Migrant workers on temporary visas who say they were fired for workplace activism are demonstrating for a colleague who died on the job.
The former employees of Sarbanand Farms, in a remote Washington town, are planning a protest on Tuesday afternoon, in the wake of Ernesto Silva Ibarra’s death.
Ibarra, who was 28-years-old, had fallen ill in the fields on Friday—the result of Sarabanand threatening workers with deportation if they miss three days of work, advocates of the organizers said.
The hospitalization led to 70 of Ibarra’s colleagues walking off the job. Farm managers responded to the action by terminating the workers.
Tuesday’s protest is slated to feature calls for “accountability for Ernesto’s death,” demands for back pay and “renewal of their expired visas for which the company is responsible,” according to Community to Community—an organization supporting the workers.
The group said workers have also complained about being charged for meals and say they “receive undercooked food or not enough food.”
The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have recently pledged to cut back on immigrant visas, claiming that they have depressed the wages of American workers.
The legislation backed by the White House and Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) would make no revisions to the H-2A program, which labor advocates have described as rife with abuse.
“The place to start, if there is a labor shortage, is legalization of workers that are here and who are experienced,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said last month, in opposition to a proposal that would make the program year-round instead of seasonal. About 100,000 people receive H-2A visas every year.
Earlier this summer, about an hour south of Sarbanand Farms, agricultural workers resolved a dispute with bosses by organizing and then ratifying a collective bargaining agreement.
In September 2016, workers at Sakuma Bros. Berry Farms in Skagit County, Wash. had voted to be represented by Familias Unidas Por La Justicia, an independent union.
“The farmworkers represented by FUJ include indigenous Mixteco and Trique Mexicans who migrate each year from California,” The Seattle Times noted.
