Farmworker Legal Services of Michigan (FLS) is a nonprofit, public-interest legal aid office that provides free civil legal services to indigent migrant and seasonal farmworkers throughout the state of Michigan. From its offices in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, the organization provides access to legal services to the approximately 90,000 eligible farmworkers and their dependents throughout Michigan
. Farmwork is the second most dangerous occupation in the United States; the average farmworker has a life expectancy of less than 50 years. The average farmworker family's total income from farmwork is between $20,000 and $24,499 per year, which is less than the 2022 federal poverty income of $27,750. In addition to poverty, other unique barriers prevent this population from accessing needed resources:
Communication - Michigan farmworkers are predominantly Spanish-speakers in an overwhelmingly English-speaking environment. Geographic isolation - The housing and agricultural work sites for farmworkers are usually scattered throughout remote, rural locations. Transience - Farmworkers must continually move from place to place to follow the harvest seasons. Racism/Xenophobia - Agricultural work has been excluded from labor protections in the United States since its colonization. The Congressional testimony of our current federal minimum wage law makes it clear that the exclusion of farmwork from overtime and certain minimum wage protections was an issue of race. The vast majority of Michigan's farmworkers are of Latino/a/x descent, with other minorities represented. They must often confront cultural and racial stereotyping and other trust-inhibiting treatment in Michigan. The legal problems that farmworkers confront include:
- Discrimination in recruitment, hiring, wages, housing
-Failure to be paid fair wages for their work, or not being paid at all
- Recruitment abuses and unexpected changes in the terms of employment
- Substandard health and safety conditions in the migrant labor camps
- Inadequate workplace sanitation (toilets, drinking water, and hand-washing facilities in the fields)
- Immigration status, laws, and governmental procedures
- Denial of equal access to public benefits, services, and accommodations
