To the Allandale Community:
We are retail workers that work hard to feed Boston and encourage healthy and sustainable gardening practices. With that job comes unique challenges to workplace safety, the precarity of seasonal work, and low pay and benefits. We’re fighting for a first contract that will give the crew a seat at the table, a decent standard of living, and make Allandale a better farm for crew and customers alike.
We’re fighting for a pay scale that will make sure every crew member will be able to reach a living wage. We have people who’ve missed rent payments, people who work two jobs, and people who are on food assistance. We also have students who are dealing with high tuition costs. Fair wages are one of our top priorities.
Some employers like Allandale choose to have a trial period for new employees before they are eligible for benefits. Because of a loophole in healthcare law, Allandale is able to delay healthcare, dental, and sick leave benefits every single year, because re-hired seasonal employees count as “new employees.” This discourages workers from signing up for benefits that they can only use for a fraction of the year. We believe this is unfair, unnecessary, and not in the spirit of the law. Seasonal workers deserve better.
The vast majority of our crew have worked while sick or injured, either because they needed the money, or they felt pressured by a manager. At a job that is often active, outdoors, and physical, we need more than the state minimum for sick leave.
Many of us sacrifice our holidays to work in retail jobs. We used to receive Sunday/Holiday bonus pay, but it's slowly been removed. We also have almost no opportunities to earn overtime, in part due to unpaid lunches and the ways 10 hour shifts are scheduled. We believe the crew should be fairly compensated for their extra work and sacrifices.
Currently, full-time workers are allowed to use their sick leave as vacation pay. We don’t think people should have to choose between working while sick and 40 hours of vacation. We believe every worker deserves a break to rest, recharge, and have a life outside of work.
It would cost Allandale just $20 a month per employee to continue dental coverage during the offseason if each employee continued to pay their share of the premium. For workers with irregular employment, being able to keep your dentist or doctor 12 months out of the year would be a huge improvement.
On a farm, all the operators of power equipment should be qualified to use that equipment. We should not endanger customers with the forklift. PPE should be readily available when necessary. Pest problems should be dealt with before someone gets hurt. These are all real challenges, but worker safety is worth it.
With seasonal work, planning our lives is a little bit more difficult. Many of us have to balance multiple jobs. Allandale should have a fair and transparent rehiring policy that gives workers real job security and the ability to plan ahead.
We are against discrimination based on class, gender, race, age, faith, and sexual orientation. If a crew member is treated unfairly by an employee or customer, we will take action to make sure it stops.
We’re excited to share our knowledge about food and plants with our community, but Allandale doesn’t provide enough training to reach that level of knowledge on our own. We will propose continuing education benefits and certifications that will allow the crew to learn more about sustainable food and horticulture.
Fair scheduling is about having some flexibility for the crew and the business, but it's also about having a reasonable expectation of consistency and earning a decent paycheck. The crew shouldn’t have their schedules changed in the middle of a shift and should have a schedule published well in advance. It is about respecting the lives of our crew and their wallets.
Every crew member should be an equal partner in making decisions about the future of the farm. It shouldn’t matter what your age is, how long you’ve worked here, your identity, or your socio-economic background.
When there are issues with safety or overtime, there should be a way to hold your managers accountable when problems don’t get fixed. Our union is going to look out for our interests, and we’re bargaining for a strong grievance procedure to make sure that problems get worked out as quickly as possible.
With the wages we are currently paid, several Allandale workers depend on SNAP and other forms of food assistance to afford basic necessities. We’re going to make sure Allandale expands access to SNAP and other food assistance programs for our workers and our customers. We can do better for our low-income customers and we will.
Click here to sign our petition and show that you support our campaign platform and believe that Allandale workers deserve a fair contract now!
We would love to hear why you support our efforts to make Allandale Farm a better place. Send the crew a letter of support at allandaleworkersunited@hotmail.com
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