Local Migrant Workers Get Training To Get Out Of Poverty

http://wamu.org/programs/metro_connection/12/09/07/local_migrant_workers_get_training_to_get_out_of_poverty

By: Emily Friedman // September 7, 2012

The Bureau of Labor Statistics consistently ranks farm work as one of the three most dangerous industries. Right now, it has the highest fatality rate of any job in the United States. Despite the perils, there are more than 3 million farm workers in the United States.

Most of them will stay in the fields their entire working lives. But each year, a small group of these workers find their way onto a new career path.

David Strauss, the executive director of the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, or AFOP, which represents Telamon, and many similar organizations, explains that a typical day for a farmworker during harvest season means getting up at 4 a.m., and being in the field, ready to work at 5:30 a.m.

"If it's a really big crop, they may work well into sun down," says Strauss. "It could be easily a 12 to 13 hour work day." Many work that schedule 6 days a week, with no overtime pay.

FULL story and video at link.