Celebrating Farm and Factory Workers

COVID-19 has brought to the forefront the inequities that disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), including BIPOC workers who continue to risk so much to work on the frontlines. We want to ensure that conversations around essential workers include farm and factory workers, the majority of whom, at least in Downeast, Maine, are immigrants.

Over the last week of June and the first week of July, Mano en Mano organized a 3-day celebration of farmworkers, including seafood processors, blueberry harvest workers, tree planters, and wreath workers. Together with our volunteers and local community partners, we led car caravans to multiple worksites, filled with music, snacks, food boxes, resources, informational flyers, and people ready to celebrate and thank workers as they finished their shifts. The purpose of these caravans was to make workers feel welcomed, seen, and appreciated… beyond their labor.

Many thanks to the volunteers and community partners that made these celebrations happen. And thank you to farm and factory workers for all that you do – we welcome you, we see you, we appreciate you.

Watch the video below for a message in Spanish from a farmworker in Maine (shared with his permission).