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Immediate
Call to Action:
All help needed – If you are reading this, we need your HELP and SUPPORT TODAY before our testimony hearing at 1:30pm MDT.
Many Representing Ag and Industry are working hard to encourage their members write letters to their senators. We need everybody’s help right now to also flood the boxes of senators and let them know that we are here. Ag Workers do not have organized power, money, and lobbyists and we need each and everyone of you to help us show our senators that their constituents care about these issues.
Here is a list of senators and their emails
WE ARE ASKING YOU TO: Write the senators this morning before 1pm MDT. Let them open their boxes to emails that let them know that you support Senate Bill- 087.
SUBJECT LINE:?”YES on 87.? SUPPORT AG WORKER RIGHTS”
Dear (write one to each member below),
I am writing to you in support of SB21-087: Agricultural Workers? Rights. This Bill will be an important step for Colorado agricultural workers, giving them similar basic rights to other workers in the state and repairing decades of harms. In a year when because of COVID we have seen both how essential our agricultural workers are, and how vulnerable, this bill moves us forward into a better post-COVID future.
Each day, our agricultural workers go to work to feed our state?s citizens, and they deserve to know they are granted fair labor rules, decent housing, access to healthcare and legal services, food and clean water at work, minimum wage, freedom from retaliation for bringing up workplace harms, and? historically, agricultural workers have been left out of the most basic of workplace protections such as meal and rest breaks, overtime pay, the right to collective action, and even guaranteed minimum wage pay. Their exclusion is linked to institutional racism and economic inequities that go back hundreds of years. The industry is dominated by immigrants and other populations facing inequities who must work under grueling conditions and long hours, it is vital that the state step in to ensure agricultural workers have the same basic protections as other workers in Colorado.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that farmworkers lack basic rights and protections Agricultural workers have served as essential workers during the pandemic as they kept our agricultural systems running safely and food on our tables. The work they provided during the pandemic only heightened the lack of protections available to them. Agricultural workers have not had access to protective equipment, have suffered from non-enforcement of social distancing protocols and other health guidelines, and have endured unsafe or unsanitary housing conditions.
Please cast your vote with your constituents who value our agricultural workers and want to see them and our state flourish and in favor of SB21-087.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME HERE
YOUR CITY HERE
YOUR CONTACT INFO HERE
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR COMMITTEE MEMBERS BELOW:Committee Members and Contact Information: Business, Labor, & Technology Committee
- Chair: Senator Robert Rodriguez (303) 866-4852 email:?robert.rodriguez.
senate@state.co.us - Vice Chair: Senator Jessie Danielson (303) 866-4856 email:?jessie.danielson.
senate@state.co.us - Members: Senator Chris Kolker (303) 866-4883 email:?chris.kolker.senate@
state.co.us - Senator Larry Liston (303) 866-2737 email:?larry.liston.senate@
state.co.us - Senator James Coleman (303) 866-4864 email:?james.coleman.senate@
state.co.us - Senator Kevin Priola (303) 866-4855 email:?kevin.priola.senate@
state.co.us - Senator Rob Woodward (303) 866-4853 email:?rob.woodward.senate@
state.co.us
Ag Workers: Who They Are
The agricultural workforce is dominated by immigrants and other populations facing inequities who must work under grueling conditions, for long hours, exposed to the elements. At least 65% – 73% of people who labor in Colorado?s food system are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (with at least 82% of this group identifying as Latinx). The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that farmworkers are essential, but treated as expendable. It is vital that the state step in to ensure agricultural workers have the same basic protections as other workers in Colorado.
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