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About the Labor CenterEventsNational FarmWorker Awareness Week, Workers' Assembly on Immigration, Asamblea de Trabajadores sobre Inmigración,
2008 Summer Institute for Union Women, Victoria, B.C. ResourcesAsian Workers' Journey for Justice Project A Workers' Rights Manual for Washington State, 2nd edition Un Manual de Derechos de los Trabajadores, para el Estado de Washington, edición segundo |
Floral Greens Industry Report |
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When someone purchases flowers from a florist, whether in the U.S., Europe, Canada , or many other parts of the world, there typically will be sprigs of greenery that are part of the arrangement. Frequently these sprigs are salal, a plant that grows abundantly in the wet forests of Oregon , Washington , and British Columbia. Thousands of workers pick this salal, and millions of dollars in sales are recorded every year. Increasingly the salal harvesters are immigrants from Mexico or Central America , and typically they are paid as "independent contractors" by buying sheds who, therefore, don't have to pay workers comp or payroll taxes on these workers. Much money is made on this natural resource, but how much of it is going to the harvesters? How much to the buying sheds, to the wholesalers who buy from those sheds, etc.? Outside of the Pacific Northwest (Canadian Southwest), in what other regions of the world is this or a similar plant harvested? Overall, wheredoes the industry seem to be headed? These are questions that have been asked by the Labor Center and by the Jefferson Center which for a number of years has been holding community meetings and popular education workshops with harvesters from Shelton, Belfair, Forks, Aberdeen, and other communities on the Olympic Peninsula and in other parts of Washington and Oregon . To try to get some answers, we hired George Draffan, who has significant experience with corporate and environmental research. You can read George's report by clicking on the PDF link below. It contains a lot of good information and a bibliography as well. Report in PDF |
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Last Updated: May 27, 2008 All content and images on this site are copyrighted by The Evergreen State College. |
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