“What makes Migrant Justice unique is that it is created by the workers themselves.
The role of allies like myself is to enable that space.”
This is how Will Lambeks responded when asked what was required for migrant farmworkers to speak out and effectively demand better working and housing conditions. Will is co-coordinator at
Migrant Justice, an organization of – largely undocumented – dairy workers in
Vermont, US. With his colleague Marita Canedo, he visited the Netherlands to lobby
Ahold, the Netherlands’ largest retailer, to join the Milk with Dignity Program that
Migrant Justice created.
During the assembly “Migrant farmworkers’ struggles for decent work and decent
housing – Netherlands and US compared” at ISS, Marita sketched the issues that
migrant workers face on dairy farms in Vermont. Exempted from labour regulation in
most states in the US, they face abuses ranging from long working hours, wage
theft, lack of social protection and poor housing to human trafficking in extreme
cases. So far, only the ice-cream producer Ben&Jerry’s has signed up to the worker-
driven Milk with Dignity Program that offers an alternative model to guarantee decent
working conditions to dairy workers.
Dependency on employers as well as poor working and overcrowded housing
conditions also characterize the situation of farmworkers in the Netherlands. “People
are often being treated as disposable”, summarized Igor Dzigurski his experience in
Dutch horticulture. For the past three years, Igor has worked in greenhouses in
Westland municipality – a global hub of greenhouse agriculture. According to him,
more investment in social housing would be required, instead of migrant workers’
common dependency on their employers for both employment and accommodation.
Besides, better monitoring of workers’ contracts by legal authorities, as well as the
implementation of the proposed ban on zero-hour contracts would represent
important improvements. Igor shared how these contracts are a major source of
insecurity for workers:
“With a zero-hour contract, they send you to work, somedays
it’s just for one hour. If they don’t have work, then they tell you: “Don’t come
tomorrow.” That’s a big problem because you do have things to pay, but you don’t
know what you will earn.”
The panelists’ inputs sparked many ideas for building blocks for change that were –
also literally – compiled during the assembly. Marita stressed that organising workers
forms the fundament. Here, the extreme oppression that Migrant Justice’s members
face – ranging from workplace abuses to the risk of being deported by the US border
police – can also entail benefits for the organization: Going to a Migrant Justice
meeting would often be the only time that workers can get together. Such community
building may also be attractive for migrant farmworkers in the Netherlands. Igor
suggested: “Maybe people would come together if you prepared dinner?” These and
other suggestions offered rich food for thought for the assembly’s participants.
Carolien Lubberhuizen from the Dutch Agro-Ecology Network’s working group on
Migration and Wage Labour observed: “Many of the problems in agricultural supply
chains are interlinked” – with profits in these chains being made at the expense of
both migrant workers, farmers, their neighbours and nature. Her conclusion: “We therefore want to build a coalition for better working and living conditions of migrant workers.”
More than 50 participants ranging from migrant support organisations, agro-ecology
activists and farmers via trade union members to engaged scholars and students
actively participated in the assembly. The event was coorganised by the ISS
research groups on Political Ecology and Civic Innovation and the Dutch Agro-
Ecology Network’s working group on Migration and Wage Labour.
Photo credits:
Alexandra Mandroiu
Contact:
Karin Astrid Siegmann, Associate Professor in Labour and Gender Economics
(siegmann@iss.nl)
Oane Visser, Associate Professor in Agrarian Studies (visser@iss.nl)
Stijn Kluck, chair Migration and Wage Labour working group of the Agro-Ecology
Network (stijn.kluck@wur.nl)
Interested in joining the working group ‘Labour’?
Send us an email at info@agroecologie.nl
OR scan the QR code to join the working group app on signal!
Related links:
https://www.iss.nl/en/events/migrant-farmworkers-struggles-decent-work-and-
housing-netherlands-and-us-compared-2025-04-08
https://www.iss.nl/en/news/picking-fruit-sowing-stories-exhibition-iss
https://www.iss.nl/en/news/weaving-network-migrant-and-ecological-justice-dutch-agriculture