“Don’t just raise glasses, raise wages! Farmworkers deserve a living wage!” rung from the crowd just as the Sta. Rita Hills Wine Alliance was announcing Santa Barbara County’s Vintner of the year on Friday, August 14. 

Every head turned as two young advocates for farmworkers stood up from their seats rolling out a banner depicting farmworkers with a title that read “Farmworkers deserve a living wage!”

The disruption was almost immediately shut down by the facilitator and other vintners attempting to take the banner, but the advocates made sure that everyone heard the urgent need for a living wage for the farmworkers who “pick the very grapes of the wine everyone is currently enjoying, but only receive cents of each bottle.” 

A brief silence hung in the air, followed by applause from some guests, with others looked confused or annoyed.

Earlier that day, farmworkers working with Alianza Campesina rallied and marched outside the Wine & Fire Awards, calling for living wages and dignity for the workers who keep the Central Coast wine industry running.

The rally brought together farmworkers from Lompoc and Santa Maria and community supporters outside 10 Ninths Winery Estate in Lompoc as wine industry leaders gathered for the awards event. Farmworkers held signs and banners calling for living wages and spoke about the challenges agricultural workers face while working in an industry that continues to celebrate its success.

“I’ve worked picking grapes [and this is] work that requires more than just physical strength—working in sweltering heat, freezing early mornings, or long, dark nights,” said Maria, a farmworker in Lompoc. “We’ve had to dodge snakes and spiders as we make our way through the grove, carefully watching our step to avoid falling into a hole.” 

Farmworkers are responsible for the work that makes the wine industry possible, from planting and pruning vines to harvesting grapes and maintaining vineyards. Despite their essential role, many farmworkers continue to struggle to earn enough to support their families.

“A living wage of $26 an hour is possible,” Maria continued. “Ours is honest work, yet we are often thanked only with words rather than fair compensation. If there is genuine gratitude, it would be fitting to pay us a living wage so we can live comfortably in this county where we contribute taxes, money, and our labor.” 

The rally was organized by Alianza Campesina in partnership with the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) and the Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP). Farmworkers and community supporters called on wine industry leaders and elected officials to recognize the people behind the industry’s success and support living wages and dignified working conditions.

“This event is put on every year where people come to celebrate Santa Barbara’s famous Wine Country, where folks drink expensive wines in a beautiful, luxurious farm, yet farmworkers are outside the venue and do not earn enough to even be able to partake in such a privileged event, let alone earn enough to simply live in this Wine Country that their labor makes possible” said Fernando Martinez, Community Organizer with MICOP.

The protest highlighted the contrast between the celebration taking place inside the awards event and the realities faced by the workers outside. For farmworkers, the rally was an opportunity to make their voices heard and continue organizing for better wages and working conditions.

“There are people with the power to make a real difference and uplift Santa Barbara County’s farmworker community, and that is our very own County Board of Supervisors,” said Eric Ramirez Zepeda, Policy Advocate with CAUSE and Alianza Campesina. “As the County Supervisor representing Lompoc and Santa Ynez Valley, Joan Hartmann has a responsibility to stand with farmworkers in their call for dignified wages. Unfortunately, we have seen that commitment waver; nonetheless we are still here. We are in Lompoc, the city of flowers and also the home to many farmworkers.”