The Changing Face of Washington Farm Workers
 

Every summer, Laurel Rubin Fellows doing farm worker outreach meet more and more indigenous Mexicans and Guatemalans working in Washington fields.  These workers do not speak Spanish as a native language; instead they speak languages from the Mayan, Mixtec, and other language groups of Central America.  These workers are particularly vulnerable because they face even greater language barriers, social isolation, and discrimination than other farm workers.

This August, Laurel Rubin supervisors from Columbia Legal Services travelled to Mexico City for a conference on indigenous migration to Washington State hosted by the Mexican Commission on Human Rights.  They also travelled to Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, the center of a worker-sending Mixtec region of Mexico, where workers as young as 12 years old regularly leave home for the agricultural fields of the United States.  Though no Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Jutice Project Funds supported the trip, it gave Laurel Rubin supervisors the knowledge and tools to guide Laurel Rubin outreach efforts to indigenous workers in the future.

About the Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Project

The Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project is a farm worker advocacy project that supports and funds law students to work in summer internships with legal services organizations that provide civil legal services to Washington farm workers. It is named after Laurel Rubin, a devoted farm worker advocate who died in the course of her advocacy work. Since 1999, the Project has sponsored 32 summer internships for law students to work alongside experienced attorneys to provide legal services to farm workers in need.

The Laurel Rubin interns work on matters involving worker safety, housing, access to health care, immigration, employment discrimination, unemployment and workers compensation, and consumer rights, wherever the resources are most needed to serve the farm worker community.

We are tremendously grateful to our generous sponsors and contributors, including the Western Union Foundation, PCC Natural Markets, Starbucks Coffee Company, and LAW Fund, together with Perkins Coie LLP, Matt Geyman and Amy Arvidson, Laura Solis, Frank and Miriam Rubin, Patricia Loera, and many others.

Farm Workers in our State

Farm workers currently live in third world conditions within the boundaries of our own state. Many agricultural workers live in labor camps or overcrowded apartments. Others spend time living in their cars, in tents, or along river banks. Average annual income for Washington is less than $10,000; and just 5 percent of farm workers report being covered by employer provided health insurance. Nationally, the rate of fatal occupational injuries for farm workers is almost ten times the rate for all U.S. industries.

The Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project Law Student Internships

The Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project assists farm workers in their efforts to enforce their right to fair, dignified, humane and safe working and living conditions. The Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Rights Project seeks to get additional advocates into the community immediately through law student summer internships to help ensure indigent farm workers' access to justice.

Interns work under the supervision of legal aid services attorneys in several counties throughout the state. Internships are earmarked for current law school students. Information on how to apply can be found at www.columbialegal.org and www.nwjustice.org

For the 2010, the Project sponsored four law student interns to do farm worker outreach and advocacy:

 
  • Joni E. Carrasco (University of California, Irvine School of Law) Northwest Justice Project;

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  • Ruben Garcia Fernandez, (Seattle University School of Law) Columbia Legal Services;

  • Liz P. Lindsey (University of Washington School of Law) Columbia Legal Services; and

  • Hindira Elana Navarro (Seattle University School of Law) Columbia Legal Services

For an August 2007 article written by a 2006 Laurel Rubin intern, Michael Khalili, describing his internship with Columbia Legal Services in Yakima, WA, click here.

To Make a Donation

Secure on-line gifts to the Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project can be made by clicking here now or call your gift in to LAW Fund during business hours (8:30a-5:00p PST) at (206) 623-5261 ext. 281
 Remembering Laurel

 The Project is named in honor of Laurel Rubin, a talented, idealistic attorney who was serving indigent farm workers in Washington state when she died tragically young in 1998. Laurel was an extremely talented lawyer, who was passionately committed to helping migrant workers obtain fairness and respect. Laurel grew up in Wappingers Falls, New York. She was brilliant, indifferent to materialistic concerns, and had many interests in addition to serving social justice. Laurel 's dedication and commitment to farm workers epitomizes the principal of justice for all.

The Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project Steering Committee:

Emma Zavala-Suarez, Chair; Andrea Schmitt, Vice-Chair; Cristóbal Joshua Alex, Rodolfo Cureno, Sue Encherman, Karen Falkingham, Joan Foley, Dan Ford, Matt Geyman, Hon. Jorge Madrazo, Aurora Martin, Sean Phelan, Omar Riojas, Laura Solis, Amy Spencer, and Greg Zipes. Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project Advisory Council: Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, Governor Mike Lowry, Ricardo Sanchez and Justice Charles Z. Smith (Retired)




The Laurel Rubin Farm
Worker Justice Project
assists farm workers in
their efforts to enforce their right to fair, dignified, humane and safe working and living conditions.