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CLS Reports Mistreatment of Range Workers

Colorado Legal Services (CLS), a nonprofit serving low-income Coloradans with civil legal matters, recently released a report about Colorado’s sheep, goat, and cattle herders. This survey was conducted over the course of 2 years, with 93 workers (about 1/3 of Colorado’s range workers).

In this report, CLS found that over 80 percent of herders that had been surveyed were not permitted to leave their ranches. Additionally, sheepherders in Colorado receive a standard wage of $750 per month, as little as $2-3 per hour, regardless of hours worked, and are required by their contracts to be on-call 24 hours per day. Their housing is not required to have electricity, running water, or toilets. In addition to being extremely underpaid, working long hours, and being subject to very poor living conditions, workers reported mistreatment by their bosses and feelings of isolation.

Herders typically come to Colorado as part of the H-2A program, which is a federal foreign labor program for agricultural employers who cannot find employees in the U.S. workforce. However, herders are excluded from many of the federal regulations that govern the H-2A program, meaning that much of the mistreatment the herders experience is entirely legal.

While the H-2A program requires that employers provide certain benefits to the workers (including housing, transportation, and a guaranteed number of work hours), in practice, H-2A workers are very vulnerable to exploitation and labor trafficking.

The statistics highlighted by CLS are:

• Almost three quarters of the herders reported having zero days off over the course of a year.
• Approximately 35 percent were paid less than once a month.
• 85 percent were not allowed to have visitors who were not ranch employees.
• Roughly 70 percent reported never having access to a functioning toilet.
• 85 percent were never permitted to engage in social activities.
• Almost 50 percent reported not having the opportunity or ability to read their employment contracts.

Moving Mountains for Youth—Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado

Young people are vulnerable to the normal hardships of growing up. But their realities become much harsher when they’ve been kicked out onto the streets by their families, chastised at school because they come from a different country, or treated differently because they identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ). These are the kids who are at most risk of falling into the trap of exploitative sexual and labor situations: they simply feel they have nowhere to turn.

Prax(us) is working to eliminate the human trafficking that plagues up to 30 percent of our city’s homeless youth, and takes advantage of the many immigrant and LGBTQ youth who are victims of prejudice and discrimination. That is why the Gay & Lesbian Fund is a proud supporter of Prax(us).

The Gay & Lesbian Fund’s mission is to create a Colorado where every person is treated equally and with respect. The fund believes that by empowering youth to advocate for themselves and others, engaging them in community activities, and developing their leadership potential, Prax(us) is making powerful in-roads for young people, and the future that lies ahead of them.

The Gay & Lesbian Fund applauds this work, and is a proud partner of Prax(us) in the fight to create welcoming, safe spaces that ensure all of our city’s youth have equal access to life’s opportunities. Together, we are moving mountains for Denver’s most vulnerable youth.

Passage and Signing of House Bill 1123

Prax(us) is thrilled to announce the Colorado General Assembly’s Passage of House Bill 1123 “Human Trafficking Involuntary Servitude” on May 5, 2009. We would like to thank everyone for their support in bringing awareness to the issue of human trafficking across our state. HB 1123 will encourage and facilitate local law enforcement and attorneys in pushing for trafficking convictions in the Colorado judicial system, improving local and state-wide efforts to eradicate human trafficking in Colorado. All youth under the age of eighteen involved in the commercial sex industry will now legally be classified as victims of human trafficking in Colorado, helping to ensure that youth in exploitative situations are not unfairly prosecuted and criminalized. Prax(us) would like to especially thank Representative Lambert, House sponsor of HB 1123, for the opportunity, through several conversations, to express our concerns and give recommendations to the language and intent of the bill. All of our recommendations were ultimately listened to and incorporated. Our involvement allowed us to mobilize community support for HB1123 and testify for the bill in committee.

Background & Case Study:

On February 24, 2009, the Denver Post reported that the FBI conducted a nation-wide sting on prostitution rings. In the Denver metro area, three young women, ages 16 and 17, were found to be in sexually exploitive situations. While federal anti-trafficking laws maintain that any youth under the age of 18 involved in the commercial sex industry should be classified as a human trafficking victim, previous anti-trafficking laws in Colorado required that youth prove force, fraud, or coercion in order to convict the trafficker or “pimp.” Prior to the passage of HB 1123, Colorado might not have recognized this as a trafficking situation, leaving the young women exposed to prostitution charges. Thanks to your support, HB 1123 passed, allowing the state of Colorado to legally identify all youth under 18 in exploitative situations as survivors of human trafficking. This is an important step in moving away from the criminalization of youth for the effects of systemic oppression on their lives.