What Oxfam is doing

In all its US work, Oxfam partners with local groups to tackle the fundamental causes of poverty and foster social change to alleviate it.

In the southeast we are:

  • organizing workers and building alliances across racial, legal status, and gender lines
  • launching campaigns to change employers' practices at all levels of the food supply chain
  • negotiating with stakeholders to develop standards for corporate accountability
  • working to change policies at the state level

On the Gulf Coast, Oxfam's partners are engaged in:

Workers' rights

Toiling under dangerous conditions, workers in our nation's meat-processing plants and on our farms are among the lowest paid and most vulnerable laborers in the country. An increasingly competitive global market is pushing wages lower and eroding worker rights. Immigrants and low-wage workers in the fields or processing plants are guaranteed few to no protections on the job. In the Southeast and along the Gulf Coast, Oxfam and its local partners are seeking to reform the system so that those who produce our food can be assured of their rights to decent work and improved conditions in their communities.

On the Gulf Coast, soon after Hurricane Katrina hit, it became clear that the disaster would overwhelm local, state, and federal authorities. The post-hurricane construction boom alongside the non-enforcement or complete waiver of federal policies to protect worker rights enabled employers to create disposable jobs with wages too low or too precarious to protect the immigrants who were working them or to encourage local workers to return home. Oxfam's initial response in the Gulf Coast has now grown into a $12 million program focusing in part on good jobs for low-wage and immigrant workers. Despite the deterioration of worker rights in the Gulf Coast, new opportunities present themselves for both worker organizing and job creation such as growing pro-labor policy agenda and green jobs.

In the Southeast we are:

  • organizing workers and building alliances across racial and gender lines
  • launching campaigns to change employers' practices at all levels of the food supply chain
  • negotiating with stakeholders to develop standards for corporate accountability
  • working to change policies at the state and federal level that support immigrant and worker rights

On the Gulf Coast, Oxfam's partners and staff are engaged in:

  • immigrant and worker rights advocacy and enforcement at state and federal levels
  • specialized case management and legal support
  • efforts to reduce the risk of future disasters
  • community organizing and campaigning
  • women's leadership development and participation in the community

Supporting Native Americans affected by mining

Of the 3.8 million square miles of US territory—all originally stewarded by Native Americans—only a fraction is now designated as Native lands. And even that land isn't adequately protected from unwanted, irresponsible mining activity. With a substantial share of US mineral resources lying on or near Native reservations, Native Americans are still fighting for their rights.

Oxfam America joins the Hopi, Navajo, Western Shoshone, and other groups to fight against:

  • Environmental hazards — cyanide leaks from gold mines, abandoned waste from uranium pits, and pollution from oil and gas drilling are just a few of the hazards of mining. Water is especially at risk of contamination or depletion by mining operations that use millions of gallons a day.
  • Antiquated laws — the 1872 General Mining Law, still in place today, allows private companies to purchase public lands for less than five dollars an acre and extract minerals without paying royalties. The law has no environmental protections or provisions for Native peoples who live on or near the land.

As Native American groups are teaming with technical, legal, and environmental experts to defend their territories, Oxfam is bolstering grassroots efforts to influence mining corporations and policymakers to respect Native lands.