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Testimony at Hearing before the Commission on Agricultural Workers Roman Rodriguez, Florida farmworker After just ten years I’ve seen changes, but I haven’t seen any changes in favor of the farmworkers . I’ve seen everything going the other way. About seven years ago, we used to get rides to work. We used to get supplies for work. And now we are not getting anything. Plus, after we got all this taken from us, we’ve seen so many changes that are all against us . . . I don’t know if it’s the same with lower Florida, but I’m an organizer for the farmworkers of central Florida, and I’ve seen so many cases where the farmers fire the people just because they are asking if they can give them a few more cents per hour, per bunch, or just if they think they deserve a little bit more because of the job that they are doing. The first thing we heard is that they are fired just because of doing that. We have no rights to ask for anything that we think we deserve. I don’t think that’s fair. They won’t even listen to us. They have some of these crew leaders in front of us [so] we won’t be able to go in front of a farmer and tell him what we need or what we want. He was going to send somebody to tell us that we were fired before he can listen to us. I’m [making this testimony] because I really don’t like the things that are going on around my family. I have most of my family working in the same conditions, and I’m really hoping that 138 The Human Cost of Food my being here will help to make a little change. I’m hoping that I’m talking to the right people to at least start the change. And I thank you for listening to me. ...

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