El Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA- The Farmworkers Support Committee) is a migrant farmworker organization that is governed by and comprised of farmworkers who are actively engaged in the struggle for better working and living conditions in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Delmarva Peninsula founded in 1979.
CATA has made a great impact in the lives of the tens of thousands of migrant workers who have lived and worked in the area over the past 31 years. By providing education on workers’ rights, building leadership capacity, and organizing the community to provide testimonies and coordinate immigrant marches, CATA’s work continues to advance farmworker issues in solidarity with others so policies affecting all workers are improved.
CATA has advanced based on the belief that only through organizing and collective action can farmworkers achieve justice and fullness of life. CATA’s programs actively involve farmworkers in the process of social change and the analysis and proposed actions come directly from them. CATA’s mission is to empower and educate our membership through leadership development and capacity building so that they are able to make informed decisions regarding the best course of action for their interests.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s, workers fought for the Right to Know laws, enabling them to know the dangerous chemicals they work with on a daily basis. They fought for the Right to Access laws so they would not be isolated on farm labor camps and receive visitors, like CATA staff, to educate them on their rights.
In the 1990’s, workers organized unions throughout the mushroom industry in Pennsylvania, with the Kaolin Workers Union’s experience as the example for others to pursue better wages and safer working conditions. CATA, along with others, created the Farmworker Health and Safety Institute that provides training and research on farmworker health and safety issues. Thousands of farmworkers have been and still are trained by CATA in the Worker Protection Standard to reduce their risk of pesticide exposure, and in HIV Prevention to improve their health and that of their families.
In the last decade, CATA has pressed for a just food system by working with partner organizations across the country to establish social justice standards in organic agriculture. The Agricultural Justice Project and the Domestic Fair Trade Association have become significant endeavors in the national effort for food justice. During this time, CATA received ECOSOC status at the United Nations and works on migration issues on a global level.
Currently, workers are organizing to push for just immigration reform, in solidarity with others. Other areas of work include food security, health and safety, and workers’ rights. CATA strategically positions itself to influence these and other policies that not only benefit the immigrant community, but the larger community, as well.
For more information, please visit www.cata-farmworkers.org.