Farmworker News Article

[Guest guest]

Everyone,

Here is an article from the San Express that I thought you all

might find interesting.

-- Josh Shepherd

Resource Center Manager

National Center for Farmworker Health

(512) 312-5463

_______________________________________________________________________________

Could it work here?

Web Posted: 10/29/2004 05:09 PM CDT

Hernán Rozemberg

Express-News Immigration Writer

LEAMINGTON, Canada — He shuffled from one cucumber vine to the

next, his fingers twirling and hoisting the plants and ripping out

unwanted stems for deposit in a nearby pail.

(Bahram Mark Sobhani /

Express-News)

A Mexican farm worker calls

home in front of the Leamington (Ontario) Visitors Center.

Ignacio Colin, called

'Abuelo' by his

coworkers, trims leaves at the Chateau de Charmes vineyard in

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

Sliding a rickety wooden stool between vines, Esteban Mosqueda, a

long way from his home in Irapuato, Mexico, repeated the process for 12

hours one day last month.

It was a typical day for Mosqueda, who spends eight months a year

in Canada. He's directly responsible for 15,000 cucumber plants in this

family-run greenhouse, so he's got no time to waste.

"It's good to be able to work with papers," said Mosqueda, 50, who

picked grapes in California as an undocumented worker in the 1970s.

"It's not easy being so far from my kids for so long, but I'm here so

they can get a good education. I only went through elementary school."

Mosqueda is among thousands of Mexican farm workers who, instead of

embarking on illegal border crossings in search of U.S. jobs, legally

flock to Canada. While U.S. politicians debate whether and how to

create a guest worker program with Mexico, Canada has had one for three

decades.

The Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program was created in

1966 using Caribbean workers after farmers persuaded their government

they couldn't find locals to harvest crops.

In 1974 it expanded to include 203 workers from Mexico. Mexicans

eventually became farmers' top preference — nearly 11,000 worked this

year tending everything from tomatoes to grapes to tobacco.

Talk of a similar program in the United States didn't gain much

traction until President Bush called on Congress in January to enact

one.

U.S. farmers can use a government visa program to bring temporary

foreign farm workers. But many consider it a tangle of red tape and

don't bother, opting instead for the quick, easy hire of undocumented

migrants.

The system north of the border may offer an alternative. Visiting

Canada on Tuesday, Mexican President Vicente Fox said the

Canadian guest worker program already has set the standard.

"

It is a shining example," Fox said at a news conference in Ottawa.

Good money

Mexican and Canadian officials say the program's well-defined

recruiting, screening and contracting procedures, which connect workers

with employers and spell out housing, transportation and pay

conditions, have allowed it to grow and prosper.

Mexican farm workers are supposed to be treated just like

Canadians, getting minimum wage — $7.70 per hour in Ontario, about six

U.S. dollars — with taxes deducted.

The contracts guarantee at least eight hours' work per day, though

farmers need — and workers prefer — more than that, typically 60 to 75

hours per week. By law they can't get overtime pay, but they do get

medical coverage.

Growers can fire workers any time — there is no appeal.

Mosqueda, the worker meticulously tending cucumbers in the

Leamington greenhouse cited the bottom line: Good money is to be made

here.

Back home in Guanajuato he'd be lucky to make 600 pesos — about

U.S. $54 — in the same two-week period it takes to earn about 8,000

pesos, or U.S. $727, in Canada, he said.

That contrast has kept Mosqueda coming back for 15 years, allowing

him to take care of his 10 children and six grandchildren.

He's in a rare situation, the only foreign worker on a small farm.

The boss treats him well, he said. It gets lonely living in a modest

two-room trailer, but he'd rather have his space and stay focused on

putting his children through college.

The system is fair and meets the needs of producers who have a hard

time finding Canadian workers for low-paying jobs, said Sandy Mc,

Canada's director of foreign worker programs.

It has also provided Mexicans with badly needed opportunities to

trade their skills and sweat for much higher pay, said Hernán Aldrete,

who directs the program for the Mexican government.

"It's organized migration," Aldrete said. "We know exactly who's

going, where they're going, who they're working for, how to contact

them. Turns out to be a win-win for both countries."

Many Mexican workers here share that outlook. But not all feel so

lucky about their working and living conditions.

The downside

About 40 workers stood next to carts packed with plastic grocery bags

outside the Price Chopper supermarket on a Friday night last month,

waiting for cabs to take them back to their bunks.

Some gave a quiet nod of approval when asked about the program,

noting their experience mostly depends on the kind of patrón,

or boss, assigned to them.

Others spoke of getting ripped off, of not making enough to pay

income tax but having deductions taken anyway, of having unemployment

taxes withheld when foreigners, by law, cannot collect unemployment.

Many mentioned a medical care dilemma. Farmers, they said, tend to

regard sick or injured workers as a dent in their bottom line. When

workers do see a doctor, language and cultural barriers can lead to

inappropriate treatment.

Genaro Páez Constantino slipped and injured his leg in July while

tending tomatoes in a greenhouse here. All he wanted was a painkiller,

Páez said, but the boss said he had to follow the doctor's order, after

a quick examination, that he not return to work.

Seven weeks without pay was a devastating financial blow, Páez

said, but he couldn't leave early — it would break his contract and

he'd have to pay his way home.

The worst part was not knowing his rights, he said. Representatives

with Canada's United Food and Commercial Workers Union said they are

the only advocates for the guest workers.

Foreign workers are underpaid and overtaxed, they live in squalor,

and they're deprived of numerous labor protections, a union report

released this week concluded.

The Mexican Consulate in Toronto is responsible for protecting

workers. But the four-member staff is overwhelmed by having to serve

thousands of workers hundreds of miles away, said Fernández

from his 44th-floor office overlooking downtown Toronto.

Many workers said they don't feel supported by their government.

"The consulate is there for window-dressing," said , who didn't

want to give his last name for fear of reprisal. "They're on the side

of

patrones. If a worker has a problem, all they want is the problem

to go away — quick."

Apparently, complaints have reached the right ears. During his

visit to Canada this week, President Fox announced that a new consular

office will soon open in Leamington, Canada's "tomato capital" that now

hosts more than 4,000 Mexican workers.

Many laborers sneered when asked if they are on an equal footing

with Canadians. Some knew Canadian workers at their farms receiving as

much as $12 or $13 an hour.

Pressing just-picked, arm-length green tobacco leaves into a

trailer, Jesús grumbled that growers hire foreign workers for one

reason: high profits.

"Everybody knows we're the cheapest and hardest workers," he said.

"We get minimum pay for the most hours worked."

So why does he keep coming back? Simple: There are no jobs back

home and someone else would eagerly take his spot.

A costly investment

Canadian farmers say they constantly fight the notion they are wealthy

exploiters of foreign labor. Some growers make good profits, they say,

but the majority — small family farms — struggle to stay in business.

And each year they have a harder time employing Canadians because

locals opt for the country's generous welfare system, which pays them

more to stay home, farmers complained.

They've become so dependent on "offshore workers," they'd like

Canada to extend contracts to a whole year. It may not be perfect, but

the program is well organized and fills mutual needs, growers said.

The costs for transporting and housing workers add up to a sizable

investment against the risks of fickle weather, so farmers expect high

productivity from workers.

There's no paradox in being simultaneously demanding and just, said

Tom McElhone, whose family maintains a 150-acre tobacco and ginseng

farm in Teeterville, Ontario.

It's simply good business to keep workers content, so he can count

on them for years to come, he said.

"We're very considerate of the Mexicans," said McElhone, a

rosy-faced man who hired 14 Mexican workers this season.

"They're far away from home. They have problems like we all do," he

added, saying this year he paid for one worker's early trip home — his

son had died.

Poor living conditions have prompted complaints from workers and

warnings from government inspectors.

Many workers stay in dormitory-style housing with a common eating

space and worn-out furniture. Larger companies with dozens of workers

tend to jam-pack several bunk beds per room. Mattresses are often moldy

and smelly.

In the worst cases, officials have found cockroach-infested and

filthy dorms with overflowing toilets and no running water. Program

rules allow employers two warnings before being penalized.

Two who ignored orders to fix housing problems lost their workers

and were barred from the program last year, said Fernández, of the

Mexican Consulate in Toronto.

Jim Garrett, owner of Mori Farms in Niagara-on-the-Lake and

vice-president of FARMS, the growers association in Ontario, said

farmers have confronted, not ignored, such problems.

"If the program was that bad, would it have lasted 30 years?" asked

Garrett, a participant from its start. "Absolutely not. This is not a

private, hidden process. It's wide open, and there are proper

mechanisms for every aspect."

Community impact

Many towns would like migrants to stay year-round.

Consider Leamington, population 27,000, founded by Italian,

Lebanese and Portuguese immigrants in 1874 and a 45-minute drive from

Detroit.

Foreign workers live, shop and eat here, typically from March

through October. They attend church. They socialize at local bars and

play soccer at the high school field.

On Saturday night, the town comes alive as workers pedal bicycles

along the town's main drags, many in jeans, flannel shirts, cowboy

boots and baseball caps.

The Mexican Paradise bar is a favorite destination, an oasis where

they can forget work and the anguish of missing their families, drink a

beer, and dance to norteño music.

They can eat at any of seven Mexican restaurants that have sprung

up. Especially popular are the gargantuan lengua, menudo and chile

relleno plates served up at Tacos Tony. Business is steady all week,

but on Friday and Saturday nights, the cooks barely can keep up.

It only goes to show he had a good hunch about this growing

clientele, said owner "Tony" Hernández, who worked tomato

greenhouses for three years before opening the eatery.

"They need this — it's a little slice of home in a faraway land,"

said Hernández, rushing the next order to the kitchen on a Friday night

last month.

Cab companies also have flourished. Incessantly ringing phones made

it hard to talk with Rose, the dispatcher at Sun Parlor Taxi, who has

picked up enough Spanish to communicate with seasoned workers who call

her "Rosita."

Mayor is quick to praise Mexicans' work ethic and

willingness to put a chunk of their pay into the local economy. A

farmer who is considering hiring Mexican workers next year, said

he has encouraged residents to integrate them into the community.

But one community activist said most locals, especially old-timers,

are not so welcoming.

People who say everyone gets along just fine perhaps don't notice

locals cross the street when Mexican workers approach, said Joanne

Fillimore, whose nonprofit group offers English and computer classes.

"A lot of folks mumble under their breath that the Mexicans are

taking over, opening restaurants and stores," said Fillimore. "I call

that progress."

Few good options?

Bush's proposal for a national guest worker program is not a new idea.

The U.S. government has been importing thousands of farm workers — many

from Mexico — for decades.

They first came under the Bracero program, filling farm

jobs vacated by men who left to fight World War II. The problem-plagued

program was replaced in the 1950s by the H-2 visa category for

temporary workers.

Immigration reforms created the H-2A visa in 1986. It has become a de

facto U.S. guest worker program for more than 40,000 workers a

year.

But farmers say it's outdated, costly, and a bureaucratic

nightmare. Only 2 percent use it.

Academics and policy experts offer mixed analyses on the

adaptability of the Canadian model to the United States.

Agriculture industry lobbyists considered proposing it years ago,

but backed away.

Letting growers decide pay rates would be met with stifling

opposition from U.S. immigrant advocacy groups, unions and government

officials, said Sharon , spokeswoman for the National Council of

Agricultural Employers.

"We would like to have a program here like they have in Canada,"

said. "But we had to put the brakes on the idea because of the

lack of labor protections."

Managing a program on the Canadian scale is one thing, but

grappling with 500,000 to 600,000 workers who could qualify for a U.S.

program is a more ominous task, said Philip , agriculture and

resource economics professor at the University of California at .

Basok, Canada's leading academic on guest worker issues, said

she would like to see abusive aspects of the Canadian program fixed

before it is adopted elsewhere.

Workers should have a more viable avenue for complaints, and the

government needs to make sure growers treat foreign workers like their

Canadian employees, said Basok, who teaches sociology and anthropology

at the University of Windsor.

Griffith, an anthropology professor at East Carolina

University who wrote a report comparing the Canadian program to the

H-2A visa for Canada's North-South Institute, said one solution would

be a plan using the best features of each.

Even then, Griffith said, problems wouldn't simply go away.

"I'm not entirely convinced that any guest worker program can work

without becoming an exploitative system," he said.

Back in Leamington, Severo Primitivo Francisca kicked his worn

brown boots up on a picnic table outside a workers dormitory at Great

Northern Hydroponics, pondering his 23 years working in Canadian

greenhouses.

Another 13-hour day was over. Soon, the growing season would end

and he'd return home.

In his first year there were just a handful of Mexican workers,

being paid U.S. $2.80 an hour. Now, bosses are more demanding, eager

for higher profits, he said.

It always has been and will remain an unfair system for Mexicans,

concluded Primitivo, 54. But it's the only way he has been able to put

four of his children through college — two more to go.

He'll keep coming back as long as they'll hire him — unless he can

find legal work in the United States, that is.

"A program like this one between the U.S. and Mexico would be

great," Primitivo said. "I'd be closer to home, and I'd make more

money."