| Autor: |
Stella Beckman, Xóchitl Castañeda, Vania del Rivero, Anaisabel Chavez, Marc Schenker |
| Jazyk: |
angličtina |
| Rok vydání: |
2023 |
| Předmět: |
|
| Zdroj: |
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Vol 12, Iss 3 (2023) |
| Druh dokumentu: |
article |
| ISSN: |
2152-0801 |
| DOI: |
10.5304/jafscd.2023.123.014 |
| Popis: |
The multibillion-dollar California cannabis (Cannabis sativa, marijuana) industry employs an unknown number of seasonal workers, including many immigrants. Most production occurs in the remote, rural, far-northern counties where farms may be hours by vehicle from the nearest town. While licenses for cannabis cultivation became available following legalization in California for adult recreational use in 2016, most cannabis—about 80%—is still grown on unlicensed farms. Cannabis is a labor-intensive crop, and the skilled and time-consuming task of hand-trimming flowers is the most common seasonal job in the industry. Some immigrant workers return for multiple cannabis harvest seasons and are attracted to the work by an interest in the cannabis culture and consumption or the opportunity to earn enough money in several months to live the rest of the year in their home country. Others are farmworkers moving from work in traditional crops for the relatively higher pay in the cannabis industry. Seasonal cannabis workers are exposed to many of the physical hazards found in all agricultural workplaces, like dust, pesticides, and injuries; another commonality with California’s traditional agricultural workforce is vulnerability to structural violence stemming from factors related to race, gender, immigration status, and employer/employee power imbalance. Cannabis workers are also uniquely affected by the intersections of these structural factors with the isolated and remote nature of cannabis farms and the ongoing criminalization of the industry. In this article we present the results of a qualitative study of the occupational health and safety of Mexican and South American immigrant seasonal cannabis workers who have previous cannabis-industry-specific skills and experience. Workers were recruited using a peer-recruitment method, with 25 participants in three online focus group discussions on a range of occupational health and safety topics. This qualitative descriptive analysis is focused on experiences of structural violence and wage theft. |
| Databáze: |
Directory of Open Access Journals |
| Externí odkaz: |
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