Ricardo Perez Testimony for SB.21.087 (March 17, 2021)

Ricardo Perez Testimony for SB.21.087 (March 17, 2021)

Legislative Comment, SB.21.087

Ricardo Perez, the Executive Director of the Hispanic Affairs Project, asks Colorado State Legislators to approve SB.21.087 ("Agricultural Workers' Bill of Rights"), and he provides two examples of migrant agricultural workers' experiences with labor abuses.

Ricardo Perez

March 17, 2021

Mitchell Christensen

Ricardo Perez

SB.21.087 ("Agricultural Workers' Bill of Rights")

[Perez] Thank you very much. My name is Ricardo Perez. I am the Executive Director of the Hispanic Affairs Project that is a non-profit organization promoting the integration of immigrants in western colorado. I am here on behalf of our members who are farm or ranch workers. Due to the labor abuses we are seeing, we created a program to address labor trafficking in 2006. I want to share a couple of examples in the past winter with it being half a mile from my house in the city of Montrose, I found a worker employed by the the sheep industry in his campito, which is a little tribe. She didn’t have any wood or propane for heat and worked without water for two days because it was frozen. This worker became physically and emotionally unwell due to inhuman treatment and he is [unintelligible] from the workplace as the only option to survive. Just recently, a farm worker told me that he is afraid to request better wages because his co-worker did that and one asked him to leave the farmhouse when he was leaving in 24 hours. My friend is worried to be homeless overnight. Agricultural industries are important and powerful in our state and these industries are dying because of the lack of protection for these workers. Practicing segregation and avoiding regulations. However, no industry is above the law. Some of our members have been farm workers for 10-15-20 years, and they are considering for looking for different jobs because they can make more money in other industries. Farming is a skilled job, and it is impossible to keep a strong workforce when they receive $11 or less per hour, working with no other time or benefits and are working 24/7 in high season. Did you know in the Western Slope there are few employers who pay $15-18 per hour? If this is the case, then what this bill is proposing is not asking for too much. This is the right step to help workers and their families to contribute to our economy by growing and preparing our food to be able to move out of this cycle of poverty. Thank you so much for supporting SB.21.087.

Ricardo testified on March 17, 2021 at 3:17 PM to 3:19 PM for the Senate Business, Labor, & Technology Committee.
Link to original audio recording of the committee hearing: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00327/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20210317/38/10936#agenda_