Using the Airwaves to Educate & Mobilize

If you happen to be scanning the radio dial near two unique towns in the United States, you could stumble across something unusual: FM radio run by and for farmworkers. In Woodburn, Oregon and south central Florida, farmworkers have added low-power community radio to their organizing arsenal.

To set up their radio stations, the two organizations—Oregon’s Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United (PCUN) and Florida’s Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)—called on Prometheus Radio Project.

The non-profit helps low-wage communities set up radio stations and learn the technical aspects of keeping a radio station alive. Called “low-power” radio because the signal does not travel as far as commercial outlets, the stations target the communities they serve, with a range of five to seven miles.

POWERED BY WORKERS

Radio activists with Prometheus say the name can be a problem as the stations are hardly low on people power. Groups like PCUN and CIW use them to educate and mobilize farmworkers to fight for better wages, dignity on the job, and immigrant rights.

Radio Movimiento (Movement Radio) in Oregon and Radio Consciencia (Consciousness Radio) in Florida are built on these two namesake principles: building a stronger farmworker movement while raising the consciousness of farmworkers and the community that surrounds them. Dozens of recent immigrants and farmworkers have been trained as radio deejays and technicians.

“Our radio station is led by a volunteer committee of farmworkers that keep the talk shows and call-in shows going,” said Gerardo Reyes Chavez, a member of the CIW who hosts shows on Radio Consciencia each evening. “People call in during breaks or when they aren’t able to find work in the fields, and they request their favorite songs.”

While Radio Consciencia prides itself on playing the norteñas, bachatas, and other popular Spanish or indigenous language music their listeners want to hear, the real goal is to educate the farmworker community about the organization’s work to raise wages and improve working conditions in Florida fields.

The CIW has already been successful in getting McDonald’s and Yum Brands, a conglomeration of restaurant chains that includes Taco Bell, to meet their demand for a penny more per pound paid to tomato pickers.

“We promote the campaign for fair food to the community, especially to the new immigrants, and share announcements about upcoming actions and protests and invite the community to sign up at the CIW office to join us,” Reyes said.

“There are different levels of consciousness in the community and the messages in the radio are seeds being planted in those that listen—they’re the first steps of consciousness,” Reyes said. “Our work on the ground is the next step, visiting people in their homes, inviting them to our weekly meetings and strategy meetings.”

MOBILIZING TOOL

Radio Movimiento started broadcasting in August 2006, becoming the first union in Oregon to have a radio station. PCUN, like many commercial radio stations that cater to Latino immigrants, used the radio to promote participation in this spring’s immigrant rights marches. PCUN reported that “the May 1 immigrants rights rally at the state capitol in Salem drew 5,000—twice what we expected—thanks to the radio.”

When workers run a radio station, their ability to update other workers of potential threats increases. When workers at Fresh Del Monte, a fruit and vegetable processing company in Portland, were faced with a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in June, Radio Movimiento broadcast call-in reports from the scene, and updated the community about false reports of other ICE activity in the area.

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In Immokalee, workers are preparing for a large protest of Burger King’s headquarters in Miami November 30, where they’ll be asking the company to match the agreements they’ve won with Yum and McDonald’s.

“Every week, we go to the camps where farmworkers live with a sound system and broadcast live while passing out flyers encouraging our fellow workers to participate in the protest,” Reyes said.

RADIO THAT PAYS

“The radio has been really effective against many types of abuses, like non-payment,” Reyes said. “We use the radio station to talk about what to do when a boss or crew leader refuses to pay somebody.”

After Hurricane Charley in 2004, construction company Balance came to Immokalee and hired around 600 people to help in the cleaning and rebuilding effort. A group of workers came to the CIW’s office and told organizers they hadn’t received pay—some for a week, others for a month.

“We decided to make an announcement and put it on the radio that asked workers who had worked on the rebuilding after the hurricane but hadn’t been paid to come to the CIW office,” Reyes said. “We thought there would be a slow trickle in, but after only two hours 200 workers were standing outside the office. We realized the problem was bigger than we thought—and that people were listening to the radio.

“We contacted the company and they offered to sit down with us and work out a solution. About 300 workers total ended up receiving the pay that they were owed.”

RAPID RESPONSE

Radio in farmworker communities is an example of a good organizing strategy whose impact extends past the immediate campaign for workers’ rights. In communities that are under-resourced, workers at the helm of mass communication can provide resources and help that are otherwise absent.

When Hurricane Wilma was bearing down on Immokalee in October 2005, organizers with the CIW were concerned. The majority of farmworkers in the area live in trailers that would not withstand a hurricane. Workers responded to the threat by looping an emergency announcement on the radio informing the community where they could find safe shelter.

CIW organizers began transporting farmworkers, who don’t own cars. Reyes said that in a situation like this radio saved lives: “When we returned the next day, the roof of one of the housing complexes that we had helped evacuate had fallen in.”

PCUN and CIW have been successful with low-power radio not only because their members and supporters have become involved in the daily running of the stations, but also because the stations meet the needs of their members. “Not every person has a TV,” Reyes said. “But they have a radio.”

More information: Prometheus Radio Project, PCUN, CIW.