Unfair Payment for Temporary Farmworkers

Unfair Payment for Temporary Farmworkers

A Project Protect promotora advocates for two temporary farmworkers when the owner does not want to fairy compensate them for their work.

Sandra Ramos Gonzales

November 2021

Delanee Taylor

Two Temporary Farmworkers

Temporary Farmworkers

Otero County, Southeast

Sandra Ramos Gonzalez is a promotora working within the Southeast region, and she shared a story involving two agricultural workers and a grower who did not want to compensate them fairly for this work. In this situation, Sandra acted as an interpreter for the two workers in Otero County who were hired for a week as temporary workers. The issue was raised when the grower only wanted to pay them $10 an hour, which he thought was fine since they were temporary workers, and he would be paying them daily in cash. This is under the minimum wage in Colorado, and Sandra advocated for the two workers to be paid the legal wage, which the grower finally agreed to after the negotiations. This story is highly important because it highlights how growers and those in positions of power at farms will take advantage of agricultural workers, especially ones that do not speak English and may be unable to effectively advocate for themselves in situations such as this one.

This story is based on data collected by Project Protect Promotora Network. ID: ???