NWJP’s Year in Review – Our Long-Haul Fights for Systemic Change: NWJP Leads a One-of-a-Kind, Holistic Partnership to Support Immigrant Cannabis Workers
In 2023, NWJP helped found a truly innovative and holistic partnership of seven community- based organizations, mental health providers, and legal services organizations working to reverse to help address the humanitarian crisis created by the illegal marijuana industry in Oregon. The Cannabis Worker Resilience Partnership (CWRP) provides financial assistance, education and outreach, mental health counseling, and legal advice and representation to workers. It demonstrates a model for centering the immediate and ongoing needs of workers to help them be part of the work of addressing an issue plaguing Oregon’s rural communities.
In 2022, Diana (name changed) was recruited with 4 others to work on a remote cannabis farm in the mountains in Southern Oregon. The group was desperate for work because of a lack of other agricultural jobs, and they were told that it was a legal cannabis operation. The workers lived at the farm in tents among the trees. Their work was to trim plants from 6am to 9pm every day of the week. The boss and supervisors carried guns at all times, intimidating the workers who were held at the remote camp behind a locked gate, unable to leave for a whole month.
They ran out of water and had to drink from a tank that was only meant to irrigate plants. Right before the work was done, the boss left to get the money to pay the workers, but he never came back. Diana left with the rest of the workers when the food ran out and never received any pay for her work.
Diana’s story was one of dozens NWJP has heard involving wage theft, forced labor, threats of violence, unsafe worksite housing and labor trafficking. Illegal cannabis operations began popping up practically in plain sight around rural Oregon, using the legal industry as cover. Promising good wages, unscrupulous employers were able to recruit vulnerable immigrant agricultural workers.
NWJP successfully lobbied for state funding to be directed at addressing the worker impact of the illegal cannabis industry, and we helped organize and launch the CWRP. We start by centering affected workers and addressing their immediate needs for safety, food, housing and transportation, and then for mental health counseling and financial support. After that, we can help those who need it get immigration-related advice and pursue any potential paths to immigration relief. And, if it is safe to do so, we have the resources to track down employers to try to hold them accountable.
But the individual cases are just the beginning. CWRP works to undermine recruitment efforts by warning our client communities about the dangers in the industry. We are working on legislative concepts that will help hold landowners responsible for the terrible conditions in the labor camps. We are pushing state regulatory and labor enforcement agencies to mount a response to the rampant labor abuses. And, we are spreading the word about Oregon’s experiences nationally as other states begin to legalize marijuana.
The challenges that low-wage and immigrant workers face in our economy and in navigating our justice system are not new. They require us at NWJP to be creative and bring all of the tools we have to support our clients’ fights for justice. And, they require us to be in it for the long-haul to help make the systemic changes our communities need.
“The program was a source of hope during my darkest times. It not only provided me with the financial assistance to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table so my children could be healthy and safe, but also gave me the emotional support to overcome my depression, process everything that happened, and move forward. It has truly been life-saving.”
- CWRP Client