Justice for Workers

Dignity, Education, Solidarity, and Power for the People Who Feed Us

At the heart of Central Valley Empowerment Alliance's (CVEA) Justice for Workers program is a simple but powerful belief: Every worker deserves dignity, every worker deserves to know their rights, and every worker deserves the opportunity to exercise those rights without fear of retaliation, discrimination, or exploitation.

Across California's Central Valley, farmworkers and agricultural communities sustain an industry that feeds millions of people. Yet the very workers whose labor makes this possible continue to face unsafe working conditions, wage theft, discrimination, exploitation, language barriers, and increasing threats to their families and livelihoods.

Justice for Workers exists to help change that reality.

Through direct community outreach, worker education, trusted relationships, strategic partnerships, and grassroots organizing, CVEA works alongside farmworker families to ensure that access to information, resources, and protections reaches the communities that need them most.

Taking Workers' Rights Directly to the Community

We understand that meaningful outreach cannot happen exclusively behind office doors. It requires meeting people where they are — in the agricultural fields, packing facilities, neighborhoods, homes, community gatherings, and places of worship.

Our approach is rooted in relationships and cultural understanding. Our team engages workers in their preferred languages, listens to their experiences, identifies their concerns, and connects them with information and resources that can make a tangible difference in their lives.

Whether helping a worker understand their rights, distributing educational materials, connecting a family to appropriate services, or simply taking the time to listen, every interaction is an opportunity to build trust and strengthen community power.

Our work includes:

• Know Your Rights Education: Providing accessible information about workplace protections, wage and hour laws, health and safety standards, workers' compensation, and protections against retaliation.

• Workplace Health and Safety: Helping workers understand their rights regarding heat illness prevention, workplace hazards, protective equipment, and reporting unsafe conditions.

• Wage Theft and Labor Protections: Connecting workers with appropriate resources and state agencies, including the Labor Commissioner's Office, the Employment Development Department, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, and Cal/OSHA.

• Access to Legal Resources: Connecting workers and families with accredited immigration and legal service providers when specialized assistance is needed.

• Community-Based Outreach: Conducting direct engagement in agricultural communities, workplaces, neighborhoods, and community spaces to reduce barriers to information and services.

• Family and Community Support: Helping families navigate difficult circumstances through referrals, emergency resources, and trusted community partnerships.

Building Trust Through Action

Our work is not limited to distributing information. It is about demonstrating through our actions that farmworkers are not alone.

Our staff understand that building relationships requires showing up consistently, listening without judgment, and recognizing the lived experiences of the people we serve.

From helping pack freshly harvested grapes alongside agricultural workers to sharing workplace rights information in the same fields where our communities labor, CVEA believes that solidarity must be demonstrated, not simply declared.

We recognize that workers may be hesitant to speak about workplace abuses or seek assistance because of fear of retaliation, economic insecurity, immigration concerns, or a lack of confidence in institutions.

That is why our approach prioritizes confidentiality, accessibility, cultural competency, and trust. We do not make immigration status a condition for accessing our worker support and outreach services.

Standing Together During Difficult Times

Recent immigration enforcement activity throughout the Central Valley has reinforced the importance of community-based worker protection and solidarity.

When enforcement actions create fear throughout agricultural communities, the consequences extend far beyond the individual targeted. Families experience separation, children experience uncertainty, workers become afraid to report workplace violations, and entire communities are pushed further into isolation.

Justice for Workers recognizes that protecting workers means addressing the conditions that prevent them from exercising their rights.

Through community education, trusted referrals, emergency preparedness, and partnerships with organizations and service providers, CVEA works to ensure that farmworker families have access to reliable information and know where to turn when they need help.

We believe that no worker should have to choose between protecting their family and standing up for their rights.

Strengthening the Power of Collective Action

CVEA's Justice for Workers program is grounded in the understanding that lasting change requires more than individual assistance. It requires organized communities, informed workers, strong partnerships, and a collective commitment to accountability.

Our collaboration with labor advocates, community organizations, legal service providers, government agencies, and worker-led networks helps strengthen the resources available to agricultural communities.

The Central Valley Workers Coalition's gatherings at our Larry Itliong Resource Center in Poplar reflect this commitment. Named in honor of a Filipino farmworker leader whose organizing helped change the course of American labor history, the center provides a place for workers, advocates, and community partners to come together around a shared principle: Workers hold the power.

This legacy reminds us that the protections workers have today were not simply given to them. They were won through courage, sacrifice, solidarity, and generations of collective organizing.

Looking Ahead: A Central Valley Where Every Worker Is Protected

The challenges facing farmworkers are not going away. Economic pressures, changing agricultural practices, workplace exploitation, immigration enforcement, and persistent inequities continue to affect the well-being of our communities.

But neither is our commitment.

CVEA will continue expanding its outreach, strengthening partnerships, increasing access to worker education, and developing opportunities for farmworkers to become leaders and advocates within their own communities.

We understand that empowerment is not about doing things for people that they can do for themselves. It is about creating the conditions, relationships, and opportunities for people to recognize their own power and use it collectively.

Justice for Workers is not simply a program. It is a commitment to the people whose hands feed our families, sustain our communities, and keep our agricultural economy moving.

Their labor deserves respect. Their families deserve security. Their voices deserve to be heard. And their rights must be protected.

Because those who feed the world should never have to fight alone for dignity, justice, and the right to live with security.

Central Valley Empowerment Alliance — Standing with Workers. Building Power. Advancing Justice.