FLOC – making sure agricultural migrant workers in Ohio have health services
Many migrant workers find it impossible to get healthcare as they travel around the US doing farm work. They often have no health insurance, are afraid of being reported to immigration and have language constraints. Yet long hours in the fields, exposure to heat and pesticides, lack of drinking water mean their health is at risk.
According to the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission, about 14,000 migrant farm workers travel to Ohio every summer to pick crops.
The IUF-affiliated Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) decided 17 years ago that if the workers couldn’t go to medical services than the medical services had to go to them. With the Campaign for Migrant Workers they organized clinics to go to the fields. Medical professionals were asked to volunteer services and hospitals to donate supplies. Today there are 6 mobile clinics
Read more here or watch the TV report here.