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Please Note: Articles posted on this page are for the current month. For news articles from previous months please visit the News Archives page. INS: Border News, (posted 10/25/99) A farm labor contractor in Florida, Abel Cuello Jr., was sentenced to 33 months in prison by a federal court in Tampa in October 1999 and ordered to repay $30,000 to migrants smuggled into the US and held in "peonage," the crime of holding a person in involuntary servitude in order to collect a debt-the maximum sentence was five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The case developed after three workers slipped away from Cuello while grocery shopping in Immokalee; it was prosecuted by the National Worker Exploitation Task Force, a coalition between the U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor whose mission is to wipe out modern slavery in the United States. The INS apprehended 1.5 million unauthorized migrants in FY99, which ended September 30, up slightly from 1998. Apprehensions in the San Diego sector in FY99 were 181,000--the lowest level since 1973. Operation Gatekeeper, launched October 1, 1994, resulted in a doubling of the number of Border Patrol agents, from 1,300 to 2,200. In FY95, there were 524,000 apprehensions in the San Diego sector. The new heart of Mexican migrant smuggling are the twin cities of Agua Prieta, Sonora, population 120,000, and Douglas, Arizona, population 15,000. Buses from the interior of Mexico arrive in Agua Prieta full and leave empty. Smugglers hire hustlers to meet arriving buses and make their pitch, typically offering to smuggle a person to Phoenix for $400 to $800, with guarantees and other assurances-the hustlers receive $50 to $100 for each migrant they recruit. Some migrants fly to Hermosillo, five hours south of Agua Prieta, and then take buses to the border to save time traveling north in Mexico-more migrants arrive in Hermosillo on one-way tickets than anywhere else in Mexico; hustlers with cell phones meet them in the airport. The US-Mexican border area is one of the richest areas of Mexico and one of the poorest areas of the US. Many of the 24 US counties along the Mexican border have joined the US-Mexico Border Counties Coalition to demand reimbursement for the costs associated with illegal immigration, from hospital bills to the cost of police investigations of migrant deaths. The federal government provided $585 million in FY99 through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program to assist state and local governments with costs associated with criminal aliens; state and local governments say their total cost is $1.4 billion a year, and that the federal government's accounting does not include court expenses, juvenile detention and indigent defense. The House Appropriations Committee, which controls the budget for INS, turned down a request for an additional $20 million to expand the IDENT system. The committee asked the INS to suspend further development of the electronic fingerprinting system until the INS fixes flaws so that it can better detect criminals at the border. Congress wants the INS to improve coordination between IDENT and the FBI's database. The IDENT system did not detect suspected serial killer Angel Maturino Resendez, who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Resendez, suspected of eight US murders, was caught and released voluntarily back into Mexico nine times by the Border Patrol in 18 months. IDENT stores fingerprints and photos of people caught trying to enter the US illegally. The Appropriations Committee said that it "continues to be concerned about the inadequacies of this system specifically with regard to its ability to identify wanted criminals." Ken Ellingwood, "Data on Border Arrests Raise Gatekeeper Debate," Los Angeles Times, October 1, 1999. Joe Cantlupe, "INS ordered to halt work on flawed ID system," San Diego Union-Tribune, September 28, 1999. Agricultural Guest Workers, (posted 10/25/99) In the early 1980s, the percentage of unauthorized workers among US farm workers was 20 to 25 percent and rising, farm wages and benefits were flat or declining, and farmers who feared labor shortages after employer sanctions were approved argued that a new guest worker program was needed. The Special Agricultural Worker (SAW) program under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act legalized most of the illegal farm work force. In the late 1990s, the percentage of unauthorized workers among US farm workers is about now 50 percent and rising, farm wages and benefits are flat or declining, and farmers who fear labor shortages as stepped up border controls and employer sanctions enforcement are fine-tuned, argue that a new guest worker program is needed. There have been a flurry of announcements of support for a new guest worker program. In September, 1999 both Mexican and US politicians expressed interest in a new guest worker program. Mexico's Foreign Minister Rosario Green said on September 2 that Mexico and the US are negotiating about a temporary visa program under which Mexicans could work on US farms at harvest time or in hotels during tourist season. The negotiations, she said, are in early stages and more details may be available at the 2000 Binational Commission meeting. After a meeting in September 1999 with Mexican border governors, the governors of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas endorsed a guest worker program that would allow Mexicans to be employed by US employers in hotels, restaurants, construction and landscaping; California Governor Gray Davis did not endorse the call for a guest worker program initiated by Arizona Governor Jane Hull. One of the five Mexican governors at the border conference said guest workers "make more sense than denying the need for workers and prompting many Mexicans into going to work [in the US] illegally." Several senators perceived to be advocates of tougher enforcement, including Dianne Feinsten (D-CA), are expected to introduce a new guest worker bill that would once again offer amnesty or legalization for unauthorized workers employed on US farms. Senator Ron Wyden(D-OR), saying that the status quo is "untenable situation for both growers and farm workers" in October 1999 attached an amendment to an annual spending bill that in effect requires the US Department of Labor to propose changes to the H-2A program. Support for a new amnesty and end to sanctions against employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers is building within the AFL-CIO. On October 12, an amnesty proposal was discussed the AFL-CIO national convention in Los Angeles. Many rank and file members support the amnesty, saying that the sanctions are not working. The United Food and Commercial Workers oppose the resolution because they do not think it is in the best interest of their workers. The UFCW represents thousands of immigrant workers in the meatpacking industry. The proposal is expected to get a brief discussion and then sent to committee. AFL-CIO town hall meetings will be held this winter in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and New York in order to gather worker comments and build a consensus. Eliseo Medina, of the Service Employees International Union and one of the authors of the resolution, said that there is not now sufficient support to force a vote at the national convention. The Southwest Voter Registration has also called for an amnesty program for undocumented workers. >From SAW-RAW to AgJOBS. Such a law would make a second attempt to legalize the farm work force. The Special Agricultural Worker program, one of two legalization programs included in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, attracted 1.3 million applicants who claimed to have worked at least 90 days in perishable crops on US farms as unauthorized workers in 1985-86; about 1.1 million SAWs became legal immigrants, including 750,000 who likely did not do 90 days of farm work. In a 1989 New York Times article, a journalist called the SAW program "one of the most extensive immigration frauds ever perpetrated against the United States government." IRCA included a Replenishment Agricultural Worker provision, which was designed to permit the employment of legal probationary immigrant farm workers if SAWs left farm work so fast that, despite grower efforts to improve wages and working conditions, farm labor shortages appeared. The RAW program was criticized by all sides and never used during its 1989-93 life, largely because there were no farm labor shortages and because most of those who registered for the RAW program provided US addresses, which led many farmers to presume they were already in the US and thus would not add to the farm labor supply-over 90 percent of the 700,000 persons who registered for the RAW program in 1988-89 provided US addresses. The grower-dominated Commission on Agricultural Workers (CAW) evaluated SAW-RAW between 1989 and 1992, and concluded that the farm workers legalized under the SAW program had not seen their wages and working conditions improve, largely because continued illegal immigration made it unnecessary for farm employers to raise wages to retain SAWs. Despite requests from many farm employers, CAW did not recommend a new agricultural guest worker program. Instead, CAW called on federal and state governments to take steps to develop a legal farm work force, to improve social services for farm workers and their families, and to improve the enforcement of immigration and labor laws by developing, for example, a fraud-proof work authorization card. The US Commission on Immigration Reform went further in opposing a new guest worker program in June 1995, stating that: "a large-scale agricultural guest worker program...is not in the national interest...such a program would be a grievous mistake." On June 23, 1995, President Clinton issued a statement opposing an agricultural guest worker program, asserting that a guest worker program would increase illegal immigration, displace US workers and depress wages and working conditions. Clinton said that "If our crackdown on illegal immigration contributes to labor shortages.... I will direct the departments of Labor and Agriculture to work cooperatively to improve and enhance existing programs to meet the labor requirements of our vital agricultural industry consistent with our obligations to American workers." Despite evidence of an ample supply of farm workers, as indicated by lagging farm wages, there have been ongoing calls for a new guest worker program. For example, after California voters approved Proposition 187 in November 1994, outgoing Mexican President Salinas and California Governor Wilson-who were on opposite sides of the Proposition 187 debate-agreed that there should be a new guest worker program that would allow Mexican workers to be employed temporarily in the US. Beginning in 1995, farmers had bills introduced in Congress to launch a new guest worker program for agriculture, at least on a pilot basis. There were several proposals and they shared the call for an end to labor certification, the process though which DOL decides, before foreign workers are admitted, whether they are needed. One striking feature of the mid-1990s farmer proposals is that they did not emphasize labor shortages or a "need" for foreign farm workers; instead, the proposals were justified in the name of having legal rather than illegal workers and ensuring their return. On July 23, 1998, the Senate approved on a 68-31 vote, the Agricultural Job Opportunity Benefits and Security Act of 1998 or AgJOBS as Amendment 3258 to the Commerce-Justice-State Department appropriations bill; the House did not act on the bill. AgJOBS would have substituted a registry run by the Employment Service for labor certification by DOL. 1998 Proposal. Growers oppose certification, which allows the US government to control the border gate, as under the current H-2A program. In 1987, the Department of State issued visas to about 13,000 mostly Caribbean H-2A workers. In 1998, DOS issued about 26,400 H-2A visas; about 80 percent went to Mexicans. In the late 1980s, the major employer of H-2A workers was Florida sugarcane, which imported 9,000 to 10,000 Caribbean H-2A workers to hand-cut sugar cane. In the late 1990s, the major employer of H-2A workers are tobacco farmers in North Carolina and other middle-south states. The registry included in the 1998 proposal, and expected to be included in 1999 proposals, would have eliminated government certification by requiring legally authorized farm workers to register with local Employment Service offices and indicate whether they were willing to migrate out of the area for farm jobs. Employers would then submit job offers to the ES registry, and ES would verify that the jobs offered paid prevailing wages before listing them, that is, the new registry would assume responsibility for: (1) verifying the legal status of workers seeking to register by checking the documents and data they provide with INS and SSA; and (2) verifying that employer job offers satisfied requirements of any new program. Under the growers' proposal, if an employer made a request for 100 workers at least 21 days before they were needed, and ES had only 40 registered workers willing to go to the requesting employer seven days before the need date, the grower would receive a "shortage report" from the registry that would grant him permission to bring 60 foreign farm workers into the US. US workers would be dropped from the registry and deemed unavailable for US farm jobs if they rejected three registry requests for workers from farmers. The ES would be responsible for advertising and making both workers and farm employers aware of the registry. In addition to the registry, the other major features of the 1998 AgJOBS H-2A program included: 1.)Foreign workers admitted under the new program would receive up to 10-month renewable H-2A visas; they could remain in the US continuously for up to three years; 2.)Employers would pay federal FUTA and FICA taxes on the wages of the foreign workers to a trust fund rather than to UI and SSA authorities, about 8.3 percent of their earnings- trust fund monies would be used to reimburse DOL and INS for their costs of administering the program. Most migrant and seasonal farm workers do farm work for about 1,000 hours a year; at $6-$7 an hour, employers would pay $500 to $580 a year per worker into the trust fund, so that every 10,000 AgJOBS foreign workers would generate $5 million; 3.) If the Attorney General found that a significant number of AgJOBS foreign workers were remaining in the US, 20 percent of their earnings could be withheld and paid into the trust fund, and returned to the worker after he surrendered the visa-ID to US authorities in his country of origin, which would include a photo and biometric information; 4.) AgJOBS H-2A foreign workers who completed at least six months of farm work in each of four consecutive calendar years could become third-preference immigrants; this provision is similar to the probationary immigrant plan of the never-used RAW provisions of IRCA, but there is a lengthy wait for immigrant visas for third preference unskilled workers; and 5.) There was no limit on the number of AgJOBS foreign workers who could be admitted. Outlook. Growers hired the former executive director of the National Immigration Forum, Rick Schwartz, to contact migrant advocates and broker a compromise that would turn them from opponents to supporters of a new guest worker program. Schwartz apparently persuaded the Carnegie Endowment to issue a paper in June 1999 that embraced most of the growers proposals, including the registry and a probationary immigrant status that would require unauthorized farm workers in the US who registered for visas under the new program to continue to do US farm work for at least 90 to 180 days a year for five to seven years or lose their legal status. In exchange for acceding to the more grower-friendly "H-2A EZ," Carnegie advocates "zero tolerance" for unauthorized migration and labor law violations. When discussed during a meeting of migrant advocates on September 8, 1999 in California, the Carnegie proposal was greeted with skepticism. The proposal begins from the premise that almost anything that decreased illegality in the farm labor market would be an improvement, an assertion that was not uniformly endorsed. The Carnegie proposal seemed to have an important internal contradiction. On the one hand, the program was argued to be acceptable to growers because it reduces labor supply uncertainty: growers want to be assured that workers will be available when needed. However, to "protect" newly legalized workers who are required to do US farm work, workers will not be tied to any particular employer with a contract. Jim Holt, testifying on behalf of the National Council of Agricultural Employers May 12, 1999, argued that: 1.) US farmers need access to foreign farm workers if the US wants to continue expanding its labor-intensive fruit and vegetable agriculture; 2.) welfare reform and currently unemployed workers do not want to do farm work and that workers referred to farm employers by state Employment Services offices are not screened for legal status, and thus farmers cannot be assured that, by hiring ES-referred workers, they are hiring legal workers; 3.) the H-2A program cannot provide legal nonimmigrant workers to farmers because it is too complex and requires both the provision of housing and the payment of an AEWR, a guaranteed hourly wage set for each state that ranged in 1999 from $6.21 to $7.53, and averaged $6.98. [Since 1987, each state's AEWR is the average hourly earnings of field and livestock workers in the previous year. USDA stopped asking farmers if they provided housing to employees in 1995, when US employers reported that they provided housing-free or charge-to about 15 percent of their employees]. Holt argued that the current AEWR should be replaced by a 51st percent standard-a sample of wages observed in the labor market would be recorded, and the wage paid by to the 51st percentile of workers would be considered the AEWR-any employer paying the 51st percentile or more would satisfy this new AEWR requirement. Holt testified that "Applications, which often run more than a dozen pages, are wordsmithed by employers, by the Labor Department and by legal services attorneys. Endless discussions and arguments occur over sentences, phrases and words. After all this fine tuning, workers see an abbreviated summary of the order if they see anything at all." In Arkansas in 1998, DOL issued notices of intent to impose $29,350 in civil money penalties on John H. Harrod and Sons Farms for failing to pay wages when due and failing to provide a copy of an employee contract to workers; 32 Mexican H-2A workers received $57,734 in back wages. As the guest worker debate heats up, Op-Ed articles appeared, some arguing that some legal program must be better than the status quo and others contending that the US would be foolish to revive the discredited Bracero program. Kitty Calavita of the Los Angeles Times noted that 500 Braceros arrived in Stockton on September 29, 1942, setting in motion Mexico-US migration networks. She argued that the case for a new guest worker program rests on effective enforcement of border controls and employer sanctions that eliminate unauthorized workers, which she calls improbable and a conviction that the H-2A program is inappropriate, which is not what most government and academic observers believe. The Seattle Times on September 5, 1999 outlined the prospects for a new guest worker program. If there is no guest worker program, changes now underway may reduce the need for guest workers. For example, the story noted that some farmers have diversified their crops so that they can employ fewer workers for longer periods. Randy Smith of Cashmere, Washington now grows 19 varieties of fruit and provides housing for most of his long-season employees. Ken Bailey's Orchard View Farms is the largest US cherry farm, with 1,100 acres and hires a peak 600 workers. Dan Richey, president of Indian River Citrus League and a member of the Florida Citrus Commission, supports plans to make the guest worker program more "user friendly." He said that currently, it takes several months for approval, time which growers with perishable crops cannot afford. With long-term prospects for labor poor, the citrus industry expects to use more mechanization. Some commentators noted that the Mexican government has the interest and capacity-in light of US divisions-to shape any new guest worker program for US agriculture far more than Mexico could influence the Bracero program. Mexico wants access to the US labor market, but also wants the rights of its citizens in the US protected. Nancy Cleeland, "Unions questioning sanctions against employers over hiring," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1999. Lynda V. Mapes, "Growers favor letting farmworkers trade time in fields for legal residency," Seattle Times, September 5, 1999. Finlay Lewis, "Immigrant amnesty bill sought. Would link farm work to quest for legal status," San Diego Union Tribune, July 29, 1999. Kitty Calavita, "Why Revive an Inhuman Program?" Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1999. Roberto Suro, "Migrants' False Claims: Fraud on a Huge Scale," New York Times, November 12, 1989. Papademetriou, Demetrios and Monica Heppel. 1999. Balancing Acts: Toward a fair bargain on seasonal agricultural workers. Washington. Carnegie Endowment Paper 9. States: Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin, (posted 10/25/99) Ohio/North Carolina. The Farm Labor Organizing Committee in August 1999 accused a farmer near Toledo, Ohio of not paying some of the 110 workers hired to pick cucumbers on a 1,200-acre farm and of allowing a crew leader to hold them against their will to pay off migrant smuggling charges. The farmer disputed the charges, saying that the workers were paid directly and not through a crew leader. The Institute for Southern Studies released a report on pesticide dangers facing farm workers in North Carolina and on FLOC's efforts to organize cucumber harvesters. In 1997, FLOC announced an organizing drive among the several thousand cucumber workers employed by about 100 growers who sell to Mount Olive Pickle Co., the largest pickle company in North Carolina and the South, processing an estimated 70 percent of the pickle crop in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Mount Olive employs 500 workers in its pickle plant and has 30 collection stations in the Carolinas. As is common in the pickling cucumber industry, Mount Olive signs contracts with cucumber growers to produce cucumbers to be pickled. The growers in turn hire workers to harvest their cucumbers beginning in May and June. FLOC wants to develop a three-way agreement between Mount Olive, pickle growers and FLOC, similar to the agreement it has with processors such as Campbells (Vlasic) and Heinz-farmers who grow crops for these processors under contract in Ohio are covered by the three-way labor agreement, for example, growing pickles for Vlasic means signing a contract that recognizes FLOC as representative of the workers. In 1996, the FLOC workers filed a record 500 grievances against farm employers, charging them with not paying them the minimum wage. In 1996, FLOC sued the Ohio Highway Patrol, charging that they discriminated against Hispanics by questioning two migrants about their immigration status after pulling them over for a faulty headlight and seizing what the OHP believed to be false green cards. The green cards, which were genuine, were returned four days later. A federal judge ruled that the OHP can ask motorists they pull over for traffic violations about anything, including immigration status, as long as it is done in the time it takes to complete the traffic stop. Wisconsin. A survey of migrant workers in Wisconsin comparing their working conditions in 1978 with 1998 found that sixty percent do not have farm earnings that raise them above poverty level incomes. An estimated 5,177 migrant workers were employed in 37 counties in Wisconsin in 1998, compared with 4,080 in 31 counties in 1978. Wisconsin migrants tend to be older than average-the average age was 35 in 1978 and 41 in 1998. Many migrants are nonfarm cannery workers, not field workers. About 76 percent of Wisconsin's migrants in 1998 are from Texas and 18 percent are from Mexico. Over the 1978-98 period, the percentage of migrants speaking only Spanish rose from 49 to 63 percent-about 60 percent had elementary school educations or less. According to one survey, 60 percent of migrants are overweight and 80 percent expressed concern about the abuse of alcohol. About 40 percent of migrants assessed their health as "fair" or "poor," compared with 12 percent of the general population. Smith-Nonini, Sandy. 1999. Uprooting Injustice. Durham, North Carolina. Institute for Southern Studies. July. http://www.i4south.org/ UFW: Coastal, Napa, (posted 10/25/99) On August 17, 1999, the ALRB Regional Director counted the ballots in the June 3-4, 1999 election at Coastal Berry and put the final tally at 725 for the Coastal Berry Farm Worker Committee and 616 for the UFW. The Committee received 688 votes during the June 3-4, 1999 election; the UFW received 598; and there were 92 challenged ballots resolved by the regional director. The UFW has asked the ALRB not to certify the Committee as bargaining representative; it has filed about 230 objections to the Coastal election. In July 1999, the Committee asked the AFL-CIO to allow it to affiliate with the Teamsters union or the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; these unions represent about 7,200 agricultural production workers in the Salinas area. Both Pete Maturino, president of UFCW Local 1096 and Franklin Gallegos, president of Teamsters Local 890, said that they would be surprised if the AFL-CIO permitted the Committee to affiliate with their unions. Cesar Chavez, founding president of the UFW, died April 23, 1993 and was replaced by his son-in-law, Arturo Rodriguez. In 1994, the UFW repeated its 1966 Delano-to-Sacramento march and announced that the UFW would once again become active in the fields, organizing farm workers, as it had done from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. The UFW launched its campaign to organize strawberry workers in 1996, and targeted Coastal Berry, the largest strawberry grower in the US, and a grower officially "neutral" in the union organizing campaign. However, the Wall Street Journal on October 13, 1999 reported that owner David Gladstone checked the acceptability of potential Coastal managers with the UFW, and fired 11 anti-UFW employees for participating in strike activities-but not firing pro-UFW workers involved in "similar conduct." The fired employees have filed a charge alleging that their rights under California's ALRA were violated. The Committee said that it won because strawberry workers did not want to pay two percent of their average $8 hourly and $8,500 annual earnings to the UFW for dues. The UFW counters that Coastal supervisors kept a tight rein on their crews and discouraged Coastal workers from supporting the UFW, which may have reduced their power over workers. Since 1994, the UFW has been certified as bargaining representative for California farm workers on 15 farms that involved a total of about 3,500 farm workers. The UFW had four active contracts on these farms in Summer 1999. The UFW represents about 50 percent of rose workers in the Central Valley and 70 percent of mushroom workers along the central coast. The UFW announced in September 1999 that it reached its 23rd collective bargaining agreement since 1994. Two of the five Santa Cruz County supervisors in August 1999 asked the county to support an effort to make March 31, Chavez's birthday, a paid state holiday. A bill pending in the Legislature would designate a day on or near March 31 each year as a judicial holiday honoring Chavez. The supervisors said that Chavez's "advocacy for improved working and social conditions for agricultural workers was an inspiration and he was regarded as a role model for the entire nation." Napa Wine Contracts. The UFW announced that a contract covering 50 farm workers was reached with Charles Krug-Mondavi Vineyards on September 1, 1999. The new three-year contract increased wages by five percent to a minimum $8.40 an hour and includes increases of one percent in years two and three. The UFW's previous contract with Krug-Mondavi expired in 1992-there was no contract between 1992 and 1999. According to the UFW, the Krug-Mondavi agreement is the 23rd reached since 1994. The UFW has an agreement with Vista Vineyard Management covering 80 workers and in 1996 signed an agreement covering the 80 employees at St. Supury Vineyards. Decertification. The UFW filed objections to the June 18, 1999 decertification election at San Clemente Ranch, during which the workers voted 135 to 69 to decertify the UFW as their bargaining representative. The UFW won an election at Highland-San Clemente on July 28, 1977; the ranch was sold before a first contract was negotiated, when only one worker was employed. The renamed San Clemente Ranch argued that it did not inherit Highland's bargaining obligations. The UFW filed a unfair labor practices charge because San Clemente refused to bargain and the ALRB ruled that the San Clemente did indeed have a duty to bargain with the UFW because the critical factor was the continuity of the farming operation, not the continuity of the work force. Since San Clemente produced the same crops with the same equipment as Highland, San Clemente assumed Highland's bargaining obligations even though it hired a new work force. [Highland Ranch and San Clemente Ranch 5 ALRB 54 (1979)] In April 1998, the UFW resumed bargaining with San Clemente, a unit of Oxnard-based Deardorf-Jackson, and reportedly negotiated an agreement on all issues except wages. According to the UFW, San Clemente offered only a one percent increase in wages, which had risen since 1977 only in line with minimum wage increases. Since UFW dues are two percent of wages, a one percent wage increase would have resulted in a wage decrease for workers under a contract. San Clemente's bargaining stance, the UFW argues, represented unlawful company assistance to the decertification vote. The UFW is asking that the decertification vote not be approved by the ALRB. There was a decertification election for about 300 workers employed by Nash-DeCamp in Tulare county in September 1999-the ALRB impounded the ballots. The UFW and Nash-DeCamp signed an 18-month agreement in 1997, and the decertifcation effort came during negotiations for a new agreement. Farm workers are normally permitted to request a decertifcation only during the last year of a valid agreement, when 30 percent of the workers sign a decertification petition and employment is at least 50 percent of peak employment. Quincy Farms, Florida. On July 7, 1999, the UFW was recognized on the basis of a card-check as the bargaining representative for 430 mushroom pickers and packers at Quincy Farms in Quincy, Florida, 30 miles northwest of Tallahassee (Prime Mushrooms); 289 employees supported the UFW. About 60 percent of the workers are Hispanic and 40 percent are Black. Quincy is the largest private employer in Gadsden County. Florida has no agricultural labor relations act. The 18-month UFW-Quincy contract, signed July 20, 1999, raises wages for the half of the workers who pack mushrooms for hourly wages from $5.25 to $5.75 an hour and introduces profit sharing. Quincy did not change the piece rate that it pays mushroom harvesters-their average wage is $9 an hour and they are expected to benefit from profit sharing. Florida is a right-to-work state and workers who elect not to join the UFW will get the same increased wages and benefits. On March 14, 1996, Quincy fired 86 employees who went on strike to demand wage increases; they have since been rehired. The agreement settles their class-action lawsuit; the fired workers received $5,000 each. UFW Arturo Rodriguez signaled a more cooperative attitude toward employers: "We see real value in creating a much less confrontational relationship, demonstrating that the union and the employees can be an asset to the business rather than being their enemies." Quincy plans focus groups to solicit worker suggestions to improve quality and productivity. The Quincy Farms-UFW agreement is the only collective bargaining agreement in Florida agriculture; the UFW represented Coca Cola orange pickers between 1972 and 1997, when Coke sold its Minute Maid orange groves. Dolores Huerta. The co-founder and current secretary-treasurer of the UFW turned 69 in April 1999. Huerta grew up in Stockton with her mother, a hotel manager; her father was a union leader who had served in the New Mexico Legislature. Huerta was a 25-year old school teacher in 1955 when she was recruited to work for the Community Service Organization, which helped to register voters, fight police brutality and demand government services for poor residents. Huerta was a single mother with seven children in 1962 when she joined Chavez in Delano; Gilbert Padilla joined later. Huerta later married third husband Richard Chavez, Cesar's younger brother, and had four more children-Richard Chavez is also 69. In July 1999, Huerta received the National Education Association's Cesar Chavez Action and Commitment award. Huerta lives in a southwest Bakersfield home or at UFW headquarters in Keene. She receives $2,000 a month from an $825,000 legal settlement paid by the city of San Francisco after a policeman beat her in 1988 during a peaceful protest. In a September 5, 1999 profile, Huerta was credited with proposing the Special Agricultural Worker program which allowed 1.1 million illegal alien farm workers to legalize in 1987-88. The Los Angeles Times Magazine, in an August 15, 1999 profile of Dolores Huerta, called the United Farm Workers of America "the nation's most mythologized and misunderstood union." The article reviews the UFW's efforts to root out "malignant forces" in the early 1980s and noted that Huerta still blames Marshall Ganz, a former UFW organizer, for helping dissident Salinas workers who tried to elect their own candidates for the UFW's executive board in 1981; Huerta fired the dissidents. Processing. The Los Angeles Times reported September 23, 1999 on family succession in businesses dominated by immigrant workers, profiling Basic Vegetable Products' work force in King City, California. The main Basic plant is in Modesto; the King City processes onions and garlic. Basic proposed a two-tier pay scale that would give newly hired workers $3 an hour less than established workers, or $7.65 an hour to start. The 750 workers represented by the Teamsters went on strike July 7, 1999, and remained on strike in early October 1999. Strikers receive daily strike benefits of $55. Basic Vegetable bussed in replacement workers. Family networks helped to maintain the strike-many of the workers had been recruited by co-workers, strengthening solidarity during the strike. Family networks can work for or against unionization. During a 1997-98 organizing drive at the 1,000-employee Farmer John pork processing plant in Vernon, California an extended family-the Maldonados-were credited with helping the United Food and Commercial Workers union win recognition. The Service Employees International Union used networks among janitors to demonstrate how much higher union wages were during its Justice for Janitors organizing campaign of the late 1980s and early 1990s. In many cases, family networks impede unionization. Family networks-with pickers related to foremen-are believed to be a major reason why the United Farm Workers lost a bid to represent 1,300 strawberry workers at Coastal Berry Farms in June 1999. Networks permit employers hiring relatively large numbers of unskilled workers to minimize their recruitment investments. Nonfarm workers at Paramount Farms near Lost Hills, California voted 598 to 310 against representation by the Laborers' International Union of North America; starting wages at the almond, pistachio and fruit-roll plant are set at the state's minimum wage of $5.75 an hour. Marc Lifsher, "Confidential Memo Suggests Coastal Berry Favored UFW," Wall Street Journal, October 13, 1999. Nancy Cleeland, "Network hiring among Latino immigrants is beginning to shape labor relations in California," Los Angeles Times, September 23, 1999. Vicki Adame, "Keeping a close eye," Bakersfield Californian, September 5, 1999. Olivia Garcia, "UFW cofounder still harvesting fair labor policy," Bakersfield Californian, September 5, 1999. James Rainey, "Dolores Huerta: The Eternal Soldadera,"" Los Angeles Times Magazine, August 15, 1999. Steven Greenhouse, "In an About-Face, Mushroom Farm Accepts Labor Union," New York Times, July 21, 1999. Hispanics, Poverty, Southeast, (posted 10/25/99) The Census Bureau reported that there were 25.2 million foreign-born residents of the US on July 1, 1998-making them 9.3 percent of US residents. In 1850, the foreign-born were 9.7 percent of the population enumerated in the first Census of Population. The foreign-born share of the US population reached its nadir in 1970, at 4.7 percent; it peaked at 14.8 percent in 1890. About 10.7 million of foreign-born residents are Hispanic, followed by 6.4 million foreign-born Asian Americans. For more information: http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/us_nativity.html On September 15, the Commerce Department released its annual estimates of the US population by race, Hispanic origin, age and sex for the US, 50 states, and 3,142 counties. The number of Hispanics increased by 35 percent between 1990 and 1998, from 22.4 million to 30.3 million, while the number of Asians rose 40 percent, from 7.5 million to 10.5 million. The number of African Americans increased from 30.5 million in 1990 to 34.4 million in 1998. The Census Bureau projected that the Hispanic population would be larger than the non-Hispanic black population by 2004. The American Indian population rose from 2.1 to 2.4 million. California in 1998 had 10.1 million Hispanic residents, followed by Texas (5.9 million); Florida (2.2 million); New York (2.6 million); and Arizona (1 million). About 11 percent of US residents were Hispanic. New Mexico had the highest share of Hispanic residents-- 40 percent-followed by California, 31 percent; and Texas, 30 percent. In Arkansas (49,000 Hispanics in 1998); Georgia (220,000); Nevada (78,000); and North Carolina (161,000), Hispanic populations more than doubled between 1990 and 1998. New York had 3.2 million Black residents. Between 1990 and 1998, Florida registered the largest numerical increase (495,000) in Black residents, followed by Georgia (430,000); Texas (382,000); Maryland (232,000); and North Carolina (204,000). In 1998, 62 percent of District of Columbia residents were African American. For more information: http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/statepop.html Poverty. About 12.7 percent of the 271 million Americans-34.5 million persons-lived in households that had incomes below the poverty line in 1998-the poverty line was $16,660 for a family of four in 1998, and $13,003 for a family of three. The share of US residents in nonmetro areas living in households with incomes below the poverty line fell to 14.4 percent in 1998-the poverty rate in metro areas was 12.3 percent. About 25.6 percent of Hispanics lived in below-poverty level households, including 34 percent of Hispanic children. The median income of American households rose to $39,000 in 1998, meaning that half of American households had incomes above $39,000, and half had incomes below $39,000. Southeast. In most cases, southeastern states have made the transition from Black-white relations to Black-white-Hispanic relations smoothly. However, there have been protests. Over 400 of the 600 residents of Bybee, Tennessee signed a petition to prevent a Migrant Head Start center from opening on land leased by a retired farmer for the center to care for the children of Hispanic migrant workers. If opened, the Migrant Head Start program, operated by Raleigh-based Telamon Corp., would use federal funds and employ 25 people to care for 50 children ranging in age from infancy to four years. A MHS center planned for nearby Parrottsville was abandoned in 1997 because of local opposition. The protests against the MHS program included the burning of a barn on the land that was being donated to build the center-the FBI was asked to investigate the arson as a possible hate crime. According to the FBI, Hispanics were targeted in more than half the ethnic-related hate crimes in the US 1997--- 491 of 836. The farmer whose barn was burned said: "You'd never get any of the white people to do the job [tobacco work]. ---If it weren't for the migrants, [farming] would be over." Local residents say that migrants are attracted to the area by two large tobacco farms; some assert that the migrants displace local workers and depress wages and working conditions. Workers harvest tobacco by cutting and spearing about 1,000 stalks a day for $100: the tobacco is then hung in barns to dry. The Head Start project is now on hold pending an environmental study. The INS is creating 45 Quick Response Teams to deal with immigration in rural and agricultural areas that have had recent influxes of immigrants. For example, Latino immigrants have moved into Dalton, Georgia to work in the carpet industry. Other states with INS Quick Response Teams are Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. The Missouri General Assembly in August created an Interim Committee on Immigration which will hold hearings around the state on the impact of immigration on schools, law enforcement, health agencies and local economies. Immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century avoided the southeast; immigrants at the end of the 20th century are attracted to the southeast by jobs in agriculture and manufacturing. In Georgia, local observers say: "In Dalton, they (Hispanic immigrants) are in the carpet industry; in Gainesville (Georgia.), it's poultry; in metro Atlanta, it's construction." In the Dalton area, the number of Hispanics is estimated at 25,000 to 50,000 in a county that in 1990 had a population of 72,000. The Courier-Journal on July 20, 1999 ran several articles on the changing face of Kentucky, noting that the influx began with southeast Asian refugees in 1975, and has accelerated as Hispanics moved into the state in the 1990s-there are about 5,000 Vietnamese and 5,000 Hispanics in Louisville. Kentucky's Employment Service estimates that 70 percent to 80 percent of the 25,000 farm workers who cut and hang tobacco are Hispanic and the majority are in the US illegally. For the first time, Belle Glade, Florida has a black majority on its five-member city commission. Fifty-four percent of Belle Glade's voters, many from the Caribbean, are Black. The city commission says it hopes to move municipal elections to March, because during September, most of Belle Glade's migrant farm workers are out of town. Gil Klein, "A growing number of Hispanics settling in south," Times-Picayune, October 3, 1999. Larry Hobbs, "Belle Glade has first majority black commission," Palm Beach Post, October 2, 1999.Kit Wagar, "Panel to study Hispanic influx in Missouri," Kansas City Star August 29, 1999. Kathy Scruggs, "Heated passions over a Head Start for migrant children come to a head as program backer hit by suspicious fire," Atlanta Journal and Constitution, August 26, 1999. Mark Bixler, "INS teams help state's cities deal with illegals," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 12, 1999. Linda Stahl. "Immigrants give Kentucky a new face," Courier-Journal, July 20, 1999. http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/1999/9907/20/990720imm.html California: Welfare and Farm Jobs, (posted 10/23/99) California's Central Valley, 430 miles long and up to 75 miles wide, covers nearly fifteen million acres, about the size of England. The Central Valley, with six million residents, is the most productive agricultural region in the world, producing more fruits and nuts, vegetables and melons, and horticultural specialties than any state except California itself. Agricultural sales have been increasing, but job growth has not kept up with population growth and wages remain relatively low, so that 20 to 30 percent of Central Valley residents live in households with below-poverty level incomes and 15 to 20 percent receive cash welfare assistance. Adults are not supposed to receive cash assistance for more than two years without working and they face a five-year lifetime limit on cash assistance. Many of the adults receiving cash assistance are women with children. Most have little education, lack English and job skills, and thus are seeking entry-level jobs. One of the largest employers of entry-level workers in the Central Valley is agriculture, which offers at least seasonal jobs to 600,000 to 700,000 workers each year. Can welfare recipients be moved into seasonal farm jobs? In testimony before the House immigration subcommittee on May 12, 1999, Jim Holt, a lobbyist for farmers seeking guest workers, said that, "Growers themselves, most notably the Nisei Farmers League in the San Joaquin Valley, have tried to augment their labor supply by recruiting welfare recipients" with little success. Holt testified that welfare reform may eventually reduce the supply of farm workers, as the option of obtaining welfare assistance in the off-season disappears: "Some seasonal farmworkers currently depend on the combination of farm work in-season and welfare assistance during the off-season...Seasonal farmworkers who supplement their earnings with welfare will be forced into permanent non-agricultural jobs."(emphasis added) Some welfare experts speculate that the surest way for Central Valley residents to stay off welfare is to leave the valley. Several Central Valley counties offer relocation bonuses to current welfare recipients, especially refugees, who leave the valley for jobs elsewhere. For example, many Hmong from southeast Asia who settled or moved to the Central Valley have left-some 10,000 to 15,000 Hmong moved to Minneapolis-St Paul in 1998, bringing the Hmong population in the region to 60,000. Minneapolis-St Paul has replaced Fresno as the Hmong capital of the United States. About 25 percent of the 46,000 students in the St. Paul School District were Hmong in 1998, although the 1990 Census counted only 17,000 Hmong in Minneapolis-St Paul. Hmong unemployment in Minnesota is 45 percent, lower than the 75 percent rate among Hmong in the Central Valley. Hmong who moved to Minnesota said that jobs and less crime were important motivations. Economic Development. Economic development and job creation are the top priorities of most Central Valley counties and cities. However, many potential employers who consider moving facilities to the Central Valley conclude that, while unemployed workers are available, they may not be the workers that the employer wants to hire. A survey of employers in the Fresno area found that the top three qualities employers were seeking in job applicants were a good work ethic, no drugs and a clean appearance. For more information: www.ccfi.org Huron, the "Heart of the Valley," was once described as "knife-fight city," a description of the evening activities of some migrants who descend on the city every spring and fall to cut lettuce. Bars line the streets of the city, population 5,800, which is 50 miles southwest of Fresno. About 39 percent of Huron's residents have incomes below the poverty line, unemployment in 1998 averaged 15 percent and per capita income was $5,500, fifth lowest in the state. Mayor Tony Silva was shot at in 1992 in a dispute between bar owners and resigned. In January 1999, Huron, along with Orange Cove, Parlier and the Tule River Indian Reservation, were designated the Central Valley Enterprise Community, one of 20 Rural Enterprise Communities that provide federal tax breaks to investors. In July 1999, the US Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Agency gave Huron $3.4 million to upgrade its water treatment plant. The new outlook for Huron is traced by many to City Manager Al Puente, who arrived in 1997 and began writing grant applications: Huron is hiring a full-time grant writer. Huron is negotiating with Wackenhut to build a 1,000-bed prison in the area. Orange Cove is also benefiting from its Rural Enterprise designation. Orange Cove donated 60 acres of land to Fresno-based La Tapatia Tortilleria, which promised to expand employment from 139 to 239 after moving from Fresno to Orange Cove. Orange Cove's Rural Enterprise Community will give La Tapatia advantages when it competes to sell tortillas to the military and schools; Orange Cove pledged to extend sewer and water services to the La Tapatia site with a $1.9 million federal grant. Fresno county adopted a $1.2 billion budget for 1999-00 that would add 182 employees, including 53 in human services, giving the county 7,166 employees. About $549 million is spent on human services in Fresno county. The California Department of Education released achievement test scores for K-12 pupils in July 1999, and students in the Fresno county cities of West Fresno and Mendota ranked at or near the bottom. Most of the 10 highest-scoring school districts were in the suburbs of the San Francisco Bay area-in those districts, 90 percent of students scored above average in math and reading. In rural and agricultural areas of California, 90 percent of students typically scored below national averages. The test was administered to 4.3 million K-11 grade students in Spring 1999; 25 percent of those taking the test were classified as LEP. The Oaxacan Indigenous Binational Front, a Fresno-based nonprofit organization, received a $25,000 grant from Oxfam America to help Mixtec citrus workers displaced by the December 1998 freeze. Tejon Ranch, one of the largest land owners in Kern county with 270,000 acres, in July 1999 announced plans to develop a 4,000-acre master-planned community on ranch land just south of the Kern County line in western Antelope Valley. Tejon stock is traded on the American Stock Exchange. Health. Medi-Cal is California's version of Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides medical assistance to poor persons, primarily poor women and children. A separate County Medical Services Program provides free (for those earning less than $570 a month) or low-cost health care to indigent residents aged 21 to 64 in 34 rural and agricultural counties. The Davis-based California Institute for Rural Studies, under a $810,000 grant from the California Endowment, is interviewing farm workers and their families to assess farm worker health in the major agricultural areas of the state. Farm workers are interviewed for 90 minutes about their households and incomes; their health conditions; the medical services they get, if any; how those services are paid for; and occupational issues such as pesticides and sanitary work conditions. Participants are rewarded with $30 and a physical exam at a local clinic; interviewers are paid $60 for each worker surveyed. The Farm Employers Labor Service, a subsidiary of the California Farm Bureau Federation, criticized the California Institute for Rural Studies study, saying that the authors reached their conclusions before the study began. FELS says that its survey of 491 agricultural employers in 1999 found that half of year-round farm workers are provided with employee-only medical benefits and half of these covered year-round workers may also cover their families. Only about seven percent of seasonal farm workers receive employer-provided medical insurance and it is primarily employee-only coverage. Voting. The US Department of Justice is investigating the at-large voting system of Santa Paula, a city of 27,000 in Ventura county that is 65 percent Hispanic. The five-member city council has four whites and one Hispanic. Some Latinos want to elect city council members by district, so that the estimated 4,500 Latinos among the 11,000 registered voters have a better chance of electing an Hispanic. The Santa Paula City Council is expected to discuss possible action on October 14. Paule Cruz Takash of UC Berkeley reviews three arguments for ending federal oversight of state and local voting procedures: 1) political exclusion by race and ethnicity is now rare; 2) barriers to minority political participation are internal to the populations and therefore not susceptible to external remedy; and 3) external intervention will not change anything, because electoral inequality is not based on discrimination. In 1988, in the case of Gomez vs. the City of Watsonville, at-large elections were overturned in the farm worker city of 33,000, and Latinos were elected to the city council. Takash argues that the Wastonville experience demonstrates that "judicial intervention ... was necessary to bring about minority political incorporation." Ernesto Portillo, Jr., "Farm workers' health under a microscope," San Diego Union-Tribune, September 26, 1999. T.J. Sullivan, "The face of change: Bert Corona is still fighting for Latino rights after more than 60 years," Ventura County Star, September 27, 1999. Takash, Paule Cruz. 1999. Remedying Racial and Ethnic Inequality in California Politics. UC Berkeley Chicano/Latino Policy Project. July. http://www.ucop.edu/cprc/Takash.html Terence Chia, "Huron sows the seeds of change," Fresno Bee, July 19, 1999. Kimberly Hayes Taylor, "The Hmong: A new wave," Star Tribune, October 25, 1998. U.S. Poverty Lowest Since 1979, Income Record High, (posted 10/5/99) Updated 12:09 AM ET October 1, 1999 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Poverty in the United States fell last year to
its lowest level in two decades as more The U.S. poverty rate fell for the fifth consecutive year in 1998 to 12.7 percent from 13.3 percent the previous year, a level not seen since 11.7 percent in 1979. "Our economy is now working for all the American people and it has
to continue," President Clinton said at a news But 34.5 million Americans still live without adequate economic resources,
the Census Bureau noted. The number of poor blacks remained unchanged at 9.1 million, as did the
number of poor Asians and Pacific Last year, there were about 200,000 fewer poor Hispanics and 700,000
fewer poor whites than in 1997, the bureau The number of poor children dropped to 13.5 million last year from 14.1
million in 1997 -- the second straight year Last year, the median household income for all Americans rose 3.5 percent
to a record high of $38,885 from But the income gap between whites and blacks increased in 1998 to $15,561
compared with $13,922 in 1997, a Clinton noted an additional 1.1 million people were no longer living
in poverty, praising the figure as evidence of Poverty in Clinton's home state of Arkansas fell, while it rose in 25
states and the District of Columbia. By state, the The difference in earnings between men and women dropped a penny, as
women earn 73 cents for every dollar Alaska had the highest median household income of $51,421 and Arkansas
the lowest with $27,471. In metropolitan areas, the poverty rate of people living in central cities
was 18.5 percent, more than twice the 8.7 Nationwide Employment
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