Letters Abusing migrant workers With the election only weeks away, I have been thinking a lot about the influence of big corporate money and lobbyists. In Virginia, agribusiness has a great deal of influence over politicians and it is eroding access to legal service for poor people. This summer, I worked with migrant farm workers all over Virginia.
Workers travel from one state to another with the same company as business dictates.
However, these national and multinational corporations are breaking federal and state laws by not paying their workers minimum wage and forcing them to live in substandard housing where no one should have to live. The law protects workers from this institutional misbehavior. The Virginia Justice Center attempts to force agribusinesses to comply with the law. But, agribusiness wants the Virginia Justice Center out of business. To that end Sen. Randy Forbes, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, has proposed Senate Bill 760, which places restrictions on which poor people in Virginia should have access to legal services.