Migrant Farmworkers: A Hidden Underclass This article touches on many of the problems that migrant farmworkers face in the US. While this article is largely based on California 1998 statistics, the situation for migrant farmworkers in the US has not changed since then. They live a difficult life, making low wages, living in harsh conditions and many have to hide from the INS, as they are here in the US illegally. As difficult as their circumstances in the US are, most of California's migrant farmworkers come here, because the pay is better than in Mexico. BACKGROUND California is the nation's largest agricultural state. It produces more than 250 different crops valued at nearly $25 billion. California farmers are changing their crops to respond to consumer demand, producing more fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts. These high valued-added crops require more labor. During 1996, California produced nearly 14 million tons of fruits and nuts and 20 million tons of vegetables. This was more than half of the total U.S. production. A change in the structure of the agricultural industry is also underway, as small farms are consolidated into fewer, bigger farms. Larger farms often grow a variety of crops over a longer season, providing extended periods of work for farmworkers. Finally, large numbers of recent immigrants from Mexico, Central America and Asia, many with low educational skills, provide a ready labor force. These trends interact to mean that more farmworkers than ever are working in California, and that many are working for longer periods of time in one area, some as residents. Notably, around 55 percent of the state's agricultural workers are employed in the San Joaquin Valley. Although farmworkers play a significant role in one of the state's most important industries, their working conditions are difficult: low earnings, poor or no health benefits, substandard housing, physically taxing and sometimes unsafe work conditions, and long hours. Four-fifths of U.S. farmworkers earn less than $10,000 per year. Farmworker income is greatly affected by weather and crop conditions which can delay work in the fields. For example, this year's late rains have disrupted employment patterns and caused an estimated wage loss similar in magnitude to that of the 1991 freeze in the San Joaquin Valley citrus crop. Unemployment insurance will offset at best one third of the lost wages. In January, Governor Wilson's Farm Worker Services Coordinating Council held six hearings throughout the state. Testimony provided by farm workers, local housing and health care officials, farm worker advocacy groups and others revealed a broad range of concerns and areas of need which have long existed. These include insufficient affordable housing, health and safety problems, low educational attainment, lax enforcement of existing labor laws, and lack of information about and poor access to social services. In March and April 1998) the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ARLB) held a series of hearings across the state to consider revamping field-access rules. These rules give union representatives a limited right to enter private property in order to organize workers. Testimony from various individuals revealed the same issues identified at the Governor's 1992 hearings. Conditions have not improved since 1992 and, in the case of housing, health, and safety, may have deteriorated. Two main factors lie behind the worsening housing shortage: there are more farm workers and many farmers have ceased to provide housing. A shrinking supply with an increasing demand has led to higher prices in rural areas, resulting in housing costs that are high relative to farmworker income. Farmers reportedly provide less housing than in the past because few units meet federal and state regulatory standards. Many farmers hire their workers through farm labor contractors who directly employ, pay, and supervise the workers. Testimony at the Governor's hearings, and at the ARLB hearings, indicates that some farm labor contractors pay farmworkers by piece-rate, row rate or tree rate, and that these working arrangements sometimes can lead to working below the minimum wage. Some farm labor contractors run a closed shop, controlling housing, transportation, food and other necessities. There are many laws that set standards for worker safety and employer labor practices. The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, Department of Industrial Relations, enforces the state Labor Code for all California wage earners. The Division conducted 455 agricultural investigations in 1997, compared to 647 in 1993. Of the 455 employers investigated, 130 were cited for child labor, workers compensation violations, payments in cash and minimum wage violations. Cal/OSHA is charged with enforcing laws and standards protecting worker health and safety on the job. Cal/OSHA conducted 298 field sanitation inspections of agricultural employers in 1997; 56 percent were out of compliance. We estimate that there are 154,000 agricultural employers in California (assuming that two farm labor contractors are employed at each of 77,000 farms). Farm workers and their children face many barriers in acquiring education. Children often work in the fields along with their parents to supplement the family income. Parents may be too tired at the end of a ten hour day to attend English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Those that do attend classes have a difficult time, since their educational level in their native languages is often low. Farm workers and their children live in rural areas, where classes may not be available. Migration patterns and lack of transportation are other problems. Farmworkers often face serious health problems, given the taxing physical labor required to tend and harvest many crops. Agriculture is a fairly dangerous occupation, with equipment accidents and pesticide exposure as primary concerns. Most farmworkers do not receive health care insurance through their employment, many are not insured. Wages at or below poverty level and unsanitary working conditions are linked to health problems such as malnutrition, poor dental care, communicable and parasitic infectious diseases and development disabilities in children. There is a serious deficiency of data about the farmworker population. Most importantly, this population is generally undercounted by the Census. There are probably many more farmworkers in California than official records suggest. Inaccurate data makes it difficult to determine the seriousness of housing, health and educational needs and the types of services required by this population. It also means that California is not receiving its fair share of federal funds for programs (such as the Job Training Partnership Act) which are allocated on a population basis. Another useful source of data, the California Employment Development Department's agricultural survey, ended as of December, 1996, due to "complications with data sources." CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE IS BECOMING MORE LABOR INTENSIVE California is the nation's largest food and agricultural producer, producing nearly $25 billion in value during 1996. Nearly one-third (29 million) of California's 100 million acres of land are devoted to agricultural production, producing 55 percent of the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables. Americans and consumers in other countries demand more fruits and vegetables than ever before. To satisfy this increased demand for fresh produce, high-value, labor-intensive specialty vegetables, fruits and nuts are increasingly replacing the cultivation of mechanized crops such as hay, oats, and barley. Eighty percent of California agriculture is now planted in labor-intensive crops. For example, the cut flower and ornamental plant industry is the most rapidly expanding segment of California farm output: "Farm cash receipts from the sale of U.S.-grown ornamental horticultural products now bring American farmers more revenue than does all of U.S. wheat or cotton production." These crops require more farm labor: there has been a 22 percent increase in seasonal labor demand over the last 20 years. For example, over a seven year period, farm employment doubled during the peak spring and summer months in Santa Barbara County; "strawberries alone added approximately 8,000 new jobs by increasing cultivation from under 1,000 to nearly 5,000 acres". One researcher concludes that, It is the state's new-found prosperity in labor-intensive, high-value crops that ultimately attracts immigrant and migrant farm workers from Mexico. And it is the affordability of Mexican immigrant and migrant labor that, in part, explains the booming agricultural economy. Demand for farm labor is highly dependent on the many natural uncertainties associated with agriculture such as bad weather and pests. The 1998 growing season was delayed due to the state's long rainy spring, resulting in less labor demand early in the season. Conversely, according to an article in the Fresno Bee, farmers are concerned about potential labor shortages later on, when many crops may ripen at once. ESTIMATES OF THE NUMBER OF FARMWORKERS VARY Estimates of the number of farmworkers vary significantly depending on the source of the data, from 470,900 (EDD, August 1997) to 900,000. Noted researcher Dr. Philip Martin of UC Davis states that "California fruit and vegetable production will continue to require about 800,000 to 900,000 workers sometime during the year to fill the equivalent of 300,000 to 350,000 year-round jobs." The 1997 March Current Population Survey (CPS) estimated that there were 342,000 farm workers in the state. However, this yearly survey may significantly underestimate the number of farmworkers since many do not start work until the summer. A number of farmworkers live in unofficial dwellings, which are often missed by the Census Bureau, also contributing to an undercount. For example, according to the Parlier Health study in Fresno County, (see page 24 for a more detailed discussion) about 28 percent of farmworkers were not counted by the U.S. Census because they lived in unofficial dwellings. The characteristics of many migrant and seasonal farmworkers make it difficult to collect data on their situation. They often do not have a fixed address and work intermittently in various agricultural and non-agricultural occupations during a single year, with only casual employer-employee links. Many live in rural, often remote, areas. Many farmworkers have limited English-speaking abilities, relatively low educational levels, and are unfamiliar with or distrustful of government agencies and agents, such as Census enumerators. WHO IS A FARMWORKER? The March, 1997, Current Population Survey found that farmworkers are overwhelmingly Latinos (78 percent) and male (72 percent). Nearly 70 percent of farmworkers are not citizens; by definition, these include legal residents, workers with a permit or undocumented. A 1988 survey by the U.S. Department of Labor found that 92 percent of California fieldworkers were not American-born. They were mostly from Mexico and Central America. A later survey found that 80 percent were male, two-thirds were under age 35, and seven percent under age 18. The National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), an interview-based survey of people performing seasonal agricultural jobs, provides an extensive picture of migrant farmworkers. The 1993 NAWS found that about "four out of ten farm workers migrate, for at least part of the year, in order to obtain work. Three of ten workers are 'shuttle migrants' between Mexico and the U.S., while one in ten workers 'follows the crops'." Only 3 percent of the migrants are non-Hispanic U. S. born workers. Migrants are defined by NAWS as someone who travels 75 or more miles in search of farm work. Farmworkers are not a homogenous group, either in terms of demographics, employment or economic well-being. For example, a significant population of Asian immigrants works in agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, which is home to over 65,000 Lao, Hmong, and Mien refugees and their families. At one end of the spectrum is a farm worker in the Salinas Valley who may have worked for the same employer for a number of years, owns his house, speaks English, and has children in school. On the other end is a 19 year old from Oaxaca, Mexico, who has just paid a "coyote" $1,200 to help him cross the border. He travels to an area where others from his village are located and finds a job through a farm labor contractor. This farmworker speaks no English and in many cases does not speak, read or write Spanish very well or speaks an Indian language. He will most likely return to Oaxaca as soon as the harvest season is over. Mixtecs The Mixtecs are an indigenous people from a poverty-stricken rural region in southern Mexico, Oaxaca. They speak their native dialect, limited Spanish and very little English. Most are illiterate. As a group they have experienced discrimination in Mexico, a pattern that can continue in the isolated rural communities of California. According to a 1991 California Institute for Rural Studies estimate, there were between fifteen and thirty thousand Mixtecs working and living in agricultural towns across California. A more recent estimate is that 50,000 Mixtec Indians live in California, over one third of them in Madera County. INCOME About 80 percent of U.S. farm workers earn less than $10,000 per year; half earn less than $5,000. The 1995 California Farm Employers Labor Service (a subsidiary of California's Farm Bureau Federation) wage survey found that wages for entry-level seasonal farm workers averaged $5.22 per hour. According to the March 1997 CPS, California farmworkers have the lowest family income of any occupation: $17,700, with a median income of an individual worker at $9,828 (see chart A). A majority of farmworkers work nine or more months during the year. Nearly one third report working 46 or more hours during the week. Many farmworkers patch together a series of short-term agricultural jobs in order to provide an annual income for themselves and their families. It will be more difficult to assess California farmworker income in the future. The Employment Development Department reports that it suspended collecting data for its agricultural survey as of December, 1996, due to "complications with data sources." Some farmworkers earn less than the minimum wage. This occurs because in many instances workers are paid on a piece-rate basis. For example, a 1991 survey in the raisin industry found that workers were paid an average of 16 cents per tray. Workers averaged nine hours of work per day and earnings ranged from below the minimum wage at the time ($4.25) to $6.25, with a few workers reporting wages up to $8.00 per hour. Worker earnings determined on a piece-rate basis (or per tree or row) are sensitive to several factors including worker skill, vine and crop conditions, weather conditions, and the piece-rate paid by employers. The uncertainties associated with agriculture as a business also affect farmworker income, particularly the weather. A rainy spring has delayed the 1998 growing season, resulting in less work. A UC agricultural advisor estimates a loss of $6 to $10 million in farmworker wages in Fresno County alone, spread among the county's 15,000-20,000 seasonal farmworkers. Unemployment insurance will offset at most one third of the lost wages. This impact is similar to that of the 1990-91 freeze in the Valley citrus crop. At that time, state legislation was enacted that extended unemployment benefits for another 26 weeks for farmworkers, packing house employees, and other workers who lost their jobs as a result of the freeze. Farmworker families typically make ends meet by pooling their resources. For example, a family of six may have at least two family members working full-time while two others work part-time and intermittently. Family members share their resources in an attempt to prosper and provide for improved opportunities for future generations. "Despite having low income levels and large families, rural immigrant settlers rarely use welfare services and other forms of state and federal public assistance." EMPLOYMENT Farm work is seasonal and most farmworkers experience regular periods of unemployment. Some do not qualify for unemployment insurance. California counties in which agriculture is an important industry typically have very high unemployment rates. Imperial County had the highest unemployment rate of any county in May, 1998, at 22.8 percent. Other large agricultural counties had unemployment rates above ten percent. However, unemployment is more concentrated in farmworker communities. For example, 90 percent of the residents of the City of Orange Cove in Fresno County work in agriculture. According to a recent article in the Fresno Bee, "the impoverished city is beset with double-digit unemployment-about 25%--even during the summer months." These impoverished rural communities are growing in California, as illustrated in the following case studies. HOUSING According to the March, 1997, CPS survey, farmworkers have the second lowest rate of home ownership of any occupational group (after private housekeepers): 38 percent live in a home that the family owns. Insufficient income is a serious barrier to home ownership; fewer than three percent of non-migrant seasonal workers qualify for market rate financing for new housing. About one-fourth of all farmworkers live on the farm where they work. Nearly 40 percent live away from their families while doing farm work. At the national level, an estimated 800,000 farmworkers lack adequate shelter. In 1995, researchers at the University of California at Davis conducted an assessment of the housing needs of California farmworkers. The study estimated that 250,000 farmworkers and their family members had inadequate housing, including 90,000 migrant workers and over 160,000 non-migrant seasonal farmworkers. "The housing shortage is so severe that in harvest-time visits to farming communities…over the last year, workers were found packed 10 or 12 into trailers and sleeping in garages, tool sheds, caves, fields and parking lots." The amount of farmworker housing registered with the state has declined dramatically in the last two decades. In 1955, growers registered more than 9,000 facilities to house migrant and seasonal workers. By 1982, only 1,414 employer-owned camps were registered. In 1994, only 900 camps were registered, with a capacity of 21,310 workers.40 In 1998, according to the Department of Housing and Community Development, there are only 500 farm labor camps registered. In November 1991, Governor Pete Wilson created the Farm Worker Services Coordinating Council by Executive Order (W-2-91). The Council was charged with coordinating state services to farmworkers. The Council issued a report in November 1992, identifying the need for safe, affordable housing as the number one issue of concern. In testimony given to the Council, employers expressed their frustration with government regulations that they contended discouraged them from providing housing. In some instances, they simply had bull-dozed their labor camps. The Department of Housing and Community Development undertook a major effort to review the status of farmworker housing programs in the late 1980s. Four public hearings were held during 1987 to determine the appropriate roles for the state government and the private sector in providing housing for migrant farmworkers. The Department issued a report with 13 findings, including the five listed below: 1. A majority of migrant farmworkers who do not live in government-sponsored labor camps live in seriously substandard conditions. 2. Substandard housing conditions exist in areas with significant seasonal agricultural production. 3. Housing conditions are a major problem for both single migrant workers and migrant families. 4. Poor housing hurts migrant children's health, education, and general welfare. 5. Local officials vary in their support for housing migrant families. The 1992 Parlier Health Survey found individuals living in tool sheds, garages, informal shacks constructed of plywood or sheet metal, abandoned automobiles, and even underneath porches. These living arrangements housed 28 percent of the total number of residents of the community. The researchers found that "back house" residents had less income and utilized social services, such as food stamps and MediCare/Medicaid, at a lower rate. In 1991, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found 191 agricultural labor camps in California were in violation of the nation's Safe Drinking Water Act. A group of farmworkers in Soledad, California solved their housing problem by forming an association to purchase their mobile home park. The "Cooperativa Santa Elena" was purchased with the assistance of legal-aid agencies and the National Cooperative Bank, a privately held institution that supports low-income housing. About 100 families live in the mobile home park, each paying about $150 per month. "This is the only trailer park in the country that's owned and operated by campesinos." HEALTH Agriculture is the second most dangerous occupation in the United States. Data from the California workers compensation insurance system show that in 1992 California farmworkers experienced more than 35,000 on-the-job injuries, or 11.6 reported injuries per 100 full-time employees. In 1990, there were over 22,000 work-related disabling injuries to farmworkers in California alone. Each year, around 40 California farmworkers die on the job. According to the National Migrant Resources Program, the life expectancy of migrant farmworkers is 49 years, in contrast to the nation's average of 75 years. CHILDREN'S HEALTH There are no comprehensive statistics of the total number of children working in agriculture. A Government Accounting Office study estimates that about 25 percent of farm labor in the U.S. is performed by children. The labor of these children is important to their family income. Many farmworkers are paid by piece-rate and their children can help to fill bins of fruit or vegetables, thin and harvest orchards, weed plants, or care for farm animals. Lack of childcare is another reason that children are in the fields. Parents bring their young children to work because they have no other place to leave them. As a result, children are exposed to the same hazards associated with farm work. A review of the literature found that: "Children account for a disproportionate share of agricultural workplace fatalities and disabling injuries." These include farm machinery, pesticides, poor field sanitation, substandard or nonexistent housing, unsafe transportation, and fatigue from doing physically demanding work for long periods. Children are more susceptible to pesticide exposure than adults because they absorb more pesticides per pound of body weight and their developing nervous systems and organs are vulnerable. "A recent study in New York State found over 40 percent of the interviewed children had worked in fields that were wet with pesticides, and 40 percent had been sprayed while in the fields or orchards." Pesticide exposure results from touching the residues, breathing the air, drinking the water, eating the food and from inadequate sanitary facilities for washing, drinking water, and toilets. Commonly reported health problems among the children of migrant farmworkers include lower height and weight, respiratory diseases, parasitic conditions, skin infections, chronic diarrhea, Vitamin A deficiency, and undiagnosed congenital and developmental problems. Children are also at high risk of infectious diseases that are spread by poor sanitation in the fields and in substandard housing. Heat-related illnesses include heat stroke, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and dermatitis or skin rash. Children in the fields are injured falling from heights and by faulty equipment, knives, machetes, and vehicles. Irrigation ditches can be dangerous, as some children drown in them. Migrant farmworkers and their families have poor physical health compared to the general population. The infant mortality rate among migrants is 125 percent higher than among the general population. A survey of migrant women and children in Wisconsin found that 11 percent of migrant children had chronic health conditions compared to national rate of 3 percent. INCOME AND POVERTY In terms of family income, farmworkers rank the lowest of any group with an average annual income for the family of $17,700. At the high end are professionals and managers with family incomes over $60,000. A typical farmworker makes $9,828 a year, higher only than private household. The difference comes in the number of persons that work in the family and in the occupations of these other persons. For instance, a person in sales has a relatively low individual income, but if married to a technician, the family income increases to $50,000. Based on both family income and family size, research shows that farmworkers have the highest poverty rates, with 38 percent of them being at or below the federal poverty level. MONTHS AND HOURS WORKED AND HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE Despite the seasonal nature of the job, more than half of farmworkers work 9 months or more. Nevertheless, they are the group with the smallest percentage of workers working year-round. Two other occupations that appear to be seasonal in nature, general laborers and protective, have two-thirds of their workers working 9 months or more. Farmworkers typically work more hours. Aside from managers, farmworkers have the highest proportion in terms of hours worked. Thirty percent of farmworkers report that they usually work 46 hours or more. This is even more than those working in transportation. Farmworkers, in part because of the seasonal nature of the job, tend to lack health insurance coverage. The lack of coverage is not limited to just farmworkers, however. There are five occupations where at least thirty-four percent of the workers lack health insurance. These occupations are private household (45%), farmworkers (40%), assemblers (40%), general laborers (38%), and other service (34%). CONCLUSIONS What now? Many experts and social activists have called for reactivating the migrant worker program that used to legally allow workers from Mexico to come across the border to work on US farms. This would allow them access to additional legal and health services. The reality is that no one institution by itself can achieve the long-run goal. Cooperation is needed from many different agencies and institutions. These institutions include, but are not limited to, churches, schools, philanthropic agencies, the State and Federal Government. What could Government do to modernize and improve agricultural labor conditions? Specific policy suggestions are listed on the following pages. To summarize: (1) end discrimination against farmworkers in labor laws so that farmworkers enjoy rights on the job that other occupations enjoy, (2) enforce labor laws more effectively and improve access to the justice system to implement farmworkers' rights and to protect law-abiding employers against unfair competition by labor-law violators, (3) promote better wages, working conditions and housing to attract and stabilize the agricultural labor force, increase productivity, continue growth of exports, and reduce poverty and its consequences. I. End the Discriminatory Treatment of Farmworkers in America's Employment Laws. Congress should stop denying farmworkers the same legal rights on the job as other workers receive. Some of the many examples include: A. Overtime pay, under federal law, does not apply to farmworkers. They deserve time-and-one-half pay after 40 hours per week, like everyone else. California farmworkers receive overtime after 10 hours per day or 6 days in a week. B. Federal child labor law permits children to work at younger ages and at more hazardous tasks in agriculture than in other, less dangerous occupations. Farmworker children deserve at least the same protection as other children. C. Access to sanitary facilities at work - toilets, handwashing facilities and drinking water - should occur at all farms. The ability to wash one's hands with soap and water is one of the great health advances, limiting the spread of disease. Access to toilets during work is not only a serious health issue, but also a question of human dignity. Yet an annual rider on OSHA's appropriations severely restricts the "field sanitation standard" to farms with 11 or more employees. D. Unemployment insurance compensation is denied to many seasonal farmworkers despite their need for such coverage. The Unemployment Advisory Council appropriately recommended that Congress eliminate the Federal Unemployment Tax Act's exceptions for agricultural employers, including those which pay less than $20,000 in payroll in a calendar quarter, or use farm labor contractors (growers could use crew leaders but should be jointly liable). E. Workers' compensation is unavailable to many injured farmworkers due to state laws that exclude or discriminate against farm work, even though farmworkers cannot afford health care and suffer higher injury rates than most occupations. F. Many farmworkers are excluded from the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour and other labor protections through various special exemptions for agriculture that should be ended. For example, the wage-hour laws exclude agricultural employers who did not, in a single calendar quarter during a year, use more than 500 man-days of farm labor (e.g., about 6 full-time workers during a 3-month season). G. Federal law does not protect agricultural workers from retaliation against labor organizing and union membership. At a minimum, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA) should prohibit employers from retaliating or discriminating against workers for their union membership, labor organizing or similar activities to protect workers' interests. H. Attorneys fees are available to most successful litigants workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act and civil rights law, but not to farmworkers under AWPA. Attorneys fees awards should be available to attract private attorneys to farmworker cases. I. Guestworkers under the H-2A program are excluded from AWPA, the principal federal labor law for farmworkers. Consequently, H-2A workers are not entitled to disclosures of job terms during recruitment, transportation safety requirements, or access to federal courts. Such discrimination is an incentive for employers to replace U.S. workers with guestworkers, and violates NAFTA's labor side agreement, the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, which prohibits discrimination in labor laws against "migrant workers." II. Enforce Labor Laws in the Agricultural Industry and Grant Farmworkers Meaningful Access to the Justice System LONG TERM In looking for solutions, however, we have to look beyond ethnicity, especially since persons of many different racial and cultural backgrounds are migrant farmworkers. Among the farmworkers can be found not just native Mexicans, but Hispanic-Americans, Asians, Africans and people from all over South America. Ultimately, Americans will have to get used to paying more for the food we buy at restaurants and grocery stores. The low salaries paid to farmworkers will not be able to remain as low as they are now. One way or another, the current system will change.

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