On April 3, 2008, UFW President Arturo S Rodriguez signed an agreement with the Governor of the State of Michoacan, Mexico. This historic agreement establishes the framework by which the United Farm Workers and the State of Michoacan will provide oversight to the H-2A visa holders in both countries.

The agreement is the result of a mutual understanding that the current legal framework is inadequate to protect international workers. The State of Michoacan is one of the largest sending states of agricultural workers to the US and the state from which many UFW members are from.

While the State of Michoacan has protections in place for its citizens within its state’s boundaries, workers are all too often at the mercy of employers stateside. For the UFW, we’ve all too often witnessed workers arriving to the US already deeply in debt due to recruitment fees and fearful of speaking out due to threats and intimidation that may have transpired en route to the US.

For these reasons, we agreed to sign this historic agreement in an effort to develop an international infrastructure to better advocate for and defend the rights of Michoacan farm workers. We expect this will the be the first of a number of similar agreements.

WHAT THE AGREEMENT SAYS

In this agreement, the UFW commits to work closely with the State of Michoacan to ensure the rights of workers coming to the US with H-2A visas are respected. This includes providing direct oversight to the recruitment process in Mexico to ensure that workers are not charged recruitment fees. The UFW also agrees to extend seniority rights and other benefits to those H-2A workers who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement Stateside. The State of Michoacan has agreed to actively support the UFW’s work in Mexico, by assisting as necessary in the identification and evaluation of workers who may want to apply to the H-2A program. The State also agrees to provide whatever support it can to workers interested in securing H-2A visas with Stateside employers who have collective bargaining agreements with the UFW.