Farmworkers on strike

The fields, migrant camps, and conference rooms have been busy the past couple of weeks as our farmworker friends who work at the local largest berry company went on strike.  H-2A is a new guest worker program that was recently introduced. It offers jobs, housing, and transport to workers from Mexico to come north and help in migrant labor jobs. Our local workers heard that these new laborers would be getting paid $12/hr set rate, have newish cabins, and receive money for transport to Washington (see Seattle Times article for more details). It has provoked a lot of unrest and frustration with the way things have been for a long time.

Unfortunately, there seems to have been some miscommunication about what is being offered and available to the farmworkers who are already here.  The local workers can also apply for the 'guest worker' jobs. Payment options have varied, sometimes they are paid per pound, sometimes by flat, and sometimes by the hour. They are now on their second strike due to wages dropping again on Monday.  It is true, they have been paid the same wage for many years, work long hours for little pay, and sometimes face discrimination from supervisors.  Although wanting fair wages, I'm concerned they may push too much and lose both their housing and jobs.

Hearing that they may be evicted from their cabins, Bob & Gracie (TN directors), Salvio and I arrived at one of the migrant camps this morning where over 150 workers were gathering.  Messages about fair wages for all, and a united chorus of "[Name of Berry company] escucha, estamos en la lucha; listen, we are in this fight" were echoing around the campgrounds.  More newscasters were interviewing some young Triqui girls I know, who were leading the shouts both due to their passion and trilingual (Spanish, English and Triqui) skills.  

Besides checking in and discussing the situation with the families and fellow organizers,  we found ourselves interceding for peace in this situation and for it to not escalate.  Due to Bob's long term relationship with the berry company, he and a couple others went to see if they could do some negotiation.  Tomorrow a meeting is set up, hopefully a final one, between the company and a 12-person Farmworker Rights Committee.  

Please join us in praying for peace and a fair just solution. 

Skagit Commercial Sexually Exploited Children & Youth

What can bring prosecutors, defense attorneys, juvenile detention center managers, law enforcement, SANE (sexual assault nurse examiners), sexual assault and domestic violence advocates, and youth service providers together at the same table for 3 days of training? 

…the commercial sexual exploitation of children & youth. 

Unfortunately this reality of prostituted youth or minor sex trafficking is not a foreign concept. 

Over the past 5 years I have sought to raise the level of general and professional awareness in our community around this reality.  “It may look different in Skagit, but yes it exists.”  This is a response I have repeatedly given to doubting professionals across all many disciplines as well as community members.  In Skagit Valley, we don’t have a ‘strip’, but rather prostitution that happens in and out of houses, apartments and motels scattered around the valley.  It may be familial prostitution, where a family member is pimping out a child or sibling, usually to obtain drugs.  Or it may be survival sex, where youth are trading sex for a place to sleep.  Or it may be stranger prostitution, set-up through the ever expanding capabilities of internet, smart phones, etc. 

Over the past year, I have facilitated the Skagit County CSEC Team, a partnership among agencies who believe that only genuine collaboration can yield positive outcomes for exploited youth. Our goal is to work together in a coordinated effort to improve Skagit County's response and capacity to identify and support commercially sexually exploited youth and hold accountable those who exploit them [a definition based on WA State’s CSEC protocol]. 

We recently received 1 of 5 WA state trainings for Skagit and Whatcom professionals across disciplines, intentionally bringing people together to learn common language and struggle together to develop a protocol. The training included a separate break out session for Law Enforcement and Advocates, but the foundation training we did together.  

Foundation: The What, Who, How and Why of Commercial Sexual Exploitation

·       Social and cultural context of prostitution

·       Oppression, power and privilege

·       Gender construction

·       Supply and demand

·       Language and definitions

·       Vulnerable populations/risk factors

·       Pathways into prostitution (runaway, homelessness, recruited)

·       Sub-culture: “the Life”

·       Types of exploitation (pimps, gangs, families, LGBTQI)

·       Identification and red flags

·       Recruitment, grooming and “turning out”

·       Mental health impacts

·       Medical issues and physical health

·       Laws (state, federal and Safe Harbor framework)

Response: Victim Engagement and Interventions

·       The Exit Process: Stages of Change

·       Engagement with sexually exploited youth

·       Understanding priorities

·       Basic and on-going needs and services

·       Providing culturally competent services

·       How the MDT (multi-disciplinary team) will function

·       Connecting to services and building a support network  

The training was excellent, and I wish more people could have attended, even though we had reached their cap. Near the beginning, a juvenile public defender told me she didn't think she had any of these cases come through her office. As we were leaving, she told me her eyes have been opened.  "I can already think of a couple on my caseload that may be commercially sexually exploited, and I had no idea! I just haven't probed more when one told me an older woman controls her money and takes her to houses.  Now I will ask some more questions, and expect some phone calls!" 

I am grateful to have been apart of this process and feel it is now appropriate to pass off leadership of the Skagit CSEC Task Force to Skagit Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Services.  I've also been hoping others in the valley would step up and do more of the community awareness and education piece. Recently, I found out that Washington Engage would be hosting a Coalition Against Trafficking (CAT) meeting in Skagit. The group will be looking at broader structural changes, needs, and awareness raising that needs to happen, and then from there proceed to what response they want to have. (http://waengage.com/community-action/ . Both of these are an answer to prayer!