TOLEDO, Ohio — Seventy-seven-year-old Baldemar Velasquez grew up as a farm worker in south Texas, traveling to other states for seasonal work, before eventually settling in Ohio.
“Throughout the Midwest and Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, picking every crop that you can think of,” Velasquez said. “Cherries, strawberries, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, peaches.”
What You Need To Know
- Farm workers continue to face a wage gap, earning an an average of $17.55 an hour, which equates to around 61% of the average non-farm wage
- In recent years, an increasing number of foreign-born workers have come to the U.S. under a temporary work visa called H-2A. These seasonal workers now form around 17% of the total agricultural workforce, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture
- President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders on immigration could threaten the agricultural workforce as 42% of hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status
Velasquez said he’s organized on behalf of agricultural workers for more than half a century, founding the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in 1967. He said the group has overcome barriers and made history, including the eight-year Campbell Soup Strike in the 1980s…