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Hispanic Americans - Progress Review, (posted 4/29/98) HISPANIC AMERICANS - PROGRESS REVIEW In 1997 the Deputy Secretary, Kevin Thurm and the former Acting Assistant Secretary for Health Jo Ivey Boufford jointly chaired the second Healthy People 2000 progress review on subobjectives for Hispanic Americans. The progress review was organized around three themes: improving Hispanic data, development of Healthy People 2010, and improving access to quality health care. The Deputy Secretary shared information on the HHS Hispanic Agenda for Action, noting areas of overlap with existing Healthy People 2000 subobjectives for Hispanics. There are now 118 subobjectives for Hispanics, 82 of which were added during the 1995 Midcourse Review. Progress on selected Healthy People 2000 subobjectives which target Hispanics is described below. Objectives Closing the Gap 14.1c Although Puerto Rican infant mortality rates are closing the gap with the total US population, they are still high--9.7 per 1,000 live births (1991). The target is to reduce the infant mortality rate for Puerto Ricans to no more than 8 per 1,000 live births. 14.11c Pregnant Hispanic women receiving prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy increased from 61 percent in 1987 to 70 percent in 1995. 15.14b and 15.14d The proportion of Mexican Americans ages 18-74 years who have ever had their blood cholesterol checked was 55 percent in 1993, compared to 42 percent in 1991. The proportion who had it checked within the preceding 2 years was 38 percent, compared to 33 percent in 1991. The year 2000 targets are 75 percent. 16.11a The proportion of Hispanic women 50 years and older who have had mammograms continues to move toward the 2000 target of 60 percent. Data from the National Health Interview Survey indicate that, in 1994, 50 percent of Hispanic women 50 years and older had received a clinical breast examination and a mammogram. 16.12a The proportion of Hispanic women ages 18 years and over that have ever received a pap test has increased from 75 percent in 1987 to 91 percent in 1994--fast approaching the Year 2000 target of 95 percent. There has also been an increase in the proportion of Hispanic women ages 17 years and over that have received a pap test during the previous 3 years from 66 percent in 1987 to 74 percent in 1994. 21.3a There has been an increase from the 1991 baseline of 63 percent in the proportion of Hispanic 18 years of age and older who have a regular source of primary care. The 1994 data indicate 71 percent, of Hispanic adults had a regular source of primary care, yet this was lower than the 84 percent for the total population. The year 2000 targets are 95 percent. Among Hispanics, Mexican Americans are least likely to have a regular source of primary care. Improving but Not Closing the Gap 20.4c The objective is to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis among Hispanics to no more than 5 cases per 100,000 people. In 1995, there were 18 cases per 100,000, a small decrease from the 1988 baseline of 18.3 but a large decrease from the peak of 22.8 in 1991. Hispanics are twice as likely to have tuberculosis as the total population (8.7 cases per 100,000). 20.11b The percentages of Hispanic adults ages 65 years and older receiving pneumococcal and influenza immunizations increased in 1994 to 14 and 38 percent, respectively as compared with the baseline year 1989 (11 and 28 percent respectively). The year 2000 target is 60 percent. However, the rate for influenza immunizations decreased from 47 percent in 1993 to 38 percent in 1994. Moving Away from the Target 1.2c Overweight prevalence among Hispanic women ages 20 and older increased from 27 percent in 1985 to 33 percent in 1993. The year 2000 target is 25 percent. 5.1b In 1991, there were 180 pregnancies per 1,000 Hispanic adolescent females ages 15-19 years compared with 143 per 1,000 in 1985. Hispanic adolescent females were significantly more likely than the total population (74.6 per 1,000) to have been pregnant. 7.1d In 1994, the homicide rate among Hispanic males ages 15-34 years increased to 52.2 per 100,000 from the 1987 baseline of 41.3 per 100,000. The year 2000 target is 33 per 100,000. 13.14d and e In 1993, the proportion of Mexican Americans ages 35 and older using an oral health care system increased to 45 percent from 38 percent in 1991. The rate for Puerto Ricans decreased to 37 percent from the 1991 baseline of 51 percent. The year 2000 target for Puerto Ricans ages 35 and older is 60 percent. 17.11c While the prevalence of diabetes among the total population increased from 28 per 1,000 in 1986 to 30 cases per 1,000 in 1994, among Mexican-Americans, the prevalence increased from 54 to 66 cases per 1,000 during the same period. 18.1c Hispanics are disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 1994, there were 49.9 AIDS cases per 100,000 Hispanics, as compared with 29.9 cases per 100,000 for the total population. 21.4b In 1994, the proportion of Hispanics under 65 years of age (32.9 percent) who were without health care coverage was twice that for the total population (17.8 percent). Among Hispanics, the proportion of Mexican-Americans without coverage in 1994 was 37.2 percent; for Puerto Ricans it was 17.4 percent, and for Cubans it was 27.4 percent. Highlights
As a part of this initiative, the National Association of Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools was established to strengthen the Nation's capacity to educate and expand the availability of Hispanic health care providers. FOLLOW-UP The progress review concluded with a summary of action items; these include: 1. Development of a Hispanic data collection strategy: To address the need to reevaluate data collection priorities and related funding decisions, to provide information on data system funding and the ability to make estimates for Hispanics. To increase knowledge about Hispanic subgroups and address the need for county and city level data, provide information on the advantages and practice of over-sampling for specific Hispanic subgroups (e.g., Mexican Americans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Central and South Americans) and the use of regional surveys in those States that have the largest number of Hispanics. Identify surveys which have adequate numbers of Hispanics and/or Hispanic subgroups for analysis, as well as surveys which are conducted in Spanish and specify the methods used (e.g., oral or written translation from English to Spanish, use of bicultural/bilingual interviewers). Develop a strategy to conduct research studies on attributes of ethnic groups which will enable more effective interventions to support healthy behavior and families and to address socioeconomic disparities. Ensure the collection of data on victims and perpetrators of violent acts. 2. Development of Healthy People 2010: Review objectives and targets relevant to Hispanics (not just those specifically identified for Hispanics) to draft 2010 objectives that eliminate, not just reduce, disparities. Targets for Hispanic Americans should be the same as for the total population. Draft 2010 Hispanic objectives addressing mental health, substance abuse, occupational health, environmental health, and the effects of violence, focusing on morbidity. Engage the Health Care Financing Administration in priority area working groups to develop Hispanic data and objectives. 3. Access to quality health care: Develop a strategy to reduce financial barriers that impede delivery of health services to Hispanics. Identify health professional training programs which can be expanded to train a broader spectrum of Hispanic health and social service professionals.
Website: http://odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov/pubs/hp2000/prog_rvw.htm Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Healthy People 2010 Initiative, Iintroduction and Background, (posted 4/29/98) Healthy People is the prevention agenda for the Nation. It is a statement of national opportunities and a tool that identifies the most significant preventable threats to health and focuses public and private sector efforts to address those threats. Healthy People offers a simple but powerful idea: provide the information and knowledge about how to improve health in a format that enables diverse groups to combine their efforts and work as a team. It is a road map to better health for all that can be used by many different people, States and communities, professional organizations, groups whose concern is a particular threat to health, or a particular population group. Healthy People is based on the best scientific knowledge and is used for decision making and for action. Healthy People 2000, which was released in 1990, is a comprehensive agenda with 319 objectives organized into 22 priority areas. The overarching goals are to increase years of healthy life, reduce disparities in health among different population groups, and achieve access to preventive health services. Healthy People 2000 was built on comments from more than 10,000 individuals and organizations. Ongoing involvement is ensured through the Healthy People Consortium, an alliance of 350 national membership organizations and 300 State health, mental health, substance abuse, and environmental agencies. To date, 47 States, the District of Columbia, and Guam have developed their own Healthy People plans. Most States have emulated national objectives, but virtually all have tailored them to their specific needs. Within the Federal Government, Healthy People provides a framework for measuring performance by outcomes. It is a strategic management tool for the Federal Government, States, communities, and our many private sector partners. Success is measured by positive changes in health status or reductions in risk factors, as well as improved provision of certain services. Progress reviews are periodically conducted on each of the 22 priority areas and on population groups, including women, adolescents, and racial/ethnic groups. Development of national health objectives for 2010 has already begun. Through focus group sessions, public meetings, and a web site, people from across the country have been able to make their voices heard. To be forward looking and positive, Healthy People 2010 will address emerging issues such as changing demographics, advances in preventive therapies, and new technologies. Public involvement in Healthy People 2010 development will continue through the next 18 months. The first round of comments on Healthy People 2010 is available on the Healthy People 2010 web site: http://web.health.gov/healthypeople. Information on future events will be posted there. Healthy People 2010 will be released in January 2000. A Celebration Of Life: What It Means To Be Human, from Universal Press Syndicate (posted 4/29/98) FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF APRIL 24, 1998 It's a long road from Aguascalientes, Mexico, to East Los Angeles-from a provincial town in the heart of Mexico to the largest barrio in the United States. It's the journey our parents (Roberto's) made, and as they celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary at the end of April, we are humbled by their example of selflessness. This journey culminated with the purchase of a home in Whittier, Calif., a community known as the home of Richard M. Nixon. Their union in both countries produced seven children and more than a dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren. None of us children could begin to compare ourselves to our parents, Ricardo and Juanita. In the best of all possible worlds, they would receive calls from Washington, D.C., for embodying family values. They are from the era of courtship in the plaza: Dolores Del Rio on the big screen and the love songs of Agustin Lara. They honeymooned in the floating gardens of Xochimilco outside Mexico City. Then they uprooted and became migrants in "El Norte." After crossing the border, they faced daily denigration and dehumanization, giving their entire lives, just so that we children could be better off. We can find no greater act of love and selflessness. Our sister Maria says, "They saw the future for us." Both taught us the meaning of work. We saw our father, who had been a cliff diver in Acapulco, a rail-yard worker and a carpenter, almost work himself to death in Los Angeles several times. They also taught us the meaning of honor and courage. Our father first migrated to Chicago, then to Los Angeles, leaving us behind in Tijuana, Mexico. Then he honored his familial commitment by bringing us several years later to a little alley house on Whittier Boulevard in East L.A. Our mother's courage was to raise us while our father worked three jobs, while neighbor and stranger alike viciously taunted her and all of us because we were "dirty Mexicans." Her kindness and devotion to her family won them over. One memorable example of her courage was when she was severely burned after throwing out a Christmas tree that had accidently caught fire, rather than see us harmed. The sacrifices never ended. They both went to school, where they became bilingual and eventually citizens. In later life, our mother wrote books of religious poems that she passed out free to people from all walks of life. We've often said that this society should honor its elders not at funerals, but at special times-the way native communities do-where they can see and hear those closest to them pay tribute to their lives. We feel fortunate that our parents have reached this milestone and can be honored while still alive. A 50th anniversary is an amazing testament to staying together, for better or worse, in sickness and in health. While we have searched the world over for the essence of what it means to be human and have interviewed great women and men in the process, we have found the truest expression within our very home. For it is they who raised us with stories of Azteca warriors, and it was they who ingrained in us the value of "el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz" (respect among peoples and nations is peace). These words come from Benito Juarez, Mexico's first Indian president. Our parents taught us to love and respect both countries, both cultures and languages, and to always stand up for our rights. A bit of advice they gave us as children has always guided us as human beings. When we were called "wetbacks" daily, they reassured us: "Tell them we didn't swim across the ocean." We took that to heart, and precisely because of those experiences, we could never humiliate anyone. Nor would we want to. We were raised to respect all individuals as part of our family called humanity. Our oldest brother, John, says our parents are tenacious enough to surprise us with more accomplishments. "Maybe they will last another 25 years." For instilling all this in us, we have but one word (in the Nahuatl or Mexican language) for our parents: "tlazocamati," or gracias, thanks. This tribute is our honoring song. COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Both writers are authors of Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored (ISBN 0-918520-22-3 UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library, Publications Unit. Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth ISBN 0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 Bilingual Review Press) and the antibook, The X in La Raza II. They can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7904, 505-247-3888 or XColumn@aol.com Travel: April 28 University of San Diego We're on the road, but e-accessible Guatemala's Struggle for Human Rights: Labor Organizing Continues in One of America's Most Politically Violent Countries (posted 4/29/98) Guatemalan labor leader Vinicio Hernandez will give an update on labor struggles and the effects of free trade on Thursday, May 7, 1998, at the Communication Workers of America Hall at 2725 El Camino, in Sacramento, at 7:00pm. For more information, call Sacramentans for International Labor Rights, (916) 456-1420. Mr. Hernandez is with the Labor Federation of Guatemalan Workers (UNSITRAGUA) which has been organizing factory and farm workers in Guatemala since the mid-1980s. Labor organizers have risked their lives in Guatemala; the Guatemalan Archbishop's Office of Human Rights reported 100 assassinations of organizers and political activists in 1997. Currently, about 80% of all Guatamalans live in poverty, with most farm and factory workers earning below subsistence level wages. Mr. Hernandez is on a speaking tour organized by the California Trade Unionists in Support of Guatemala. His appearance in Sacramento is being coordinated by Sacramentans for International Labor Rights with the support of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, Communication Workers of America, Coalition of Labor Union Women, and the Central America Action Committee. Berkeley Faculty Press Conference, Admission pool at University of California Berkeley (posted 4/29/98)
A broadly represented group of faculty from the University of California at Berkeley will give a formal response to the newly released admissions figures at a press conference scheduled for Thursday, April 23 at the Faculty Club at 10:30 a.m. in the heart of the Berkeley campus. According to the latest admission figures released by the University administration, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans together made up only 10.4 percent of the total pool of admitted freshmen for 1998. In comparison with the 1997 freshmen, the latest figures showed a dramatic decline of 57 percent for African Americans, 39 percent of Native Americans and 40 percent of Chicano/Latino Americans. The UCLA campus reported similar outcomes: a 43 percent drop for African Americans; 43 percent for Native Americans; and 33 percent for Chicano/Latino. In response to these figures, Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl recently said,"My own personal emotions are a mixture of disappointment, anger, frustration, hope and resolve. To the extent this leaves us a less diverse campus, it diminishes us." (The New York Times, April 1, 1998) The Berkeley faculty too have been in shock. Since the release of the fall admission data, many across the campus have been analyzing and discussing the causes and the long-term implications of the sharp decline, what is installed for the institution recognized nationwide for both its diversity and excellence. These same faculty have also raised questions like what a public university like Berkeley should do to advance educational opportunity and diversity and what steps should be taken to reverse the trend and maintain its credibility and accountability to the California tax-paying public. Calling themselves the Berkeley Faculty for Educational Opportunity and Diversity (BFEOD), they will share their analyses of the latest admission data and present their recommendations to the campus and the public at large.
Survey Finds Hispanics Optimistic About Direction of the Country and Their Futures; Hispanics Say Democrats Represent Their Views (posted 4/29/98) LOS ANGELES -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- April 22, 1998 -- Republican Candidates Who Court Hispanics Win High Approval Ratings In what may be the first major bipartisan poll of registered Hispanic voters in major markets nationwide, Hispanics in the United States reveal strong optimism about their futures and by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, express confidence that the country is on the right track. Democratic pollster Mark Penn and Republican pollster Mike Deaver authored the survey for Univision Communications Inc. (NYSE:UNV) a nonpartisan television-broadcasting company. The results of the study will be presented at "The Power of the Hispanic Vote," a conference sponsored by Univision at the ANA Hotel in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, April 23. Outpacing the positive attitudes of the country as a whole, the majority of Hispanics express satisfaction with both the economy (68 percent vs. 60 percent for the country as a whole, according to previously published polls) and their personal economic situations (78 percent). They also give a strong vote of confidence to President Clinton (82 percent job approval) and say they intend to vote in the 1998 election (94 percent). More Hispanics feel that the Democratic Party reaches out to them (47 percent) and represents their views (62 percent). Many Hispanics feel the Republican Party ignores them (41 percent). However, they also identify with traditionally Republican issues, such as crime and violence (most important to 17 percent), the weakening of traditional family values (most important to 16 percent) and the quest for economic opportunity (most important to 11 percent). The study reveals high approval numbers for Republicans who have aggressively courted Hispanics, such as Texas Governor George W. Bush (81 percent) and Illinois Governor Jim Edgar (66 percent). By contrast, California Governor Pete Wilson, who has aggressively fought illegal immigration, has an approval rating of 26 percent. The findings suggest that Republicans can make inroads to Hispanics in time for the 1998 elections but must reach out to them. Other Highlights of the Poll:
Penn, president of Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates and co-author of the survey, said that the findings demonstrate the growing importance of Hispanics in the American political process. "Hispanics provide a crucial swing vote in some of the nation's biggest states. Our findings about their optimism and confidence regarding their future reveal a clear opportunity for political candidates to broaden their base of support." Added Michael K. Deaver, Edelman Worldwide vice chairman and former deputy chief-of-staff to President Reagan: "Despite Hispanics' overwhelmingly bright outlook, these numbers clearly show that both parties need to work for their votes. I don't think Hispanics are predestined to vote for any particular party, but each party must show that they care about issues important to Hispanics." Penn and Deaver will present the full results of the poll at "The Power of the Hispanic Vote" conference to be hosted by Univision on April 23. For more information on the conference, call Scott Roskowski at 212/455-5266. The Univision poll of 750 respondents of Hispanic origin in seven major U.S. media markets was conducted between April 5 and 18, by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates and Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, with a margin of error of +/-3.6 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. Univision Communications is the leading Spanish-language television broadcaster in the United States. Its operations include the Univision Network, the most popular Spanish-language broadcast network in the United States; the Univision Television Group, which owns and operates 13 full-power and eight low-power television stations, including full-power stations in 12 of the top 15 Hispanic markets; and Galavision, the most-watched Spanish-language cable network in the country. Covering 92 percent of all U.S. Hispanic households through its owned-and-operated stations, 27 broadcast affiliates and 832 cable affiliates, Univision airs 20 of the top 20 national programs as ranked by Nielsen Hispanic Television Index. Univision will broadcast all 64 games of the 1998 World Cup. Children's Defense Fund Update, (posted 4/28/98) *** Juvenile Justice *** ---PREVENTION AND LIMITS ON GUNS A MUST IN ANY YOUTH VIOLENCE BILL --- Just before the recess began, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) indicated that he wants the Senate to consider a juvenile crime bill. And Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced legislation to ban the high capacity clips used in assault weapons, while Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and John Chafee (R-RI) introduced a bill that would require gun owners to limit children's access to their guns. Because of the strong interest in moving a youth violence bill, heightened since the tragic Jonesboro, AR killings several weeks ago of 4 school children and a teacher by two boys, we need to continue to urge Senators to oppose S. 10. We need to tell them to oppose S.10 and any other bill that destroys the core protections for children (such as keeping them separate from adult inmates), fails to invest in prevention, and does not limit children's access to guns. Contact your Senators now, as they return to Washington. There could be a vote on a youth violence bill at any time. Tell your Senators not to support any youth violence bill that doesn't include significant investments in prevention and strong limits on children's access to guns. Note: There has been some confusion about a statement the President made earlier this week. In announcing the release of a study on school crime, the President said, "Congress can help lead the way by passing the anti-gang and youth violence strategy that I sent to them more than a year ago..." Some reports have suggested he called for passage of S. 10. This is wrong, as reflected in his statement. The President did not call for passage of S.10, but rather, the bill he sent to Congress last year. *** Family Income *** --- CDF STUDY FINDS $130 BILLION COST OF CHILD POVERTY --- For every year that America allows 14.5 million children to experience poverty, their future productive capacity will decline by an estimated $130 billion, according to a new CDF study titled POVERTY MATTERS. The study also finds that: Poor children score lower on reading and math tests, suffer more mental and physical disabilities, and earn 25 percent lower wages as young adults. A baby born to a poor mother in America is more likely to die before its first birthday than a baby born to a high school dropout, an unwed mother, or a mother who smoked during pregnancy. Poverty puts children at greater risk of falling behind in school than does living in a single parent home or being born to teenage parents, according to findings from the U.S. Department of Education during the Reagan Administration. The report traces poor children's problems back to countless poverty-related disadvantages, such as high rates of iron deficiency, lead poisoning, and frequent moving from home to home. The emotional strains of poverty also have been found to interfere with proper parenting and to weaken many families. While many Americans are tempted to blame poor children's worse educational and job trajectories not on poverty but on character flaws ingrained in poor parents, POVERTY MATTERS cites major new academic studies that contradict such scapegoating-including studies of siblings born several years apart who experience different amounts of poverty. The finding that poverty matters even for these siblings- who are raised by the same parents-shows that parental traits are not the cause of the poor outcomes. POVERTY MATTERS concludes with a "pro-work, pro-family" plan for ending child poverty. *** Child Care *** --- STAND FOR CHILDREN DAY '98: STAND FOR QUALITY CHILD CARE HAPPENING ON JUNE 1 IN YOUR HOMETOWN! --- Stand For Children helps grassroots activists organize to improve the lives of children in their communities through successful policy change, awareness-raising and service initiatives. This year's Stand For Children Day will highlight the need for quality, affordable child care and after-school activities. Already, there are hundreds of events planned around the country. Stand For Children Day is 6 weeks away, but there is still time to get involved. The Stand For Children staff is here to help you organize or get in involved with an activity in your community to improve the quality and affordability of child care and after-school activities. To find out about Stand For Children Day activities being planned in your community, visit the Stand For Children web site at: <www.stand.org>, email <tellstand@stand.org>, or call (202) 234-0095. COMMISSION REFUSES TO DEAL WITH ORIGINAL SIN, from Universal Press Syndicate, (posted April 28, 1998) FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF APRIL 17, 1998 COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS When American Indians and Chicanos disrupted President Clinton's Race Commission hearing last month in Denver, the nation was perplexed and at a loss to explain the disruption of the president's "dog and pony show," as some protesters called it. They wanted to know why there were no American Indians on the commission, why no American Indian issues were being discussed, and why issues such as immigration were being ignored. Judging by the recent ESPN-sponsored race forum in Houston, that protest seemed to have had little impact. Once again, it was virtually a black-white affair, though this one resembled a love-fest between millionaires, hardly touching upon substantive issues facing the multiracial America of the next millennium. Though the subject was sports, it failed to address the continued use of racially offensive Indian mascots by college and professional teams. Despite the existence of the president's race commission, ESPN claimed it couldn't find any Latinos, except at the last moment. "We speak of leveling the playing field. We're not even on the field," said Johnnie Mata, a Houston member of the League of United Latin American Citizens and one of those critical of the race initiative. The race initiative lacks credibility because it's exclusive and does not involve genuine dialogue. "Instead of bringing us together, it's creating more dissension," said Linda Yardley, a Taos Indian and one of the protesters in Denver. She noted that the protesters favor the creation of a "red" ribbon panel and a cabinet-level position to examine issues affecting American Indians. America cannot have a genuine racial dialogue if this nation's original racial wounds are ignored. If an American Indian had been appointed, the issue of sovereignty, tribal rights and broken treaties would have been addressed, Yardley said. When President Clinton announced his race initiative, we wrote then that if the focus was going to be black-white, then we should simply dust off the 1968 Kerner Commission report because all the problems and solutions are already in there-in black and white. However, our opposition to a black-white dialogue is not simply about demographics. That focus simply conforms to the East-to-West-biased view of U.S. history, and it actually ignores the fundamental race problem in this country that this society was founded upon land theft and genocide. Admittedly, this is not a comfortable subject, but neither is slavery nor reparations, which are being addressed. Clinton spoke to the issue of slavery on his recent trip to Africa. Professor Molefi Asante of Temple University, the leading Afrocentric scholar in the nation, recently told us that reparations may not necessarily be in the form of money, but rather, possibly through free tuition to universities and free housing allowances for descendants of slaves-paid for by 246 years of free labor. Many whites tell blacks to "get over it," he said, but they want blacks to do this without society paying the remedy. Discussing land theft and treaties-issues that affect Native Americans, Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans-would open up a can of worms. And limiting the commission to seven members has virtually left these same groups, plus Arab Americans, Central Americans, Asian Americans and Eastern European immigrants, without voice or representation. "Out of sight. Out of mind," said Mata. An apology for American Indians would not be enough, said Suzanne Harjo, director of the Morning Star Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based American Indian civil rights organization. Reparations for American Indians would be to honor the treaties: "We have them and they broke them." A true race dialogue would examine not only conflict between whites and all people of color, but also the economic disparities and the politics of blame that pit people of color against each other. A genteel agenda-with pre-selected guests and closed-door meetings-will produce the disruption that occurred in Denver. It will also produce distrust as happened when the commission met in Phoenix, yet refused to discuss the racially divisive issue of immigration and the recent raids there by the U.S. Border Patrol. And it will produce discontent as has occurred in cities such as Houston and Dallas where people who are not black or white are excluded. Incidentally, an American Indian would not only help raise American Indian issues, but would also humanize the issue of immigration and would place it in its proper context. Until America faces this issue, or at least understands immigration from this point of view, public relations dialogues involving multimillionaires will accomplish little in addressing this nation's festering racial problems. COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Both writers are authors of Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored (ISBN 0-918520-22-3 UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library, Publications Unit. Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth ISBN 0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 Bilingual Review Press) and the antibook, The X in La Raza II. They can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7904, 505-247-3888 or XColumn@aol.com. We're e-mail accessible. We Caucasians Would Prefer to Ignore Our Preferences, The Riverfront Times, (posted 4/28/98) By Roy Hartmann The U.S. Supreme Court, which is 89 at percent white, declined Monday to consider a challenge to California's anti-affirmative action Proposition 209. Voters in California, which is 81 percent white, last year passed the measure, which bans "preferential treatment" on the basis of race or gender in state and local government programs. Supporters of the measure praised the justices for letting stand an April ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals (9th Circuit), which is 89 percent white, which found Proposition 209 was not unconstitutional. "This decision takes California another step closer to achieving a true, color-blind equal-opportunity society," said Gov. Pete Wilson, who, like 100 percent of the nation's governors, is white. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the proposition is its ban on race-based admission policies in California's state university system, which is overseen by a Board of Regents, which is 82 percent white. As of 1994, an estimated 82 percent of America's resident college students were white, surprisingly low in a country that is 80 percent white, and it is believed that race-based admission policies have kept the number down. Just 16 years earlier, the college population was 87 percent white. At the college-faculty level, where race-conscious programs are also now forbidden by Proposition 209, whites nationally held 86.8 percent of the positions in 1992 (according to the American Association of University Professors). This, too, reflects a drop in white representation because of affirmative-action programs of recent decades. Whites have fared better in other professional categories, however, where the color-blind, equal-opportunity society has not been affected by race-conscious programs:
These statistics were cobbled together from federal Bureau of Labor Statistics information, and they are presented here in a form not normally seen. Customarily, the bureau breaks out only categories such as "female, "black" and "Hispanic," whereas figures for whites are not specified. This is not unlike the reporting of affirmative-action issues, wherein the major newspapers, all of which are primarily owned by whites, and the major TV networks and cable companies, all of which are primarily owned by whites, debate the merits of "preferences" for blacks and women. Even if the subject were, say, the scarcity of black airplane pilots, the experts discussing the numbers and the media reporting them-even those supportive of affirmative action -- would come at the subject from the vantage point of how few blacks were pilots. They would never characterize as a "preference" the fact that 98.3 percent of pilots are white. I discussed twisted perspective about all this with a friend who, like me, is white. She partly irritated but mainly puzzled: "What's your point?" Here's my point: We live in a largely white country. The white majority enjoys a disproportionate share of its wealth and comfort and an even greater share of control over its most [important] institutions. But white power is so pervasive that it's never perceived, or even considered, white power. It's just the way things are. Racial percentages aren't tallied from the white side, only from the "minority" point of view. Thus, when 20 percent of public contracts on a building project are "set aside" for minority contractors, it is a "racial" or "gender-based" issue, but when 100 percent goes to firms owned by white males, it's just, well, reality. Even many sympathetic to blacks and other people of color will find it quite reasonable that whites have 80-something or 90-something percent dominance of important institutions. After all, the country is 80 percent white, so the statistics are always going to seem racially tilted toward Caucasians, right? Well, not exactly. Only 37 percent of the nation's jail inmates were white in 1994 (as compared with 56 percent in 1978), and only 46 percent of the prisoners executed in the past six decades were white. Only 60 percent of the children living below the poverty line are white. In the same way that numbers can swing disproportionately white, so it is possible for whites to be under-represented statistically. But it never seems to happen when it's a good statistic. Now consider the happy words of Rep Charles Canady (R-Fla.), a white guy who has authored a federal bill that would eliminate affirmative action at the federal level the way Proposition 209 has in California. Celebrating the Supreme Court's "inaction" on Monday, Canady proclaimed: "The people of California rightly decided to end the divisive race and gender preferences in their state, and it's, time Congress to do the same thing for the whole nation." We're going to end race "preferences" as a nation, eh? By a "nonracial" vote of the 90 percent white House of Representatives and the 97 percent white Senate, who will then (presumably) have to mount enough "color-blind" votes to override our 42nd consecutive Caucasian president? Yes, we're a color-blind society when it comes to "preferences," all right. We can't see the white. New Tide of Latino Activism Stung by Props. 187 and 209 (posted 4/24/98) A New Tide of Latino Activism Stung by Props. 187 and 209 and emboldened by their growing numbers, immigrants in the Southland are shifting political focus from their homelands to their own backyards. Los Angeles Times, Monday, April 13, 1998, page 1 By HECTOR TOBAR, Times Staff Writer
The political awakening of the new immigrant barrios of Southern California began with the enduring dreams of an exiled Mexican college student whose travels took him to a crowded town hall meeting in Watts. It began, too, with a small group of former Salvadoran revolutionaries who one day found themselves, against all expectations, pledging allegiance to a country they had once despised. And it began with an anti-Proposition 187 leaflet placed in the hand of a 15-year-old girl. Those events, and countless more during the past several years, have led to a slow but steady march forward for American democratic institutions in communities where Spanish is still the dominant language. Behind this profound change are hundreds of individuals who have formed or joined fledgling grass-roots organizations and political action committees, often despite economic, cultural and personal obstacles. The fruit of their labor is a 30% increase in voter registration in the Latino communities of central Los Angeles County since 1994 -- a rate six times higher than the countywide increase. Many of these organizers are giving voice to a new civic consciousness that combines Latin American traditions of collective action with Jeffersonian ideas about participatory democracy-opening a window on what the political life of Southern California may feel like in the next century. On a Sunday last month, a group of local Salvadoran activists did something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: They held a fund-raiser for an American political candidate, Assemblywoman Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont), the Legislature's only Salvadoran American, now running for the state Senate. It was a seminal event among men and women whose concerns had traditionally been focused almost solely on their homeland, in a part of Los Angeles where so few people were U.S. citizens that, politically speaking, their neighborhoods were in another country. "I'm proud to be a Centroamericano," said Carlos Vaquerano, one of the activists behind the effort. "Our people are assertive. We don't want to depend on anyone. That's why we have to win political representation." A group of Guatemalans have launched a similar effort, led by Julio Villasenor, a real estate agent and building contractor who is president of the recently formed Guatemalan Unity Information Agency (GUIA), a new civic organization. "In the long term, the role of GUIA is to build and guarantee a place for Guatemalans within the democratic institutions of the United States," the organization's World Wide Web site proclaims in Spanish.
New Plans for Funds GUIA was an outgrowth of local clubs, called fraternidades, that for decades have raised funds for humanitarian needs in Guatemala. Typically the fraternidades-formed by expatriates from a given town or province-would help build medical clinics, schools and fire stations back in Guatemala. Now, GUIA is channeling at least some of those resources to community empowerment in Los Angeles. "I am an American citizen, all of us [in GUIA] are," says Villasenor, 46. "Personally, my goal is that the Guatemalan community grow and become active in civic matters." Along the same lines, Vaquerano and others have formed the fledgling Salvadoran Leadership and Education Fund (SALEF), a group whose origins lie in the end of El Salvador's long civil war in 1992. The signing of that peace treaty coincided with the riots that ravaged Pico-Union and other Los Angeles neighborhoods that are home to Central Americans. Together, the two events led many Salvadoran activists to reassess the focus of their work. "We did a complete about-face," says Vaquerano, 37. "We were always thinking of going back home. Then all of a sudden, the nightmare of the war was over. We started thinking of channeling our energies to domestic matters." It was emotionally difficult for Vaquerano to apply for citizenship when he came to the United States as a teenager in 1980. Back in El Salvador, he had lost three brothers to a violent dictatorship whose chief ally was the U.S. government. Like many Salvadoran radicals, he had once known America's stars and stripes as a symbol of injustice. Years later, he found himself pledging allegiance to that flag. Today, stacked on a table in SALEF's sparsely furnished one-room office in Pico-Union is a pile of photocopied voter-registration forms-about 100 in all-from Salvadorans who, like Vaquerano, completed them just moments after taking the oath. Many participants in the new civic activism can trace their political consciousness to other struggles that are part of the long and rich history of Latin American and Chicano radicalism. Arturo Ybarra, 54, was exiled from his native Mexico after being detained and tortured during the 1968 student protests against the government, then a de facto one-party dictatorship. Eventually, the student movement was crushed by a Tiananmen-style massacre. Traumatized by his experiences, Ybarra lived quietly in the neighborhoods in and around South-Central Los Angeles for many years, working in a factory and becoming a union shop steward. In 1989, he heard that the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency would hold a public meeting to discuss a controversial plan to revitalize nearby Watts. He noticed a few other Latinos in the mostly African American audience, despite the fact that Latinos by then made up more than a third of South-Central. "We were a group so small that we would look at each other with kind of a hunger to communicate with someone who could relate to us," Ybarra says. Soon afterward, the Watts Century Latino Organization was formed. Since then, the organization has done everything from filing class-action lawsuits claiming racist practices by the housing authority to staging boisterous protests for improved water service. Its goal: to pressure legislators to take note of South Los Angeles' new Latino majority. "In this country, it's easier to have a meeting with a congressman or a high elected official than it is to meet with some petty bureaucrat in Mexico," Ybarra says. "We're beginning to realize that our vote can really be the difference between living oppressed and having an opportunity for our children." Ybarra and others who are building organizations in what has been, until now, the undeveloped hinterland of local politics, face many difficulties. Distrust of government and authority remains widespread, and poverty feeds a deep apathy. "All these decades of repressive and corrupt governments [in Latin America] have contributed to a trauma that prevents our people from participating in civic activities," Ybarra says. "People are frustrated, they're skeptical of governments and organizations." And yet, the new activists have been presented in recent years with the perfect antidote to such attitudes: the anti-immigration policies championed by Gov. Pete Wilson. The 1994 campaign to pass Proposition 187, which made many government services off-limits to undocumented immigrants, is almost universally described as a watershed moment in Latino political history. The initiative sparked a sharper interest in the political process among many Latinos, who saw Proposition 187 as an assault not merely on illegal immigrants, but on their entire community. Although Latinos did not vote in dramatically larger numbers in 1994, the legacy of the anti-187 movement can be felt today in the increasing number of young people growing into new roles as community advocates. Ana Soto was a ninth-grader at Jefferson High School when teenage activists slipped through the halls and classrooms, passing out leaflets urging students to join a protest against the voter initiative. The "walkouts," which took place throughout Southern California, were an echo of the 1968 demonstrations at Eastside schools during the height of the "Chicano Power" movement. Soto found herself walking out of Jefferson High with hundreds of others, so many students that they barely fit though the open gates. They marched north toward City Hall, a moment of collective power unlike anything she'd felt before. It would change her life. "You feel pride, you're standing up for it," says Soto, the daughter of Mexican immigrants whose mother is a seamstress. "You're doing something about it. You're not the person that's sitting there waiting for the decision to be made." Despite working a part-time job to help support her five siblings, Soto was elected student body president at Jefferson last July and became a vocal critic of conditions at the South-Central campus. She wants to be "like Gloria Molina," the Los Angeles County supervisor who is California's most recognizable Latina politician. Another veteran of the marches, 17-year-old Marvin Rodas, is now a member of a South-Central youth empowerment committee that seeks to channel more Los Angeles school district repair bond funds to inner-city schools. His optimism, like Soto's, is tempered by another, more pragmatic lesson learned on the fall day in 1994 when most of Jefferson High took to the streets. "We were walking toward City Hall, but some of [the marchers] decided to go home," Rodas says. "That walkout wasn't organized."
Immigrants Still Facing Hurdles The image of protesters deserting a march that's hardly begun remains something of a metaphor for the perils and pitfalls that face Latino activists trying to build political and civic institutions in the barrio. Language barriers still prevent meaningful political participation among legions of Latino immigrants. In the barrios of central Los Angeles and Orange counties, high poverty rates and significantly lower rates of education do not bode well for future political development. Despite such obstacles, for Latino activists the worst years of voter apathy may be behind them. A Times analysis of voter registration patterns in Los Angeles County shows that the local Assembly districts that are home to the largest numbers of immigrants have shown the fastest rise in registration, fueled by increased naturalization, opposition to Proposition 187 and strong Latino support last year for the Los Angeles school repair bond, Proposition BB. In Democrat Martha M. Escutia's 50th Assembly District, centered in the southeast county cities of Huntington Park, Bell and Bell Gardens, voter registration has increased 28% since 1994, about six times the rate of increase for the county as a whole. In the unincorporated Florence district, just east of South-Central Los Angeles, registration has increased 47% during the same time period. (The rates of increase are high, in part, because before the recent surge, the number of voters in inner-city barrios was abysmally low). Whether political parties and candidates will intensify their efforts to court the new Latino voters remains to be seen. In the past, California politicians have rarely put substantial resources into voter registration and other efforts aimed at expanding the number of immigrant voters. Still, there is little doubt that the surge in Latino registration is good news for Democrats-Latinos voted more than 3 to 1 for the party's candidates in 1996, according to exit polls. The increased number of Latino citizens and voters also bodes well for organizations hoping to build a long-term presence in communities where "the voter" has been something of an endangered species. At the Watts Century Latino Organization, Ybarra estimates that a third of the group's 600 registered members are U.S. citizens. Under Ybarra's leadership, WCLO has taken a holistic approach to the idea of community empowerment. It has helped needy Watts residents find work. It stages the annual Watts Cinco de Mayo parade. At this week's quarterly town meeting, group members will discuss, among other things, the implications of the Alameda Corridor project. At WCLO events, Ybarra says, organizers provide free child care because most members bring their children. ("You know how Latinos are, when we go to an event, we have to bring the whole family, even the parrot and the dog," he quips in Spanish.) Indeed, there is much about the group that is a cultural hybrid, like the patchwork of posters and notes that cover the wall of Ybarra's office. There is an Aztec calendar and an American flag next to the exhortation to "pledge allegiance, become a U.S. citizen now." On a chalkboard, there is a scribbled reminder to "Call [Mayor] Riordan for gardeners," a reference to the recent controversy over the City Council's decision to ban gas-operated leaf blowers. When Ybarra talks about the history of the organization, Latin American political terms like "organizaciones de base" pepper his speech. Mexican residents of Watts call the group "Wacelo," following the Spanish-language custom of transforming acronyms into pronounceable words. And yet, the goals of "Wacelo" are little different from those of Irish and Italian immigrant groups in the first half of this century, groups that eventually completed a total assimilation into the American political process. "Our children are American citizens," Ybarra says. "We can't tell them to hate their country. But we can't tell them to hate Spanish either. On the contrary, we feel obliged to teach them the history of the two cultures, the true history of their two countries."
About This Series The most dramatic change in Southern California's political landscape is sharply increased participation by Latino immigrants. During this election year, Times staff writer Hector Tobar will examine how this trend will play out at the grass-roots level. Future stories will describe how the interaction between Latino culture and American civic institutions may help shape the region's future. Foreign-Born Population Reaches 25.8 Million, According to Census Bureau (posted 4/24/98) In 1997, nearly 1 in 10 residents of the United States (25.8 million) was foreign-born and almost 1 in 3 of these foreign-born residents was a naturalized citizen, according to a report released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. The data can be accessed at this Internet address [under the heading <CPS March 1997>]: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/foreign.html "The biggest influx of foreign born was from the Americas Central and South America and the Caribbean," said Dianne Schmidley, author of the report, The Foreign-Born Population in the United States: March 1997 (Update) . "About 7 million people, or 1 in 4 of the total foreign-born population in the United States in 1997, were born in Mexico." The report includes these highlights:
The data presented were collected in the Current Population Survey and, therefore, are subject to sampling variability, as well as reporting and coverage errors. Country of origin and year of entry into the United States of the foreign born: March 1997 (Numbers in thousands) TOTAL FOREIGN BORN: All countries 25,779 Mexico 7,017 Philippines 1,132 China and Hong Kong 1,107 Cuba 913 Vietnam 770 India 748 Dominican Republic 632 El Salvador 607 Great Britain 606 Korea 591 Elsewhere 11,655 CAME TO THE UNITED STATE: Before 1970 4,749 1970 to 1979 4,935 1980 to 1989 8,555 Since 1990 7,539 Source: March 1997 Current Population Survey, U.S. Census Bureau U.S. Foreign-Born Population Grows - The Associated Press , April 9, 1998 By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Not since the flood of European immigrants early in this century have there been so many residents of the United States who were born somewhere else. But this time, instead of Russia and Poland, Italy and Ireland, the new arrivals are more likely to be from Latin America, the origin of half the nation's foreign-born residents. "It's quite different now. The nationalities now contributing to the growth are Mexican, Latin American and the Asian countries and that has been the picture since World War II," said Manuel de la Puente, a sociologist who heads the Census Bureau's ethnic statistics branch. Some see the change as a threat to America. Some see it as a continuation of history for a nation of immigrants. With nearly one in 10 residents foreign-born, the influx is changing the look and sound of large parts of the nation as politicians and advertisers practice their Spanish, Latin food sections join Chinese, Italian and kosher in supermarkets and the airwaves add the sounds of salsa music and the action of soccer. In a nation where Cuban-born Ricky Ricardo was once a television novelty, viewers now can watch the all-Spanish Univision network, and cable and satellite channels provide programming in Greek, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Arabic, German, French and other languages. The 9.6 percent foreign-born in America today is the most since 1930, when 11.6 percent of U.S. residents were natives of another country. The share peaked at 14.7 percent in 1910 in the wake of the massive European immigration in the late 19th century. To K. C. McAlpin, deputy director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the rapid influx is a problem affecting such things as crowded schools, crime rates, urban sprawl and increased government costs. In addition, he said, after the flood of immigrants at the turn of the century Congress effectively closed the doors in the 1920s, taking a 40-year timeout to digest the new arrivals. "Nothing on the horizon at the moment suggests we are going to do the same thing," he observed. "It's fair to say that the immigrants now are coming from different origins than most of the rest of the population comes from and, as a consequence, it's also fair to say that the United States will change as a result of that," said Jeffrey Passel, a population expert at the Urban Institute. But, he added, that's just what was happening nearly a century ago. Many people at that time worried that the country couldn't absorb the newcomers, just as many people do now, he said. "It's important to remember that the country always is changing. Immigrants coming today are coming for the same reason immigrants have always come, to make a better life for themselves. It may be a different country in 50 years, but it will still be based on the same set of principles," Passel said. The goal of a better life has always spurred immigrants, whether seeking land and fortune or fleeing political, religious or other persecution. Today the influence of the new arrivals is felt most strongly in five states, where the foreign-born population topped the national percentage. California leads the way with 24.9 percent, nearly one-quarter of its residents, being foreign-born. New York was second at 19.6 percent followed by Florida, 16.4 percent; New Jersey, 15.4 percent; and Texas, 11.3 percent. Other findings of the new report:
Hispanics object to race panel, (posted 4/23/98) HOUSTON, April 13 (UPI) Hispanic activists are upset that they have only one representative on the panel assembled for President Clinton's town hall meeting Tuesday night in Houston. Johnny Mata, a spokesman for the League of United Latin American Citizens, is characterizing the inclusion Saturday of Felipe Lopez, a St. John's University basketball player, as an "afterthought" and "token." There are six blacks and three whites on the panel to discuss race and sports during the 7 p.m. CDT town hall meeting on ESPN. The event is scheduled as part of the president's initiative on racial issues. http://my.excite.com/news/u/980413/07/ California Agriculture, (posted 4/23/98) For the past 50 years, California farm sales have topped those of every other state, and in 1996, they were a record $24.5 billion, up from $23 billion in 1995. California exported farm commodities worth $12 billion in 1996. Milk and cream worth $3.1 billion topped the list of commodities in 1996, followed by grapes worth $1.9 billion, nursery products worth $1.5 billion, cattle and calves worth $1.3 billion and cotton worth $1 billion. The US expects to export a record $11 billion worth of FVH commodities in 1998, nearly double 1990 exports; 98 percent of FVH trade is fruits and vegetables. Farm Land. The amount of farm land in the Central Valley is decreasing, but the value of farm output continues to increase as farmers switch to higher value crops such as fruits and vegetables. Harvested vegetable acreage in the 24-county Central Valley increased from about 420,000 acres in 1982 to 480,000 acres in 1992. Statewide, vegetable acreage increased by 123,000 between 1982 and 1992, and fruit and nut acreage by 87,000 acres. Most experts attribute the increased fruit and vegetable acreage to rising costs for inputs such as water and the prospects of increasing profits by switching from low-cost and low-revenue field crops such as cotton to higher-cost and higher-revenue peaches or melons. Farm land used for tree fruits, nuts and grapes in the San Joaquin Valley increased in value in 1996, to between $7,000 and $8,000 an acre for good quality tree fruit land, $7,000 to $8,000 an acre for almonds, $5,000 to $7,000 an acre for table grape land, and $6,000 to $9,000 an acre for vineyards. There is a wide range in prices of row crop land used for cotton, alfalfa and vegetables, with most sales in the $1,000 to $6,000 an acre range. Citrus land prices fell, from the $9,000 to $12,000 an acre range to $6,000 to $9,000. The California Land Conservation Act of 1965, the Williamson Act, permitted farmers to sign 10-year agreements promising not to develop their farmland in exchange for significant tax relief. About 16 million of California's 30 million acres of privately held open-space land is protected by the Williamson Act. Farms. Limoneria, a Ventura citrus operation founded in 1893, had 10,000 acres of lemons, oranges and avocados in 1997, and 600 directly hired employees. Limoneria owned 8,000 of these acres. Limoneria has been adding acreage: 1,872 acres from Edwards and Associates in 1985 and 685 acres from McKevett Corp in 1995, giving Limoneria 6,000 acres in the Ventura area, including almost 500 acres in an area that the city of Santa Paula is considering annexing and developing. Santa Paula has a population of 25,000. Limoneria also bought 1,400 acres in Porterville in the Central Valley in 1997. Limoneria's 1,900 acres of lemons are about seven percent of Ventura county's acreage and its 1,100 acres of avocados make it California's second largest avocado grower. Limoneria has a development subsidiary, Limoneria Land Company, that is working on plans for 900 homes near Santa Paula, complete with a school. Santa Paula is considered the poorest city in Ventura county. Carrot consumption increased sharply in the 1990s, from about 10 pounds a person per year to 14 pounds. Kern county, California dominates US carrot production, and two firms control 90 percent of California fresh carrots-most growers produce carrots under contract for these firms. Carrots are mechanically harvested. Shifting lettuce consumption is reflected in bagged salads, introduced in 1989, and projected to reach $1 billion in supermarket sales in 1997. Salinas-based Fresh Express is the market leader, with about 36 percent of the bagged salad market. Fresh Express is owned by the Taylor family, which also controls Bruce Church. Dole Food Company has about 27 percent of the bagged-salad market, followed by Irwindale, California-based Ready Pac Produce Inc, with 14 percent of the market. California has three major producers and processors of garlic: Rogers Foods, Gilroy Foods and Christopher Ranch, the nation's largest garlic grower. In San Francisco, Fresh Start Farms, which hired homeless people for $8 to $10 an hour to grow designer vegetables on some of the city's 200 vacant lots, closed in August 1997. Fresh Start had sales of $100,000 in 1996 but expenses of $150,000. Mechanization. A new tomato harvester, the Golden Valley 12-P, offers operators better views of both the tomatoes being harvested and the trucks into which they are loaded. The $240,000 machine includes two advanced color sorters to separate red and green tomatoes and devices that identify and remove dirt clods. Israel's El-Op Fruitronics subsidiary has developed a $30,000-a-lane Optigrade II fruit sorter that can sort up to 10 apples or peaches a second by comparing each piece to stored images of different grades of fruit; one machine replaces 15 hand sorters and uses neural network (artificial intelligence) systems to learn how to separate good and bad fruit. In October 1984, Fruit Grower magazine had an article, "Advances in Apple Harvesting," that described two approaches to mechanically harvesting apples: adaptations of the wine grape harvester that uses circulating rods to move through the tree and shake off fruit and adaptations of the nut harvester that grasps the tree trunk and shakes the fruit off, either all at once, or after two or three progressively harder shakes. Grapes. California grape growers broke records in both prices and production in 1997. The 3.9 million tons of crushed grapes in 1997 topped the previous record by 10 percent and passed the 1996 total by 33 percent. About 55 percent of the grapes produced in the US in 1996 were used to make wine, and wine grapes in 1996 had a farm value of $1.2 billion; the value of all grapes was $2 billion. Growers of the grapes received a record average price of $ 488.02 per ton, up eight percent from the average price in 1996, according to the state Department of Food and Agriculture. The world's largest single vineyard operation is the 7,408-acre San Bernabe operation in Monterey county owned by Delicato Vineyards of Manteca. Some 30,000 tons of grapes are harvested each year, harvested by machine from about 1 am to 11 am in order to keep the grapes cool for the crushers. Some 20,000 of the 70,000 new acres of wine grapes planted in California in 1995-96 were planted in the Lodi area between Sacramento and Stockton, and most were planted to be harvested by machine. Wine grape harvesters cost $100,000 to $200,000 each, but they can harvest wine grapes for $15 to $25 a ton, compared to $35 to $50 a ton for hand harvesting. Herzog Co. of Courtland, which farms about 640 acres of wine grapes in the Delta area, elected to buy another mechanical harvester rather than build a new labor camp. Americans consume an average of less than one case of wine a person each year. Wine consumption is measured in hectoliters-one hectoliter is 100 liters, or slightly more than 11 cases-and Americans consumed 22 million hectoliters of wine in 1996. Horticultural Specialties. The US "green" industry had receipts of $11.3 billion in 1997, making green products one-third of the value of total value of fruits and nuts, vegetables and melons and horticultural specialties such as mushrooms and greenhouse/nursery crops. A total of $53 billion was spent on green products and associated services in 1997. The floriculture sector of the green industry-cut flowers, bedding plants, and potted flowering plants-had 1997 sales of $4 billion. The environmental horticulture sector-trees, shrubs, sod, Christmas trees, and nurseries-had sales of $7 billion in 1997. The US imported green products worth $1 billion in 1997, and exported green products worth $250 million. In the US, about 52 percent of flowers purchased are fresh cut, 29 percent are flowering pot plants and 19 percent are dry or artificial. US consumers spend less than Europeans on flowers and more than average on outdoor landscaping. US consumers bought about 1.1 billion rose stems in 1996, an average four each, but spent almost $140 each on landscaping plants and services. Sanford Nax, "California growers saw increases of 33% in grapes crushed, 8% in price compared with previous year," Fresno Bee, February 11, 1998. Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, "Automatic fruit-sorting system replaces unskilled laborers," Jerusalem Post, November 30, 1997. David Oltman, "Harvesting Intensity," California Farmer, November 1997. Mexican Migrants, (posted 4/23/98) The Valley of San Quintin in Mexico produces $65 million worth of tomatoes, green onions, strawberries, cucumbers and celery annually from 19,000 acres. About 80 percent of the produce is exported to the US. San Quintin, about four hours south of Tijuana, boomed after 1980, when drip irrigation was introduced, tripling yields. The largest growers include ABC, owned by Alejandro and Constantino Canelos and based in Sinaloa, and Los Pinos, owned by the Rodriguez family of San Quintin. San Quintin imported Mixtec Indian workers from Oaxaca and Guerrero and a majority of the 70,000 population are now Indians. There are 36 migrant worker camps in San Quintin. At ABC's Francisco Villa labor camp, migrant Indian workers said they were promised 70 pesos (about $8.50) for an eight-hour day, rooms with electricity and running water, work for children 10 and up and round-trip bus transportation with three meals a day included. However, the workers complained that work days are often 10 to 12 hours and that the camp frequently has no electricity. Food prices in the camp are reportedly 50 percent more than regular prices. Most of the camps were built to house seasonal male workers, but an estimated 4,200 families now live in the camps year round. The best camps are reportedly reserved for migrant packing house workers from Sinaloa. Many Mexican villages in west central Mexico are better integrated into the US than the Mexican economies. This means that peak periods of business activity are in the winter months, from December to February, when many Mexican-born residents return from the US, reopen their closed modern houses, and spend money on weddings and at local festivals. However, in some of the most migrant-dependent communities, there are few young men, turning rural villages into "nurseries and nursing homes." Sam Quinones, "Grapes of Wrath south of the border, "San Francisco Examiner, January 11, 1998. Congress: Guest Workers, (posted 4/23/98) H-2Cs. The House immigration subcommittee on March 12 voted 7-2 in support of a pilot guest worker program that would permit US farmers to hire foreign workers with H-2C visas if the farmer "attested" that he tried and failed to find US workers. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) chairman of the House immigration subcommittee, supported the bill (HR3410, the Temporary Agricultural Worker Act, is a replacement for HR2377). Farmers argue that they need to test a pilot noncertification alternative to the H-2A program because of (1) local labor shortages and (2) the "inflexibility" of the H-2A program. Under HR3410, up to 20,000 nonimmigrant workers could be admitted at the request of US farmers each year for two years to fill vacant jobs. The workers could stay in the US for up to ten months each year; the families of H-2C workers could not join them in the US. To encourage the H-2C workers to return to Mexico or other countries of origin, 25 percent of their wages would be deducted and repaid only in the country of origin if the worker appears in person. Farmers would initiate admissions and employment by filing a one-page attestation form with their local Employment Service office that promises to pay all workers the prevailing or minimum wage, whichever is higher. The farmer would simultaneously file a request for H-2C workers with the INS and, before the H-2C workers arrive in the US, the employer would file a job order with the ES. Employers would not have to provide housing, and would be obliged to pay housing allowances to workers if that is prevailing practice in the area. The legislation would reduce the number of certain immigrant visas by 50 percent of the number of H-2C workers admitted. If all 20,000 H-2C workers are admitted as expected, the number of immigrant visas for unskilled workers would drop from 10,000 to 5,000 a year and the number of diversity visas would decrease from 55,000 to 50,000 a year. Three "Smiths" are involved in this latest push for guest workers, including Rep. Bob Smith (R-OR) who introduced HR 3410/2377, Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) who has introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S 1563, and Rep. Lamar Smith, (R-TX), chair of the House immigration subcommittee. The Clinton administration opposes the pilot guest worker program. In a March 12, 1998 letter to Lamar Smith, DOL Secretary Alexis Herman said "the Administration strongly opposes enactment of HR 3410" and that, if enacted, Herman "would recommend that [Clinton] veto the bill." Unions and their allies argued that the pilot program marks a return to the discredited Bracero program, which involved "incredible corruption on the Mexican side and incredible exploitation on the U.S. side." Most newspaper editorials called on Congress to implement the GAO recommendations to modify the H-2A program rather than to launch a new pilot guest worker program for agriculture. Growers countered that they need the pilot guest worker program as an insurance policy in the event that the INS develops effective plans that prevent workers who present false documents from being hired. Farm worker advocates argue that guest workers are not needed and that three federal commissions have reached this conclusion. http://www.crlaf.org/gworkers.htm As farmers press their case for a pilot guest worker program modeled on the H-1B program, the UFW is calling for a second amnesty for unauthorized farm workers. For example, Dolores Huerta said in February 1998: "If they (farmers) actually need people, give them (unauthorized workers) full immigration rights so they do not have the constant fear of deportation when they are here as undocumented workers." H-2A. The Labor Department's inspector general issued a report on April 1, 1998 that concluded that the H-2A program was ineffective. DOL certified that 18,000 US farm jobs should be filled by H-2A workers in 1996, i.e., US farmers were unable to find US workers for these jobs despite recruitment at DOL-set wages. The H-2 program through which farmers can request nonimmigrant farm workers was streamlined and restructured into the H-2A program by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. In April 1998, the US Department of Labor's inspector general found that the H-2A program was ineffective, in part because of continued illegal immigration: the IG criticized the H-2A program for its "extensive administrative requirements, paperwork and regulations that often seem dissociated with DOL's mandate of providing assurance that American workers' jobs are protected." The IG report concludes: "We found the H-2A certification process administered by the Employment and Training Administration to be ineffective," largely because DOL-funded State Employment Security Agencies (SESAs) were able to find US workers to fill only two percent of the jobs for which H-2A workers were requested in 1996 despite a surplus of farm workers. The report recommended that DOL shift enforcement funds from ETA to the Employment Standards Administration. The Department of Labor published the 1998 AEWR for H-2A workers February 18, 1998 in the Federal Register (Vol. 63, p. 8218). The California AEWR for 1998 is $6.87, up five percent from $6.53 in 1997, and the AEWR for Washington and Oregon is $7.08, up three percent from $6.87. The push for a new guest worker program to hold down labor costs led at least one newspaper columnist to review the case for reparations for slavery in the US. In 1860, US slaves hand-picked two-thirds of the world's cotton, and economy of the southern US was the fourth largest in the world. Cotton was the raw ingredient for many of the textile and garment factories in the northern US, so that, by one estimate, one-sixth of the private assets in the 1860 economy was the value of slaves--$17 billion in 1983 dollars. Sun-Glo of Idaho, which packs fresh potatoes before shipping them to retail markets, became the first Idaho potato packing shed to be certified to hire 91 nonimmigrant H-2B workers at the prevailing wage of $5.60 an hour. Sun-Glo is not required to provide housing for the H-2B workers and said that it is not sure if it will locate housing for them. Six potato sheds have applied for 500 H-2Bs; there are about 3,500 workers employed in Idaho potato packing sheds. In 1997, the INS inspected 19 warehouses and removed 300 unauthorized workers. Kevin Galvin, "Inspector general's report finds guest worker program ineffective," AP, April 1, 1998. Marcus Stern, "Lobbying on guest workers bears fruit," San Diego Union Tribune, March 10, 1998. U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General. 1998. Consolidation of Labor's Enforcement Responsibilities for the H-2A Program Could Better Protect U.S. Agricultural Workers. Report Number: 04-98-004-03-321. March 31 INS: Enforcement, Green Cards (posted 4/23/98) The INS will have 8,000 Border Patrol agents by the end of 1998, double the 4,000 in 1993, and 1,000 more than in 1997. INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said that the INS has achieved control over illegal entries in the San Diego sector, so that two-thirds of the 1,000 agents to be added in 1998 will be sent to Texas and New Mexico. About 284,000 foreigners were apprehended in the San Diego sector in 1997, down from 532,000 in 1993. Meanwhile, in the second California INS sector, El Centro, apprehensions rose from 30,100 in 1993 to 146,200 in 1997. The INS argues that since the drop in San Diego exceeded the increase in El Centro, illegal immigration into California has declined. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) countered that the US needs 20,000 Border Patrol agents and a triple fence along the entire Mexico-US border to control illegal immigration. The INS is constructing an "electronic wall" to augment the steel fences and Border Patrol agents in place along the Mexico-US border. Cameras and heat sensors are mounted on 60-foot high platforms and underground sensors detect entrants, whom Border Patrol agents can then apprehend. The Justice Department Inspector General criticized the INS for not using its IDENT system effectively, saying that, in many cases, fingerprints and photos were not entered into the data base or the data base was not checked. The INS countered that the analysis was old: the IDENT system is now in place in all Border Patrol stations on the Mexico-US border. The IDENT system electronically fingerprints and photographs all persons apprehended at the border. The United States Attorney for the district covering the California stretch of the border, Alan Bersin, was appointed superintendent of the San Diego school system in March. A third of the system's 137,000 pupils are Hispanic, and several Hispanic groups opposed the selection of Bersin because of his role in fighting illegal immigration. On March 12, 1998, seven INS employees and 26 others were charged with selling fraudulent immigration papers for more than $100,000 in bribes, the third "greenbacks-for-green-cards" case in recent years. In March, four southern California men were arrested and charged with planning to kill illegal immigrants attempting to enter the US. The alleged ringleader of "Operation Run for the Border" is a reserve police officer; he said he knew nothing of plans to engage in private border enforcement activities. Green Cards. The INS plans to issue more fraud-resistant green cards. The new cards, off-white with a green stripe, has the holder's photograph, date of birth and signature embedded into it. A machine that makes the new green cards is reportedly not functioning properly, delaying the issuance of new cards for thousands of immigrants. Until the machine is fixed, immigrants will receive only a stamp in their passports, which some employers are reluctant to accept because of the ease with which the INS stamp can be forged. The new green card will include secret security features and holograms in an effort to thwart the now-widespread counterfeiting. The new green cards will be given to new immigrants and to current holders as they turn in expiring documents. The INS annually issues about three million green cards, work authorization permits, border crossing cards and other such documents. Organization. The Clinton administration requested $4.2 billion for the INS in FY99, up from $3.8 billion in FY98, and $1.6 billion in FY94. Beginning March 29, 1998, all applicants for immigration benefits must be fingerprinted by the INS and pay a $25 fee for the service. In March 1998, the INS unveiled a reorganization plan that would split the INS into separate enforcement and benefits sub-agencies. Under the proposed reorganization, the INS would have three parts: one for enforcement, one for benefits and a support services unit that would provide databases and technology to both benefits and enforcement agencies. The INS currently has 33 districts and each INS district director has a great deal of authority for both enforcement and benefits such as naturalization. Under the proposed reorganization, a smaller number of INS districts would be created, and each would have separate directors for enforcement and benefits. Current district directors oppose the reorganization. The Commission on Immigration Reform in 1997 proposed a reorganization that would make the INS an enforcement agency and shift the granting of immigration benefits such as naturalization to the State Department. The chair of the House appropriations subcommittee favors the CIR's breakup proposal over the INS's reorganization. Jodi Wilgoren, "Skeptical Panel Hears INS Chief Vow Reform," Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1998. William Branigin, "INS Offers Reorganization Plan," Washington Post, March 26, 1998. Patrick McDonnell, "More Fraud-Proof 'Green Card' Due Soon, INS Says," Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1998. Workers Compensation, Safety, (posted 4/23/98) COA 1992 Data. In new report published by the USDA, Jack Runyan examined data from the 1992 Census of Agriculture that asked farm operators if there were any injuries on their farms in 1992. In 1992, there were 673 work-related fatalities and 64,800 farm-related injuries. Hired farm workers were victims of about two-thirds of the injuries and one-third of the fatalities. In 1992, 693,000 US farms reported expenditures to hired farm labor and 18,000, or three percent, reported that farm workers suffered injuries during the year on their farms. States. Idaho required farm employers to provide workers compensation for farm workers in 1996, but also required that the previous 12 months wages be divided by 50 to determine average weekly earnings, which in turn determines workers compensation benefits. This means that the two-thirds of Idaho's 34,000 seasonal farm workers can have very low average weekly earnings. In 1997, some 270 farm workers in Idaho requested workers compensation payments for on-the-job injuries, including 26 whose average weekly earnings were determined to be less than $50. In California, tractors must have drivers. Between 1990 and 1997, Cal-OSHA issued 92 citations to growers for having driverless tractors and levied penalties of $117,000 that were reduced to $13,000. Vegetable growers would like to obtain a variance from the tractor driver rule for slow-moving tractors that pull conveyor belts on which workers put harvested produce. UC Davis agricultural engineers have worked with several nurseries to develop tools that help nursery workers avoid injuries while moving plants in containers. For more information: www.engr.ucdavis.edu/~ergo/ "Driverless tractors," Fresno Bee, February 8, 1998. Warren Cornwall, "A question of compensation - Seasonal workers feel pain of workers' insurance program," Post Register, January 18, 1998. Runyan, Jack L. 1998. Injuries and Fatalities on U.S. Farms. Washington. USDA. Economic Research Service. AIB-739. January. contact: jrunyan@econ.ag.gov Unions: US, Global US. In January 1998, the US Department of Labor reported that, based on CPS data, there were 16.1 million union members among 114.5 million wage and salary workers in 1997--14 percent of wage and salary workers were union members. By race and ethnicity, 13 million union members were whites, 2.4 million were Black and 1.4 million were Hispanic. Unions represented 18 million workers; not all workers covered by collective bargaining agreements are union members. Those with farming occupations, and wage and salary workers employed in agriculture, had some of the lowest rates of unionization. According to the CPS, 88,000, under five percent of the 1.9 million workers with farming occupations, were union members; union members with farming occupations earned a median $505 a week, about 70 percent more than the median $290 earned by non-union workers, and the largest union premium in the data. About 36,000, or two percent of the 1.7 million wage and salary workers employed in agriculture, were union members. In February 1998, there were 19 initiatives on the ballots of 15 states that would curb the ability of US unions to use members dues payments for political activities. On June 2, 1998, California voters will vote on Proposition 226, an initiative that, effective July 1, 1998, would require unions to obtain permission each year to use member payments for political activities. The AFL-CIO and member unions receive about $60 million a year in fees from an affinity credit card. Global. The ILO estimates that one-fourth of the world's 1.3 billion nonfarm workers are union members; an additional 1.3 billion workers are employed in agriculture. There were 164 million union members in the 92 countries surveyed by the International Labor Organization in 1995. In 14 countries, more than half of all workers were in the labor force; in 70 countries, union membership fell between 1985 and 1995 due to declines in public sector employment, globalization and deregulation, and changes in government. For example, some of the sharpest declines in union membership occurred in Eastern Europe. US and California: Earnings, ALRB, (posted 4/23/98) Hourly Earnings. USDA's NASS reported that 800,000 hired workers were employed on US farms during the second week of January 1998. About one-sixth were brought to farms by intermediaries such as farm labor contractors. About 80 percent of the 660,000 workers hired directly by farmers were year round, which means that employers expected to employ them for 150 or more days. All directly hired workers had average hourly earnings of $7.60, even though both field and livestock earnings averaged about $7 an hour. The reason why all directly hired workers have average hourly earnings that are almost 10 percent higher than field and livestock workers is because about 20 percent of directly hired workers are supervisory and other workers, and their wages are much higher than those of field and livestock workers. For example, in April 1996, supervisors hourly earnings were $10.62 compared to $6.28 for field and livestock. On March 1, 1998, California's minimum wage rose to $5.75 an hour; the federal minimum wage has been $5.15 an hour since September 1, 1997. California's minimum wage was $4.25 an hour in September 1996, so that the minimum wage has increased by $1.50 an hour, or 35 percent in 15 months. The California Industrial Welfare Commission voted to end daily overtime in 1997 and was defunded by the Legislature. On January 1, 1998, most nonfarm employers were no longer required to pay 1.5 times the normal wage after eight hours a day, or two times normal pay after 12 hours a day. The eight million California workers subject to the overtime repeal are still entitled to 1.5 times their usual wage after 40 hours of work per week under federal law. The Wall Street Journal on March 4, 1998 reported that the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration has reduced its inspections of farm operations from almost 600 in 1994 to 300 in 1996, and fewer than 200 in 1997. The number of citations issued fell from 750 in 1994 to 460 in 1996, and 250 in 1997. About half of the inspections show that farms are in full compliance. Driscoll Strawberry Associates Inc. has begun a private audit program to ensure that the growers who produce berries for Driscoll are in compliance with state labor laws. Democrats attacked an Assembly bill, AB 2399, that would have required FLCs to pass a course to obtain or renew a license; Democrats wanted both the FLC and the grower to be jointly liable for FLC violations. Under current law, FLC pay $350 to obtain or renew a FLC license. ALRB. The ALRB continued to discuss changes in its regulations, especially the 1975 access rule, which permits union organizers to have access for up to three hours a day for four-30 day periods a year to the farm workers on a farm. Many of the cases decided by the ALRB in 1997 involved employer charges that union organizers abused their access privileges. Employers would like the ALRB to adopt regulations that parallel those of the NRLB. The NLRB presumes that union organizers can find off-work sites to discuss the benefits of unions with workers and grants work place access to union organizers only after the union petitions the NLRB and demonstrates that it has no other means of communicating with workers, as on a ship or in a logging camp. Marc Lifscher, "California's Farms Face Pressure To Improve Sanitary Conditions," Wall Street Journal, March 4, 1998. Susan Duerksen, "Food safety a priority for border health plan," San Diego Union-Tribune, February 7, 1998. Washington/Oregon: Teamsters Lose, Housing Apple packinghouse workers voted against Teamster representation at Stemilt Growers Inc. by a 290-205 vote and workers at Washington Fruit and Produce voted against the Teamsters 161-121. The Teamsters had nine organizers in Wenatchee and Yakima during the campaign. Both companies hired anti-union consultants; Stemilt reportedly spent $300,000 to hire Steve Highfill's Ag-Relate of Salinas, California to run an anti-union campaign. The Washington Growers League coordinated a $100,000 effort to monitor union activity and to be "prepared to respond on behalf of the industry to actions by the Teamsters and the United Farm Workers unions." The Teamsters filed 20 charges against the companies, alleging that they interfered with the workers' free choice by threatening that, if the union won, the INS would be brought in to check documentation. As a result of one complaint, Stemilt was forced to rehire six workers it fired and provide them nearly $20,000 in back pay. In the run-up to the January 1998 vote at Stemilt Growers Inc., owner Bob Mathison was quoted in the Seattle Times on January 4, 1998 as saying: "We are blessed with a bountiful labor supply. If there is something we want done, we throw bodies at it and they cost $7.50 an hour...You saw those people turning apples in the same direction? If we have to pay $ 12 an hour, those people are gone," replaced by apple-sorting machines. Japan and several other industrial countries have highly automated apple packinghouses.There are about 15,000 workers employed in 120 apple warehouses in Washington, and 30,000 to 35,000 apple harvesters. A Washington Grower's League survey of the state's 100 apple packing warehouses found that the average hourly wage was $7.50 in 1997. Most apple growers pay a piecerate wage of $11 per 1,000-pound bin, or about one cent per pound of apples picked. Fears of labor shortages in 1997 proved groundless-a few growers raised piecerates to $13 a bin near the end of the season. Washington produces about half of US apples, and exports about one-third of its apples. The UFW made its first pension payments to Washington farm workers, paying $200 a month to a 66-year old woman who retired from Chateau Ste. Michelle winery. Housing. Washington for the fifth year debated temporary housing for migrant workers. Farm-worker advocates have agreed to accept tent-housing for migrant cherry and other short season workers if Washington will spend at least $2 million on additional permanent housing for farm workers through the state Housing Trust Fund. In 1997, a bill to permit tent housing was approved by the Legislature, but vetoed by the governor. Washington's Health Department estimates more than half of the farm workers in Washington -- 37,700 of the 62,300 who pick cherries, apples and other crops each year on about 1,000 farms-are without suitable shelter. Some sleep in their cars or in squatter camps along riverbanks. Oregon. US Department of Labor ended a year-long investigation of labor practices in the nursery industry after 60 inspections failed to find significant violations of FLSA and MSPA. According to DOL, most Oregon nurseries pay more than the minimum wage and many offer health insurance and bonuses.DOL reportedly has 48 agents checking out labor practices in vineyard pruning crews in January and February 1998. Jonathan Martin, "Migrant housing plan outlawed," Spokesman-Review, January 14, 1998. Rick Steigmeyer, "Stemilt workers reject Teamsters," Wenatchee World, January 9, 1998. Lynda Mapes, "Its high noon in campaign to unionize apple workers," Seattle Times, January 4, 1998 UFW: Contracts, CRLA Contracts. The UFW signed 17 contracts with California growers between 1994 and 1997. In December 1997, the UFW signed its first agreement with L.E. Cooke Co., a Visalia-based firm that supplies rose, flower and tree fruit plants to growers across California. L.E. Cooke employs about 100 year-round workers and 150 seasonal workers. The UFW now represents a majority of the Central Valley's rose workers. In November 1997, the UFW signed an agreement with table grape grower Nash de Camp Farms in Visalia, California, the first contract since the UFW's previous 1981-84 contract expired. The UFW won an election at Nash de Camp in 1977; Nash de Camp has about 240 employees. The new contract raises wages by five percent and adds Nash de Camp workers to the UFW's pension plan. It also permits Nash de Camp the use of farm labor contractors to secure workers, and retains the company's health insurance rather than shifting workers to the UFW-run RFK plan. Nash DeCamp is a sister operation of Minneapolis-based grocery store operator Nash-Finch. On January 1, 1997, the UFW signed a two-year agreement covering 40 to 60 tractor drivers and irrigators employed by Oceanview Produce Co., a Ventura County subsidiary of Dole Food. The agreement also settled an unfair labor practice complaint, with Dole paying $246,000 to 200 displaced celery workers. The UFW was certified as the bargaining agent for Oceanview workers in 1994. There was a decertification vote at Oceanview on February 3, 1998 among the 40 to 60 workers covered by the agreement. The UFW asked the ALRB not to count the ballots, alleging that Oceanview "instigated, supported and financed the decertification campaign." Dole Food, with 1997 revenue of $4.3 billion, is the largest US producer and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables. The ALRB delayed a decertification election at Scheid Vineyards after the UFW charged that Scheid had added anti-union employees to influence the outcome. The decertification vote was reportedly prompted by worker dissatisfaction with the UFW's RFK health insurance program. The UFW held a protest in Modesto on December 31, 1997, bringing to 14 the number of cities in which the UFW protested what it called the slowness of E.&J. Gallo to negotiate a contract for 300 farm workers in its Sonoma County vineyards. The UFW won a July 1994 election to represent Gallo farm workers in Sonoma. There are reports that BCI is planning to stop growing lettuce and harvesting it with workers hired directly and switch to obtaining lettuce from growers who produce lettuce for BCI. It is not clear what such a switch would mean to the five-year contract signed between the UFW and BCI in May 1996. Teamsters 890 has about 4,650 members who fill an average 2,000 field worker jobs at Bud, 300 field jobs with other growers and 250 equipment operators and mechanics. Strawberries. On March 28, 1998, the UFW led a march in New York City protesting poor working conditions for the women whom the UFW says are half of the strawberry workers. On March 29, some 1,000 marchers in Los Angeles joined a march to commemorate Chavez's birthday, March 31, 1927. Chavez died in April 1993. The rallies featured denunciations of wages and working conditions for strawberry workers. In response, Driscoll Strawberry Associates called on the UFW to demand secret ballot elections to determine if strawberry workers wanted to be represented by the UFW. Dolores Huerta, 67, was profiled in a February 22, 1998 Chicago Tribune article. According to Huerta, Cesar Chavez wanted the 1966 grape boycott to be a potato boycott. CRLA. James D. Lorenz Jr., founder of California Rural Legal Assistance in 1966, has filed several suits against the UFW in recent years, charging (in a case later dismissed) that the UFW sexually exploited its female organizers and helped mushroom workers in Santa Cruz county protest the UFW's RFK health insurance plan. Lorenz plans to file a case charging that the UFW did not pay overtime wages to its organizers involved in the strawberry campaign. Lorenz headed the state's Employment Development Department in 1974, moved to Washington DC to work for Ralph Nader, and then returned to Berkeley and to the CRLA Foundation. According to newspaper reports, his companion, Guadalupe Lucio, a former radio reporter who turned against the UFW, helped Lorenz find Salinas-area clients dissatisfied with the UFW. Mexico Office. At the suggestion of the Michoacan governor, the UFW has requested Mexican government permission to open an office in Michoacan to serve farm workers while they are in Mexico during the winter months. If approved, the UFW would be the first foreign union with an office in Mexico. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney visited Mexico in January 1998, the first visit by a US labor leader since 1924. Sweeney met with several leaders of independent unions and discussed possible cooperation to organize Mexican workers in the US. The Mexican government is discouraging US union ties with non-Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) unions. Filipino Farm Workers. October 1997 was Filipino American History Month, which prompted several stories on the "forgotten legacy" of Filipino farm workers in California. In 1965, some 1,500 Filipino grape pickers in the AFL-CIO-affiliated Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee went on strike in Delano and Cesar Chavez's National Farm Workers Association joined the strike 11 days later. Most historians say that Filipinos were squeezed out of Chavez's union. Historian Alex Fabros of San Francisco State says that "Filipinos were marginalized and never given true power within the [UFW] union." Filipinos Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz resigned from the UFW, but Peter Velasco remained secretary-treasurer until his retirement in 1988. In 1973, UFW volunteers built the 60-unit Agbayani Village in Delano for retired Filipino farm workers. Most were single-Filipino men outnumbered women 14 to 1. In 1997, the last Filipino resident who participated in the 1965 strike died. In his autobiography, Philip Vera Cruz, a former UFW officer, decried California's anti-miscegenation laws that prevented Filipinos from marrying whites and restrictive immigration laws that prevented them from bringing in Filipina brides. Teresa Puente, "Dolores Huerta," Chicago Tribune, February 22, 1998. Jess Bravin and Julio Laboy, "Onetime Labor Activist Is Now Taking On UFW," Wall Street Journal, February 4, 1998. Edwin Garcia, "UFW aims to open an office in Mexico," San Jose Mercury News, January 9, 1997. Emelyn Cruz, "Paving the way for UFW; Filipinos began historic grape strike of 1965; Cesar Chavez joined them 11 days later," San Francisco Examiner, October 19, 1997 President Clinton proposed an additional $4 million for DOL to hire 36 new investigators to enforce child labor laws, calling child labor "the most intolerable labor practice of all." On March 23, a report by the General Accounting Office on child labor in agriculture was released at a child labor forum in San Francisco. The GAO estimated that 155,000 children aged 15 to 17 years old may be working in US agriculture. The report noted that "Children working in agriculture are legally permitted to work at younger ages, in more hazardous occupations and for longer periods of time than their peers in other industries." On January 17, a Global March Against Child Labor began on five continents. After crossing 92 countries, the marchers are expected to converge in Geneva, Switzerland at the annual meeting of the International Labor Organization in June 1998; the International Labor Organization is considering a new convention on child labor. Activists estimate that 250 million underage children (under 14 or 16) may be employed worldwide, making them about 10 percent of the world's labor force. Forty-one percent of the underage children work in Africa, followed by 21 percent in Asia, and 17 percent in Latin America. For more information: children@globalmarch-us.org President Clinton proposed an increase of $50 million to the $305 million budget for the Migrant Education program for FY99. The Migrant Head Start program served 24,000 children in 41 states aged infant to five in 1997. Most MHS classes have a ratio of one teacher for 16 children; teachers earn an average $11,000 for usually seasonal jobs and there is high turnover. Many states appropriated federal, state, and local funds to 402 programs to provide jobs for farm workers displaced by El Nino storms, and to clean up. La Cooperativa distributed $2.5 million in federal funds to 402 programs in California in 1998, creating jobs for 200 to 400 displaced farm workers that pay $9.60 an hour, up to a maximum 1,040 hours. In 1997, La Cooperativa estimates that $17 million was spent to hire 2,100 farm workers for clean up projects. The Environmental Working Group claims that one million US children aged five and younger are exposed to unsafe levels of pesticide residues in fruits, vegetables and commercial baby food. The residues come from organophosphates, used to control insects. By August 1999, the EPA must decide whether to set new standards for organophosphate use. Tracy Correa, "Valley farm industry awaits child-labor news," Fresno Bee, March 21, 1998. Cecilia Balli, "1 Million Children at Risk to Pesticides, Study Finds," Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1998. Florida: Tomatoes, Citrus (posted 4/22/98) There are an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 tomato harvesters in the Immokalee area, and six of them began a hunger strike on December 20, 1997 to pressure nine tomato growers-Barfield Farms, B&D Farms, Bonita Tomato Growers, Nobles Farms, Red Star Farms, Immokalee Tomato Growers, Pacific Land Co., Seminole Farms, and Six L's Farms-to raise the piecerate wage for picking tomatoes. Pickers said they were paid $0.40 for each 32-pound bucket of green tomatoes, or about $0.01 a pound of tomatoes picked. Grower prices fluctuate, and were about $0.36 a pound in December 1997, while retail tomato prices were $1.50 to $2 a pound. On January 18, 1998, the final three workers ended their 30-day hunger strike after receiving a letter from ex-President Carter, who promised to mediate direct talks between workers and tomato growers. However, growers rejected mediation, and there were no talks mediated by Carter. The highest-revenue vegetable growers in Florida, A. Duda & Sons Inc. and Dimare-Homestead, were not targeted by the hunger strikers. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers said that many workers can earn $50 to $100 a day when the weather is good and their are lots of tomatoes, but that intermittent and seasonal work limits most workers to about $9,000 a year. The Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association countered that pickers average $8 an hour at current piecerates. Gargiulo Inc. agreed to increase the piecerate by $0.05 in 1997, and another $0.05 in November 1998, bringing the piecerate to $0.50 in November 1998. The Department of Labor in 1981 reported that the piecerate was $0.40 a bucket. Migrant advocates say that a 1977 strike raised the piecerate wage from $0.35 to $0.40. The piecerate peaked at $0.45 a bucket in 1987, and has since fallen to $0.40. A worker employed by B&D Farms reportedly received $0.40 a bucket and $52 for picking 140 buckets in six hours. However, he was working, traveling to the fields or waiting for rain to end for a total 12 hours. The best pickers average 100 to 150 buckets a day for daily earnings of $40 to $60, while women and older workers often pick 70 to 80 buckets, for about $28 a day. All pickers are guaranteed the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. California tomato growers generally pay higher piecerate wages to tomato harvesters. The UFW contract with California tomato grower Meyer Tomatoes includes a piecerate wage of $0.50 a 25-pound bucket, equivalent to $0.64 per 32-pound bucket used in Immokalee; Meyer is moving some of its operation to Mexico. The non-union piecerate is $0.45 to $0.48 a bucket. One local ex-grower, Johnny Goodnight, said: "Why should the growers talk to these people when they have all the labor they need to get the tomatoes picked?... There are more pickers than there are jobs and the people keep on coming... It's a hundred times better than where they came from... Picking tomatoes has always been a job for people with no skills. It's a stepping stone to climb the economic ladder." Goodnight said that he employed an average 60 pickers a day during the harvest season, but issued 4,500 W-2 statements each year, indicating extremely high worker turnover. Immokalee is a city of 14,000 in southwest Florida (some put the population at 20,000), about 40 miles east of Naples and 25 miles southeast of Fort Myers, and most farm workers live in private housing, which can be very expensive-mobile homes often rent for $1,000 a month or more. Immokalee has one of the nation's last day-labor markets; 46 percent of residents have incomes below the poverty line. Every morning, several thousand workers mill around crew leader buses that congregate in a parking lot next to the Pantry Shelf grocery, and the buses leave for the fields at about 7 am. Tomatoes are picked while green, taken to one of Immokalee's three packing houses, sorted and packed into 25-pound cartons, and then gassed to turn them red before being shipped to retailers. Nearby Naples has Florida's highest median income, $51,300 in 1997, while Immokalee's median income was $7,000. About 46 percent of Immokalee residents have below-poverty level incomes. In a 1994 application for federal funds, the city said that the local "economic system - highly labor intensive, seasonal and able to pay only at the low end of the wage scale - has created more people than jobs over the last 20 years." Florida tomato growers planted about 12,000 acres of tomatoes for harvest in 1998, up about 10 percent from 1996. Collier county tomato sales have been declining-they were $208 million in 1992-93 and $79 million in 1995-96. The farms targeted by the hunger strikers include the third-largest vegetable grower in Florida, Pacific Tomato Growers Ltd., owner of the 17,200-acre Pacific Land Co., a $100 million a year sales operation. Six L's Packing Co. is the fourth largest vegetable grower, with 13,600 acres and sales of $74 million in 1996. Florida tomato sales in 1996 were $440 million, down from a peak $728 million in 1992. Oranges. Florida produces most US oranges and expects a record 255 million 90-pound boxes to be harvested in 1997-98; about 95 percent are processed into orange juice. Florida has about 775,000 acres of oranges, which yield 300 to 400 boxes of oranges an acre. California expects to produce 45 million 75-pound boxes of oranges in 1997-98; most will be sold in the fresh market. Florida growers receive $5 to $6 per box of oranges, or $0.05 to $0.06 a pound, and workers typically receive about $0.75 for each box picked and dumped into a plastic field bin, or less than $0.01 a pound. Workers climb trees that are up to six meters high, hand pick each orange and place the orange into a picking sack. Most harvesters are assembled by labor contractors into crews of 20. Most crews work for seven to eight hours each day. Supervision and payroll taxes are covered by the contractor's 30 percent overhead. Harvest labor, contractor fees, plus the cost of dumping the bins into trucks, brings the total cost of hand harvesting to about $1.50 a box. There are a peak 40,000 to 45,000 hand harvesters employed in Florida citrus, and the average worker picks about nine 90-pound boxes an hour. The labor force has been transformed from Black and white US citizens in the 1970s to mostly Mexican-born men in the US without their families in the 1990s. Efforts to develop harvesting aids such as people positioners are not considered cost effective. Instead of labor aids, most experts believe that, in the long run, oranges that will be processed into juice will be removed mechanically from trees, as are most nuts and some tree fruits such as canning peaches. In the meantime, there are seven different approaches to removing oranges from trees that are being tested. These approaches range from having workers drop fruit as it is picked on the ground, and then using pickup machines to collect the fruit off the ground to using machines that grasp the trunk of each tree and shake the fruit off into a catching canopy. A mechanical citrus harvester developed by Blueberry Equipment, Inc. is said to reduce harvesting costs to about $0.50 for each 90-pound box. The machine has nylon rods attached to 12-foot diameter rotating drums that are raised into the tree, shaking loose the fruit. The Florida citrus industry is moving south, away from Orange and Lake counties, areas rapidly being urbanized as the Orlando area expands, and toward the southwestern part of the state, where there are fewer freezes. The industry is being transformed as well, from one that included large numbers of growers each with 50 to 250 acres, to an industry in which 1,000-to 10,000-acre groves are common. Housing. The Pasco County Housing Authority reportedly cannot find enough farm-worker tenants in the 102-unit Cypress Farms complex, built with U.S. Rural and Economic Development Agency funds formerly known as the Farmers Home Administration. Over 10 percent of the units were vacant in February 1998. Eligible farm-worker tenants must be legally resident in the US and obtain at least 51 percent of their annual income from working in agriculture. According to the manager, 60 percent of those who apply to be tenants cannot prove they are legally in the US. The 570 workers and their families who live in the government-subsidized Farm Worker Village had average household incomes of $16,400 in 1997. Sugar cane. The sugar harvest in south central Florida was mechanized in the early 1990s. In the 1930s, Eleanor Roosevelt decried working conditions-bending at the waist, using a machete, and dealing with heat, mosquitoes and snakes. In 1991, about 8,000 Caribbean workers were imported for five months each year to hand-cut sugar cane in Florida; 4,500 worked for Flo-Sun Inc. Lawyers for the workers accused the growers of underreporting hours worked so that H-2A workers would earn the required AEWR of $6 an hour in 1991. Most cane cutters were from Jamaica and most earned about $4,000 for five months of US work. Florida-based Flo-Sun Inc. (owner of Okeelanta) continues to hand-cut sugar cane using Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic. Its camps, or bateys, are considered model operations compared to the government-run camps, which are sometimes described as slave-like. In 1991, the piecerate in the Dominican Republic was reported to be $1.50 a ton, and average worker productivity was reported to be two to three tons a day. In 1991, the Flo-Sun Inc. corporation owned by the Fanjul family reportedly farmed 240,000 acres in the Dominican Republic, and 160,000 acres in Florida, making them suppliers of 15 percent of US sugar, and giving the family a net worth of $500 million. The Wall Street Journal detailed the Fanjuls propensity to make political gifts to politicians in both the US and the Dominican Republic. Al French, the USDA labor coordinator who once worked for the Management Research Institute headed by a Fanjul, was quoted as saying that sugar cane was excluded from the list of perishable commodities when IRCA's SAW program was implemented because "the argument was made that if these workers became legalized and could go any place, they'd leave." Florida Rural Legal Services, Inc. is headquartered in Lakeland, Florida, and has six branch offices. It received $2.5 million from the Legal Services Corporation in FY96 and employed 16 attorneys, 17 paralegals and 29 other staff. On February 26, the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project in Belle Glade called for the removal of the Florida Agriculture Department as the lead agency enforcing federal farm-worker safety laws. The MFJP claims that the state agency has failed to investigate vigorously complaints of pesticide exposure and failed to impose penalties stiff enough to deter violators. Mireya Navarro, "Florida Tomato Pickers Take on Growers," New York Times, February 1, 1998. Gina Edwards and Jill Higgins, "Hunger strike ends: Workers halt protest; Jimmy Carter urges tomato growers to talk," Naples Daily News, January 19, 1998. Donald P. Baker, "Florida Farm Workers Fast for Better Wages," Washington Post, January 13, 1998. Gina Edwards, "Gauging of wages is a growing complexity," Naples Daily News, January 10, 1998. Jane Mayer and Jose de Cordoba, "First family of sugar is tough on workers, generous to politicians," Wall Street Journal, July 29, 1991. Minority Farmers (posted 4/22/98) About 1.2 million or two-thirds of US farms have annual sales of $20,000 or less, and they produce about four percent of total farm sales. However, the largest 40,000 US farms, each with annual sales of $500,000 or more, accounted for 40 percent of US farm sales in 1993. The average age of US farmers is 58. Fewer than one percent, or about 18,000, of the 1.9 million US farmers are Black, and on December 17, 1997, Black farmers told President Clinton that they had been subjected to discrimination under USDA programs. Under many USDA programs, including Farmers Home Administration loans, local committees of farmers decide on loan applications or eligibility to participate in the program. Over 1,000 Black farmers have sued USDA, seeking $1 billion in compensation. In April 1997, USDA announced a "substantial" settlement with a southern Virginia farmer who filed a discrimination complaint charging that his farm loan application was delayed because he is Black. The farmer's request for a 119,000 loan to finance a poultry house was repeatedly delayed by local USDA officials. The president of the National Black Farmers Association said that he remains angry with USDA because it will take another year to resolve the backlog of more than 500 similar discrimination complaints. A February Department of Agriculture report had set a June 6 deadline for settling all the bias complaints in USDA loan programs. The USDA says that, because the Office of Civil Rights investigative arm disbanded in 1983, the agency must start over in many of the cases. In 1997, Black farmers testified for several hours before Agriculture Secretary Glickman and several top aides at a special hearing called by Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat who heads the Congressional Black Caucus. Glickman told the assembled farmers that the biggest challenge the USDA faces is civil rights and promised to make changes. Prior to the hearing, several hundred Black farmers rallied in front of USDA, which has 90,000 employees. There are an estimated 4,000 Latino growers in California, including 500 in Watsonville. The Watsonville-area growers, most of whom grow strawberries, are trying to form a cooler-shipper to represent about 150 of them who control 750 acres of strawberries. One-third of the area's strawberry growers are Latinos. In the Fresno area, some 1,000 Southeast Asian farmers lease farm land for $300 an acre. Many sell their produce at street corner vegetable stands. Ariana Chamercury, "Immigrants alter face of state's farms," San Jose Mercury News, August 25, 1997. Michael A. Fletcher, "Black Farmer Wins Settlement From the USDA," Washington Post, April 14 1997. Pamela Stallsmith, "Class-Action Lawsuit by Farmers Ruled Out," Richmond Times Dispatch, April 5, 1997. Welfare to Work; Housing (posted 4/22/98) The Ag Labor Network brings together the major grower organizations in the Central Valley of California to coordinate the efforts of farmers and welfare and employment offices to move welfare recipients into farm jobs. Every year the EDD office in Sanger deals with 200 farm labor contractors, 40 to 50 growers, and 30,000 farm workers. The Fresno Adult School is exploring placements in agriculture, but notes that "one of our concerns is how agriculture can be viable employment with a livable wage." Participants in a December 1997 welfare-to-work summit in Fresno repeatedly pointed out that there were no farm labor shortages, only the threat of farm labor shortages if the INS begins preventing workers with false documents from finding jobs. Rep Calvin Dooley (D-CA) said: "There's no significant shortage in the San Joaquin Valley. No jobs are going unfilled, no crops unpicked because of labor shortages." Farmers counter that the pilot guest worker program they are pushing in Congress is an insurance program, to be used if the INS does begin effective enforcement, and if welfare-to-work programs fail to deliver reliable workers. The removal of an individual from the welfare rolls does not, in itself, end his or her poverty. Moving welfare recipients into entry-level jobs may increase the number of working poor. Most employers of ex-welfare recipients are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, a maximum 35 percent of the first $10,000 of earnings in the first year of employment after receiving cash welfare (AFDC or TANF) payments for 18 months and 50 percent of the first $10,000 in earnings in the second year of employment, for a maximum $8,500 tax credit for employers. Ex-welfare recipients disclose their welfare history on Department of Labor Form ETA 9061, and then the employer claims the credit on IRS Forms 8850 and 8861. Helping the working poor move up the job ladder should open up jobs for ex-welfare recipients. However, as the ranks of the working poor swell, there may be pressure to do more to assist them, such as providing them and their children with health insurance. At a November 1997 agribusiness conference, Bank of America economist Vernon Crowder said that water and labor, not urbanization, were the major "concerns for agriculture." According to Crowder, "There is a political trend limiting the number of migrant laborers allowed in California." Housing. A $3.4 million state grant financed the construction of the new 62-unit Atwater Migrant Housing Center in Atwater, California. The state will retain ownership of the buildings, but the Merced County Housing Authority will manage and maintain them. Daily rents will be $ 7.50 for a two-bedroom home, $ 8 for a three-bedroom and $ 8.50 for a four-bedroom. Many farm employers and migrant advocates complain that Not-in-My-Back-Yard attitudes prevent the construction of housing for migrant workers. In Queen Anne's County, Maryland, where there are nine migrant camps, a proposal to permit migrant camps for up to 100 workers which would be open up to 160 days a year and be built in land zoned for industrial and agricultural uses, drew loud opposition from neighbors, who worried about crime, higher school taxes and congestion. The Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1998 ran several stories on so-called Shangri-Las, resort cities, such as Vail, Colorado, Incline Village, Nevada, Sedona, Arizona or Sun Valley, Idaho, that are so expensive that most of those working in the city cannot afford to live in the city. Jobs are plentiful-many employers complain of labor shortages-but workers must either commute or hold several jobs to afford to live in the city. The major employers in these areas are building housing for some of their seasonal workers. The owners of the Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas, which have a peak winter work force of 4,500 and a trough labor force of 1,200, built apartments for some of their workers. The average annual wage in the area is $22,300, but an annual income of about $66,000 is necessary to qualify for a bank loan to buy a typical condo in the area. Most service workers sleep four or six to an apartment and pay $1,500 or more in rent. The average single-family home in Aspen, Colorado sold for $1.8 million in 1997. Poverty. A New York Times story on February 9, 1998 on Owsley County in central Kentucky, one of the poorest Appalachia counties with 5,400 residents, noted that about two-thirds of the county's residents received welfare assistance: 14 percent received cash welfare assistance, 20 percent received SSI payments, and almost 50 percent received Food Stamps. About 46 percent of residents have incomes below the poverty line, the median family income is $8,600, and a sense of pessimism and fatalism reportedly prevents most government and private anti-poverty programs from persuading people to make longer-term plans. Instead, parents reportedly encourage children to get into special education classes to get disability payments. Much of the literature on the causes of and solutions for welfare refers to Blacks, not Hispanics. William Julius Wilson, in his 1978 book "The Declining Significance of Race," for example, argued that class or economic status and not race is the decisive factor in poverty: "the life chances of individual blacks have more to do with their economic class position than with their day-to-day encounters with whites... class has become more important than race in determining black access to privilege and power. Privileged Blacks today can pass on privileges to their children." Wilson's later book, "When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor," makes a distinction between underclass Black poverty in the inner cities and the working-poor poverty that characterizes many rural immigrant towns: "A neighborhood in which people are poor but employed is different from a neighborhood in which people are poor and jobless." Wilson argues that "Many of today's problems in the inner-city neighborhoods - crime, family dissolution, welfare - are fundamentally a consequence of the disappearance of work." In most "normal" areas, 65 to 75 percent of persons over 16 are employed; in underclass areas, only 35 to 40 percent are employed. Wilson emphasizes that lack of work has many consequences, including less structuring of lives: work "constitutes a framework for daily behavior, because it imposes discipline." Wilson believes that it is lack of jobs, not the lure of welfare, that characterizes underclass areas. In the Spring 1997 Ford Foundation Report, Wilson says that "many employers prefer immigrant workers over black workers because they think that the immigrants are more dedicated, have a stronger work ethic, and are not into drugs." (Vol 28, No 2, p. 24). Wilson would like the federal government to launch a jobs program similar to the Works Progress Administration of the 1930s, where "adults with no skills, but the desire to work, get a chance to do so." Douglas Massey, author of "American Apartheid," thinks that a WPA program will not work. The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act spent $75 billion creating jobs between 1974 and 1982, and was widely seen as providing political patronage and make-work rather than skills that would make a participant more attractive to private employers. A Russell Sage study of labor markets and race in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, and Los Angeles seems to support Massey. Harry Holzer's 1996 Russell Sage book, "What Employers Want: Job Prospects for Less-Educated Workers," finds that whites are preferred to other racial and ethnic groups, Hispanics are preferred to Blacks, and that Black women are preferred to Black men, holding skills and experience constant. Some employers prefer immigrants to Blacks, and hire immigrants "even when blacks have demonstrably higher skill levels and when immigrants live further away than the local black population." Between 1940 and 1970, five million African-Americans left the rural South and moved north, but they did not re-create a dysfunctional family culture of sharecropping days, according to analysis of census data from 1940 to 1970. "Black Metropolis," a book by St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton, writing about 1940s Chicago, described "human flotsam which was tossed into the city streets by successive waves of migration from the South." Nicholas Lemann, in "The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America," noted that many Black residents initially improved their economic position in the north, and then sank again when manufacturing jobs disappeared. Bob White, "Farm Workers Get Upgraded Houses," Sacramento Bee, April 3, 1998. Michael Janofsky, "Pessimism Retains Grip on Region of Poverty," New York Times, February 9, 1998. Sanford Nax, "Fresno economist says Valley faces economic growth crisis," Fresno Bee, January 13, 1998. Judith Kohler, "Greening of the back-to-nature movement walls off Shangri-La," Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1998. Richard T. Estrada, "Threats to farms outlined," Modesto Bee, November 13, 1997. Foreign-born Residents; Shifts (posted 4/22/98) Foreign-born Residents. The US had almost 26 million foreign-born residents in 1997, and one-third of these foreign-born residents had become naturalized citizens by March 1997. About seven million, or 27 percent of the foreign-born were born in Mexico; half of the foreign-born were from the Western Hemisphere. Almost two-thirds of the foreign born arrived since 1980. By period of entry, 18 percent of the foreign born arrived before 1970, 19 percent in the 1970s, 33 percent in the 1980s, and 29 percent in the 1990s. Among foreign-born Hispanic residents, 14 percent of the foreign born arrived before 1970, 20 percent in the 1970s, 37 percent in the 1980s, and 29 percent in the 1990s. About 11 million or 44 percent of the foreign born were Hispanic, six million or 23 percent were Asian, and two million, or 8 percent, were Black. Among the foreign born aged five to 15, there were almost one million Hispanic and 850,000 non-Hispanic children. Among foreign-born Hispanics, 22 percent were naturalized US citizens in March 1997. Across the US, about 10 percent of residents were foreign-born. In five US states, the foreign-born percentage was considerably higher: California (25 percent); New York (20 percent); Florida (16 percent); New Jersey (15 percent) and Texas (11 percent). About 45 percent of US Hispanics, and 48 percent of the foreign-born Hispanics, lived in the western states. The foreign-born are concentrated at the extremes of the education distribution. About 25 percent of the foreign-born adults, and 25 percent of US-born adults, had four or more years of college (nine percent of the foreign born and eight percent of the US born had graduate or professional degrees). A surprising 11 percent-one in nine-foreign-born naturalized US citizens had graduate or professional degrees. About 35 percent of the foreign born 25 and older, and 16 percent of US born, had not completed high school in 1997. About one-fourth of all adults without high school diplomas were foreign born; 44 percent of the foreign born who were not US citizens in 1997 were not high school graduates. Among Hispanics 25 and older in 1997, 31 percent of the US born, and 57 percent of the foreign born, were not high school graduates. Among the seven million foreign-born adults without a high school diploma in the US in 1997, 21 percent arrived before 1970, 22 percent arrived in the 1970s, 36 percent arrived in the 1980s, and 20 percent arrived in the 1990s.About 27 percent of foreign-born non-US citizens had incomes below the poverty line in 1996, versus 13 percent of the US born. About 1.3 million or 5 percent of the foreign-born, and 3 percent of the US born, received public assistance in March 1997. A disproportionate share of the foreign born who arrived in the 1980s received public assistance: about 33 percent of the foreign born arrived in the 1980s and 40 percent of those receiving public assistance in 1997 arrived in the 1980s. Hispanics had lower than average incomes, but only five percent of US-born Hispanics, and six percent of foreign-born Hispanics received public assistance. However, 23 percent of US-born Hispanics and 14 percent of foreign-born Hispanics, received Food Stamps. Shifts. The US has 273 metropolitan areas, and in three of the ten fastest-growing metro areas immigration plays a critical role-McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas; Laredo, Texas, and Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, Texas. Eight of the ten largest US metro areas-Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle-have also received large numbers of immigrants. There were 2,304 counties classified as nonmetropolitan in 1993, and they gained about three million additional residents between 1990 and 1996, compared with a gain of 1.3 million between 1980 and 1989. About one-fourth, 556, of the nonmetro counties are based on farming and another fourth, 535, are considered to be in chronic poverty, such as the counties in the Mississippi delta. The third-largest group, 506, of nonmetro counties are based on manufacturing and include counties such as those in Nebraska where IBP opened new facilities, spurring population growth. Some 407 nonmetro counties are very sparsely populated, with fewer than six residents per square mile. There are 381 counties that are within commuting distance of major cities, and 242 in which the economy is dominated by government, home to military bases or prisons. Finally, there are 285 counties based on recreation, such as ski-based counties in the Rockies, and 190 based on retirement. Between 1990 and 1995, rural counties gained a net 1.6 million residents through migration, mostly due to the movement of US residents from urban to rural areas. During the 1980s, by contrast, rural counties lost 1.4 million residents through migration. Most of those moving into rural counties are non-Hispanic whites who are leaving cities that are attracting immigrants. For example, between 1990 and 1996, both the New York and Los Angeles metro areas lost 1.3 million residents through domestic migration. The rural counties to which whites are moving are over 70 percent non-Hispanic white, leading some to call domestic migration to rural counties "white flight." If the US population segregates by race, then even as the minority share of the US population rises, many US residents may live with others of the same race and ethnic group. By 2025, non-Hispanic whites are projected to be a majority of residents in four states-California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas. Hawaii and New Mexico already have a majority of their population composed of minorities. The New York Times on October 18,1997 reported that Minneapolis is attracting more poor blacks than any other northern US city. Black migration and immigration are leading to tensions in traditionally liberal and wealthy Minneapolis. Minneapolis was 88 percent non-Hispanic white in 1980, and 78 percent non-Hispanic white in 1997, but its K-12 school-aged population in 1997 is 68 percent non-white. About 70 percent of those in the county jail were born outside Minnesota. Minority residents of Minneapolis are more likely to be poor than minority residents in any other area of the US. Minnesota in 1997 enacted legislation that permits those who migrate to Minnesota and apply for welfare to collect only the level of payment they would have received in the state they came from. California: Poverty Amid Prosperity (posted 4/20/98) On March 24, 1998, about 40 people participated in a seminar at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. to discuss the policy implications of "Poverty Amid Prosperity." The three major findings of the 1995-97 workshops that examined particular commodities and communities were: (1) seasonal farm jobs are the major magnet drawing foreign workers into US rural and agricultural jobs. Most foreign workers remain in their entry-level jobs for less than ten years, so that the seasonal farm labor market is best thought of as a revolving door that attracts 200,000 to 400,000 new foreigners each year, (2) changes in rural Mexico and rural America are encouraging settlement in rural America, which makes the migrants "us" and leads to issues associated with providing public and private services to migrants and their children, (3) possible policy responses can be framed by the extremes of stopping the immigration at one end of the spectrum, to focusing on the integration of immigrants and their children at the other. In between solutions involve both more controls and continued integration assistance, as recommended by the US Commission on Immigration Reform, and proposals to require employers whose hiring decisions attract immigrants to absorb some of the integration costs. The theme running through the discussion was that the US risks the creation of a new rural poverty, transferring poor Mexicans to US agricultural areas where they have little prospect of upward mobility. In many respects, current policies tend to reinforce vicious rather than virtuous circles in the agricultural areas of the US. First, the data available suggest that immigration into the nation's major agricultural area, the San Joaquin Valley, is producing a vicious circle of more farm jobs, more immigration, and more poverty rather than the virtuous circle that would result if the creation of more farm jobs reduced poverty. During the 1980s, for example, an analysis using the Urban Institute Underclass Database found that 100 additional farm jobs are associated with 136 more immigrants, 139 more poor residents, and 79 more welfare recipients. The newly arrived immigrants did not get welfare, but their presence helped to hold down wages. Farmers often prefer newly arrived immigrants, and local residents eligible for welfare prefer benefits to seasonal work. In the San Joaquin Valley, about 50 percent of the immigrants who arrived between 1980 and 1990 were from Mexico (another 25 percent were from southeast Asia), and a combination of low earnings from seasonal employment in agriculture and large households gave Mexican immigrants who entered the US during the 1980s incomes per person of $3,700 in 1990, about the per capita income of Mexico. In other words, migration into the San Joaquin Valley might simply transfer rural Mexico poverty into rural America. Second, federal and state policies are reinforcing the path toward the worst rather than the best outcomes. For example, US border control operations have clearly raised the cost of entering the US illegally, but so far they have not significantly reduced unauthorized entries. Instead of deterring entries, higher smuggling costs seem to have encouraged more unauthorized migrants to settle in the US. As they form or unify families in the US, migrants find it difficult to obtain legal status because of three and 10 year bars due to illegal status or because their incomes are too low to sponsor their families. The result is an increase in "mixed families" in which members have legal status ranging from US citizen to unauthorized resident barred from legally re-entering the US. It will be increasingly difficult to provide public services to such mixed families, which may limit the upward mobility of immigrants and their children. The net effect of continuing unauthorized immigration despite tougher border controls, ineffective interior enforcement and mixed families are likely to be a new rural poverty that will be costly and difficult to extirpate in the 21st century, when many of the commodities and industries that today "need" a flexible migrant labor force may have been restructured as a result of changing trade, consumer taste and technology patterns. Current patterns may be analogous to importing a labor force into a mining area just before the vein of ore runs out. The Clinton administration strongly opposes the solution offered by farmers: an easy-entry guest worker program that would prevent settlement in the US by withholding 25 percent of each worker's wages. Workers would be encouraged to return, the argument goes, in order to claim these wages in person in their country of origin. Instead, the Clinton administration would like to see a serious debate over labor alternatives for the 21st century. There is a sharp contrast between the significant federal resources--$50 million-being offered to deal with the "shortage" of high-tech workers and the lack of new federal resources to deal with "shortages" of farm workers. Instead of debating alternatives, the farm guest worker debate risks becoming another in the century-long series of tests of political muscle between growers and farm worker advocates. Easy-entry guest workers would leave the revolving-door farm labor market intact and past experience suggests that at least some of the guest workers will settle in the US. The other extreme is to worry less about the number and characteristics of new arrivals and to worry more about their upward mobility in the US. It is important to remember that the industries attracting rural Mexican immigrants are often the core industries of their communities, so there is understandable local reluctance to drastic labor policy changes that might threaten the economic viability of the area's agriculture. A new vision and a new immigration and immigrant policy is needed in rural America, one that (1) acknowledges the importance of agriculture and food processing to local economies but (2) policies that recognize that the immigrants filling jobs in these local core industries are likely to settle, and that they and their children will expect to climb the US job ladder. It has proven very difficult to develop policies that lead to gradual changes in the farm labor market. Immigration and integration in the agricultural areas of the US typically goes through four phases. Phase one is the entry of solo males for seasonal farm jobs, with workers living 10 or 12 to an apartment or mobile home for three to six months, aiming to maximize remittances, and returning frequently to their homes abroad. Phase two is the shift from seasonal to year-round and usually nonfarm work in food processing, construction and services. Phase three is the settlement of spouses and children. This is the phase in which the communities notice the migration, in the sense that community concerns shifts to bilingual education and public services, and there is discussion of the responsibility of the local employer for coping with the demographic changes in the community that result from recruitment and hiring strategies. Phase four is integration and political activism by the settled immigrants. In California's San Joaquin Valley, this phase was marked by the election of Hispanics to school boards, disputes about district versus at-large voting for city councils, and the shift in emphasis as Hispanics gain political power from e.g. lowering taxes on farm land to economic development that creates good jobs. The Commission on Immigration Reform in 1997 laid out the case for federal assistance for rural communities that experience rapid demographic changes due to immigration, urging the creation of systems that would , for example, warn school systems that they were about to get large numbers of non-English speaking children and tying reimbursement for educational services to outcomes, not methods of instruction. The CIR also emphasized that US businesses, the primary beneficiaries of immigration, need to shoulder more of the cost and responsibility for integrating immigrants and their children. Many cities and towns levy impact fees on newly built housing to raise funds for the cost of the additional school children and infrastructure that will be needed by new residents. Most US farmers pay fees to trust funds to do research on improving production and to promote their commodity in the US and abroad. If the businesses attracting migrants into rural America do not voluntarily take more responsibility for integrating their migrant workers, an impact fee-assessment system could be developed to provide some of the needed integration funds. Despite the lowest US unemployment rate since 1973, high unemployment rates persist in the San Joaquin Valley. In the fourth quarter of 1997, all of the major agricultural counties had double-digit unemployment rates, producing a 2 to 1 ratio between Central Valley and statewide unemployment rates. The major San Joaquin Valley metro areas and their unemployment rates in December 1997 included: Fresno, 13.9 percent; Modesto, 11.9 percent; Bakersfield, 11.7 percent; and Stockton-Lodi, 10.7 percent. The California unemployment rate in December 1997 was 5.5 percent. Fresno county, the tenth most populous county in California, is the leading agricultural producer in the US, and the largest of the nine agricultural counties in California's San Joaquin Valley, with 779,000 residents in July 1997. Neighboring Tulare county had 358,000 residents and Madera county 114,000 residents. One reason for high unemployment rates is that the San Joaquin Valley has faster population than job growth, which lowers wages and encourages those with education to leave the valley for higher incomes elsewhere. Fresno County, for example, is expected to keep growing at a 2.9 percent annual rate through 2010, but the employment growth rate is projected to be 1.9 percent. Between 1991 and 1995, Fresno and Madera counties added 119,000 residents, but only 39,000 additional jobs. Several counties, including Fresno and Tulare, offer residents receiving welfare payments departure bonuses of up to $2,000 a family. To be eligible, current welfare recipients must move out of California to a place where they have friends or relatives. About 150 Hmong families have received payments to leave the valley. The director of the Great Valley Center in Modesto says "The Central Valley will either wind up as a contributor to the state's economic development or it will wind up as California's Appalachia." There are a variety of government programs that aim to induce employers to create jobs for poor residents in their neighborhoods. Using tax subsidies, infrastructure, or training programs, these empowerment or enterprise programs seek to steer private companies to locations that they would otherwise avoid. Experience with using government to induce development suggests that (1) the first cities to use the programs are most successful but, as more cities offer inducements, companies can play one city or state off against another, reducing overall benefits; (2) the important consideration for a firm is the balance of taxes paid and benefits received-businesses look at the taxes they must pay, but also the services they will receive; and (3) giving tax abatements to entice businesses to come into an area reduces the tax funds available to provide services in the future. In April 1998, the Border Patrol went to the Roosevelt High School in Fresno at the request of anti-gang police and detained several unauthorized students who were returned to Mexico. After protests, local police and the Border Patrol agreed that, in the future, suspected unauthorized foreigners would be taken off campus to be questioned. Robert Rodriguez, "Border Patrol vows to keep out of schools," Fresno Bee, April 7, 1998. Diane Lindquist, "Central Valley pays the needy to leave," San Diego Union Tribune, March 6, 1998. "Working toward job creation," Fresno Bee, February 19, 1998. Food Stamps - Benefits (posted 4/20/98) Congress delayed a vote on the Agriculture Research Conference report until after April 20, 1998. The bill includes $818 million over five years to restore Food Stamp benefits to 250,000 of the legal immigrants removed from the rolls in September 1997. If enacted into law, on November 1, 1998 Food Stamp benefits would be restored to: 1) refugees, who will be able to receive Food Stamps for seven years, up from five years; 2) 20,000 Hmong who are members of families that fought for the US in southeast Asia; 3) certain (Jay Treaty) cross-border Indians; and 4) legal immigrants who were 65 or older and present in the US on August 22, 1996, who are or who become disabled, and poor immigrant children who were present in the US in August 1996. Some 935,000 legal immigrants were removed from the Food Stamp rolls when provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 went into effect in September 1997. President Clinton proposed in February 1998 that $2.4 billion be spent over five years to restore Food Stamp benefits to 730,000 legal immigrants. In an analysis of 1996 Food Stamp data, USDA reported that 51 percent of recipients were children; of the households receiving Food Stamps, 60 percent contain children. The average monthly income of households receiving Food Stamps was $528, but only 22 percent of Food Stamp households reported any earned income. The number of Food Stamp recipients fell to 20 million in December 1997, down four million from December 1996. The peak number of recipients was 27 million in December 1994: http://www.usda.gov/fcs. Meat and Poultry - Immigrant Workers (posted 4/20/98) The General Accounting Office released a report in March 1998 on changes in communities in Nebraska and Iowa that had large meatpacking work forces. The GAO assembled employment, education, Medicaid and crime data for 23 counties with meatpacking plants, including 10 counties in Nebraska and 13 counties in Iowa. The GAO concluded that the demographic and economic changes due to meatpackers hiring immigrant workers had mixed effects. On the one hand, the immigrants stabilized populations in many counties that were losing residents and meatpacking counties typically had faster increases in per capita incomes and retail sales then the state as a whole. On the other hand, there were sharp increases in the number of LEP children in public school, and very high turnover among workers--18 to 83 percent a year-led teachers to complain that it was very hard for children to get the full benefits of education. Many meatpacking counties received funds from the Migrant Education program-unlike most farm worker assistance programs, ME considers eligible for services the children of workers to migrate to an area to do nonfarm food processing work, which is classified as manufacturing in US data. There were increases in the use of Medicaid, but primarily among children and elderly residents. Similarly, the familiar story of rising crime associated with the changing work force turned out to be more complex in practice. In Nebraska, the average number of serious crimes reported rose sharply between 1986-87 and 1994-95, but in Iowa, many of the counties with major meatpacking plants had fewer crimes in the mid-1990s than in the mid-1980s. There was widespread agreement that the housing market had changed as a result of the changed work force, especially for inexpensive rental housing such as mobile homes. The INS estimated that 25 percent of the meatpacking work force in Nebraska and Iowa was not authorized to work in the US. In 1995-96, some 123,000 workers were employed in US meatpacking. Entry-level hourly wages were $6.15 to $8.20 and weekly wages averaged $415. Dodge City, Kansas, population 21,000 in 1990, was profiled on January 29, 1998 in the New York Times as a city in which local youth move away and Mexican and other Latino immigrants arrive to fill jobs in meatpacking plants. Hispanics are 75 percent of the work force at Dodge City's two largest meatpackers: Excel Corp., part of Cargill Foods, with about 2,500 workers; and National Beef Co., part of Farmland Industries Inc., with 1,300 to 1,400 workers. Hispanics are a similar percentage of the work force in meatpacking plants in Garden City, 50 miles to the northwest of Dodge City, and Liberal, 75 miles to the southwest. The Excel human resources manager, Jim Maher, said that Excel recruits via its current employees: they tell their relatives about available jobs. Starting pay is $8.64 an hour, rising to $12. Annual turnover is 50 percent, meaning that Excel issues over 5,000 W-2 statements each year to maintain a 2,500-person labor force. Most of the Latinos arrived after 1990, so that small communities have experienced rapid demographic change. In Dodge City, for example, Hispanics are 43 percent of the 5,100 students, and 54 percent of the elementary pupils. High turnover in the plants makes it hard to educate children, who regularly return to Mexico. The school relies on bilingual aides and a newcomers' course for those who arrive with no English. Dodge City's 1998 population is estimated to be over 25,000, and Hispanics are making their mark as home buyers. Banks and stores are also seeking bilingual employees. The Dodge City Daily Globe publishes a tabloid weekly in Spanish, and school and law enforcement officials are studying Spanish. Dodge City is part of Americana. Founded in 1872 as a trailhead for cattle driven from Texas, its sheriffs were Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp (the fictional Matt Dillon). Nebraska has the lowest unemployment rate in the US--1.6 percent in 1997. Despite unfilled jobs, many young people leave the state for the East and West Coasts after completing their education. On February 28, the New York Times noted that Hispanic and Southeast Asian immigrants are moving into the plains states, but these states are "still losing young adults in their 20s." According to one study, half of the college graduates leave Nebraska and "The higher the ACT (college prep test) score, the greater the chance of them leaving." Privately owned Murphy Family Farms is the largest US pork producer; it owns 275,000 sows, twice as many as number two Carroll's Foods. In an October 13, 1997 article, Forbes Magazine estimated that North Carolina-based Murphy nets $150 million a year on revenues of $775 million, and that the company would be worth about $1.5 billion if it went public. Most Murphy pigs are raised by 500 independent growers under contract. Forbes described one contract farmer who borrowed $325,000 to raise 5,000 piglets for seven weeks for $3 a piglet; Murphy supplies the piglets and the feed. The cost of feed is about two-thirds of the cost of raising a pig from birth to its 250-pound slaughtering weight 30 to 33 weeks later. Pigs consume three to four pounds of feed for every pound of weight they gain. Poultry. DOL inspectors examined 51 of the nation's 174 poultry processing plants in October-November, 1997, and found that 60 percent violated the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime laws, usually by underreporting the hours worked by chicken catchers, who travel from farm to farm to catch chickens. The National Broiler Council said the 60 percent violation figure was due to DOL's defining chicken catchers as nonfarm employees entitled to overtime pay after 40 hours of work a week, rather than as farm workers not entitled to overtime. DOL noted that over half of the poultry plants unlawfully made workers pay for clothing and protective gear that the companies required workers to wear. Some poultry processors require their workers to clock out for breaks, so that time spent removing protective clothing and redressing is not paid time. Poultry processing plants have very high turnover, giving some of the rural communities in which plants are located labor forces that include more migrants than many seasonal farming areas. The poultry industry as a whole has a turnover rate approaching 100 percent, meaning that the average worker in the typical plant lasts six months at that plant. Virtually all plants continuously post help-wanted signs. Tyson, the largest poultry processor, has an average 73 percent turnover in 84 US chicken processing plants in 21 states. With 72,000 processing employees, this means that Tyson has over 1,000 unfilled jobs on most days. Most Tyson employees earn $7 to $8 an hour, or $14,000 to $16,000 a year. Tyson's labor force is 49 percent non-Hispanic white, 29 percent Black and 19 percent Hispanic. The Hispanic percentage is increasing rapidly, and Tyson has developed a number of programs, including English and computer classes, GED and naturalization classes, and financial planning. Tyson encourages and rewards managers who learn Spanish or another second language. Neither Tyson nor anyone else studies what happens to employees who leave-the focus seems to be on recruiting new hires rather than tracking ex-employees. Most poultry companies rely on networks of current employees as well as independent recruiters to find additional workers. Many of the labor recruiters for poultry processors are based in the Rio Grande Valley; they prefer to send newly arrived workers from Mexico to the poultry plants in the north for fees that range from $150 to $250 a worker. Upon arrival, workers complete forms and are shown safety videos and then are put to work. Newly arrived immigrant workers are generally grateful for the jobs; most worker complaints revolve around the fast and continuous pace of work, insufficient breaks and too little time for breaks, and employer deductions for housing and work equipment. Many meat and poultry plants are located in rural areas, so that an influx of immigrant workers soon changes the ethnic composition of the population, and leads to major housing, schooling, health care, and policing challenges. Rogers, Arkansas, a city of 17,000 in northwestern Arkansas, went from few Hispanics to 25 percent Hispanic residents between 1990 and 1997. Local leaders sponsored soccer leagues to promote interaction and understanding, and one local bank aggressively marketed its services to Hispanics, helping them to establish credit histories, teaching them to write checks even if they do not speak English, and promoting home ownership. Homes that cost $75,000 are about five times the average poultry worker's annual earnings. The Washington Post on March 24, 1998 summarized the Rogers experience adapting to the influx of Hispanic workers. The article emphasized that the mayor welcomed the newcomers, many of whom moved to Rogers from elsewhere in the US because the earnings-housing price ratio was far better in Arkansas. With two earners, poultry workers can earn $25,000 to $35,000 a year, and thus can afford to buy houses that cost $75,000 to $100,000. The article noted that an anti-immigrant group formed in reaction to the influx and that many residents do not believe the newcomers are making a sufficient effort to learn English. Siler City, North Carolina has grown from 5,000 to 8,000 residents in the 1990s, as Hispanic immigrants arrived to work in poultry plants, construction and service industries. Hispanics are now estimated to be 40 percent of the town's population and in 1997, Siler City hired its first bilingual police officer. A series of stories in the January Clarion-Ledger (MI) explained that poultry processor B.C. Rogers Poultry, Inc. of Morton, Michigan opened a recruitment office in March 1994 in Miami to recruit workers for its Mississippi poultry processing plants. B.C. Rogers had 530 Latino employees in January 1998. The Mississippi Poultry Association says there were eight poultry processing companies operating in Mississippi in 1997, down from a high of 13 in the 1980s. Mississippi ranks fifth in broiler production, with $1.4 billion in sales in 1996; broiler production is concentrated in Scott, Smith, Jones, Simpson, Leake, Newton and Wayne counties. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, about 450,000 US farming operations confine animals. The largest 6,600 are operations big enough to raise 1,000 cattle, 2,500 hogs or at least 30,000 chickens. Lois Romano, "A community adapts to newcomers,"
Washington Post, March 24, 1998. Pam Belluck, "Nebraska
Fights to Keep Its Home-Grown Talent Home," New York Times,
February 28, 1998. Shirley Christian, "Latin Immigrants
Fuel Dodge City's Meat-Packing Boom," New York Times, January
29, 1998. GA). 1998. Community Development: Changes in Nebraska's
and Iowa's Counties With Large Meatpacking Workforces GAO/RCED-98-62,
February 27. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/rc98062.pdf A Landmark International Television Documentary Series Premiering on PBS in the Fall 1998 (posted 4/13/98) 1996-1998 marks the 150th anniversary of the U.S.-Mexican War. While most Mexicans are aware of the war, most Americans know little, if anything, about it. The outcome changed the destiny of both countries. After 16 months of fierce fighting, *om Texas to California and all the way south to Mexico City, th~ war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. As a result, Mexico lost nearly half of its territory and the United States gained more than 500,000 square rniles of land -- the present states of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, IJtah, Califorrna, and parts of Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming. Now, for the first time, the story of this significant conflict will be shown to television a-wdiences both in the United States and Mexico. "The U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848)" is a binational education project produced in English and Spanish. The project's centerpiece is a four-hour prime time television series, produced for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) by Dallas/Fort Worth public television statlon KERA-TV. "The U.S.-Mexican War," scheduled for broadcast in 1998, will be an important contribution to the understanding of U.S.-Mexican relations. This series will examine the historical, social ansl culttlral forces that shaped this pi7/otEl period durirE lvhich tzv~e neighboring countries struggled for land, national identity and power. "The U.S.-Mexican War" marks the first time that prominent U.S.-Mexican War historians from both countries have collaborated on such a project. The series and accompanying educational materials -- designed for use in secondary schools and colleges -- will be valuable classroom resources for years to come. KERA has distinguished itself with many critically acclaimed documentaries for national PBS broadcast, including "The West of the Imagination," "LBJ" for The American Experience, "Water," "Your Toxic Trash," "For A Deaf Son," and "After Goodbye: An AIDS Story," which WOI1 the l994 National Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational or Cultural Program. The award-winning production team for 'iThe U.S.-Mexican War'i is headed by Sylvia Komatsu, Vice President of Television Production, who is serving as project director and executive producer. Key production staff include senior producer Paul Espinosa, director Ginny Martin and writer Rob Tranchin.
THE U.S.-MEXICAN WAR Length: Four 60-minute Programs g
Distribution:
Educational Opportunities: A comprehensive educational plan designed to encourage maximum use of "The U.S.-Mexican War!' in classrooms in the United States and Mexlco. Proposed classroom materials Include teacher's guide, inistructional ' television version, teacherKsymposium and educational Web site. Home video versions. The series and accompanying educational materials may also be used by business, government, libraries and cultural institutions to promote cultural understanding in both countries.
Advisers:
"The U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848)" is a production of KERA, Dallas, Texas. Production of this series is made possible in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities; CPB/PBS Program Challenge Fund; The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; The Meadows Foundation; The Summerlee Foundation; California Council for the Humanities, Texas Council for the Humanities and Nevada Humanities Committee. state agencies ot' the National4Endowment t'or the Humanities; The Priddy Foundation; Summerfield G. Roberts Foundation; The U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture sponsored by the Bancomer Culturai Foundation, The Rocket'eller Foundation and Mexico's National Fund for Culture and the Arts, The Cecil and ld,a Green Foundation; Still Water Foundation; Dr. & Mrs. Francis McGinnis; Mr. & Mrs. Jenkins Garrett; and J.A. "Tony" Canales. Additional funding opportunities available.
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