use your brain people.
Most farmers actually want illegal Hispanic workers because it means they can underpay them. That farmer also knows the illegal Hispanic workers they hire can’t complain about being underpaid because they have no legal standing to complain. This type of financial abuse is very real. I personally knew people in situations like this.
Then you should support mass deportation.
I can't wait til we 'fix' these issues and food prices skyrocket
Technically, they can complain, but they understandably fear of employer retaliation, deportation or jail. A lot of crimes would be solved if law enforcement focuses on the criminal who's actually harming the public rather than detaining the migrants who would be a huge help.
@@fisharepeopletoo9653 "we can't end slavery, clothing prices will skyrocket!" Like yes that's not wrong, but also if you think that's a valid reason to keep a system of exploitation and abuse you're not a good person
@@fisharepeopletoo9653 a significant amount of countries subsidise food prices to mitigate this issue but given these expenses go right back into the pockets of those working for it, i highly doubt it would be a burden on society
I come from farm workers. Thank you for your using your platform to shine a light on us.
Farm workers are truly the backbone of our country. They deserve better.
It should come directly out of corporate profits, maybe even get rid of the profit incentive all together and nationalize parts of it, we subsidize it way too much already just to have corporations sell it back to us with great margins for them because consumers paid to grow it. Government employees get paid way better and pensions, unionize your work place
we need to force our lawmakers, and THEIR kids, to work fields in the blistering sun with slave wages.
@@imustbust998 The backbone of humanity, without agriculture there's no way we could sustain so many people period.
@@orion10x10 Maybe first look up what happened when governments thought to nationalize farming. Famine, corruption, inefficiency. Leftists never learn.
It's pretty much the entire chain that gets screwed. The only hazard pay I got a the grocery store was insufficient to match even the bonus payments that the unemployed were getting to stay home. Still, even on the worst days at a grocery store, the working conditions light years ahead of what it's like lower down in the supply chain like the farms and meat processing facilities. It's really telling how pretty much everybody except those in the food supply chain got nice large checks to help out, but we only got the money that they couldn't figure out how to target more specifically. Even though we were literally risking contracting covid-19 and the very real long term consequences of it. But, non-essential workers could stay home and collect their checks. Not that I really blame them, I blame the chicken shits in congress for not actually giving us Hero Pay. To make matters worse, a lot of businesses were also cutting the food supply workers from discounts when that was a thing and we didn't get our vaccinations until after the teachers did even though the teachers were able to work from home and nobody was going to die as a result of not having in person schooling the way that they'd die not having in person food.
It would be nice to have this segment translated into Spanish. I bet they would appreciate it. Thank you John!
Have chumel translate it
Commenting for more engagement
me too
Go to the gear icon (settings) - subtitles- auto generate - pick a language.
This please.
I am an economics professor and I share your video when I teach "labor market monopsony". Thank you for your important and meaningful work, John.
Thank you for teaching something real, beyond the traditional micro-macro economics as an abstract, resource subsidized pipe dream. Appreciate this comment.
John Oliver consistently presents solutions that can at least help with the issues he reports on. Do any of them ever get taken up and implemented? I've never understood how he, Jon Stewart or even Jordan Klepper don't just end up miserably frustrated and dejected with what they see and hear.
Americans were outraged when they heard of what was happening in Qatar with workers at the stadiums but didn't even realize it was happening in their own country
@Akshay Ramdaw~EXACTLY 💯% TRUE CORRECT UNBELIEVABLE DESPICABLE UNACCEPTABLE 🎯😱😡😭💰👀😇🙏💙🦋
Always easier to get outraged about it when it's not directly allowing your comfort.
@Gabriel Pettier it's also easier to get outraged at something when you actually know about it. I had no idea about this until now
@@liamgavinwells I completely agree, but why didn't we already know about this?
@@23_Beans because of rich people wanting cheap and inexpensive labor to make themselves more rich, so they will corru- I mean lobby the government to turn a blind eye
I was a child farm worker. While my friends were on summer break, I was waking up at 3am to get ready for work. I hated going back to school and getting asked, "what did you do for summer break?" My dad is still out there working the fields. Super grateful my parents taught me the value of earning a dollar. I was hesitant to watch this, but you did us justice. Thanks, John 😊
You are super grateful that you were forced to do child labor?
Thank you for sharing your first-hand account. You are a survivor and I only hope the best for you and your family!
@@alvodin6197 that's not at all what he said, this person didn't have an option like you do. They're proud that they learned the value of a dollar and how hard many people have to work for one.
Us too. And I agree thanks John.
I would like to ask you, what can I, as an individual, do to show my appreciation to folks like you? You work, and worked, your ass off so that I can mindlessly make a quiche, for example, and stuff it in my face with my morning coffee. Thank you for putting in all that hard work and danger over the years. This simple message, I fear, will never be enough.
"You shalt not mistreat your hired worker". As someome that values social justice and am a person of faith, it important to stand up for workers, not only companies. Thanks, Mr. Oliver for bringing up the rampant abuse and so forth of those workers in the ag industry that feed this nation! They deserve justice and better H2-A visa protections. Shabbat Shalom.
I work in the fields on early 2000's in California, it was horrible, my people deserve better.
I blame tax evaders for hiring illegals since that's what caused the homeless problem
This hits close to home for me. I grew up as farm laborer from age 15 to 22 with my family. It was the greatest motivator to earn an education. I am now typing this from my cushy desk job as an aerospace engineer. Never forget where you come from.
Wonderful! Congratulations 🎉
Bravo.
@@Frostcorpse Could be on break?
@@orionsshoe2424 yep, that could be the case, indeed.
@chris ahsyeud really? disgusting and childish? "I am now typing this from my cushy desk job as an aerospace engineer" this literally means what I said, unless he is on a break, so what is so childish about it, eh? His words, not mine. just cause you like the positive lame message a lot, it doesn't mean you should just blindly defend random crap
This story brought tears to my eyes. My 72 year old father is still out there to this day picking lettuce. I was once one of those underage kids picking at 14 in order to have clothes for school. Seeing the legitimate anger, outrage, and heartbreak in John's eyes during this segment hit close to home. It is way too normalized amongst the Mexicans in my community that these conditions are just part of the way things are. I'm glad a light is being shed to finally correct conditions for those still out there. My family worked hard so that I wouldn't have to, and I'm grateful I was able to do better for myself.
You should try to retire your father if possible so he can stop
What is the retirement age where your father lives?
@ModusAm @aesinam trust me I've tried to get him to slow down. He was retired for like a year. He's a full citizen and has social security but he continues to work. I feel sad because I feel like for him, it's the only life he knows. He's been out there since he was 16
Right there with you babe.
@@ModusAm I'm going to take a wild guess and say you are not from a place like USA
Farm workers are truly the backbone of our country. They deserve better.. Nick Offerman always makes every skit better.
I see a lot of folks here in the comments discussing their experiences as child laborers. If any one needs an ear or a kind word, this internet stranger is happy to listen to you. I love you all very much my friends
It's 11 months later and this sweet post is still blessing people.
"And while we claim them as essential, we sure don't treat them like it" I feel like we learnt that about all essential workers during the pandemic.
I'm sure asking the rich people very politely to be nice will change it. Careful, do anything more and it's socialism and yanks will try to kill you for it.
Essential oils aren't called that because they are important. It's because they are crushed down to the essence of what they are to be used by others until they are gone. "Essential workers" are the same way.
"Essential worker" seems to be some kind of Labor Cheat Code for "doesn't deserve a break."
@@TheMysticshroom damm that shit was deep
If things are that bad for foreign workers coming to work in America, then why do they keep coming? Why are they not working in their own countries?
I think getting Nick Offerman to narrate the Farming Simulator was a perfect bit of casting lol
I don't think anyone else caught that, lol.
@@Ric_Vicious I'm like "Is that Nick Offerman? Inspired choice, if so!"
I was looking to see if someone else noticed this because I almost didnt believe it at first lol
I absolutely heard that and came looking for these comments! I'd know that voice anywhere. Nick is GOLD.
he's done like 4 or 5 bits with last week tonight, so they probably have him on call
If any Australian farmer tried this with foreign workers the penalties would be GINORMOUS 🤬 We have some of the best labour laws in the world, America needs to take a look..
For you guys there is no temptation - you have the strictest immigration laws in the universe and these stop any farmer from hiring illegal aliens. So when a farmer actually manages to find and hire one, it is an exception that is easily discoverable and punishable.
My dad grew up on a WI farm and worked on various family members farms from childhood on, until he and my mother moved to Philly where I grew up. My dad has fond farm-y memories, so I had NO clue any of this was going on, this is truly awful. Thank you for exposing the reality of so many farm workers.
It's because your dad's relatives see him as a person, unfortunately a lot of farm owners do not see migrant workers as a people worthy of personhood.
"While we claim they're essential, we sure don't treat them like it" applies to damn near every "essential worker" during the pandemic. That label really puts a lot of things in perspective.
Trucker here, i agree
It's essential for the government to keep them in line and keep them cheap. That's why congress literally banned railroad workers from striking for a single day of paid sick leave per year. Absolute insanity.
the real problem is that it's about balance. These often illegal immigrants are willing to work for small wages and poor working conditions. This is free people that voluntarily allows poor conditions because they know the alternative is to go back to their home country where the wage is worse for same terrible working conditions.
The pandemic was that all this stuff was about to come to light, the other thing was a distraction
@@sebastianwallin3726 people would not have to come to the US as undocumented workers if it wasn’t for the US destabilizing their home country
When I was a child (8 or so), we made friends with the migrant children working in the fields. We were aghast at how hard they had to work, even the littlest of about 5. One girl told us they were lucky because they got a place to live and didn't have to sleep in their broken down truck. We went over there one day after school (these migrant kids didn't go to school), and the place they "lived"? nothing but one room tiny shacks with an outhouse for all for a bathroom and a cistern water pump outside for water. no electricity, of course. We went home and told our dad about their deplorable conditions, and my dad's response? You can't play with those children anymore. 😢🥺 No surprise that I fought a lot for worker's rights during my management career.
I'm sorry for your dad's callousness. However, you turned around and did good for others. Thank you.
@@jcc9059 I'm sorry my dad was a complete racist. He was very intelligent, and so I never understood that about him. We fought often, and one time he didn't speak to me for two months. He didn't like losing a debate.
@@e-spy I'm envious that your father was able to recognize he lost a debate.
That is the power of meeting each other. We meet each other to little to understand each others, which makes it easy for television persona's to lie about the others to us.
This is the plot of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. Are you telling us the plot of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas?
I feel so badly for the children forced into these scenarios. in my early 20s I spent a couple years doing unpaid work exchanges on farms, since I grew up outside of any guidance for a stable future. On 1 I slept in a bathroom less tree house without insulation or window panes (just cut plastic roll stapled up) for months during the winter. And when I left, the farm owner refused to give me a job reference because she had wanted me to live with her after her daughter went to college and I didn't want to. This is minor compared to what many people endure. On 1 farm were guatemalan immigrants who barely spoke English and had no vehicle out in the country. They were basically stranded indentured servants, and gaslighted into being told they were valued equals, when the farm owners just wanted to exploit them. That scarred me to see. The world is rife with imbalances of power, people who have never been regarded as a valued community member, and lack of opportunities for financial independence and mobility.
a few years ago i was sitting in a park near center city Philadelphia at night. there were a few homeless people a few benches over. they seemed like they were more than anything just super down on their luck. they were talking to each other about working for some farmer under the table and how desperate you need to be to work there, because apparently if you didn't do a good job or you tried to run away from the abuse or he just felt like it, he would shoot you. probably one of the unnerving conversations I've had the displeasure of overhearing
And you did nothing about this?
You can't just casually sneak by the fact that you got Nick Offerman to voice the advert at the end. You delightfully evil bastards, I love you.
Ahh, I knew that was him 😂😂
I noticed that too. I wouldn't be surprised if that Farming Simulator satire was made into an actual mission in GTA 6.
Thank you! I thought that was him!
@@jamesstortz936 GTA6 would require Rockstar stop milking GTA5.
i thought it was Bill Maher
I am a US veteran and citizen who was born in Guatemala. I have always been aware of the hypocrisy of not speaking of the labor and the criticism against illegal immigrants when they are just people looking for opportunities doing jobs that no American will do... 😢 thank you for bringing light to this issue
@@ThatOpalGuy if they were giving stars for being horrible jerks, you’d get all of them.
you want to do this kind of work
you are wrong in your assessment. people would be more willing to do the job if it paid more. why work on a farm for 12 bucks an hour when i can go to walmart and mcdonalds and earn the same? i have that option those who sadly are here unbeknowst to the law do not have that same option. this would force the farmer to raise wages and maybe a by product is that the cost of said product also went up. cheap labor is subsidizing business and consumer spending
Americans will gladly do any job that pays a REAL WAGE.. but basically what you're saying is Americans refuse to be slaves.
@@davidplaysgames470 no what im saying is AMERICANS would refuse such working conditions because we are not afraid of the law working against us. We know we have rights as AMERICAN CITIZENS to demand justice when there is inequality and such. But thanks to ILLEGALS and LOBBYING we will never have the votes nor the masses to achieve change. They should refuse to be slaves as well but since they dont have that option. IT IS WHAT IT IS
John I Love you for to letting it be known how things really go down. Thank you for telling the world the truth!!
Uhm, black people didn’t just collectively “leave” farming during the Great Migration. We were largely run off and pushed out. It’s worth it’s own episode.
Ya theirs a good history of Damn their doing pretty good at (listed job or sport) I got a fix for that
This piece deserves an Emmy. Damn, the cruelty of the world never ends.
Absolutely
He can throw it on the pile. John already has 17 Emmy's on 23 nominations.
@@ClayLoomis1958 Wow. They're definitely well-deserved. 🙂
I absolutely agree that this one deserves an Emmy !!!
@@ClayLoomis1958WELL deserved, no less 🙂
My father was an Outreach coordinator here in Utah. He died last year due to health issues. He would find these workers and find a way to help them legally. He had shotguns pulled on him by the owners. He was never phased in doing the right thing. Recently now i have the blessing to also be an Outreach coordinator for the same cause. I just pray that i too can find people in need and that i can help them. I pray for the day that we can truly treat each other as brothers.
❤❤❤❤
Bless your heart. Not too many people care anymore 😢
I grew up on a small, generational fruit farm. We are NOT all bad people. Unfortunately, corporate farms took over and small farm either sold or became contract growers for the big “C” in Ag. We paid well, we treated our laborers with respect. Because the “Walmarts” and Associated Grocery” corps set prices so low, we were run out of business. Try paying more for your fu king food. An addiction to low prices, import laws that make sure you have EVERYTHING year round….small farms were the backbone of an amazing industry. Wall Street owns it all now. And china is the largest buyer of ag land in the past 10 years. Ya’ll wanted low prices. You got em. This video is a great example of the cost.
in 1995 i met a man who was a college counselor for a local Capitola CA highschool that served mostly migrant families. It was in a town basically owned by Martinelli's, yes the applejuice people. He was placing Latino kids in good universities and the town bosses hated this. Martinelli's told him he would lose his job and pension, 2yr from retirement, if he placed another Latino student in a good college. He was crying into his beer at Balzac's Bistro bc he didn't know what to to. I wish I knew what he chose.
You have to find out! Please?
@@AmethystEyeshow would they go about doing that
I used to work in a used furniture store in Southeastern Ohio. One time, we got a bunch of metal chairs and tables in, like just a ridiculous amount of them. People would buy one or two chairs, a table every now and again, but eventually one guy came in and bought our whole stock. He owned an orchard nearby and said that, thanks to a new law, he "had to give them chairs now" and openly talked about how he employed illegal immigrants and paid them well below minimal wage and was allowed to for various reasons but he found them annoying cause they kept "asking for stuff". Dude was literally dressed in khaki army pants and boots and looked like General MacArthur, he had the vibe of a drill sergeant or prison guard. He scared the shit out of me and the other employees, we just tried to load his furniture in his truck as fast as possible. Nothing behind his eyes. After he left we talked about it and everyone in the store agreed we just met a functional psychopath who was participating in legal slavery. Sometimes I literally lie awake at night to this day thinking about what kind of hell it would be working under a guy like that. I would tell anybody who lives in the Southeastern Ohio area to not buy from Yeary's Orchard in Adamsville, OH, but given the bits I've seen from some other farms I doubt they're much better. It's disgusting. I'm glad John is bringing some light to this, and I encourage others to do the same. If you see people being taken advantage of, tell people. Don't be quiet about it.
@Ami Agisi~Thank You for Sharing this Story!😱😡🪑😇🙏💙🦋
Noted, i wont buy from there!
There will be people without moral compass talking shit here soon.Please don't delete or alter your post about it.
I like to believe that I would love everyone to be treated with respect mainly if their work is something you are not willing to do, I am a Solutions Software Architect and with all my 20+ years of experience I respect all those workers that make our society work and I hope someday not far from now we give them a fair working conditions in which with that salary they can enjoy the things us Executives get to enjoy. I hate when people look down on other is so disrespectful speaks tons on their character.
Colonel Kurtz is alive and well and working on an apple farm in Ohio.
My dad worked as a farm worker for about 20 years and I actually have vague memories from when I was a kid of going to the fields with him and helping trim grape vines. Field work seems like the only job where “take your child to work day” quite literally involves your child working
I worked at a small winery for years. The folks who tend the vines work year round, like your dad, and without them, there would be nothing. Thank you.
I used to pick raspberries with my mom and the supervisor let her count our flats as ones she picked.
although that may be more true these days......I grew up going to work with my dad in upstate NY. He worked as the produce manager for Safeway. When I went at ages 9-13, he would put me to work packing grocery bags and loading them into cars. We made tips from the people. We worked hard and were happy with whatever we made each day.
Would be an interesting experience, but... there is a line drawn between kids helping work on a farm and it turning into an utter theft of their childhood.
I am shocked to hear of this, but not surprised. My heart breaks for you and your family. This is the new slavery and it needs to stop. I am praying that Spirit rains down blessings on you all to make up for this great wrong
Just watching this hurt my back. I seriously applaud all the companies who joined to help.
My father grew up as a farm worker, he still hates apricots to this day bc that’s what he had to pick most. He’d tell me horror stories about his time working there, how hot it was, how they worked you to the bone for pennies. But if he wanted school clothes, he had to work summers and after school bc his aunt and uncle who raised him couldn’t afford it otherwise. They take advantage of these workers and it’s sick
@aiuc lse this all happened under capitalism
As a young child living in a rural community, I recall hearing the farmers in the area speaking of transporting “them Mexican’s” to their farms to “pick them crops”. In later years I met some of those farmer workers children and asked them about their experiences. They expressed the abuse their parents endured. Thank you for bringing up that topic, which is ignored by labor laws and will not change as long as you have big money buying politicians.
Free guns for laborers will do it
@@ctg4818 Any day now Republicans states are going to start the "Berettas for books" campaign (also known as "📚↗️↘️🔥 = 🔫)
@Brett_S_420 OK I mean. I'm definitely getting in on that. Fuck them but berettas are way more expensive than books
@@kumaflamewar6524 They make you burn the books yourself while doing the Q pledge at a Trump rally. Still interested?
Free guns for laborers is basically how Maoism started. I am anticapitalist but the 20th century playbook for revolution has not borne out good results. I wish I were enough of an economic visionary to offer a better system, but the truth is, even Marx was ultimately silent on what should come next. He said that at the start, the new world would still be stamped with the birthmarks of the old, but it wouldn't stay that way, and that was about as specific as he got...
I grew up in Central Washington in poverty. My first job was picking potatoes with my friends George and Raul, whose family worked with us. I'm pasty, pasty white. I'm Frasier casting white. So I know now that my family had it much better than my friends' families. Still... It's where I developed my deep-seated and intractable hatred for wealthy people. The wealthier they are, the worse they are to work for. It was an egregiously awful system thirty years ago, and it looks like things have gotten worse. Much respect and sympathy for everyone stuck there.
Yeah I picked cherries with all my Mexican friends during the summers in central washington a few years back throughout HS, and yeah it’s really tough, although getting called a snow/albino mexican after starting to wear the jeans with a sweatshirt in the middle of the summer was kind of funny. Also I was the only white guy there in the whole valley where I live, which is kind of ironic considering so many of my race say they don’t want latino people “stealing” those jobs.
I am your kin. Wealth is violence. Those ppl aren't even worth eating, which should impart such great shame they consider self-euthanasia. But is the USA. Our housing was very similar to what they showed in the end. We didn't have plumbing for 2 winters. Our boss took vacations at Martha's vineyard several times a yr but sometime couldn't pay us on time for gutting their birds. Soaking wet with fingers full of bone shards in 20degree buildings for 16hrs a day...
@@sarahoshea9603 wealth is something you work for and strive for if you made nothing out of your life it is your fault nothing is for free
@@paulmiskell3988 yet it’s funny how those in society who are working the hardest of all are often not seeing barely a scrap of that reward… homeless people working two or more jobs. Majority of the middle class surviving paycheck to paycheck while prices keep soaring and the wages slug behind for decades. Brutal and physically demanding jobs that saddle you with earlier deaths and diseases, yet don’t want to shell out benefits for their own employees who spent years loyally putting in. the crux of what you’re trying to say would only make sense if we actually lived under a meritocracy. You’re practically gargling on that boot.
Thank you John for all you do. The work and living conditions are just awful. We need this constant reminder in 2023 that this shit still is happening and needs to be changed.
Let me tell you, picking stuff like cucumber, strawberries or pumkins is the hardest. I´ve done some flowerpicking during my workin' holiday year in australia (I´m german). The scenery was stunning, butterflies flying through the fields, gorgerous mountains. I got an old school basket, it looked so romantic. The flowers were the height of my knees. After 30 minutes I couldn´t work anymore. The half bending position DESTROYED my back. I tried to kneel on my knees the best I could but I had a knee injury and couldn´t sdo it ince it was still inflamed. I rather dug dandelion roots up the whole day with a showel than picking flowers again. It was THE WORST AND PAINFUL job I had ever done. I also worked in cherrypicking 8 - 11 hours in the tasmanian sun and rain but at least I could keep my back straight and got paid extremly well. The bosses were also great. Heard plenty of horror stories of other backpackers though. I don´t know how these workes bend the whole day just thinking about it freaks me out.
Rural communities have been largely ignored in favor of the stereotypes seen on TV, and it means that a lot of stuff like this gets ignored. Thanks for covering it.
Yeah lmao those totally legit white farmers 🤣 More like white plantation owners, sure.
Rural communities that actually farm (weird how many don't) are very private for exactly this reason. My family have orchards, part of a Pear growers collective, and they ain't poor. None of them are, no matter how they pretend to be, they're rural royalty and have huge amounts of pull with local media and government. They sit on huge sums of money and don't want questions asked about the labor.
If things are that bad for foreign workers coming to work in America, then why do they keep coming? Why are they not working in their own countries?
@@joehobo8868 I’m assuming this is a rhetorical question and you’re not just a blithering simpleton
@@thl205 Do you find what I stated as simple rhetoric? There is a far deeper problem to this story then most people can comprehend. The first being, why can't America feed itself without cheap foreign labour to do the work? The second question of many more is why are those countries incapable of employing their own citizens?
This season of Last Week Tonight needs the subheading, "You knew it was bad, but we're here to tell you it's worse than you thought."
Great video and some excellent tips ! This is scary time for new investors but the best thing you can do is not to make a decision based on emotions.
I'm looking for something I can venture into on a short term basis,I have$15k sitting in my savings
Mrs Jessica chiara Russell,she charges 15% commission on every profits made after trading sessions which is fair compared to the effort she put in making great profits.
What in sweet fuckery is happening here?
@_TracerBullet Just 2 bots talking to each other on the Internet. Nothing to see here, move along.
This is even more relevant now with what is happening in Florida.
Same thing over here in europe more or less. During the pandemic, Farmers had problems collected vegetables without farmworkers, so they asked the german citizens. 99% of the citizens looked at the pay and working conditions and said "fuck that! Give me minimum wage at least and better conditions, if not have fun with your dying crop". Just the biggest of double standard. These conditions are fine for seasonal workers, but they are unacceptable for us citizens
Do you think wages and working conditions, for workers, should improve or should be lowered? If you import cheap labor then wages and working conditions drop overall, because people have to compete with this cheap labor.
@Frank Forsoegskanin why do you keep asking this on everyone's comment when they clearly want things to improve for everyone. Did u not read the part this comment said the citizens refused to work under same conditions. Talking about double standards doesn't mean they don't want conditions improved
@@aesinam Exactly. And if farm owners were unable to actually get that cheap labor, they would have to give better pay and conditions for the citizens.
Well, we don't sell foreign workers in Germany. Of course abuse occurs, but it doesn't seem to be systemic. The difference in wages but also the unwillingness to pay more for harvested products (in Germany especially for asparagus and berries) are the problems.
@@aesinam I am asking because it isn't clear to me that people want things to improve. I did read the comment about citizens refusing to work under the same conditions, but I also read peoples comments or indirect implications that there is negative view of citizens not wanting to work for the same low wages which also sometimes is expressed in mocking tones of "dey terk err jerbs" or similar. Therefor I worry that at least it isn't clearly appreciated where part of this problem comes from, the importing of cheap labor.
Why does it feel like it’s pulling teeth to get people to treat others with decency and compassion? Why is this a losing battle?? Absolutely heartbreaking, and disgusting that people who are just looking for a way to take care of their family are being treated like. 💔💔
Totally agree but the answer to your question is simple: human greed and desire for power over others. And of course, "regulators" who think that a human life is worth 5k for drowning in manure.....if only fines were a tad more severe.....
Because profit is a beast that cannot be fed.
Racism and greed
Too many racist, weak-egoed white trailer trash morons out there. But for some reason, they think they're superior to everyone else. It's so hilarious and sad at the same time.
capitalism
Also a fun fact of asparagus is you can literally watch it grow. It grows so fast that if you leave for lunch and come back it will be noticeably bigger.
The best part, though, is the smelly pee, if you have the gene. I find it amusing.
I love that someone pointed out that farming is more dangerous than police work
I did a whole school report on the conditions of these farm workers and ended up making everyone cry when we went to lunch. Best memory from HS
A+ cause that means you did your work and they have empathy. No sugar coating the cruelty of this
It's true, I was the tears that fell from their little weepy eyes.
@@sdm1568 Can confirm: I was the eyes.
When I was 13 I worked in a cucumber packaging place and broke my heart to see plenty of kids even younger then me
I was 9 and would go with the neighbor and her 5 kids a pick Chili and green beans!
John talks about issues that far too often fall under the radar. That's why he's my favorite comedian.
I had a roommate whose family owned an apple farm in Eastern Washington. She was so racist, I had to call a friend on a regular basis to ask exactly which group she was insulting. I always wondered how her family treated their workers if this was the child they raised. The mother in the news report reminded me of her mother.
Thanks for doing this piece guys. I've operated small vegetable farms that sell only at farmers markets for quite a while and I can tell you that almost EVERYONE in this country undervalues food in general. In order to stay in business without this slavery system, we have to charge quite a bit more than what you get in a grocery store and the number of entitled idiots giving me grief for my prices is incredible. If you give a shit about any of this, don't buy your groceries from the store. It's almost all grown with exploited/underpaid workers. Oh and also, not mentioned in this video, but modern chemical-based agriculture is the single most destructive thing we are doing to the environment at this point in history. Seriously we are killing our waterways and oceans with this shit at an incredible pace. Grow your own food and/or support farmer's markets if you have access and money to do so.
This is the real answer and the one that most are going to ignore, cause capitalism has made slaves of us all.
Not to mention said chemicals are harming ourselves, making us at risk of cancers and just being sickly in general, and bolstering the huge pharma industry. Food n Pharma have been feeding off each other for 5 decades now... plumb upsetting
Yes! Stop buying food that’s not in season!!!!
" If you give a shit about any of this, don't buy your groceries from the store." Easier said than done my friend. Easier said than done. Because if one lives in a major city, that is no where near any farm; The only place to buy food at all, is at the stores that are close. Either that, or drive some odd 50 - 100 miles just to pick up some veggies, and that's just not feasible.
@@buckrodgers1162 There are Many Farmers' markets in big cities. At least a dozen in Dallas, Boston, hundreds in LA‼️
Once I met a guy who told me he travelled to the US once a year to work at weed fields on harvesting season. He told me he did it for a few years and one year after having done all the work they didn't even pay them because it had been a bad season and they weren't making as much profit. He had to leave unpaid because he was undocumented and the farmers were very dangerous people.
So much for weed never hurt anyone
@@SgtJoeSmith Pretty sure it was the farmers, not the "weed". 🤦🏼♂️
@@bpalpha the farmers that probably smoked the weed
@@SgtJoeSmith What? Poor jokes?
The majority of Black slaves were tasked with working in hemp fields for hundreds of years, but barely anyone knows about this because the history of Cannabis was erased in order to wage the "war on drugs." Watch the 1942 USDA film, *Hemp for Victory.* In the video is shown a Black man performing the same task that Black slaves were forced to perform. It was a job called 'breaking.' Handfuls of hemp stalks were threshed over a table while a heavy wooden bar was slammed down repeatedly to crush the stalks to separate the long fibers within. The narrator of the video calls this "one of the hardest jobs known to Man." 12-18 hours a day for no pay, because those hemp fibers were the most important commodity in human history, creating the ropes and sails on every ship that sailed across the planet until the Industrial Revolution. Now, the film is the key to reducing pollution, replacing fossil fuels, ending deforestation and stopping climate change. But no one knows this because the history of Cannabis was erased to brainwash everyone with anti-Cannabis drug war lies. So, while people were enslaved all over the planet to work in the hemp fields for thousands of years, Cannabis also made the D-Day invasion possible to defeat the Axis of Evil and stop the Holocaust, and we can do even more with Cannabis today if people would just learn this. But no one cares because weed is "legal" and everyone can just go into a store and buy corporate-grown weed. It has always been about greed. It has always been about the control of wealth into as few hands as possible. *Hemp for Victory* changes everything, and that's why no one on television will ever tell you about it.
I worked on a blueberry farm from around 12-14 years old every season- that was under what I would consider the BEST possible conditions and we still had kids fainting and getting hurt from falling or pushing themselves too hard. And that was with a kind boss and lunch/water breaks.
Respect farmers in the world...farmers give food everyday...from India🇮🇳
The only reason my best friend was able to afford college was de-tasseling corn in the summer and being a straight A student, yet still had to take out 10’s of thousands of dollars in loans for a 4 year. An exceptional human needlessly limited by the system.
College is a scam. Did your friend even end up in the career field he put himself into debt to study or was he one of the rare exceptions?
Government/Corporations does this on purpose to control us. They don't want smart HONEST people, they want smart CORRUPT people.
So does everybody else in this world nothing is for free you do not get success handed to you
@@paulmiskell3988 exactly!
@@paulmiskell3988 i envy your ability to stay blissfully deluded into thinking that American society is still able to call itself a meritocracy
We are really handling a situation like crap when big name companies like Walmart comes out looking like the slightly better guys
Ya, a lousy cent per pound ain't gunna do didly. Walmart workers need SNAP benefits while the company makes billions. We need minimum wage to be high enough for the worker to make too much to be eligible for government subsidies. That way no corporate wellfare.
@@dannydaw59 The OP said "slightly better" guys. No one's saying they're good, but when you perform even worse than Walmart there is something *massively* wrong.
Especially when Walmart has yet to improve their treatment of their employed personnel all the way down the line.
They work with prisons for cheap labor so like they good in this one situation
@@dannydaw59you assumed this based on a gut feeling and you're wrong: a cent per pound absolutely can do something. That's how much they value their profits, they aren't willing to sacrifice cents per pound. That's why companies like Nestle and Cadbury aren't FairTrade, even though it makes a huge difference and costs them almost nothing (Cadbury used to be FairTrade and their chocolate was still the same price, then they realized consumers don't actually care about the safety, age, health and living conditions of the people who harvest chocolate, so they stopped working with FairTrade (who provide independent audits and have a list of specific requirements for workers rights, unlike pretend stickers like "rainforest alliance" that mean nothing.) It actually costs very little to have a huge impact on workers lives. They spread this myth that it would cost them so much they'd risk being driven out of business and you ate it up.
John Oliver is the Man!
John Oliver is officially my hero ❤️❤️🔥❤🙏🏽
Spent a summer doing strawberries and blueberries in my teens. My brain couldn't comprehend how much faster and harder everyone around me was working regardless of age or sex or size. What was worse was because I was a friend of the family and not a migrant worker, I was actually making a good deal more then anyone else while doing 1/4 the work no matter how hard I tried. Felt pretty awful. If hard work equaled good pay, migrant work would be some insanely lucrative work. And in the long long list of jobs I've had, it's number 1 or 2 on things I'll never do again. Hell, I doubt my body could do it anymore.
And yet things are so bad in their native countries that even though it''s very little money in the US it's a decent amount for them to send to their families (because something John left out of this segment is how many of those people working there do so to send money back) so it is still better than what they could get back home, which just adds to how sad this whole picture is that these people are so vulnerable that putting up with slavery is the better of the options. So much work needs to be done on so many sides.
Yeah, the myth is, if you work hard, you'll get ahead. But a lot of jobs are paid based on social perception of said job. Meaning, status in the class order. Not the reality and necessity of said job. ...So people who do really hard, necessary jobs are often viewed as pretty disposable people.
"The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people." -Cesar Chavez
"I'm not here for the people, I'm here for that grapes and lettuce." - consumer.
I'd love to see a full segment on just the Walmart.
Thank you John for this great research to share with us. 👏🏾 👏🏾
Being Mexican and knowing and working in this conditions I fully know how bad my people have it!! My respects for standing up to them!!! ❤❤❤
It has to be deplorable and heartbreaking. I used to see migrant farm workers when I was on the road, I would stop in the convenience stores where they patronized you could see the sadness in their faces like they were not even human. The PA mushroom farm workers. I wondered what they were thinking when they were looking at me as I had a pretty cushy job on the road and a really nice vehicle. I felt guilty but there was nothing I could do or knew what to do in the early 90's. Their clothes were torn and tattered. Just sad to watch them walking down a road that was dangerous for cars let alone humans. Truckers would run us off the road to make time. My customers were talk about these truckers and the things they would do. More than a few of us were run off the road because 90 mph just wasn't fast enough for them. You can't tell me these truckers didn't do some awful things to these men walking these roads. I couldn't wait to get the hell out of their on my Wednesday run.
Thank you so much for service our great nation. I wish you were treated better.
@@doloresm7396 you Dems say the same but don't want give them housing or help in your neighborhood
I grew up in an agricultural area and every farm worker was either Mexican immigrants or first generation Mexican-Americans. They're the reason I have difficulty taking the "foreigners are taking our jobs" scare seriously. I never once saw a white person in the fields or on the transport buses because farm work is"beneath" them. The farmers hired Mexicans because Mexicans were the only ones that applied. And with so many being non-English speakers, I know they were being taken advantage of. This was in southwestern Arizona where summer highs regularly broke 120°.
@@klainedify taking plenty of jobs in the city. Wise Up
To the "Dey Took Our Jerbs" crowd: if you can withstand the inhumane working conditions that these immigrants have to put up with, then please, by all means get to working!
This is why they are really scared of communism and socialism even if they don't really understand those concepts. They know outright it would undermine their privilege to continue exploiting dirt cheap labour inhumanely
or pay people better. your entire argument is let them come work for basically nothing in shit conditions lol
Its funny that the jobs being taken by immigrants are the ones these people would never want in the first place. Can't imagine cucker tarlson fan or daily wire fanatic willingly working a field, doing dishes in a restaurant, or fixing up a hotel room. Especially with the exploitation that happens to these people.
This is about ensuring better working conditions for farmworkers. Better pay and safer conditions. It's not about doing the same work.
I have a friends dad who was LOVING Trump and is big on border security. I was like, Dude, if we actually stopped illegals, you would be out of a job. He runs a construction company, his big house, second trophy wife and exotic hunting trips are all paid for through the exploitation of undocumented workers willing to work under the actual "free market rates" required to make that work happen. But he never understood that.
Way to go interviewing Gerardo and CIW/CFA! Coalition of Imokolee Workers are such an awesome group! The Student Farm Worker Alliance started when students on US Campuses coordinated with CIW to raise public awareness about labor exploitation of the workers and publicly shame the brands by picketing their restaurants across the US. I picketed with CIW and SFA in Florida, Chicago and NYC. We made the pickets fun, making cardboard puppets and making up songs. Then the progressive churches and others joined on and it became the Community Farm Worker Alliance. I've volunteered for many human rights campaigns as an activist, and CIW/ CFA is one of my all time favorite campaigns. Love these Peeps so much.
Thank you John Oliver.
All you said is true John: racism, humiliation, lack of respect and empathy, is what these workers suffer everyday doing the job that "americans don't want to do".
They are illegal and have no right to be here
We're just not dumb enough to do it for the low wages they pay so they can get more wealthy. You get what you accept in life, if you take a job that pays crap, you'll get paid crap.
To be honest, American citizens don't want to do those jobs because the pay and working conditions are so horrible. I mean, if Larry down the road who lives under a bridge, would commit a crime to have a warm place to sleep on a cold night and get a hot meal rather than work in the fields, that should say something extremely loud to the powers that be.
@@gothnate Eeyup. It's damn sickening. What sucks even more are the assholes in office that say "you 'people' aren't working hard enough" when those politicians are the ones screwing over the system. *turns towards Rick Scott *
Watch the movie Grapes of Wrath and you will see a tiny sliver of what pushed Americans away from farm work. A legal American can get more money from government assistance or begging on a street corner. While there are probably a few good farmers, I've not met one. Their rank on the humanity scale is below truck driver and even below commercial gill net fishermen. That's low!
Thank you for doing this segment. I'm 4th year undergraduate student of mexican decent. I'm lucky my parents got out of doing this and I never had to experience it, but man have I heard the stories, working from the age of younger than 12, migrating from California to Washington and vis versa semi-annually because "thats where the work is", wanting to be in school as a kid because you didn't have to work the fields. My grandfather worked the fields until he physically could not at 75 because of cancer. I'm so thankful that I can stand on the shoulders of giants.
My grandma picked berries for pennies to support her family. This rhetoric about exploiting foreigners is a recent sensation. It's really about forbidding people to take care of their own needs, the fed wants us to pay tax transactions on exchanges. They want your garden to be illegal, and our food to be a taxable expense. Good on your fam, good on everyone who works hard to put something on the table. Still, let's keep a VERY watchful eye on the federal acts being passed about subsistence. Food Safety Modernization Act has some very sketch language that invokes eminent domain, "for your own safety". Education matters, glad you're getting some! Now go research FSMA.
Thank you for always showing me things I didn't know!
Thank you for talking about this topic, they deserve better pay and to be treated with respect.
When my dad first came to the US in the early 70's, he ended up on a compound where they had to pay rent, food, utilities, supplies, etc. to the degree that they were paying the rancher just under what they were earning. The place was surrounded by guarded fencing. He and a couple of other guys snuck out in the middle of the night after realizing what they had gotten into. He was 19 in Southern California.
That sounds a lot like the way miners were treated, before unionizing. The company store sold them all their goods, at prices that took back what they were paid, or they were given credit from the company, to insure they couldn't quit their jobs.
I hope your Dad was able to enjoy his freedom.
Well, when you enter a country illegally , you open the way for abuse, and under average lifestyles….why complain if you make that choice… you made that Decision…..😡😡😡😡😡‼️⁉️🇺🇸
@@cariwaldick4898 Yep, that's where the old folk song line came from... "Sold my soul to the company store". Hell, some companies didn't even pay in dollars, they had their own currency that you had to spend at the company store.
@@christopherbradley4698 Yeah, the song made me look up what he was talking about. History shows that there are companies and corporations happy to exploit poor people, until they get together and use their collective power to make changes. It's got to be especially hard for migrant workers, when the threat is always deportation. Our country is shameful in how we treat these people. It's bad enough they're treated as slaves when they're trying to make a living and support their families, but then the media and politicians blame them for everything wrong in the country, and turn the citizens against them.
Great piece as always, but I’d also like to shout out the importance of Larry Itliong and the Filipino migrant workers. They were an integral part of the Farm Workers movement who worked alongside Chavez, Huerta, and the Latino community, but are often ignored when farm labor is discussed.
Not too many is aware that Filipino field workers were the ones who brought out the unfair working conditions on the farms. I know of some that resented Chavez for commandeering the UFW movement but most were just glad it came to light. I have an uncle who practiced law in the Philippines but his first job after emigrating to the US was picking strawberries in Kern County. Later on, he passed the California bar and he stopped picking strawberries. I can't help but feel that picking strawberries is a more honorable job than chasing ambulance. But that's what I get for being an effing liberal. Peace be upon you.
Came here to say this, was kind of disappointed he didn’t mention Larry Itliong esp cuz he has in the past when discussing this issue.
Thanks John for bringing attention to this matter.
This was a powerful show. Thank you. But I also second a previous comment - please do a show on the foster care system.
I had the exact same arm reaction that John had at that casual n-bomb from that dude. That's probably the only possible reaction to such an absurd level of casual racism.
I worked in pea field’s and cotton fields at age 9. Legally 12 but in practice much younger. Kids younger than me were working in the fields with me
Are you complaining? Would you rather your parents let you run around and act like hooligans?
Something this video didn't really get into is the conditions that make these babies have to have an income in the first place
as soon as john said "kids as young as 12 are working in the fields" i was like oh so much younger kids too, got it
Same, worked strawberry fields, onion fields at age 12
@@MichaelWilliams85 what the actual fuck
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Gracias John muy agradecido!❤️🤩
As a European, normally you Look at the Main topic of LWT and See them as typical American issues. However, this time I felt that Situation is pretty similiar in the EU. Maybe a lot of workers aint illegal, but still. The exploitation and abuse runs high
There are lots of illegals here as well, especially in southern Europe.
Same thing here in the happy country of Finland. Every summer, thousands of people fly in from Thailand to pick blueberries for big companies to make in to jam and other products. They are housed in horrid conditions and have little to no labor protections. Court cases are ongoing, with accusations of "slavery" and "human trafficking" flying around, and new laws are being passed in a rush. So yeah, not a US-only problem.
Yes all of the immigrants I worked with were here legally and paid a lot of money they saved up for years direct to our government to be able to come here (Ireland). The ones who work picking strawberries etc. Are horribly treated and lied to about the job before taking it. E.g. told they will be allowed to work 20 hours a week so they can study and then told if they don't work 40 hours they will be fired, then not paid for all the hours they work
Indeed, similar issues here. What completely amazes me is the collective bigotry of "we desperately need more workers to pick crops otherwise they will rot" and "our working conditions are so horrendous, we need to bring in people from literal third world countries, who are so unaware or already abused at home, they will work like this" How on earth does this fly? Usually labour shortage drives wages in the free market. What is the food industry, since it obviously does not play by free market rules?
Let's establish a threshold here. Exploitation happens everywhere. EU-US difference is: EU: you have to break the law to make it happen US: you can stay within the law There's a fundamental difference here.
I worked the sugar beet fields at 10 yo 16 hrs a day. When school started mom just signed an excuse slip and the school played along. sometimes missed the first two months of school. I had to take correspondence classes in high school to graduate because I missed so much time. It didn't make me tough or give me a good work ethic. It broke me down robbed me of my education, development and wrecked my joints and metabolism. Problem is these farms are now disappearing and the fictional "corporate farms" people dreamed up don't have the ability to take their place. Rude awakening coming fast for suburban brats
@morg775, you can either see yourself as a strong individual from having to work soo young, long hours, or.. you can choose to see yourself as a victim of your upbringing. Find Peace.
@@rebeca3284 I can see both, along with a myriad of other outcomes and points of view. Point being, this and many other aspects of society need to stop, If human life is expected to have any value or quality. It's not a victim mentality if you identify how you were wronged and fight back. It's also justified to speak out against it.
@@rebeca3284 you are insane
That's awful...
@@rebeca3284 with that tiny 🧠 I'm not surprised
Working them field's is some of the hardest work ever. I thank them everyday. Bless them all ❤❤
Thank you for covering this
I grew up in Nebraska. In middle school, we were told that we could sign up for detasseling the crops for 500 a week over the summer. That's about 25k a year, total. I didn't do it bc I had other plans for the summer, but looking back, we were 11 to 13 years old. That was literally child exploitation, and this reminded me of it. Bullet dodged.
If I was that age, I would have taken that shit in a heartbeat. At the age I am at now, no way am I doing that job.
It is. Good job for you to dodge that
@@brotherpanda3626eriously I was happy to do any small job with family or whoever to get money as a kid I could have nearly bought a house and car by the time I left highschool with that before I started spending all my money on other shit. Unless I died of heatstroke because of my stupid work ethic my father gave me..
How much should one pay people to do something that an 11 year old can do tho? The issue is that no one wants to pay more for things, and owners don't want to make less money for the hassle unfortunately
I was 13 years and bucked hay all summer. Lost 40 lbs of fat and was one of the most ripped guys in class by 14. Sometimes, a painfull, sweaty summer is worth it.
Farmworkers are underrated, without them we would be screwed, yet some people insult them for working on a farm that takes a lot of time & effort
While yes, I think its less farmworkers being underrated, and more our entire base labor class of production being underrated. Covid exposed the scam, now we're seeing the issues much more clearly.
Thanks Heisenberg
Keep cookin' that good rock, yo
Most people that insult them have higher education, you won't see a construction worker or trucker shit on a laborer
@@DanArnets1492 victims don't shit on eachother
This is a MAJOR topic and it tells you everything about our value culture..😞💔
Thanks for bringing up this topic 👍
I had the opportunity to work in Canada and be a translator for Mexican farmworkers who came over on a contracted visa similar to what was mentioned in the segment. These workers had access to healthcare, actually I usually went to doctor appointments with them to help translate. The farm provided them with a van, had a house on site just for them that was well maintained and gave them bonuses based on performance. I studied AG myself in college, I hope that during my career I can help farmworkers have humane, dignified jobs. There needs to be an independent body that can monitor and hold these racist c_nts accountable! WITH ACTUAL JAIL TIME and not some dumb $5000 per worker death! It is totally possible to make sure that these workers have basic rights and them, some like the small family greenhouse I worked at.
Yeah, but it’s Canadian healthcare Long wait times and legally barred from paying for more immediate or for effective options
@@Dante.- I think you missed the point entirely, eh!
@@LukasVokrinek no, I just like to point out that Canadian health care is free and easily accessible for a reason
@@Dante.- That's a major cope.
@@Dante.- right, so would you rather have access to no health care or slow, accessible health care? You'll be helped in an emergency either way, but it's not going to bankrupt you. And yes, I know Canadian health care is not perfect. I am a Canadian resident myself.
As a Hispanic made me tear up when the little girl spoke about her experience working on the field. They are heroes
No one forced her to work
@@jumper5029 Children are not granted autonomy over their own lives. Children do not choose their lives. Children cannot consent to work. CHILDREN CANNOT CONSENT.
@Jumper she was a literal child. She did not consent to that work.
@@jumper5029 except, do you know how persuasive parents can be, especially when they need the help financially and the child knows that? Have you ever knows a family that works in the fields? I knew plenty in Watsonville, CA, and all their children worked alongside their parents. Those who tried not to were cast as lazy and ungrateful and group -forced back into the life until they could figure out another way to add to the family income. All my friends had to work, the expenses of the area dictated it. If it isn't something you know personally, or choose not to see, then choose not to comment. Unless you're just purposefully trying to rile someone up. Then maybe some self-reflection is in order. I guess another excuse for your dad, ignorant comment is you feel guilty because you're a parent asking your child to do this work with you and you feel guilty about that. If that is the case, I'm sorry. I'm an adult now and no longer live in CA. My one friend I still occasionally talk with who felt forced to work the fields has a rocky relationship with her parents. She understands the pressures her family was under that led to that decision, but she hated almost every moment of that time of her life.
@@lbatemon1158 I bet Jumper and his/her family never suffered real hunger or thirst for any minute of their lives - that may explain this sociopathic and affluent attitude in this disgusting six word statement.
April 23. 2023 happy birthday John Oliver
We need more John Oliver’s spreading these kind of topics because a lot of people don’t know the truth about conditions and the broken system we have
Yea, unfortunately the people who should be watching it don't bc they think he's some paid leftist quack. It's why things will never improve. It's easier to live in ignorance and hate everyone else instead of face reality
Go to a slaughterhouse and see how your meat is handled sometime. You'll be looking for a local farmer selling beef that same day.