Report of The Commission On Agricultural Workers. v.2: Public Domain, Google-Digitized

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Report of the Commission on Agricultural Workers. v.2
Unted States.
Washngton, D.C. : Commsson on Agrcutura Workers, |1993|
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.32106011888036
Public Domain, Google-digitized
http://w w w .hathi tr us t.o r g /acces s _ us e# pd- g o o g le
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Tabe of Contents
oume I - Case Studes and Pesearch Peports t
Tabe of Contents ,
Pesearch Peports
Introducton
Case Studes
The Tomato Industry n Caforna and Ba|a Caforna 3
The Ctrus Industry n Caforna and Arzona 5
The Pasn Industry n Caforna 103
The Agrcutura Industres n 0regon 13
The Appe and Asparagus Industres n Washngton 221
The Pcke Cucumber and Appe Industres n Southwest Mchgan 29
The Appe Industry n ew ork and Pennsyvana 3 9
The Peach Industry n Georga and South Carona 445
The Wnter egetabe Industry n South Te as 523
The Wnter egetabe Industry n South Forda 5 3
U.S. Farmworkers n the Post-IPCA Perod 35
The ffect of IPCA on Farm mpoyment and Wages 01
SAWs Workng n Agrcuture, 1989-1991 19
An Assessment of the Process Underyng PAW Cacuatons 39
IPCA and the Peatonshp Between Farm and onfarm Wages 83
IPCA and red Farm Labor s Share of Cash Pecepts from Marketng 99
mpoyment Trends n the Unted States and Seven ey Agrcutura States 813
mpoyers, mpoyment, and Wages Pad n Caforna 82
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Introducton to Case Studes
The Commsson on Agrcutura Workers was created
to provde answers to some basc questons about the
Immgraton Peform and Contro Act of 198 (IPCA) and
ts mpact on the farm abor market and the suppy of
agrcutura abor. Appro matey one-haf of the questons
referred to the mpact of IPCA on workers and on the
adequacy of the abor suppy.1 The others were such tme-
ess questons as the ndustry s need for a foregn abor
force and the e tent of ts reance on a temporary work
force.2
The Commsson responded to ts Congressona man-
date wth an ambtous research program of case studes,
anayses of natona, regona and state data sets, and nfor-
maton obtaned through pubc hearngs. The case studes,
an ntegra part of the research program, nvoved the
n-depth descrpton and anayss of oca agrcutura abor
markets and ndustres. These studes provded nformaton
unobtanabe through other methods and sources, as we
as the necessary te ture for nterpretng such other nfor-
maton. Usng a mutpe case study approach desgned by
the Commsson, ten oca studes were conducted through-
out the Unted States.
Case study stes were seected3 wth regard to the
dversty of U.S. frut, vegetabe, and hortcutura spe-
caty (F ) producton, wth each study representng a
ma|or abor market type and regon. The agrcutura pro-
vsons of IPCA apped to workers n seasona agrcutura
servces (SAS),4 however the aw was key to most heav-
y affect those sectors empoyng the ma|orty of seasona
workers, or F agrcuture.
The Farm Labor Market n the Unted States
Most seasona farmworkers n the Unted States have
n common ow annua earnngs, dffcut workng cond-
tons, and mted opportuntes for economc advance-
ment. Despte these commonates, n many ways the
natona agrcutura abor market s best vewed as a seres
of reatvey dscrete oca unts, dstnct from the arger
nonagrcutura abor market as we as from each other.
The dversty of these oca abor markets s apparent on
many eves. They are characterzed by a varety of dffer-
ng structura reatonshps among growers, abor market
ntermedares, workers, and a number of prvate and pub-
c agences that serve the needs of empoyers and empoy-
ees. These reatonshps can be e tremey nforma, as n
recrutment strateges whereby farm abor contractors pck
1 These ncuded such questons as the mpact of the Speca Agrcutura Worker (SAW) egazaton provsons on the wages, workng
condtons, and abty of farmworkers to organze and on the abty of the agrcutura ndustry to compete n the nternatona
market whether newy egazed workers reman empoyed n agrcuture and the mpact of both egazaton and empoyer sanctons
on the adequacy of the suppy of agrcutura abor.
2 These questons have been at ssue for over 100 years, ever snce the frst mmgraton programs worked to suppement the
agrcutura abor force n Caforna.
3 An Advsory Commttee consstng of Demetros Papademetrou from the Department of Labor, Dane Sumner and Pobert Cotrane
from the Department of Agrcuture, Pobert Warren from the Immgraton and aturazaton Servce, and ames Wetze from the
Bureau of the Census revewed and made recommendatons to the Commsson regardng the awardng of specfc grants for the
case studes.
4 The ega defnton of Seasona Agrcutura Servces (SAS) deveoped by the U.S. Department of Agrcuture specfcay for IPCA
( CFP Part 1(d)) ncuded work n practcay a crops, e cept hay, sage, grans used e cusvey for feed, and a work wth
anmas. Sugar cane was aso e cuded. In addton to F agrcuture, SAS crops ncuded grans used for human consumpton as
we as Spansh reeds and sod. A SAS worker s anyone workng n these crops n the fed, ncudng fed packers, machne operators,
and fed supervsors.
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Commsson on Agrcutura Workers
up workers aong a stretch of hghway or growers post
sgns on ther gates requestng addtona pckers. 0r they
can be hghy structured, as s the -2A foregn worker
program wth detaed government standards for most as-
pects of the empoyment reatonshp. The abor market s
heterogenety s furthered by the varyng demands and
seasons of dfferent crops, eves of mechanzaton, crop-
png strateges, and physca pro mty to abor sources.
The ethnc composton of a partcuar agrcutura
abor force provdes another dstngushng feature. Whe
the ma|orty of seasona farmworkers currenty workng n
the Unted States were born n Me co, these workers are
drawn from dfferent states and provnces n Me co from
vages and ctes and from dverse soca casses. Most
speak Spansh, athough an ncreasng number are fuent
ony n one of severa Indan anguages. In contrast, n some
areas the work force s predomnanty from Centra Amer-
can countres or the Carbbean, whe a sgnfcant number
of Afrcan-Amercans, Puerto Pcans, and Southeast
Asans contnue to work n many parts of the Unted States.
Fnay, foregn-born workers often construct compe so-
ca networks whch utmatey nk specfc crops, regons,
and even ndvdua empoyers wth vages n Latn
Amerca and the Carbbean, servng to further dvde the
agrcutura abor market.
Commsson-sponsored Case Studes
Based on such varaton n the ma|or characterstcs of
crops, workers, and empoyers, specfc agrcutura abor
markets whch woud capture much of the range were
seected for case study anayss. The specfc varabes
consdered n seectng the case study stes ncuded ength
and tme of harvest geographc regon access to adequate
oca abor potenta for mechanzaton reatve access to
nearby nonfarm |obs crop dversty or avaabty of other
farmwork to e tend the season composton of the work
force (ethncty, age, gender, and ega status) hstorca
e panson or contracton of the partcuar growng area
and e tent of nternatona competton. The stes and com-
modtes dentfed for case study anayss and e amned
n the foowng chapters are:
Fresh market tomatoes n the San oaqun aey and
San Dego County, Caforna and Ba|a Caforna
Ctrus n Tuare County, Caforna and uma
County, Arzona
Pasn grapes n Fresno County, Caforna
Pears, berres, nursery products, and Chrstmas trees
n the Wamette aey, 0regon
Asparagus and appes n the akma aey, Wash-
ngton
Cucumbers and appes n southwest Mchgan
Appes n the udson aey and Wayne County,
ew ork and southcentra Pennsyvana
Peaches n Peach and Tayor Countes, Georga and
dgefed, Sauda, and Spartanburg Countes, South
Carona
Wnter vegetabes n south Te as
Wnter vegetabes n south Forda
Case Study Methodoogy
A case study has been defned as
... a method for earnng about a compe
nstance, based on a comprehensve under-
standng of that nstance obtaned by e tensve
descrpton and anayss ... (GA0 198 :9).
A case study s generay the preferred methodoogy
when the questons of how and why gude deveop-
ment of the research desgn. Drawng from mutpe data
sources and keepng n mnd the broad conte t, a case study
approach aows one to e amne the nterreatonshp of
dfferent groups wthn a system, to e pore the reasons
behnd unantcpated consequences , and to utmatey
pant a reatvey compete pcture of a process of change.
Identfyng changes brought about by a far-reachng na-
tona pocy such as IPCA requres not ony an e amna-
ton of crcumstances pror and subsequent to enactment of
the Act, but a consderaton of other varabes that coud
cause any dentfed changes to occur. For e ampe, a drop
n tomato producton n south Forda n 1990 sgnaed not
abor shortages brought about as a resut of IPCA, but a
devastatng freeze. Weather, pests, dseases, avaabty of
partcuar chemcas, other egsaton (such as changes n
state or federa mnmum wage or n requrements for fed
santaton), and natona and nternatona market opportu-
ntes or restrctons, a nfuence the costs and utmatey
eves of producton of fresh fruts and vegetabes. Lke-
wse, human behavor cannot be understood as smpy
another nput to the system. Indvduas and groups nter-
pret and respond to events dfferenty. The type of n-depth
anayss possbe through case studes s necessary frst to
dentfy and unrave these dfferent nfuences, and second
to recognze the dfferenta mpact of a snge pocy on
the varous types of abor markets n the Unted States.
Work for each case study was based on three sources:
background documents, unstructured ntervews wth oca
observers, and structured ntervews wth workers, abor
market ntermedares, empoyers, and former farmwork-
ers. ust as case study stes were chosen n a representatve

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rather than random manner, ntervewees kewse were
dentfed through a representatve rather than fuy random
seecton process. ach case study researcher seected re-
spondents for both structured and unstructured ntervews
from a stratfed group, assurng that a the sgnfcant
subgroups n the popuaton were represented. The goa
was not statstca vadty, but wde-rangng coverage.
Three types of nformaton were sought from the n-
tervews. The frst was prmary descrptve and was to
dentfy such ssues as wages, benefts, empoyment hs-
tory, and abor productvty. Aso covered were changes n
croppng and yed patterns, marketng opportuntes, and
eves of mechanzaton. To assure data were gathered
through a standardzed procedure, questonnares and pro-
tocos were desgned by Commsson staff, fed tested n
varous regons, then modfed as approprate for each area
by the case study researchers, wth utmate Commsson
approva. uestonnares were competed, durng face-to-
face ntervews, wth workers, growers, farm abor contrac-
tors or other ntermedares, and former farmworkers.
uestons were both cosed- and open-ended, aowng for
e panaton and nterpretaton of the answer by each re-
spondent. Pesutng data measured the type and e tent of
change snce IPCA and dentfed the specfc concerns
characterstc of each of the four groups of respondents.
The second type of nformaton, obtaned through
face-to-face, unstructured ntervews, was desgned to pro-
vde a arger conte t n whch to nterpret questonnare
resuts from the structured ntervews. These dscussons
were hed, for e ampe, wth farmworker servce provders,
U.S. tenson Servce personne, ndustry representatves
and a varety of other oca observers. These ntervews,
combned wth the use of hstorca documents, prevous
studes, and other such secondary sources, e pored
changes that had occurred snce IPCA and dentfed the
range of possbe nfuences and ntervenng varabes.
The thrd type of nformaton was based on foow-up
ntervews wth key nformants, requrng the nter-
vewer to probe beow the surface n search of ether
dfferent nformaton from that gathered by the stand-
ardzed questons, or sgns that the answers to the stand-
ardzed questons needed to be nterpreted wthn a arger
conte t. These ntervews were hed wth nformants den-
tfed from wthn the farmworker communty. Through
these more e tensve ntervews, eads were pursued that
often deveoped nto more reveang answers to the ques-
tons under study. In addton, these ntervews aowed the
researchers to dentfy other reevant questons that were
then e pored. Perhaps even more mportanty, these nten-
sve ntervews aowed the researchers to deveop a cearer
sense of the meanngs peope attach to ther crcumstances
and to the behavor of peope and groups around them.
The foowng case studes share a common method-
oogy. ach rees on the nformatona nterpay provded
by the varous eements nherent n such an approach, as
we as the specfc contrbutons provded by each eement
of the research desgn. The case studes e pore the pot-
ca, economc, and cutura dmensons of one natona
pocy a pocy desgned to affect both the agrcutura
abor suppy as we as the busness of farmng as ths
pocy was nterpreted and ad|usted to n varous agrcu-
tura abor markets.
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Case Studes
Case Studes
The Tomato Industry n Caforna and Ba|a Caforna 3
Davd Puns ten, Poberta Cook, Anna Garca, Don are|o
The Ctrus Industry n Caforna and Arzona 5
erbert 0. Mason, Andrew . Avarado, Gary L. Pey
The Pasn Industry n Caforna 103
Andrew . Avarado, erbert 0. Mason, Gary L. Pey, ohn W. agen
The Agrcutura Industres n 0regon 13
Pobert Mason, Tmothy Cross, Caroe uckton
The Appe and Asparagus Industres n Washngton 221
dward ssam, Anna Garca, DavdPunsten
The Pcke Cucumber and Appe Industres n Southwest Mchgan 29
dward ssam and Anna Garca
The Appe Industry n ew ork and Pennsyvana 3 9
Davd S. orth and ames S. ot
The Peach Industry n Georga and South Carona 445
Sandra L. Amendoa, Davd Grffth, Lewe Gunter, r.
The Wnter egetabe Industry n South Te as 523
Lus F.B. Pascenca, Pobert W. Gover, Bran Craddock
The Wnter egetabe Industry n South Forda 5 3
Davd Grffth and eronmo Composeco
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The Wnter egetabe Industry n South Te as
523
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Tabe of Contents
ecutve Summary 529
Chapter 1 - Background to South Te as: The Po Grande aey and dago County 532
Geographca and coogca Factors 532
Genera Background 532
The Land, So, and Cmate 532
The Water Suppy 534
Demographc and conomc Features and Trends n South Te as 534
Growth and Seasona Fuctuatons n Popuaton 534
The thnc Composton 535
Labor Force and mpoyment 53
Unempoyment, Poverty, and Pubc Assstance 53
ducaton 53
Coonas and ousng 538
0vervew of Te as and dago County Agrcuture 539
Agrcutura Trends n Te as 539
Agrcutura Trends n dago County 539
Wnter Freezes and conomc Stabty 540
Chapter 2 - Wnter egetabe Producton n the Po Grande aey and
dago County 543
story of the Crops 543
0nons 543
Tomatoes 543
Brocco 544
Cabbage 544
The Current System of Producton 544
Chapter 3 - Agrcutura Labor n the South Te as egetabe Industry 54
0vervew of Farm Labor n the Lower Po Grande aey 54
Mgraton Patterns 54
Servces and Benefts 54
uman Servce Programs Servng the Farm Labor Force 54
The Current Farm Labor Contractng System 548
Farm Labor Contractng: Background Informaton and Genera Characterstcs 549
Pecrutment, Screenng, Tranng, and Fed Supervson 550
The Sze and Composton of Farmworker Crews 551
Labor Management Practces 552
ow Growers Act as Labor Managers Depends Largey on the Perceptons they
have of ther Work Force 553
Conservng uman Pesources 553
Wages and Systems of Payment 554
Changes n Payment Systems and Wage Pates Snce IPCA 554
525
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Frnge Benefts 554
Bonuses 555
ousng 555
Government 0versght of Farmwork 555
The Current Agrcutura Labor Force 55
Background and Genera Characterstcs of the Worker Sampe 55
Patterns of Farmwork 558
Crops and Tasks 558
Workng Condtons 559
Amount of Avaabe Work 559
Membershp n a Unon 5 0
Wages 5 0
Current Trends and Future Prospects 5 1
A Sgnfcanty Changed Lega nvronment for Te as Farmworkers 5 1
Workers Compensaton 5 1
Unempoyment Insurance 5 2
Pestcde Protectons 5 2
Fed Santaton 5 2
Mnmum Wage 5 3
FICA and Income Ta Wthhodng 5 3
The Gobazaton of Agrcuture 5 3
Chapter 4 - The ffects of IPCA 5 4
The ffects on Workers 5 4
Wages and Workng Condtons 5 4
Workers Abty to 0rganze 5 4
Unempoyment Among U.S. Farmworkers 5 4
The ffects on Producers 5 5
The Adequacy of Labor Suppy 5 5
Do Legazed Workers Stay n Agrcuture 5 5
The Impact of mpoyer Sanctons 5 5
Peance on a Temporary Work Force 5 5
eed for a Suppement of Foregn Workers 5 5
Labor Management Issues 5 5
0ther ffects 5
Internatona Compettveness 5
Chapter 5 - Concusons 5
0ther Issues 5
0vera vauaton of IPCA 5
Peferences 5 9
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Lst of Tabes
Tabe 1.1 -Annua Unempoyment Pates for McAen- dnburg-Msson MSA and Te as: 1980-1991 . . . 53
Tabe 1.2 - Farms, Farm Sze, and Land Use n Te as, 1945-198 539
Tabe 1.3-Wnter Unempoyment n Te as and dago County, 1988-1990 541
Tabe 1.4-Te as Covered Agrcutura mpoyment, 1988-1990 541
Tabe 1.5- mpoyment Covered by Unempoyment Insurance n dago County: 1988-1990 542
Tabe 3.1-Dstrbuton of FLCs by Crew Sze, dago County (1989) 549
Tabe 3.2 - Seected Characterstcs of Farm Labor Contractors Intervewed 550
Tabe 3.3 - Seected Features of the Farmworker Sampe 55
Tabe 3.4-Dstrbuton of Agrcutura Tasks and Crops 558
Map
Map of Te as ghghtng dago County 533
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A Case Study of the Agrcutura Labor Market
n South Te as Wnter egetabe Producton
Lus F.B. Pascenca, Pobert W. Gover, and Bran Craddock
ecutve Summary
South Te as has been a ma|or agrcutura producton
area for fruts and wnter vegetabes for severa years. In
addton, the regon has provded mgrant workers to agr-
cutura areas across the naton. Labor surpuses have been
a feature of South Te as agrcuture for decades. Ths
report concerns growers, farm abor contractors, and farm-
workers n South Te as t focuses on dago County n
the Lower Po Grande aey. Long-estabshed systems
of farm abor contractng and nforma knshp and frend-
shp networks have nfuenced work and mgraton pat-
terns. Such nforma networks contnue to characterze ths
sector of farmng n the post-IPC A perod. Ths case study
of South Te as was desgned to respond drecty to ques-
tons that the U.S. Congress asked the Commsson on
Agrcutura Workers to answer. The foowng te t pro-
vdes a bref summary of fndngs on these questons.
1. The Impact of the SAW program:
(a) 0n Wages and Workng Condtons
Wages, benefts, and workng condtons for harvest
workers have mproved n the Lower Po Grande aey,
but mprovements occurred owng to factors other than
IPCA mosty as the consequence of ncreases n the
federa mnmum wage and of the e tenson of benefts (for
e ampe, unempoyment nsurance, workers compensa-
ton) by state aw pror to the passng of IPCA (forced n
some cases by court decsons) or by the appcaton of
abor protecton measures to agrcutura workers (for e -
ampe, pestcde protecton and rght-to-know provsons,
and fed santaton standards). Athough ncreases n
houry wages have come from mnmum wage egsaton,
contnued surpuses of workers have prevented abor mar-
ket mechansms from e ertng upward pressures on pece
rates for many workers.
(b) Adequacy of Suppy
By amost a accounts, the suppy of abor to agrcu-
ture has been adequate durng the past fve years n the
Lower Po Grande aey and s key to reman so nto
the foreseeabe future. ven spot shortages of abor are
rare. Such shortages have occurred ony under e ceptona
crcumstances for e ampe, durng peak harvest n
tomatoes n 1990, when onon harvestng was attractng
workers, and others preferred not to commt themseves to
rreguar work n tomato harvestng so that they coud
mantan ther egbty for dsaster reef benefts.
(c) Abty to 0rganze
The character of abor unon actvtes n the Lower
Po Grande aey has changed sgnfcanty durng recent
years, but not because of IPCA. By a reports, pcketng
n the fed has decned. The Unted Farm Workers of
Amerca has turned from tryng to mprove earnngs and
workng condtons through coectve barganng to a strat-
egy of ega enactment, focusng on acton by the courts
and the Te as state egsature. Ths new strategy has been
successfu throughout Te as n severa respects t has
Authors: Lus F.B. Pascenca, Pobert W. Gover, and Bran Craddock Center for the Study of uman Pesources, Lyndon B. ohnson
Schoo of Pubc Affars, Unversty of Te as at Austn, Austn, Te as.
529
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heped to obtan unempoyment benefts and workers
compensaton coverage for farmworkers, pestcde protec-
tons and tranng, and toets and drnkng water for fed-
workers.
2. Do SAWs and Pre-1982 Legazed
Workers Stay n Agrcuture
In South Te as thus far, the percepton from farm
empoyers and abor contractors s that most SAW workers
appear to be stayng n agrcuture. 0f course, amost
everyone coud pont to a few e ampes of ndvdua
SAWs eavng agrcuture for |obs n constructon, tourst
ndustres, nursery-andscapng frms, sma-scae en-
trepreneura actvtes, and other smar ow-wage, un-
sked work, or returnng to Me co. We found tte
evdence, however, that eavng agrcuture was wde-
spread or that the workers who dd eave agrcuture eft
permanenty, nor does there appear to be much concern
about ths ssue among most growers and contractors n
South Te as. In any case, the contnua nfu of undocu-
mented workers, refugees, and other new mmgrants re-
penshes any abor suppy vacuum eft behnd by e tng
SAWs.
3. The Impact of mpoyer Sanctons on
Suppy
To accommodate needs n processng 1-9 forms n
Te as, the Te as mpoyment Commsson processes 1-9
forms for workers and provdes certfcaton grats to Te as
empoyers. Ths servce s used by a sgnfcant number of
agrcutura empoyers, and t s both favoraby vewed and
apprecated by those who use t. The amnesty provsons
of IPCA, aong wth the avaabty of 1-9 processng
through the Te as mpoyment Commsson, have sgnf-
canty reduced the use of undocumented workers n the
Lower Po Grande aey. 0ur fed survey uncovered a
few unauthorzed workers who were empoyed, but these
were confned to smaer growers, and there are ceary
fewer undocumented workers than formery.
seasonay n dago County, and many workers mgrate
to other areas for agrcutura work after the fna pantngs
of vegetabes (meons, peppers) have been harvested. Dur-
ng the summer months, abor contractors organze harvest
crews for varous crops and tasks throughout Te as, up the
ast Coast, n Mdwest ocatons, and n Caforna and on
the West Coast. Some e perenced workers that have an
estabshed network of contacts mgrate on ther own wth-
out abor contractors.
5. eed for a Suppement of Foregn
Workers
South Te as has ong had surpus agrcutura abor
and has supped workers to other agrcutura areas across
the country. South Te as agrcuture has no need for any
speca program to suppement the abor suppy. Thanks n
part to the freeze that wped out ctrus producton n South
Te as n December 1989, there s an abundant suppy of
farmworkers to pck wnter vegetabes. In fact, there s
nsuffcent work for a who want t. If sutabe, effectve,
and effcent mechansms coud be found that adequatey
serve both worker and grower nterests, South Te as coud
suppy addtona Amercan farm workers to other agrcu-
tura regons n the country that need workers especay
durng the summer growng months.
. Unempoyment Among U.S. Farmworkers
The effects of IPCA on farmworker unempoyment
have been margna n the Lower Po Grande aey. In
fact, the ony detectabe empoyment effect n ths case
study was that amnesty provsons may have ncreased
crew szes on some propertes especay for onon
harvestng. Ths has spread the work among greater num-
bers of workers, whch has e acerbated underempoyment.
Weather (especay the recent freeze) and the damage and
threat of the whte fy (whch s adversey affectng pant-
ng decsons) have had a far more dramatc effect n
ncreasng unempoyment among farmworkers n South
Te as.
4. Peance on a Temporary Work Force
Few wnter vegetabe farm workers ve and work n
South Te as throughout the year. The work s amost
entrey temporary. Because tte agrcutura actvty
takes pace durng the hot summer season n South Te as,
most of the farm abor force n dago County works
. Poe of Labor Management n Attractng
and Petanng Workers
In South Te as, one ndcaton that there are adequate
suppes of workers s that most growers and abor nter-
medares have not consdered deveopng any knd of
modern abor management technques to attract or retan
530
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workers. evertheess, abor management practces have
graduay mproved n dago County. Ths accompsh-
ment, however, s more of a resut of the ntatve of Te as
state egsature and federa and state |udca actons than
t has to do wth IPCA. The changng structure of the
ndustry toward arger enterprses has aso payed a roe.
Ceary, progressve abor management practces hep to
ncrease retenton rates even n an area of abor surpus. It
seems to matter tte, however, because empoyers wth
ess progressve practces are st abe to attract workers n
such an envronment.
8. Programs for the Unque eeds of the
Pegon
South Te as growers are under ncreasng pressure n
the area of pestcde protecton. The probem s e acerbated
by the fact that housng n coonas s nterspersed wth
farmands n patterns that pace resdents and agrcutura
feds n cose pro mty.
9. The Impact of SAW on Internatona
Compettveness
IPCA has had margna effects on the nternatona
compettveness of South Te as agrcuture. The 1-9 re-
qurement and amnesty reportng requrements have mar-
gnay ncreased the paperwork burden of producers, but
these requrements are mnor compared wth the mpe-
mentaton of varous Te as state provsons for workers
compensaton coverage, unempoyment nsurance cover-
age, pestcde postng, and record-keepng requrements.
As a whoe, these requrements have made t ess possbe
for sma farmers to manage abor-ntensve agrcutura
operatons from ther ktchen tabe or back pocket. To-
gether, these deveopments have had an effect on restruc-
turng vegetabe agrcuture n the Po Grande aey
toward arger, more sophstcated, operatons that are man-
aged by shpper-growers.
In contrast to IPCA, dependng on detas negotated,
a free trade agreement wth Me co coud swamp any
effects of IPCA. Fuy three-quarters of the vegetabe
shppers n the Po Grande aey ether aready have fed
operatons n Me co or mport commodtes grown by
Me can producers. Thus, they are we postoned to shft
vegetabe producton to Me co.
Athough many of the answers to the questons posed
by Congress are provsona, South Te as agrcuture
shoud contnue to have worker surpuses nto the foresee-
abe future. Indeed, the medum-term outook s for re-
duced demand for agrcutura abor because the new
pantngs of ctrus acreage are ess than the tota under
producton before the 1989 freeze. In addton, the acreage
devoted to severa abor-ntensve vegetabes has decned,
as Lower Po Grande aey farmers have swtched to
attractvey prced cotton or moved ther producton south
nto Me co. Such surpuses of agrcutura abor may
dmnsh n the future, f and when ne pensve housng
becomes unavaabe, and compettve ndustry provdes
agrcutura workers wth suffcent numbers of more at-
tractve aternatve ow-sked |obs than workng n agr-
cuture. Both crcumstances are dstant prospects at ths
pont.
531
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Chapter 1
Background to South Te as: The Po Grande aey
and dago County
Geographca and coogca Factors
Genera Background
Located n the southeastern-most porton of Te as and
bounded by the Guf of Me co on the east and the Po
Grande-Pfo Bravo rver on the south s the Lower Po
Grande aey (see Map 1). ear the center of the Lower
Po Grande aey, wthn one of the naton s most mpor-
tant agrcutura areas, s dago County. amed after the
prest credted wth cang for Me co s ndependence
from Span, Father Mgue dago y Costa, dago
County s among the eadng agrcutura countes n the
naton, and home for sgnfcant numbers of agrcutura
workers. Many of these workers abor throughout the na-
ton s farms, from Forda to 0regon and from Caforna
to ermont. The countes of the Lower Po Grande aey
dago, Cameron, and Starr aong wth the nearby
Wnter Garden area, make up one of the eadng produc-
ng areas for fresh vegetabes such as onons, brocco,
cabbage, green peppers, Irsh potatoes, and carrots. The
focus of ths secton of the overa case study s on the
agrcutura abor market n dago County.
Before the competon of the eary raroad nes n the
18 0s, ranchng domnated the economy of South Te as.
The combned mpact of competng both the Brownsve-
Corpus Chrst ra ne and the ma|or rrgaton pro|ects n
the eary 1900s transformed most South Te as countes
from ranchng to farmng economes. A popuaton boom
accompaned the rapdy e pandng agrcutura economy.
Snce 1904 1905, agrcuture has been a ma|or com-
ponent of dago County s economy. Athough agrcu-
ture contnues to be an mportant ndustry, t no onger
en|oys ts former domnance the trade sector s now the
prmary source of empoyment n the county. In the era
foowng Word War II, toursm has become ncreasngy
mportant. Chambers of Commerce across the vaey ad-
vertsed the sghts and amentes of the Magc aey
the sun and sea, pam and fowers, frendy fok and good
tmes they re a here 1 A sgnfcant deveopment has
been the ncreasng nterest among retrees from the Md-
west and other northern states, as we as Canada. These
Wnter Te ans, snowbrds, or P er s, as they are
caed, make ther annua mgraton to the vaey durng the
wnter months and return north n the sprng.
The Land, So, and Cmate
Despte ts name, the area consdered the aey s
nether geoogcay nor geographcay a vaey. o moun-
tans or hs surround the area. More correcty, t s an
auva deta pan that sopes toward the Guf of Me co.
The Lower Po Grande aey s physographcay part of
the Po Grande Pan, whch s a subregon of the Guf
Coasta Pan. The atter e tends aong the Guf of Me co
and encompasses an area stretchng from Lousana to
northeastern Me co. 0vera features of the Guf Coasta
Pan ncude rong to hy surfaces, and vegetaton that
ranges from pne and hardwoods, to prares and brush
ands.2
The area consdered the Po Grande Pan conssts of
deep auva sos, part prare and, and ncudes dense
growth of mesqute, husache, hua|o, prcky pear (0pun-
ta) cactus, and other wd brush. Before the recent freezes.
1 A capton from an attractve and coorfu booket pubshed by the aey Chambers of Commerce, The Po Grande aey of Te as:
Brownsve, arngen, McAen, South Padre Isand, (nd).
2 Daas Mornng ews, Te as A Imanac: 1990- 91.
532
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cose to 32 days. The area s hot summers, however, resut
n heavy evaporaton. The regon aso receves reatvey
tte ranfa. Wthout rrgaton, ether through dverson
from the Po Grande-Po Bravo and other oca rvers or
the pumpng of groundwater, the vaey s agrcutura crop
producton woud be mted.
Despte the many postve factors that ad agrcutura
producton n the Lower Po Grande aey and the heavy
promoted dyc weather for the tourst, the area s suscep-
tbe to natura dsasters that can have a astng mpact on
both the crops produced and toursm. Among these are
droughts (the 1891-1893 and 198 -1989 droughts), hurr-
canes (such as urrcane Beuah n 19 1), foods, and
freezes. In addton, man-made dsasters, such as o sps
from offshore rgs or o tankers, can aso depress the
ncreasngy mportant sunshne and sea ndustry.
Freezes, such as those that occurred n 1949, 1951, 1983,
1985, and 1989, offer probems for aey agrcuture
because of the damage that they nfct durng the mportant
wnter vegetabe season. The 1951 freeze was among the
most severe the temperature remaned beow freezng for
5 hours and destroyed 0 percent to 90 percent of the
ctrus crop and most of the vegetabe crop.
provded an mportant addtona source of water for future
producton. The mportance of rrgaton to the vaey can
be seen n the sgnfcant ncrease n rrgated acreage.
Athough most crop acreage s now rrgated, n 1901 ony
about 500 acres were beng rrgated. At present, over
2 0,000 acres are rrgated.
Despte the percepton that the vaey does not have a
ma|or water suppy probem, the area s facng mportant
water quaty probems. The two prmary probems are
pouton and sanzaton. Upstream and oca pouton
from farmand runoff, ndustra waste, from border ndus-
tra factes (maquadoras), and muncpa waste, n
combnaton wth ncreasng sanzaton of the aqufer,
present ma|or chaenges, not ony to meetng the drnkng
water needs of resdents aong both sdes of the border, but
aso to the ong-term water needs of agrcuture n the Po
Grande aey.
Demographc and conomc Features and
Trends n South Te as
Growth and Seasona Fuctuatons n Popuaton
The Water Suppy
The area receves reatvey tte ranfa. Its annua
average of about 23 nches s wecome but hardy suffcent
to sustan the norma eve of agrcutura producton.
Growers must suppement the ranfa. Fortunatey for
vaey and other Te as producers, about three-fourths of
the state s stuated over severa arge aqufers. Appro -
matey haf of the state s agrcutura producton rees on
groundwater for rrgaton.
The Lower Po Grande aey sts above the Guf
Coast Aqufer. Ths aqufer runs parae to the Guf of
Me co and stretches from northeastern Me co to Lous-
ana. In contrast to the other ma|or aqufers n the state, the
Guf Coast Aqufer has a hgher santy owng to the shft
n the proporton of freshwater to satwater as the freshwa-
ter eve decreases. A parta souton to the decne n fresh
groundwater has been that of budng arge reservors. In
partcuar, the competon of the federay sponsored Fa-
con Peservor on the Po Grande-Pfo Bravo rver n 1953,
near the border of Starr and apata countes, wth ts over
two mon acre-feet capacty has been an mportant boost
to the contnued vabty of agrcuture n the vaey. The
competon of the reservor meant that vaey growers were
Wth the e panson of raroads nto the vaey, par-
tcuary the competon of the Brownsve-Corpus Chrst
ne n une 1904 and the competon of the frst ma|or
rrgaton system n 1905, an economc boom foowed. A
popuaton boom occurred soon afterward. Between 1900
and 1910, the popuaton of Cameron and dago countes
|umped from 22,900 to 41,900 an ncrease of 83 percent.
At the turn of the century, the popuaton of the border
countes stood at cose to eghty thousand. By 1920, the
popuaton had amost doubed, to amost 1 0 thousand
and by 1930, t stood at 322,845. The source of the growth
was the arrva of Angos from other states, prncpay
from the Mdwest, and mmgrants from Me co. The
arger numbers of Me can mmgrants account for the
preponderance of ndvduas of Me can-orgn among the
popuaton.
Cameron County (from whch dago County was
ater created), for e ampe, showed the foowng trend n
the proporton of those of Me can descent wthn the
popuaton: 1850, 80 percent 18 0, percent 18 0,
percent 1880, 8 percent 1900, 91 percent.3 The actua
proporton of the Me can popuaton n South Te as e -
hbted sgnfcant varaton from ueces County (Corpus
Chrst), whch reached over 50 percent between 18 0 and
3 See De Le n and Stewart 1989 and Chan et a. 198 and LPG DC 1989.
534
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1880, to Starr County that remaned over 85 percent snce
ts foundng.
dago County foowed a smar pattern to the eary
growth of Cameron. By 19 0, the popuaton of dago
reached 180,904. The perod between 19 0 and 19 0 re-
suted n a very sma net growth for dago the 19 0
Decenna Census reported a tota popuaton of 181,535 (a
net ncrease of 31 persons, or 0.3 percent growth). Ths
sow perod of growth, however, was reversed n the fo-
owng decade when the popuaton of dago County
reached 283,229 n 1980 (an ncrease of over 100 thousand
or 5 percent).
Durng the decade of the 1980s, dago County s
popuaton ncreased by 35 percent, whch made t one of
the fastest-growng countes n Te as. Accordng to the
premnary data from the 1990 Census, the popuaton of
the county was 383,545 over 100 thousand more res-
dents than ved n the county n 1980. Gven the age
structure of dago County s popuaton, the future por-
tends contnued hgh rates of popuaton growth. Whe the
medan age n the Unted States s 30.0 years, the medan
age n Te as s 28.0 and 24.1 n dago County. Accordng
to one estmate, dago County s pro|ected to show ,an
annua growth rate n ts popuaton between 198 and
2010 of 1.54 percent, whch s sgnfcanty hgher than the
pro|ected growth for the state as a whoe 1.28 percent.4
0ne mportant popuaton fuctuaton n the vaey as
a whoe, and n dago County n partcuar, has been the
seasona n-mgraton of Wnter Te ans these m-
grants are amost e cusvey non- spanc whtes. The
contnued return of appro matey ten thousand Wnter
Te ans to the vaey has created a partcuar nfrastructure.
Loca recreatona vehce-mobe home parks dot the en-
tre vaey. Atogether, the more than 300 parks have a tota
capacty of over ffty-one thousand spaces, of whch over
thrty thousand are ocated wthn dago County. The
cty of Msson, n dago County, s the eadng mobe
park ste n number of spaces over ten-thousand spaces.
In addton to mobe parks, a wde array of suppers and
servces, such as chropractors, cataract specasts, and
weeky perodcas that are targeted to the snowbrds, aso
depend on the annua trek of these mgrants.5
The growth of the mobe home park sector has not
been wthout consequences to agrcuture. There are m ed
vews on ths growth. For some growers, t has meant the
possbty of a needed nfu of cash from the sae of a
porton of rrgated farmand for the ndustry as a whoe,
t has meant a decne n avaabe acreage. Ths decne n
avaabe rrgated farmand paces a potentay mts the
future e panson of fed crop agrcuture n the vaey.
As wnter approaches, the vaey wtnesses two smu-
taneous popuaton n-mgratons. The return of one group
s ceary evdent and e pct. Throughout the vaey, one
fnds banners stretched across streets, storefront sgns, and
other ndcators statng, Wecome ome, Wnter Te -
ans. The obvous wecomng mood among stores, mobe
home parks, medca, and other servce provders s dff-
cut to overook, even for a casua observer. endors and
medca servce provders on the Me can sde of the
border awat |ust as eagery as ther aey counterparts,
the return of the P er s. Smutaneous wth the return of
the snowbrds, s the return of a szabe number of mgrant
agrcutura workers. Athough the atter group s numer-
cay arger and may be Te as-born and rased, there are
nether banners nor sgns to wecome these Wnter Te -
ans. The combned effect of the dua mmgraton s the
rapd rse n the tota popuaton n the area durng the
wnter.
In the sprng, both groups begn to eave the area as f
orchestrated by a snge conductor. For one group, t s the
annua return home for the other, t s the return to seekng
empoyment n other parts of the state as we as beyond.
The thnc Composton
Snce the end of the U.S-Me co War n 1848, persons
of Me can orgn have been numercay domnant n
South Te as. In a few countes such as Starr, ndvduas
of Me can descent were abe to estabsh potca dom-
nance. In most other countes, such as dago, ther dom-
nance has been prmary numerca. Accordng to the 1990
Census, fuy 85 percent of dago s popuaton was s-
panc. Gven the probems of undercountng n the census,
especay n the coonas (unncorporated areas generay
n the vcnty of an urban area), the actua percentage s
key to be even hgher.
As s true of much of the vaey, dago County has
hstorcay been an area wth a hgh concentraton of
ndvduas of Me can orgn. on- spanc whtes n
1990 accounted for 14.1 percent of the tota popuaton n
the county non- spanc Afrcan-Amercans totaed 518,
or 0.14 percent. Despte the reatve homogenety n the
4 See Woods and Pooe conomcs, Inc. 1990.
5 Snce 19 5, Dr. Car Push at the Schoo of Busness Admnstraton at the Unversty of Te as -
conducted an annua survey among the Wnter Te ans.
- Pan Amercan n dnburg, has
535
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Me can communty, snce the eary 1980s, the vaey has
receved sgnfcant numbers of Centra Amercans who
are escapng war-torn areas and seekng asyum n the
Unted States. Many of the Centra Amercans reman n
the vaey ony brefy as they make fna pans to move to
ouston, Forda, Caforna, or other ocatons where fam-
y and frends awat them.
The nfu of Centra Amercans has ntroduced an
mportant eement of heterogenety nto the oca spanc
communty. Athough they were toerated ntay, Centra
Amercans are now perceved more as a probem. The
Cathoc Church, for e ampe, showed consderabe nter-
est n provdng asyum and assstance to the eary group
of refugees enterng the vaey snce then the humantaran
assstance has been more passve and on a smaer scae.
For many Centra Amercans, ther stay n the vaey has
been marked by a sgnfcant perod of detenton by the
Immgraton and aturazaton Servce s (I S) Border
Patro at the Port Isabe detenton camp (Cameron County).
Some of the same unaccompaned chdren, aduts, and
fames detaned by the Border Patro had, before ther
entry nto the vaey, aready suffered numerous traumatc
e perences n ther efforts to cross Me co on ther way to
the Unted States. A recent survey by Podrguez and Urru-
ta-Po|as of unaccompaned chdren from Centra Amer-
ca summarzes the e tent of the trauma suffered n ther
effort to reach the Unted States. The short perod of tme
spent by Centra Amercan refugees n the vaey, as we
as ther pans to reocate to arger urban settngs, have
meant that few reman n the vaey and enter the agrcu-
tura abor market.
Labor Force and mpoyment
In une 1991, the cvan abor force n dago
County numbered 15 ,892 whch represents a sgnfcant
decne n the 1990 monthy average of 1 4.3 2. Indcated
beow by ma|or ndustry groupng s a May 1991 break-
down of nonagrcutura wage and saary empoyment for
the McAen- dnburg-Msson (M- -M) Metropotan
Statstca Area (MSA), whch s cotermnous wth dago
County:
Industry Sector mpoyment
Trade 32, 00
Government 2 ,100
Servces and Msceaneous 18, 00
Manufacturng 13,000
Constructon 4,500
Fnance-Insurance-Pea state .... 3,900
Transportaton-Communcatons-
Uttes 3,100
Mnng 900
More compete and reabe statstcs refectng em-
poyment by occupatona groupng and ncome w not be
avaabe for Te as substate areas unt detaed 1990 Cen-
sus reports are reeased.
Unempoyment, Poverty, and Pubc Assstance
The Lower Po Grande aey has, for most of ts
current hstory, been characterzed as aggng econom-
cay and faced wth serous dmensons of poverty, unem-
poyment, underempoyment, substandard housng, and
mted access to heath care. A recent book on Me can-
Amercans n the vaey, for e ampe, was entted The
Poorest of Amercans
A grm fact of fe aong the South Te as border s
chronc, e ceptonay hgh unempoyment. From 1980
through 1991, the McAen- dnburg-Msson MSA con-
sstenty has had the hghest annua average rate of unem-
poyment among the 28 Te as MSAs e cept durng
1982 and 1983, when unempoyment n the Laredo MSA
was hgher. The rate for the MSA has been twce the state
rate for a years, wth the e cepton of one year (1981),
when t was three tmes the statewde rate. 0ver the perod,
the unempoyment rate for the MSA never dropped beow
doube dgts the owest rate was n 1980 when t was 11.9
percent and the state rate was 5.2 percent (see Tabe 1.1).
See Podrguez and Urruta-Po|as 1989.
Te as mpoyment Commsson, conomc Pesearch and Anayss Department, Annua Average Data for 1990 (Austn, Te as:
revsed February 1991), and Labor Force stmates for Te as Countes une 1991 (Austn, Te as: n.d.).
8 Mar 1989.
53
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Tabe 1.1 - Annua Unempoyment Pates for
McAen- dnburg-Msson MSA and Te as:
1980-1991
ear
M- -M
Te as
1980 11.9
1981 12.2
1982 14.2
1983 1 .9
1984 18.9
1985 19.0
198 19.9
198 18.1
1988 1 .0
1989 1 .0
1990 19.2
1991 1 .
5.2
5.3
.9
8.0
5.9
.0
8.9
8.4
.3
.
.2
.
Source: Te as mpoyment Commsson
Durng caendar year 1990, |obessness n dago
County reached 23. percent n February and never fe
beow the 14.5 percent regstered n 0ctober over the
entre 12-month perod, unempoyment averaged 19.2 per-
cent. Fgures for une 1991 ndcate that 21,942 peope
or 14.0 percent of the abor force remaned out of work.9
Another ndcator of poverty can be found n data on
per capta ncome. U.S. Department of Commerce statstcs
for 198 paced per capta ncome here at ,001 barey
haf the 13,888 n persona ncome reazed by Te ans at
arge.10 More recenty, the Te as Department of uman
Servces estmated that 51.1 percent of a dago County
resdents were members of ow-ncome househods n
1989, compared wth 1 .8 percent statewde. Pro|ectng
the oca rate onto the 383,545 popuaton enumerated n
the 1990 Census suggests that we over 19 ,000 men,
women, and chdren n the county ve n poverty.
Gven such hgh eves of unempoyment and poverty,
partcpaton by county resdents n the ma|or ncome-
tested pubc assstance programs s aso dsproporton-
atey hgh. Whe on a monthy average |ust over one Te an
n ten receved food stamps n fsca year 1990, the rato
for dago County was one ndvdua n every three wth
ony 2.3 percent of the state s popuaton, dago County
accounted for . percent of the doar-vaue of the food
stamps ssued statewde.13 Lkewse, per capta partcpa-
ton n Ad to Fames wth Dependent Chdren was neary
twce as hgh n dago County as for Te as as a whoe
(affectng .0 percent of the oca popuaton, compared
wth 3. percent statewde), and the county absorbed 4.2
percent of tota AFDC payments.
ducaton
ducatona attanment and performance n the vaey
and border countes has consstenty agged behnd Te as
as a whoe. Ths ong-standng trend has resuted from
severa e terna and nterna factors that e st n the area.
Some of the more mportant factors are the foowng:
the eary patterns of de |ure educatona segregaton
(manfested n the mantenance of separate Me -
can schoos )
the soca norms that de-emphaszed the need to
educate Me can-orgn chdren (ether by mtng
the grades n the Me can schoo many of these
schoos ony went up to s th grade optng not to
enforce compusory educaton statutes, acceptng -
ega chd abor, or aowng for cotton, beet, or
onon vacatons ) 14
resdenta segregaton based prmary on ethncty
at frst, and ater prmary on ncome
the nequtes n the fundng of educaton (a system
that resuted n ow- weath dstrcts havng hgher
ta rates but ower revenues, and hgh- weath ds-
trcts wth ow ta rates and hgh revenues and
unequa State resources, a resutng n arge nequ-
tes n e pendtures per pup)
the economc necessty of havng chdren assst n
wage-earnng actvtes (especay among farm-
worker househods) and
9 Te as mpoyment Commsson, conomc Pesearch and Anayss Department, Annua Average Data for 1990 (Austn, Te as:
revsed February 1991), and Labor Force stmates for Te as Countes une 1991 (Austn, Te as: n.d.).
10 U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of conomc Anayss, as reported by Te as mpoyment Commsson, Te as Pannng
Informaton, F 1990 (Austn, Te as: n.d.), pp. 25, 28.
11 Pocy Academy on Fames and Chdren at Psk, Fna Peport, oume 11 (Austn, Te as: anuary 1991), p. 8 .
12 U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Popuaton and ousng, Summary Tape Fe 1, tabuar data
furnshed by the Unversty of Te as at Austn, Bureau of Busness Pesearch (May 1991).
13 Te as Department of uman Servces, mbracng Change: 1990 Annua Peport (Austn, Te as: December 1990), pp. 8,82.
14 For a recent account of the educaton of Me cans n Te as, see San Mgue, r. 198 .
332-4P0 -
1 B - nt t
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the frequent nterrupton of schoong for chdren
from mgrant fames.
Accordng to a statewde study of schoo dropout rates
conducted by Intercutura Deveopment Pesearch Asso-
caton n 198 , on an average, 42 percent of students dd
not compete hgh schoo n dago County. The mean
average dropout rate for the South Te as regon was 43
percent, compared wth 33 percent for the state as a
whoe.15.
Servce provders and others nvoved n farmworkers
ssues observed that n househods n whch the parents
perform farmwork, the probabty of the chdren contnu-
ng to perform farmwork as an occupaton s cosey asso-
cated wth the youth s competon of hgh schoo. In other
words, schoo dropouts from farmworker househods are
much more key than hgh schoo graduates to pursue
farmwork as an occupaton. 0f course, other factors may
aso be mportant, such as pace of brth, househod sze,
ngsh profcency, aspratons of the youth, and avaab-
ty of aternatve economc opportuntes.
Coonas and ousng
A coona s generay recognzed as an organzed
custer of generay substandard houses, constructed on
sma ots, on the rura andscape aong the Po Grande
border. 1 Athough the e act number of coonas n the
vaey s unknown, owng to the varyng defntons and
methodooges, t s commony cted that there are over 400
coonas n the vaey the estmates range from 200 to
one thousand. A survey conducted for the Te as Water
Deveopment Board n 198 estmated that there were 435
coonas n dago, Cameron, and Wacy countes.1 The
argest number, 3 , was attrbuted to dago County
(Cameron 5 and Wacy 4). An estmated 1,4 8 persons
resded wthn the coonas, ncudng 51,804 resdents n
dago County aone. The Water Deveopment Board
survey dentfed the foowng common characterstcs of
coonas:
The subdvson s ocated outsde the corporate m-
ts of any cty or town, or outsde the mts of a utty
dstrct provdng water and sewer servce
The resdenta communty ncudes at east some
substandard housng and
The subdvson s not currenty served by a sewer
coecton ne.
Athough coonas have e sted snce the eary 1900s,
ther most sgnfcant growth occurred n the 19 0s and
1980s. 0ne of the more recent surveys of coona resdents
was conducted by the Te as Department of uman Serv-
ces. The survey ncuded a sampe of 1,200 respondents.
Accordng to that study, coona resdents n the vaey had
an average age of 18.5 years, an average househod sze of
4.8 persons, and an average annua ncome of , 84. Fuy
98.8 percent of the resdents were of Me can descent. In
addton, the survey reported that over 0 percent were bom
n the Unted States two-thrds of the aduts had not
fnshed hgh schoo 39 percent had never attended schoo
and ony 5.1 percent had attended some coege. Those n
the work force were dstrbuted across the foowng occu-
patons: 45.5 reported fed work as ther most frequent
occupaton, 14.4 reportedy were n constructon, 11.3
reported factory work, . worked as a |antor or mad, and
. percent were nvoved n reta saes. 0ver 4 percent
of the work force was unempoyed at the tme of the survey,
and 4 .9 percent worked for 3.35 or ess an hour. 0ver 85
percent owned ther own home. Moreover, 5 . percent
receved food stamps and a surprsngy sma proporton
9.8 percent receved AFDC benefts.
Improvng the pubc factes n the coonas has
become a state potca ssue. The Te as egsature ap-
proved a b authorzng the sae of 100 mon n bonds
to provde water, sewers, and other servces. In addton, n
the fa of 1989 the U.S. Secretary of Agrcuture an-
nounced the avaabty of as much as 5.5 mon to state
and oca governments that match some of the funds and
agree to restrct the deveopment of future coonas. Ths
offer has stmuated some nterest n the passage of oca
ordnances to mt the deveopment of coonas. The ds-
cusson n some ocatons has ponted out the ambvaence
of such measures. At the core of the debate are the foow-
ng questons: If oca governments mt the e panson of
coonas, are they aso commttng themseves to budng
affordabe housng for ow-ncome fames If oca off-
cas are concerned wth the overa wefare of coona
resdents, why have ctes not ncorporated these areas and
deveoped the needed nfrastructure for the coonas (In
fact, the Cty of Wesaco conducted a study to assess such
an acton, but utmatey re|ected the dea because of the
cost.) Irrespectve of what contro s abe to be estabshed,
what w happen to e stng coonas
15 Intercutura Deveopment Pesearch Assocaton, Te as Schoo Dropout Survey Pro|ect: A Summary of Fndngs. San Antono.
198 , p. 13.
1 ozandDaves 1989.
1 See Turner Coe Braden, Inc. 198 .
538
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An mportant ssue often overooked n dscussons
about the negatve aspects of coonas s the queston of
housng cost and home ownershp. Athough condtons
coud be sgnfcanty mproved n the coonas, ther un-
panned growth provded an affordabe opton to home
ownershp for a sgnfcant segment of ow-ncome res-
dents n the vaey. In partcuar, coonas were a wecome
opton for the vaey s agrcutura workers who rey on
tenuous seasona empoyment. The postve aspects of
home ownershp n the coonas are best understood when
contrasted wth the housng condtons and costs faced by
agrcutura workers n other areas.
0vervew of Te as and dago County
Agrcuture
Agrcutura Trends n Te as
Agrcuture s vtay mportant to Te as. Te as ranks
second n the naton n the vaue of overa agrcutura
producton, and ranks frst n the producton of 20 com-
modtes (ncudng catte and caves, sheep and ambs,
Upand cotton and hay). In 1988, Te as ranked second n
the producton of brocco and honey dew meons thrd n
grapefrut and oranges and fourth n the producton of
onons, carrots, and sugarcane. Te as ed the naton n the
number of farms and ranches as we as n the number of
acres n farms and ranches. Te as ranked thrd after Ca-
forna and Forda n the number of acres harvestng vege-
tabes.18
The trends n farmng ndcate a cear pattern toward
a reducton n the tota number of farms between 1945 and
1982, and a sma, but sgnfcant, ncrease between 1982
and 198 (Tabe 1.2). As the number of Te as farms has
decreased, the sze of the average farm has generay n-
creased thus foowng the natona pattern n the con-
centraton of farms nto arger corporate farm unts. Snce
19 8, however, there appears to have been a sma reversa
n ths genera pattern. The average farm sze n 198 s the
same as t was n 19 4. arvested and tota cropand has
contnued to decne snce 1982, however.
Wth respect to agrcutura abor, as estmated n the
1982 U.S. Census of Agrcuture, Te as ranked frst n the
number of farms wth hred farm abor, and the number of
farms wth contract abor ahead of Forda and Cafor-
na. Because the queston regardng number of hred farm-
workers was deeted from the 198 Census of Agrcuture,
a comparabe fgure for 198 s unavaabe.
Snce the md-1980s Te as has ost some of ts ead n
agrcuture. The freezes n 1983 and 1989, the recesson n
the Te as economy, and the 198 -1988 drought a have
adversey mpacted the heath of the state s agrcutura
sector. Bankruptcy fngs, farm forecosures, and cosng
of rura banks were not unusua n many rura countes n
the state durng the 1980s. 19
Tabe 1.2 - Farms, Farm Sze, and Land Use n
Te as, 1945-198
Tota
Farms
Tota
Cropand
(mon)
arvested
Cropand
(mon)
Average
Farm Sze
ear
(000)
1945
385.0
3
34.9
2 .5
1950
331.
439
38.0
28.1
1954
293.0
498
3 .
24.8
1959
22 .1
31
35.
22.2
19 4
205.1
91
34.3
19.4
19 9
213.
8
39.8
19.8
19 4
1 4.1
1
3 .5
19.0
19 8
1 5.4
3
39.4
20.
1982
185.0
10
3 .
20.8
198
188.8
91
35.
1 .5
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Census of
Agrcuture for 19 4,19 8,1982 and 198 .
Agrcutura Trends n dago County
In 198 , dago County reported a tota of 1,929
farms, and over 2 thousand acres of farm and. The
average farm had 395 acres. dago County ranked s th
among the State s 254 countes n tota market vaue of
farm products sod. Cameron County was ranked twenty-
fourth and Starr County ranked thrty-seventh. The top fve
countes are ocated n the Te as panhande Deaf Smth
County had the ead poston. dago County ranked frst
n hred farm abor e pendtures, contract abor e pend-
18 The agrcutura statstcs cted are derved from the 19 4-198 Censuses of Agrcuture (Department of Commerce, Bureau of the
Census) Pascenca, Cebaos, and Gover 1989 ordan 1984 and unpubshed summares deveoped by Bran Craddock,
Motvaton ducaton Tranng, Inc.
19 For an assessment of the fnanca probems n agrcuture n the 1981-1985 perod, see Crss n Te as Agrcuture: Fnanca
Perspectve on the Condton of Te as Farmers and Panchers, Te as Department of Agrcuture (1988).
539
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tures. and tota abor e pendtures. 0f the tota 1,929 farms,
825 farms (or 42.8 percent) reported havng hred abor and
21 farms (3 .4 percent) had contract abor. Cameron
County ranked second pace n hred farm abor e pend-
tures, contract abor e pendtures, and tota abor e pend-
tures. Farm empoyment n dago County was reported
at 12, 82 n the 1982 Census of Agrcuture.
An mportant component of the avaabe agrcutura
abor force s the popuaton that apped for egazaton
under the Speca Agrcutura Worker (SAW) provson of
the Immgraton Peform and Contro Act of 198 (IPCA).
A tota of 440, 12 persons apped for egazaton n
Te as of ths number, cose to one-fourth apped under
the SAW program. 20 In dago County, a tota of 9,994
persons apped under the SAW provsons. It shoud be
noted that the argest number of SAW appcants n Te as
reported arrs County ( ouston) as ther resdence pro-
portonatey, however, there was a greater concentraton of
SAWs as a percentage of the county popuaton n severa
west Te as countes. The newy egazed popuaton con-
sttuted over 13 percent of the tota popuaton n Presdo,
Gasscock, and udspeth countes whereas the newy
egazed represented 4.21 percent of the arrs County
popuaton.21
Wnter Freezes and conomc Stabty
Droughts and freezes have been a persstent pattern n
the Lower Po Grande aey for as ong as records have
been kept. As prevousy noted, the freeze n 1951 appears
to have been among the most severe for the area and
resuted n the destructon of much of the crop producton.
In the December 1983 freeze, an estmated 15,000
persons nvoved n ctrus producton and reated ndustres
ost ther |obs 8,300 of these were agrcutura workers.
Trees on over 38,000 acres or about 55 percent of the
tota ctrus acreage were competey destroyed by the
freeze. Unempoyment rates n the vaey spraed from an
annua average of 1 .5 percent n 1983 to 30 percent n
anuary 1984.22
Three years after the 1983 freeze, the ctrus ndustry
showed some sgns of recovery. By the fa of 198 the
Te as Ctrus Mutua n McAen was camng a rebound
and e pressng great optmsm. Accordng to the Mutua,
the 198 crop was e pected to be fve tmes greater than
the prevous year from about 21 thousand tons to 5
thousand to 100 thousand tons. Ths was a sgnfcant gan
gven the reducton n acreage the ctrus acreage n
dago, Wacy, Cameron, and Starr dropped from 9
thousand acres to 30 thousand.23
The 1983 freeze had four mportant consequences. At
east one ma|or agrcutura producer Grffn Brand
s aeged by some to have reocated the producton of
ctrus and other crops to Me co and Centra Amerca.
Accordng to some ctrus growers, the freeze heped weed
out some unproftabe operatons and rase the quaty and
prce of the ctrus. The presdent of the Te as aey
Ctrus Commttee ndcated that before the freeze, a 40-
pound bo of grapefrut sod for 3.80 and a 40-pound bo
of oranges brought n 5. 0 after the freeze, the respectve
prces were 10 to 15 doars and to 10 doars. Some
ctrus growers swtched to a harder grapefrut tree (Po
Ped) n antcpaton of a future freeze, and many growers
purchased tree crop nsurance (therefore, appro matey 0
percent of the ctrus acreage oss n 1989 was covered). 25
0n December 22,1989, the vaey was agan struck by
a severe freeze. The headnes n newspapers across the
vaey and centra Te as read as foows: Freeze destroys
crops, |obs n South Te as aey ctrus growers fght
cock to harvest aey strvng to save remnants of
frozen crop.
The 1989 freeze had a devastatng mpact on agrcu-
ture n genera, but ht the vegetabe ndustry the hardest.
Accordng to the Te as Department of Agrcuture, the
1989 freeze resuted n a tota oss of 450 mon to the
vaey 138 mon of ths was a drect oss to agrcuture.
The 138 mon ost was dstrbuted as foows: 48.
mon n vegetabe producton (wth ceery reportng the
hghest oss, 11.3 mon) 4 .8 mon n ctrus ( 32.4
of ths was n grapefrut) 34.2 mon n nonctrus per-
ennas (ncudng 29. mon n aoe vera) and 8.3
mon n nursery products.2
20 See Pascenca and Wong for a detaed descrpton of the newy egazed popuaton.
21 U.S. Department of eath and uman Servces, 1989.
22 See Te as Department of Agrcuture 1985.
23 Austn Amercan Statesman September 22, 198 .
24 Austn Amercan Statesman September 22, 198 .
25 aey Mornng Star 1989.
2 See Te as Department of Agrcuture 1990.
540
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The freeze had a sgnfcant mpact on agrcutura
empoyment. Despte the frequenty cted mtatons of
avaabe data, one ndcator of the mpact of the December
1989 freeze on empoyment can be found n estmated oca
unempoyment rates (Tabe 1.3). Comparson wth the
unempoyment rates n the year precedng the freeze pro-
vdes a sense of the magntude of the mpact. The data n
Tabe 1.3 ndcate that the strongest mpact n dago
County was fet durng February and March, startng two
months after the actua freeze. Whe the state rate remaned
the same n December 1989 and anuary 1990, and then
rose by 1.2 percent from anuary to February, dago s
rate ncreased 2. percent between December and anuary,
foowed by a 4.2 percent ncrease n February. Thus, whe
durng the three-month perod encompassng the freeze the
state s unempoyment rate rose by a tota of 1.2 percent,
dago s ncreased by seven percentage ponts. As a re-
sut, by March 1990, dago s rate was amost four tmes
that of the state as a whoe.
Tabe 1.3 - Wnter Unempoyment n Te as and
dago County, 1988-1990
1988 1989 1990
Unempoyment Unempoyment Unempoyment
(percent) (percent) (percent)
Month Te as dago Te as dago Te as dago
ov.
.
15.9
.9
18.5

Dec.
.2
1 .4
5.8
1 .8

anuary

.
18.5
5.8
19.5
February

.3
18.2
.0
23.
March

.3
15.
5.
21.4
Apr

.0
1 .
.0
19.5
May

5.9
13.2
.2
1 .9
Source: Te as mpoyment Commsson (T C), Labor Force stmates
Monthy Peports.
Another ndcator of the mpact of the freeze can be
found n the empoyment eves n agrcuture. Tabe 1.4
summarzes the number of enterprses makng unempoy-
ment nsurance (UI) payments to the state (for e ampe,
covered unts) and the number of workers covered by
these enterprses. Athough Te as does not have unversa
UI coverage, begnnng n anuary 198 , the Te as egs-
ature e tended UI coverage to farmworkers as a resut of
a awsut and fear of what a state dstrct |udge hearng the
case mght mpose on the state f the egsature dd not act
pror to hs decson.
Tabe 1,4 - Te as Covered Agrcutura
mpoyment, 1988-1990
Covered Covered
Month, ear, and uarter Unts mpoyment
ov. 1988 88,389
Dec. 1988 88, 5
4th tr. 1988 10,0 8
an. 1989 80,2 2
Feb. 1989 ,220
1st tr. 1989 10,111
ov. 1989 85,00
Dec. 1989 82, 23
4th tr. 1989 10, 5
an. 1990 4,000
Feb. 1990 5,830
1st tr. 1990 10,931
Whe there were ony ,588 covered empoyers n
agrcuture n the fourth quarter of 1985, two years ater,
the number of empoyers rose to 9,32 , and then to 9,5 0
n the frst quarter of 1988. As can be noted n Tabe 1.4,
the tota of covered agrcutura empoyers has contnued
to ncrease. Covered workers, however, have not foowed
the same pattern. In the fourth quarter of 1985, a tota of
,9 9 agrcutura workers were covered ths number
dropped to 4,943 n the frst quarter of 198 (the quarter
that UI was e tended to farmworkers under the new aw
for the frst tme), and then peaked n the fourth quarter of
198 ( 9,235). The number of covered farmworkers grew
n 1988, wth a peak tota of 88, 5 n December 1988.
Despte some fuctuaton durng 1989, the foowng De-
cember (1989) showed a net oss of ,042 workers, or
amost percent from anuary 1989 to anuary 1990 (the
month foowng de freeze) there was a net drop of ,2 2
workers, cose to 8 percent. Athough severa factors were
nvoved n ths change, over fourteen thousand fewer
farmworkers were covered by UI between the peak n
December 1988 and anuary 1990.
Covered agrcutura empoyment n dago County
aso e hbted a smar pattern to that noted for the state.
The number of covered farmworkers peaked toward the
end of 1988 (12,533 covered workers) and reached a ow
pont at the begnnng of 1990 ( , 90), representng a drop
of 4, 43 workers or 40 percent between the end of 1988
and begnnng of 1990 (see Tabe 1.5). Tota empoyment
n dago County, however, contnued to ncrease durng
1988 and 1989, and then dropped 3.2 percent between the
fourth quarter of 1989 and the frst quarter of 1990.
541
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Tabe 1.5 - mpoyment Covered by
Unempoyment Insurance n dago County:
1988-1990
Tota Agrcutura
uarter ear mpoyment mpoyment
1st. 1988 101,04 12,282
4th. 1988 10 ,422 12,533
1st. 1989 10 ,9 0 12,511
4th. 1989 109,191 9,8 0
1st. 1990 105, 03 , 90
Accordng to the Te as Department of Agrcuture, the
estmated |ob oss n agrcuture owng to the December
1989 freeze was 1 ,5 9 |obs. Data reeased by the Te as
mpoyment Commsson reveaed that a tota of 1 ,082
farmworkers apped for the emergency Dsaster Unem-
poyment Assstance. 0f these, 15,190 appcatons were
approved. A tota of 12 , 1 weeks of unempoyment
benefts totang 10,822,24 were pad to recpents n ten
South Te as countes, ncudng dago County.
542
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Chapter 2
Wnter egetabe Producton n the Po Grande aey and
dago County
story of the Crops
The crops targeted for ths study were onons, toma-
toes, brocco, and cabbage. ach makes a dfferent contr-
buton to South Te as agrcuture together, they offer a
good cross secton of the wnter vegetabe ndustry.
As noted prevousy, the Lower Po Grande aey, as
we as the nearby Wnter Garden area, have rch auva
sos, e tensve rrgaton systems, adequate water sup-
pes, and the md weather to produce a wde range of
vegetabes, ctrus fruts, nuts, cotton, sugarcane, and other
commodtes. Athough severa of these date back to the
md 1800s, such as cotton n the 18 0s and sugarcane n
the md 18 0s, vegetabes were not commercay farmed
unt after 1904. The competon of the St. Lous, Browns-
ve, and Me co raroad n 1904 and of the man rrga-
ton cana by the Po Grande Land and Irrgaton Company
n 1905 marked ma|or threshods for the producton of
vegetabes n the vaey. These events made t possbe to
rrgate arge tracts of and and to transport the products to
other parts of the state and beyond. Agrcutura producton
was transformed from a reatvey oca actvty nto an
enterprse geared to a arger market.
0ur study focused on the four dentfed crops because
of ther economc mportance n acreage under producton
or market vaue, or both. The foowng dscusson pro-
vdes a bref ntroducton to producton of the four crops n
the Po Grande aey.
0nons
0nons consttute the most mportant vegetabe crop
n the Lower Po Grande aey and one of the few vege-
tabe crops wth ncreased acreage n recent years. Te as
produces about 10 percent of the naton s onons and
owns the natona market from ate March through Apr.
Te as produces a short day onon that s md n favor
but does not store we. In addton, specaty research has
produced the Te as 1015 onon and ongong research s
underway to bud cancer-fghtng characterstcs nto the
Te as 1015 onon. 0nons are produced under a marketng
order that contros quaty standards. In contrast to toma-
toes, onons have a strong marketng order and the onon
commttee s we organzed, perhaps n part because a few
arge producers domnate the market. The state s hstorca
record for onon producton dates back to 1918 when about
18 thousand acres were harvested n Te as, and shows a
peak n 193 of over 8 thousand acres.2 In the past few
years, appro matey 10 thousand to 12 thousand acres
have been harvested annuay n the Lower Po Grande
aey
28
Tomatoes
Tomatoes were formery the most mportant vegetabe
crop n South Te as. Peportedy, 500 raroad freght cars
were shpped out each nght durng the season n the 1950s.
As many as 40 processors were n the tomato busness.
Currenty, ony a handfu of processors reman actve.
Athough severa factors are nvoved, most oca observers
attrbute the decne to the ack of research and deveop-
ment on mproved varetes and to the reatvey short
wndow for growng and marketng tomatoes. A marketng
order e sts, but t has a weak functonng commttee, wth
tte ndustry fundng for research and deveopment. In
1918, there were appro matey 4 0 acres of tomatoes
2 storca producton data are reported n Te as Department of Agrcuture/USDA, 1985.
28 U.S. Department of Agrcuture, Marketng South Te as 0nons: 1990 Season, Federa-State Market ews Servce, 1991, p. 2 .
543
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panted peak producton took pace n 1945 when appro -
matey s ty-fve thousand acres were harvested. Fewer
than three thousand acres are now harvested.
Brocco
Brocco producton n the Po Grande aey has been
decnng as Me can producton and mportaton have
rsen dramatcay. Brocco can be produced for ether
fresh market or frozen process market dependng on prces.
Me co seems to be takng over the market for freezng.
Industry representatves ndcated that brocco can be
grown, cut, trmmed, and haued from Me co to process-
ng pants n the Po Grande aey more cheapy than
growng costs aone n the Lower Po Grande aey.
Athough Me can producton s ncreasng, the prncpa
competton s Caforna. The start of Te as brocco pro-
ducton aso represents ts peak. In 1949, there were nne
thousand acres of brocco harvested currenty, fewer than
s thousand acres are harvested.
Athough we have noted the mportance of Me can
producton, t shoud be understood that ths refers to
producton that takes pace n Me co and not to the source
of ownershp. Industry representatves n the vaey have
noted not ony that there s an ncreasng nterest n produc-
ng n Me co n an effort to reman compettve wth other
producers n Te as as we other states, but aso that pro-
ducers have begun to act on that nterest and actuay shft
producton south of the Po Grande Pver. 0ne hgh-rank-
ng representatve wthn the ndustry noted at a recent
pubc meetng that most vaey frut and vegetabe produc-
ers aready had some nvestments n Me co. Thus, when
ndustry representatves comment about the competton
from Me co, ths shoud be understood as encompassng
competton from both Me can producers and U.S. pro-
ducers that are producng n Me co.
Cabbage
Unt recenty, cabbage was a stape tem for many
vegetabe farmers n South Te as. It s now n decne
owng to a ong term drop n consumpton and a persstent
sump n prces. Cabbage s n oversuppy durng the Te as
season, n part because of ntroducton of over-wnter
storage factes n the ortheast. Cabbage reached ts
producton peak n Te as durng Word War II, when over
forty-three thousand acres were harvested. Appro matey
ten thousand acres have been generay harvested n recent
years.
In order of mportance n market vaue for the state as
a whoe, the four crops were ranked as foows: onons,
cabbage, brocco, and tomatoes. Peatve to onons n
1990, cabbage market saes amounted to 3 percent of
onons, wth brocco and tomatoes at about 11 percent. The
year 1990 was partcuary bad for brocco producton n
Te as, however, wth tota producton yedng ess than
haf of the tota n prevous years.29
The Current System of Producton
Growng vegetabes n South Te as has become a bg
busness that s conducted or controed by packnghouses
that often have operatons n Me co, the Te as Panhande,
and other states as we. ach packnghouse has ts own
saes team that ses fresh frut and vegetabes whoesae to
ma|or grocery chans, restaurants chans, urban termna
produce markets, and other ma|or buyers. There s a fu
range of types of operaton. 0ne of the argest packng-
houses grows a of ts own produce on a combnaton of
owned or eased and. Another has nether and nor growng
operatons of ts own nstead, t packs and ses produce
for severa growers. In the most common arrangement, a
packnghouse grows some of ts produce and packs for a
few other growers. At east one of the packnghouses
surveyed was formed by a group of ma|or growers to pack
and market ther own produce.
For the most part, the reatonshp between growers
and an ndvdua packnghouse s stabe the packnghouse
handes produce for the same set of growers year after year.
At the margn, however, a few sma ndependent growers
shop around among packnghouses to try to obtan the best
prce. o grower begns a crop today wthout knowng
where t w be sod arrangements are made pror to
pantng. 0nce a contract s agreed upon, the packnghouse
usuay provdes the seed and, f necessary, a ne of credt,
as we as nstructons regardng cutvaton and growng
practces. The grower s |ob then s to brng the crop to
maturty. After deductng charges for harvestng and pack-
ng, the revenues from the crop are spt on a percentage
bass between the packng house and the grower.
Most of the harvest abor s provded by the more-
than-pentfu oca abor force. Athough most of the actua
recrutment of workers s conducted by farm abor contrac-
tors, the empoyment reatonshp ncudes both workers
29 Te as Department of Agrcuture/USDA, 1990 Te as Crop Statstcs, p. 101, 103, 10 , and 10 .
544
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who are pad drecty by the packng house or grower and
those pad through the abor contractor. The ncrease n
drect empoyment arrangements between packers-grow-
ers and workers s party a resut of the recognton by
producers of the trend n the courts and by the state em-
poyment servce to vew the producer as the empoyer
rather than the abor contractor. In other words, f the
grower-packer woud be hed abe for actons of the abor
contractor, then ogc dctates that the producer woud want
to mnmze hs or her rsk by assumng more contro over
the empoyment reatonshp.
The above does not mean that abor contractors have
been removed from the pcture. Pather, abor contractors
contnue to be responsbe for recrutng and supervsng
workers. For some growers and packers n some settngs,
ther other tradtona roes have remaned unchanged. The
shft from one roe to the other s not smpy owng to the
nvovement of a dfferent packer-grower. 0ur fed nter-
vews, for e ampe, uncovered a stuaton nvovng the
same packnghouse, abor contractor, and worker, n whch
the worker was pad n cash by the contractor for harvestng
onons and pad wth a check by the packnghouse for work
on meons.
From the ntervews wth abor contractors and work-
ers, t s apparent that abor contractors tend (about two-
thrds) to work prmary wth one shpper-grower, and
about haf of the workers worked wth ony one crew
eader.
0vera, vegetabe producton n dago County s
surprsngy stabe. Ths stabty resuts from the stabe
reatonshps between packnghouses, growers, abor con-
tractors, and workers. The sustaned and endurng reaton-
shp between packnghouses-growers, packnghouses-
contractors, and abor contractors-workers resuts n a sta-
be producton system that ensures the mantenance and
proftabty of the system. ach of the actors, however,
does not share equay n that proftabty. Among the
actors, the workers seem the ones east key to ncrease
ther share of the proftabty. Independent growers often
state that they are at a dsadvantaged poston reatve to the
shppers, and shppers pont out that they are at the mercy
of market and weather fuctuatons.
From the pece rates reported by the workers and
reports that these rates have remaned reatvey constant
over severa years for some workers, t appears that the
stabty n the ndustry has been acheved through the
reducton of competton among producers. More specf-
cay, through controng the wages pad, the ndustry
appears to have been abe to successfuy ensure ts stab-
ty. Moreover, the presence of a arge abor poo n need of
empoyment and the absence of strong unon repre-
sentaton have factated the stabty noted.
545
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Chapter 3
Agrcutura Labor n the South Te as egetabe Industry
0vervew of Farm Labor n the Lower Po
Grande aey
Mgraton Patterns
South Te as, and dago County specfcay, has
been recognzed for havng an mportant hstorca roe n
suppyng agrcutura workers for Te as as we as for the
rest of the naton. Po Grande aey workers have been
nvoved n seasona mgratons for over a century. In
addton to Me can-orgn vaqueros who partcpated n
the catte drves north aong the Chshom Tra durng the
ranchng perod, Me can agrcutura workers began n
earnest n the 1880s to foow the cotton harvest cyce from
the vaey to San Marcos, Segun, Austn, and the Coasta
Bend area. The mgraton out of the vaey was further
renforced by the actve recrutment of Me can workers
by abor agents from other states. In the eary part of the
1920s, agrcutura empoyers n the Mdwest and orth-
east dscovered Me cans n response to restrctons
paced on uropean mmgrants and the e panson of op-
portuntes n urban paces after Word War I. M
The sugar beet ndustry payed a sgnfcant roe n the
movement of Me can workers to Coorado, northern
0ho, Indana, and Mchgan. An estmated ten thousand
Te as Me cans were recruted annuay to work n Mch-
gan and northern 0ho. Such arge-scae recrutment dd
not go unnotced among Te as growers. Te as response
was to pass state egsaton amed at protectng ts Me can
abor reservor the mgrant Labor Agency Laws. These
aws sought to evy occupaton ta es, varabe county
surcharges, and requred the postng of a return transporta-
ton bond n each county where farm abor was recruted.
The am of these and reated efforts was to protect the
Te as Me can and ensure that they stayed where they
beonged on Te as farms and ranches.
Snce that tme the mgraton patterns have become
we estabshed not ony to Mchgan, 0ho and Coorado,
but to most other states n the Unted States both
contnenta and noncontnenta states. The recent e per-
ence of Po Grande aey farmworkers recruted by a-
waan growers, accordng to mgrant ega servce
attorneys, was not a postve one. Severa workers dd not
fnd what they had been promsed n terms of wages and
housng and were stranded n awa wthout the means to
return home.
The seasona mgraton to harvest the naton s crops
has aso been renforced by the specazaton and scae of
moder n agrcuture whch requres the presence of numer-
ous agrcutura workers who harvest the specfc crop,
often ony for a bref perod, then eave the communty. The
tte of a cassc work on mgrant agrcutura workers apty
characterzed the soca status of these workers Strang-
ers n 0ur Feds.
Pecevng states have benefted from both the seasona
mgraton of farm abor to perform the necessary agrcu-
tura work and from ther seasona departure. Through ths
arrangement, recevng states have been abe to transfer
many of the human capta costs (abor and soca repro-
ducton) to Te as. In other words, recevng states are abe
to use the productve abor of Te as farmworkers durng
perods requrng ntensve use of farm abor, yet mt the
educatona, soca, economc, and pubc assstance cost
of mantanng the farmworker househods durng other
perods. Te as, thus, subsdzes agrcutura producton n
other states.
Ceary, mgrant farmworker househods have e per-
enced ong-term costs and dffcutes n partcpatng n
the annua mgratory search for empoyment oss of
schoong for chdren, separaton from famy and frends,
hghway accdents, transportaton probems, arrvng at the
panned ocaton and dscoverng that the amount of work,
30 See Monte|ano 198 ahtes 1989 and Foey 1992.
54
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wages, and/or avaabe housng, or a of these, are not
what they had been promsed.
et, there aso have been benefts to mgratng. The
most mportant of these s fndng pad empoyment durng
perods when none was avaabe ocay. In addton, the
dstant |obs commony have been compensated wth hgher
wages and benefts than are found n the Po Grande
aey. For e ampe, unt recenty out of state empoyers
were more key than Te as farm empoyers to be covered
by unempoyment nsurance (UI), whch aowed the pos-
sbe coecton of UI benefts durng the wnter months n
Te as.
Servces and Benefts
uman Servce Programs Servng the Farm Labor
Force
Apart from the more drect forms of ncome support
prevousy mentoned, dago County s served by var-
ous programs that are desgned to address the mmedate
probems and ong-range needs of economcay dsadvan-
taged peope. These ncude severa programs amed cate-
gorcay at mgrant and other seasonay empoyed
agrcutura workers and ther fames, and t may be
worthwhe to summarze them here.
Mgrant ead Start. The Te as Mgrant Counc
operates 1 ead Start centers n 12 ctes throughout
dago County that provde comprehensve educatona,
heath, nutrtona, soca, and other servces e cusvey to
preschoo-age chdren of mobe agrcutura workers.31
The mgrant ead Start program, authorzed by the ead
Start Act, s admnstered by the natona offce of the U.S.
Department of eath and uman Servces.32
Mgrant ducaton. Chapter 1 of the ducaton
Consodaton and Improvement Act authorzes federa
fnancng of state-admnstered programs to meet the spe-
ca educatona needs of chdren of mgratory agrcutura
workers.33 Wth Chapter 1-Mgrant fundng from the U.S.
Department of ducaton, the Te as ducaton Agency
currenty makes grants to 15 oca schoo dstrcts n -
dago County, whch, n turn, provde mgrant students
wth such servces as remeda and compensatory nstruc-
ton, career educaton, gudance counseng, testng and
heath servces. The enroed eementary and secondary
student popuaton served by the mgrant educaton pro-
gram n these 15 dstrcts durng schoo year 1990-1991
totaed 3 ,915.34
Farmworker ob Tranng and mpoyment.
To hep agrcutura workers fnd aternatves to chronc
underempoyment n the seasona farm abor market and to
cope wth ts economc and soca consequences, the U.S.
Department of Labor has desgnated at east one entty n
every state e cept Aaska and Phode Isand to mpement
the program authorzed by secton 402 of the ob Tranng
Partnershp Act.35 In Te as, the TPA farmworker program
s admnstered statewde by Motvaton ducaton
Tranng, a prvate nonproft corporaton. Two of M T s
2 Te as servce stes are n dago County (at Wesaco
and Msson), through whch the agency conducts voca-
tona assessment, sk tranng, basc educaton, and aed
supportve servces cumnatng n pacement of partc-
pants nto permanent, nonseasona empoyment. At the
same tme, for workers more frmy attached to seasona
agrcuture, M T s funded to furnsh drect food and
transportaton ad, soca-servce referras and technca
assstance, wth the am of stabzng ther contnued par-
tcpaton n the farm workforce.
Mgrant Lega Servces. Concomtant wth ts na-
tonwde network of aw offces servng the genera ow-
ncome popuaton, the Lega Servces Corporaton a
quas-federa agency estabshed n 19 4 under the Lega
Servces Corporaton Act dsburses funds earmarked to
address the compe cv ega probems of mgrant farm-
workers. dago County s among the agrcuturay m-
pacted |ursdctons targeted by LSC for ths program,
whch s admnstered here by Te as Pura Lega Ad n
Wesaco. TPLA s mgrant component deas amost en-
trey wth farmworker compants reated to the terms and
condtons of ther agrcutura empoyment.
Mgrant eath. Under authorty of secton 329 of
the Pubc eath Servce Act, the U.S. Department of
eath and uman Servces awards grants to pubc agen-
ces and prvate nonproft organzatons for the devery of
31 Teephone ntervew wth Pafae Guerra, state educatona coordnator, Te as Mgrant Counc, Inc. (August 9, 1991).
32 ecutve 0ffce of the Presdent, 0ffce of Management and Budget, and U.S. Genera Servces Admnstraton, Cataog of Federa
Domestc Assstance, 198 (Washngton, D.C.: May 198 ), program number 13. 00.
33 Cataog of Federa Domestc Assstance, 198 , same reference as footnote 9, program number 84.011.
34 Te as ducaton Agency, Dstrct Count of Te as Mgrant Students, by Status, computer prntout for schoo year 1990-91 (August
8,1991).
35 Cataog of Federa Domestc Assstance, 198 , same reference as footnote 9, program number 1 .24 .
54
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prmary and suppementa heath care and envronmenta
servces to mgrant and seasona farmworkers.3 dago
County eath Care Corporaton s the soe recpent of
D S mgrant heath funds n the county, but devers
comprehensve servces through four oca cncs (n d-
couch, Mercedes, Msson, and Pharr).3
Farm Labor ousng. Under sectons 514 and 51
of the ousng Act of 1949, the U.S. Department of Agr-
cuture makes ow-nterest oans and grants avaabe to
quafed pubc agences, prvate nonproft organzatons,
and agrcutura producers, to provde ow-rent housng
and reated factes to domestc farm aborers.38 As of
une 5, 1991, the state offce of USDA s Farmers ome
Admnstraton ndcates that there are three such pro|ects
n operaton n dago County: a 289-unt compe n
Wesaco, a 24 -unt facty n McAen, and a 32-unt
pro|ect n San uan.39 A three are admnstered by the
county housng authorty and have a combned capacty of
3,4 workers and famy members, accordng to the Te as
Department of eath, whch s the agency responsbe for
censng vng quarters for mgrant, seasona and tempo-
rary agrcutura workers n the state TD reports no other
authorzed farmworker housng factes here.40
Agrcutura Dsaster Assstance. As a resut of
three ma|or wntertme agrcutura dsasters n South
Te as snce 1983, a programmatc nfrastructure has
evoved to hep cushon the economc mpact of weather-
reated crop osses on the farm abor force so that dsaster
reef n the wake of the 1989 freeze came on four fronts:
Dsaster Unempoyment Assstance, fnanced by the
Federa mergency Management Agency as we
as reguar, empoyer-supported unempoyment n-
surance both admnstered ocay by the Te as
mpoyment Commsson.
A temporary pubc-servce empoyment program,
operated by the dago County Department of
Communty Affars wth ob Tranng Partnershp
Act doars from the U.S. Department of Labor and
the Te as Department of Commerce.
mergency fnanca assstance for the most part,
dsbursements to thrd partes for ongong househod
obgatons such as mortgage and rent payments,
utty bs, and consumer oan nstaments pro-
vded by Motvaton ducaton Tranng under ts
reguar TPA Secton 402 aocaton and dsaster-re-
ated suppementa funds.
Msceaneous pubc- and prvate-sector reef, both
monetary and n-knd.
The Current Farm Labor Contractng
System
arvestng operatons n South Te as are amost e -
cusvey handed by abor contractors workng wth pack-
nghouses or sheds. Labor contractors recrut and supervse
the crew and provde the truck(s) for haung the harvested
produce to the packnghouse. Labor contractors have ong
been n use n the Lower Po Grande aey. Asked how
ong have you used abor contractors the most common
response was, Snce the frm was ntay estabshed.
0ne ntervewee was abe to document use of abor con-
tractors as eary as 1929.
Athough the abor contractor system has been n pace
for decades, the nature of ts operatons has evoved so that
now empoyment of harvesters has become a |ont respon-
sbty prncpay the resut of severa recent court
decsons. Most of the packnghouses have assumed sev-
era functons of the contractor that e pose them to abty
usuay ncudng payro, mantanng 1-9 records for
the Immgraton and aturazaton Servce (I S), and
payng unempoyment nsurance ta es for the contractor.
In addton, many packnghouses carry a workers compen-
saton nsurance pocy to cover the empoyees of ther
abor contractors because abor contractors are usuay
unabe to purchase such nsurance on ther own. In some
cases, the abor contractor performs more as a foreman for
the packnghouse than an ndependent operator. The abor
contractor recruts and supervses a crew of workers.
Few South Te as growers contract drecty wth abor
contractors. Some may engage a crew for weedng. The
practce of growers drecty contractng for harvestng s
becomng rare, however. As one grower e paned: / avod
abor contractors ke the pague. I don t have tme and I
3 Cataog of Federa Domestc Assstance, 198 , same reference as footnote 9, program number 13.24 .
3 atona Mgrant Pesource Program, Inc., 1990 Mgrant eath Centers Peferra Drectory (Austn, Te as: May 1990).
38 Cataog of Federa Domestc Assstance, 198 , same reference as footnote 9, program number 10.405.
39 U.S. Department of Agrcuture, Farmers ome Admnstraton, Labor ousng Status As 0f une 21,1988 Pro|ects Competed,
computer prntout and attached updatng memo, dated une 5, 1991.
40 Te as Department of eath, Genera Santaton Dvson, teephone and facsme communcatons, August 12, 1991.
548
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don t want them on my workers comp. Increasngy, abor
and abor contractors have become ssues for the packng-
house to hande.
Farm Labor Contractng: Background Informaton
and Genera Characterstcs
Farm abor contractng n the Po Grande aey s a
famy enterprse, whch often nvoves a husband and wfe
team and s commony handed down from one generaton
to the ne t. Ffteen of the eghteen contractors ntervewed
reported that reatves were nvoved n ther busness.
Most have ong e perence as abor contractors.
Accordng to data provded by the U.S. Department of
Labor (D0L), whch s the entty responsbe for censng
farm abor contractors (FLCs), n 1989 there were 1,114
FLCs n dago County. The actua number of contrac-
tors, or troqueros as they are often st referred to by
farmworkers, however, may not necessary match the
number censed by D0L. The reason for ths s the pres-
ence of uncensed contractors as we as subcontractors
that operate under a censed contractor. stmates of the
number of uncensed abor contractors are dffcut to
ocate. It s generay ony through compants fed wth
oca ega assstance attorneys that the actua ega status
of a contratsta emerges.
Tabe 3.1 summarzes the dstrbuton of FLCs by sze
of crew. The sze of crew ndcated n these data represents
the crew sze for whch the specfc abor contractor has
been authorzed to hande t may not be the actua sze of
the crew utzed. In other words, the crew sze s the
ma mum sze that the contractor w most key hande
at one tme. Farm abor contractors w more often work
wth crews smaer than that specfed n the censng
process.
Tabe 3.1 - Dstrbuton of FLCs by Crew Sze,
dago County (1989)
Sze of Crew
0 to 14
15 to 24
25 to 34
35 to 99
100 to 350 ..
Tota
umber of
Crews
Percent
255
22.9
2 1
23.4
21
19.4
322
28.9
0
5.4
1,114
100
Appro matey one haf of the authorzed crews con-
sst of fewer than 25 workers. 0ny a sma proporton
coud be categorzed as super crews (5.4 percent). It
shoud be mentoned that the D0L tota of 1,114 FLCs s
more accuratey the potenta number of contractors and
not necessary the number that may be actvey contractng
durng the year. The dffcuty n determnng the number
of actve FLCs n the county s compounded by the poss-
bty that the FLC may, smar to the workers, resde n
the county but recrut and supervse workers n other oca-
tons nsde as we as outsde the state.
Most FLCs work a m of crops. A few specaze n
a crop such as onons or tomatoes, however, and foow that
crop north as other growng areas come nto harvest.
A but two contractors ndcated that they operate
ony one crew, athough the sze of a snge crew can be
qute arge, especay n harvestng onons. 0ne contractor
operated a crew as arge as 500, whch s dvded nto
subgroups that are managed by reatves. The promnence
of famy arrangements s apparent not ony from the stng
supped by D0L wth ts mutpe names wth the same
mang address, but aso from the ntervews wth workers
and farm abor contractors themseves.
Tabe 3.2 summarzes key characterstcs for the farm
abor contractors ntervewed.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Lcensed Farm Labor Contractors,
1989, computer prntout.
549
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Tabe 3.2 - Seected Characterstcs of Farm
Labor Contractors Intervewed
ears
umber
umber
of
oT
of
o.
per-
Workers Workers
of
Summer Mgrant
ence
Peak
Low
Crews
Destnatons
14
500
100
1
ew Me co
3
100
10
4
Mosty Te as
4
90
23
1
one
10
85
25
1
West Te as
0
45
1
Caforna
8
0
30
1
Pents hs truck ony
20
0
20
1
Pents hs truck ony
20
0
1
2
West Te as
0
20
1
West Te as
21
0
38
1
one ony formery
18
50
30
1
one ony formery
8
50
20
1
ew Me co
5
35
35
1
one
25
35
14
1
one
20
35
8
1
one
4
35
10
1
one
35
35
15
1
Indana
20
19
4
1
one ony formery
Inherted e stng contractng busness from parent or other reatve
Source: Intervews conducted wth farm abor contractors.
Pecrutment, Screenng, Tranng, and Fed
Supervson
A FLCs ntervewed report recrutng ther workers
wth tte effort. Most mantan a st of teephone numbers
of former workers and make phone cas when they need
workers. They aso put the word out nformay through
networks of famy, frends, and neghbors. Durng the
season, most contractors seem to have a constant fow of
appcants approachng them askng them for work. It was
often reported that:
They |ust hear about us and come to us and
ask for a |ob. There s no need to recrut.
They ca me. Many workers have been wth
me for 15 to 1 years.
We put the word out. verybody tes every-
body.
ou contact one and he contacts everyone
ese. Most have worked for us before.
Three contractors reported recrutng workers from
among those watng n the mornngs at the brdges at
Brownsve or Peynosa. Peportedy, ths practce for-
mery was more common, but t has faen nto decne
owng to the mposton of nsurance requrements on
contractors provdng transportaton for ther workers. An-
other factor may be the ready suppy of avaabe workers
who are wng to work and can arrange for ther own
transportaton.
The Te as mpoyment Commsson (T C) s not
vewed as a partcuary good source of workers. Its refer-
ras commony are stgmatzed as more nterested n unem-
poyment compensaton than n workng. As a source of
workers, T C s usuay consdered a ast resort by South
Te as farm empoyers. The foowng responses are typca
of the statements obtaned n ntervews:
/ used T C for onons ast month, but ony
after e haustng my own drect worker contacts.
1 have found that n some cases, workers referred
by T C don t stay on the |ob as ong as other
workers.
About once each season, I ca for e tra
hands, but most often T C doesn t send anyone
n response or those they refer don t show up. It
doesn t seem to be a productve source of work-
ers.
I have gone to T C to advse them of the start
of the season, but sedom get referras. Workers
regstered wth T C seem more concerned wth
UI.
To be far, two farm empoyers dd offer favorabe
menton about the referra servces offered by a partcuar
T C offce where they were served by a partcuar T C
staff member famar wth them and ther operatons.
As a reguar practce statewde, the Te as mpoy-
ment Commsson asssts a ts |ob appcants through the
process of obtanng a 1-9 certfcaton. Ths practce heps
to ensure that a T C referras have the ega status to work
n the Unted States. It aso asssts workers and empoyers
wth the paperwork burden of fng out the 1-9 form. In
sharp contrast to T C s referra servce, the assstance T C
offers n vadatng the ega status of workers and fng
out an 1-9 form receved unversa accam from farm
empoyers. As a reguar practce, fuy one-thrd of the
contractors ntervewed send a ther newy seected work-
ers to the T C to obtan ther 1-9 certfcaton.
South Te as empoyers conduct mnma screenng of
|ob appcants, other than to ensure that the appcants have
ega status and to avod former workers who have proven
unproductve or troubesome. A few were abe to mt ther
hrng ony to workers who have prevous e perence n the
partcuar crop. 0thers sought ony motvated workers.
0ne contractor warned hs |ob appcants: It s gong to be
hard work. If they remaned nterested and were wng
550
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to try t after ths warnng, he hred them even ndvdu-
as wthout prevous e perence. As a genera prncpe, the
amount of screenng a farm empoyer can do depends on
hs stuaton a common atttude was e pressed by one
contractor: /// reay need workers, I hre anyone
Most farm empoyers ether e pressed a preference for
ther e stng famy crews or ndcated no preference for
a partcuar crew composton. 0ny two contractors e -
pressed preference for snge men. As ndcated n the
foowng quotes, a few had some opnons about whch
quates of varous types of workers:
Fames. The snge men from Paso are
troube
As an equa opportunty empoyer, I once
hred a coupe of Indans but found that Indans
dd not want to work hard.
In Caforna, ocas don t want to work.
I prefer snge maes. They seem to work
more consstenty and onger hours when they
work n no-women groups.
The former SAWs seem to be more consstent
n showng up for work and they compan ess.
Some ocas aren t as dependabe. owever,
many SAWs who got egazed returned to Me co
and ddn t come back.
I use the same workers year n and year out.
I fnd that new workers are not as reabe they
don t stay.
I prefer fames because they want to work.
The snges are unreabe and don t show up
reguary. Fames have a greater need to work.
Snges do tend to mss work on weekends
fames don t mss so much.
Snge guys tend not to show up on Mondays
fames seem more reabe. Peope from Me co
seem to work harder unt work s done. U.S.
workers seem to put mts on ther hours.
Snge men work sometmes, sometmes not,
whe famy peope men and women are
more reabe.
Snges are better because fames aren t as
dependabe. When one gets sck, the whoe
groups msses work. Aso women work more.
Women are hander on tomatoes and more
carefu wth the pants.
I have no preference, but peope from Me co
probaby work a tte harder than natve Lower
Po Grande aey resdents.
ou waste your tme tryng to get workers n
the U.S. I go to the brdge n Brownsve to
recrut. They re more wng to work. The others
are too busy sgnng |for unempoyment nsur-
ance, food stamps, etc|.
Locas are more reabe than workers re-
cruted at the brdges from Me co.
The Sze and Composton of Farmworker Crews
The sze of crews vares most wth the crop onon
harvestng accommodates vast crews rangng to 100 or
more and cabbage harvestng requres the smaest number.
Most of the abor contractors ntervewed who work on a
varety of crops supervse a snge crew over the growng
season, ad|ustng ts sze and membershp to accommodate
the crop that s beng harvested at the tme.
eary a farmworkers n the Lower Po Grande
aey are of Me can descent and work n crews of m ed
gender. As one abor contractor stated, verybody n the
Po Grande aey comes n a package. e e paned that
an empoyer hred not |ust a man but hs entre famy
often ncudng grandparents. Most growers reported that
the proporton of men and women on ther harvest crews
was about haf and haf. Sometmes tasks n the fed are
aocated by gender. For e ampe, n some brocco crews,
maes do the cuttng and carryng whe women do the
trmmng and packng at the edge of the fed. In packng-
houses, the sorters are usuay women whereas the men
perform tasks such as drvng forkft trucks.
When asked whether the composton of fedworkers
had changed at a over the years, neary everyone ndcated
that there had been no changes. In fact, ony three respon-
dents noted that any changes had occurred at a:
o, but South Te as agrcuture hasn t got
the better quaty peope anymore. These are
gong to the maquadora pants or to the sheds.
The ess traned and ess ambtous are eft the
eftovers are avaabe for fedwork.
o, e cept perhaps our workforce s a tte
oder.
es, more women are n the fed now.
When asked the queston Do you fnd that peope
from dfferent natona or ethnc backgrounds have dffer-
ent atttudes toward farmwork about haf ndcated that
they dd not know because they had no e perence other
than wth Me can-Amercans. 0ne grower ponted out
that t depends on the ndvdua. Growers wth e per-
ence n other areas of the country, however, had strong
preferences aganst backs and n favor of Me can-orgn
workers from the Po Grande aey. Many reported takng
Po Grande aey workers wth them to work n other
areas, as ndcated by the foowng quotes:
551
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Me can-Amercans w show up to work
seven days a week, don t compan a ot, have
prde n ther work. Ther fames are strong
unts. We are fortunate here we have a good
tranabe abor force. In my former work n For-
da, backs woud qut when they faced a probem.
0der Me can workers may have a dfferent
atttude from younger Me can workers. For
them, agrcutura work was a way of fe. Gven
ths factor, I am not so certan about the contn-
ued avaabty of adequate abor suppes.
es Grngos don t thnk much of dong farm
abor
Centra Amercans are somethng ese. They
don t want to work n the fed. Lots of them are
here but not n agrcuture. A woman s better
than an man n both the fed and n the shed. She
s a more conscentous worker. I once hred
nggers n Lousana to cut brocco but I 11 never
do t agan. Whte foks are no better. ggers and
whtes aren t worth two cents when t comes to
farmwork. When you go to other areas such as
west Te as and Lousana, you have to take your
workers from the vaey wth you.
Backs want to work for beer money ony. In
our e perence, backs woudn t work n Mch-
gan or Arkansas. We once recruted workers from
here for Arkansas tomato growers when they
coud not fnd ocas.
We have ony Me can-orgn workers. They
were farmers n Me co. They have grown up wth
farms. They ke outsde work and they don t have
the educaton to get a |ob n other ndustry.
We take our spancs wth us to work n
Mchgan because we can t get backs or whtes
to work or n Georga where we can t get
backs.
A few growers e pressed a preference for undocu-
mented workers as ndcated n the foowng quotatons:
Iegas are more productve than ocas.
Iega workers used to put n a fu day s
work for a fu day s pay.
Labor Management Practces
Perhaps the most mpressve fact about abor manage-
ment practces n dago County s the wde range of
practces used, rangng from fary progressve to prm-
tve. Athough shortages of abor may be the most effectve
prod to mprove abor management practces, many other
factors can serve as postve nfuences. Concerns about
mprovng workpace safety, reducng ow workers com-
pensaton rates, or smpy reducng the transacton costs of
hrng workers a can cause empoyers to try to reduce
turnover. Many growers e pressed these motvatons n
ther own words:
We try to workpeope as ong as we can. We
try to avod hrng peope because t takes 45
mnutes per worker to enro them nto our sys-
tem.
We try to hre the same peope who worked
for us before n order to save on UI rates f
possbe.
The fewer peope you have the ess chance
you have of workers compensaton cams.
Staff of the Te as ctrus and vegetabe asso-
caton s hepng us wth heath and safety
casses. A more stabe workforce s a safer one
because you can nvest safety tranng n them
and have no need to be repeatng the tranng over
and over to new workers. 0nce safety procedures
are mpemented, they are more easy man-
taned wth a stabe crew.
A few growers e pressed reuctance to even try to
reduce turnover or absenteesm among ther harvest crews.
As one e paned: There s a need to be fe be. The
whoe crew w wak out f I come down on anyone too
hard.
Few growers or packnghouses were aware of turnover
rates e perenced n ther harvest crews on a season-to-
season bass, or a weeky bass, or any other way turnover
s cacuated. Turnover was smpy not consdered an m-
portant enough measure to track. evertheess, some grow-
ers had taken acton to reduce turnover for varous (often
surprsng) reasons. For e ampe, when asked about turn-
over rates, one farmer reported wth obvous prde:
Last year we processed 8 W-4s to keep a
crew of 25 workers empoyed year round. The
year before, t was 1 2 W-4s. We have decreased
ths fgure purposefuy by beng more carefu
about hrng and by reducng our empoyment
generay.
When the ntervewer probed to earn the reason that
the farm had taken ths acton, the farmer e paned that
processng so many records was nearng the capacty of hs
computer, and he wanted to avod purchasng a computer
wth a arger capacty. When asked specfcay about turn-
over rates among hs harvest crews arranged through abor
contractors, he had no dea because hs contractors man-
taned ther own records.
Gven the easy avaabty of repacement abor, more
than one-thrd of the growers ntervewed saw no need to
attempt to reduce turnover. A few even retorted wth rd-
cue for the queston:
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ow can you ou woud be buttng your
head aganst the wa The wefare stuaton n-
hbts work ncentve around here.
ow can you gve frnge benefts to reduce
worker turnover
Many growers perceved hgh turnover rates as smpy
nevtabe and saw no practca way to dea wth t. For
e ampe, a tomato grower responded to the queston:
ave you tred any new management practces to reduce
worker turnover
o, because our work s not reguar enough.
If we get a ran or ha or temperature that s too
coo, then we can t harvest. Thus, we can t even
guarantee steady work even durng our sea-
son.
Inqurng further, the ntervewer dscovered that, un-
ess an obvous weather probem was antcpated, ths
grower e pected hs workers to show up n the mornng
ready for work. If weather condtons prevented workers
from pckng, no pay was provded for showng up. e was
the ony grower n our sampe who had ever e perenced a
abor shortage that resuted n produce rottng n the fed.
It occurred n eary sprng 1990 at a tme when dsaster
reef payments were beng made to workers foowng the
December 1989 freeze and when onon harvestng was
begnnng, whch offered more attractve work n compar-
son to tomato pckng.
ow Growers Act as Labor Managers Depends
Largey on the Perceptons they have of ther Work
Force
Perceptons of workers vary enormousy among South
Te as growers n regard to worker capacty to change
rangng from hopeessy f ed n past practces to open to
change. An area where grower preconceptons of worker
response was perhaps most apparent was n safety tranng.
Some growers beeved that nothng they coud do woud
convnce ther workers to foow safety practces. As one
packnghouse offca sad n a persona tone of voce,
These workers have a dfferent vew of safety than you
and I. e proceeded to e pan how hopeess t was to
tran workers n safety procedures and e pect them to be
foowed. et, a neghborng packnghouse wth a compre-
hensve safety tranng and awareness program has demon-
strated mprovements n ts e perence ratng on workers
compensaton cams, thereby reducng ts annua pre-
mum. Unfortunatey, ths frm was an e cepton. Despte
wdespread concerns about the hgh costs of workers com-
pensaton nsurance, the sub|ect of safety tranng or safety
procedures arose n ess than a handfu of ntervews.
Sgnfcant changes n worker behavor have been
acheved by a few growers, as documented n our nter-
vews. For e ampe, one frm reported e perencng ab-
sences and turnover wth a crew of sked ceery
transpanters who worked nghts. The frm responded by
ceary communcatng to these workers how mportant
havng a steady reabe crew was to them, and they rased
wages by 50 cents over the federa mnmum to provde a
dfferenta for nght work. The probems were emnated
mmedatey.
Conservng uman Pesources
Gven the abundant suppy of avaabe workers, most
empoyers saw tte need to take measures to keep the best
workers empoyed over a more e tended part of the year
by estabshng sharng or poong arrangements or by
encouragng them to retum. ery few crews are abe to do
farmwork on a year-round or neary year round bass wthn
the Po Grande aey. The very hot summers emnate
the possbtes of growng most crops. The tasks these few
crews undertake durng the summer are rrgaton and
mantenance. Severa Po Grande aey packnghouses
now have operatons n Me co and n other parts of the
Unted States. Ths crcumstance aows them to use the
same crews over more e tended perods by workng them
n dfferent growng regons. Some crews are abe to man-
tan empoyment neary year-round ths way. But for the
frms, the mportant motvatng factor n estabshng these
operatons s to e tend ther market wndow not to
conserve the frm s human resources.
It s unversay consdered the responsbty of work-
ers or abor contractors to fnd ther own work durng the
remander of the year. 0ny one respondent e pressed
concern about mantanng empoyment for hs work force,
and that was to keep hs sked saes crew occuped. Ths
partcuar grower-shpper has severa packng operatons
across the Unted States party to keep a strong saes force
engaged and earnng mones the fu year, so that he does
not ose them to compettors.
As the produce ndustry n South Te as has restruc-
tured nto arger enterprses wth operatons n severa
paces across the country, the restructurng has opened
natura opportuntes for workers to reman empoyed wth
the same frms for e tended perods. The fedworkers
techncay do not mgrate wth the frms. The ony workers
that the frm offcay brngs wth them are the supervsory
staff and a few key packnghouse workers. Fedworkers
are nformed when harvestng s e pected to start and they
smpy show up at the dstant operaton on the approprate
schedue and are rehred. Ths way, the empoyer avods
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responsbty for transportaton costs, abty durng ther
trp, trave costs, and vng e penses n the dstant ocaton.
Wages and Systems of Payment
0ver the past 20 years, systems of payment for farm-
workers n the Lower Po Grande aey have been regu-
arzed, especay as the packnghouses have taken over
payro functons. Durng the 19 0s, t was not uncommon
for a abor contractor to pay hs crew n cash at the end of
each day. ow, most are pad by weeky check.
Workers are ether pad on an houry wage amost
aways the mnmum wage or on a pece rate bass,
whch s ad|usted accordng to pckng condtons. Tasks
such as weedng are compensated on an houry bass.
Dependng on the crop, harvestng can be performed on a
pece rate or an houry bass. 0nons are aways pcked on
ether a pece rate bass, wth the rate varyng between 0
and 80 cents a bag n dago County, dependng on the
densty of the harvest and the sze of the onons n the fed.
In Starr County, pece rates run about 10 cents ower.
Smary, tomatoes are amost aways pcked on a pece
rate bass workers move through a fed three separate
tmes pckng ony those tomatoes that are ready for har-
vest. When brocco and cabbage are fed packed, payment
s made by pece rate pad on a bo bass, wth reported
rates at 95 cents a bo for cabbage and 1.25 a bo for
brocco durng 1991. If they are packed n the shed or f
the brocco s sent to processng rather pcked for the fresh
market, workers can be pad an houry rate.
Changes n Payment Systems and Wage Pates Snce
IPCA
A growers ntervewed ndcated that houry wages
had rsen n response to recent ncreases n the mnmum
wage. There was a m ed response, however, to the ques-
ton of whether pece rates had changed. A thrd of the
respondents ndcated that pece rates were about the same
as they were fve years ago. Some ponted out that e stng
pece rates yeded workers an houry ncome greater than
the current mnmum wage. 0ther growers ndcated that
pece rates had rsen somewhat over the past fve years, as
ndcated n the foowng quotes:
Fve years ago, onons were 45 to 50 cents.
ow t s 0 to 0 cents. The rate for a partcuar
fed w vary accordng to fed condtons and
the sze of the onons.
Gone up wth mnmum wage ncreases.
At the begnnng of ths year, 0 cents per
bag (for onons). We went up 4 cents per bag ths
year and up 4 cents per bag ast year.
Psen, due to ncreases n mnmum wage.
Wages change ony when mnmum wage
goes up. The payment system vares wth the crop
of course. For e ampe, onons are harvested
under the pece rate system.
Workers have to make the mnmum wage.
We make changes to accommodate ths requre-
ment. If eght workers don t make mnmum and
ony two do, you know you ad|ust the pece rate.
0ur cabbage workers on houry bass re-
ceved an ncrease wth mnmum wage ncrease.
0ur onon workers receve pece rates rangng
from 0 to 80 cents per bag dependng on sze of
onons and fed condtons or an average of 0
per bag) 0ur crew eader n onons gets pad
1.22 per 53 pounds on the scae no matter
what hs workers earn. Ths means that haung
s 22 cents per bag and he gets 30 cents per bag
for admnstraton.
It s cear from these comments that changes n ega
mnmum wages have the greatest nfuence on compensa-
ton to farmworkers n the Po Grande aey specf-
cay those pad on an houry bass. For those pad on a
pece rate, t s not as cear what the mpact of ncreases n
the mnmum wage have been on pece rates. o FLC
ntervewed mentoned IPCA as an nfuence on rates of
compensaton.
Frnge Benefts
Wth a few notabe e ceptons, tradtonay frnge
benefts of any knd beyond those mandated under aw
have not been pad to farmworkers n the Po Grande
aey. Pecent court decsons and egsatve actons,
however, have e tended mandated frnges most farm-
workers n dago County now have coverage under
unempoyment nsurance and workers compensaton. In
addton, wth the rse of more sophstcated and arger
operatons has come the provson of other frnge benefts.
Most commony, the frnge benefts apped to supervsory
and offce staff, but a few frms offered benefts to seasona
fedworkers, as ndcated n our ntervews:
Ma|or medca s pad by us for empoyees.
The empoyee has opton to add dependents at hs
cost.
osptazaton - we pay haf and worker
pays haf Most don t opt for t.
We have a penson pan for peope who work
at east one thousand hours per year. Some of the
seasona peope meet ths standard.
A fu tme empoyees get same benefts as
empoyees of the o company that owns us. Ths
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ncudes medca coverage, retrement, and sav-
ngs pan. Some fed hands put n enough hours
to quafy for fu tme benefts even though they
work ony from September through May because
they work seven days per week durng that perod.
Bonuses
Bonuses of any type pad to fedworkers are e -
tremey rare n the Po Grande aey, athough permanent
empoyees n some frms receve them. 0ny one packng-
house reportedy had a bonus system whch offered an
e tra 100 to any fed worker who worked at east one
thousand hours n a season and hats and tee shrts to
workers who competed three months of work wthout an
accdent. A few ndvdua farmers and abor contractors
wth reguar crews who return year after year hod pachan-
gas a party usuay wth musc and food to ceebrate
and to thank workers at the end of the season. As the
ndustry moves to arger sze operatons, however, ths
practce s becomng ess common.
ousng
ousng or housng aowances are never provded by
empoyers to seasona fed workers n the Po Grande
aey, and housng s offered ony rarey to permanent,
year-round workers. 0ny two of 19 growers ndcated that
they provded any hep wth housng to permanent workers.
0ne ndcated that rrgators and tractor drvers were of-
fered housng on the ranch. Another had provded one
thousand doars to hep one of hs four permanent workers
to pace a down payment on a home. Most growers try, f
possbe, to avod provdng housng even to permanent
workers. As one grower ndcated, / used to |provde
housng| but I got rd of ths abty when one of my
mobe homes burned.
Ine pensve housng has been avaabe n coonas
unoffca resdenta areas estabshed outsde ncorpo-
rated ctes and towns. These ocates often resuted from
sma farmers subdvdng ther propertes nto ots and
seng them generay wthout beneft of nfrastructure
such as sewer and water factes. These coonas are
nterspersed among e stng agrcutura feds. Such pro -
mty to growng operatons has caused farmers ncreasng
probems as pubc awareness of pestcde dangers has
ncreased.
Ine pensve housng and the accessbty of home
ownershp n the coonas have been mportant dstngush-
ng features of the hstory of agrcutura abor n the Lower
Po Grande aey. storcay, the Po Grande aey has
been an mportant suppy source of mgrant workers who
traversed the naton each sprng and summer seekng har-
vest work and returned each wnter to the homes they
owned, meager as many were. Gven ncreasng concerns
about pestcde probems and the ack of nfrastructure and
other pubc servces, the future avaabty of ne pensve
housng n the coonas w come ncreasngy nto ques-
ton.
Government 0versght of Farmwork
Agrcutura fedwork s sub|ect to numerous nspec-
tons by severa agences. U.S. Department of Labor s
responsbe for compance wth wage and hour aws and
reguatons ncudng chd abor aws. The Immgraton
and aturazaton Servce s responsbe for assurng that
ega workers are used. In varous paces, 0S A, the Te as
Department of eath, or the County eath Department
check for voatons of reguatons regardng santaton
(water and toet) factes for workers n the feds. In
dago County, the County eath Authorty has ths
responsbty. Fnay, Te as Department of Agrcuture
offcas check to see that pestcde reguatons are fo-
owed regardng worker tranng, rght-to-know prov-
sons, and postng requrements on sprayed feds.
The atter two fed santaton and pestcde regua-
ton are reatvey recent oversght actvtes n South
Te as. They were ntroduced wth the passage of state
egsaton whose coverage and provsons are more e ten-
sve than federa aw and reguatons.
For the most part, growers and contractors seem re-
sgned to a ths nspecton actvty, athough they com-
pan about t, especay when severa agences arrve on
the same day. As one contractor noted: We get checked
up to fve tmes per day
Accordng to respondents, fnes are reatvey rarey
mposed warnngs and nforma orders to compy are
common. There have aso been some nterestng changes
n the patterns of nspecton actvty n dago County.
Peportedy, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and our
staff vst the feds ony twce a year, whch s a sgnfcant
decne from past practce. A recent focus of ther work s
voaton of chd abor aws, and a coupe of empoyers
acknowedged recevng fnes for voatons. Most attrbute
the decne n fed vsts to the fact that the packnghouses
have assumed the payro responsbtes of ther contrac-
tors and the records are now centrazed and n better order.
The I S rarey makes fed nspectons to check the
ega status of farmworkers n dago County. The foow-
ng comments from our ntervews are typca:
I S never comes. They are more nterested
n drug nterdcton than they are n ega work-
ers n agrcuture. Besdes there are none the
penates are too great.
555
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Two years ago, they passed through the fed
I was workng n. Aso I see them when I work n
feds rght on the border but they don t stop to
e amne my crew.
I haven t had any I S nspectons snce
IPC A was enacted.
The I S hardy ever passes by and have not
stopped to check workers. Ths s probaby be-
cause T C s dong my 1-9s.
The I S haven t come n three years. I thnk
that 1-9s are emnatng the need.
0ne abor contractor offered a reveang contrast be-
tween the way he operates n South Te as and n ew
Me co:
We have no probems n South Te as. In ew
Me co, we do hre egas. veryone does. We
post guards at gates to protect us from rads. In
South Te as, I am carefu about 1-9s. The abor
suppy s adequate.
Peportedy, durng the past year, numerous fed n-
spectons have come from the Te as Department of Agr-
cuture checkng for voatons of pestcde reguatons (up
to once a week). By far, the most frequent nspectors to the
feds, however, are from the dago County eath De-
partment to check on the avaabty and condton of water
and toet factes (reportedy as often as twce a week).
As t turns out, the County eath Department s operatng
under a consent decree resutng from ega acton brought
by the Unted Farm Workers. Accordng to ths agreement,
the department must make a certan quota of fed vsts and
fe the reports of these vsts wth the courts, whch n turn
share a copy wth the unon.
The Current Agrcutura Labor Force
Background and Genera Characterstcs of the
Worker Sampe
Po Grande aey farmworkers are no strangers to
soca scence. 0ver the past 0 years, severa researchers
have spent tme nvestgatng varous themes among farm-
worker househods n the area. These ncude ma|or and
we-respected fgures such as Pau S. Tayor, who e am-
ned abor and ethnc reatons n ueces and Dmmt
countes n the Wnter Garden area, as we as others who
have receved ther share of crtques such as Wam
Madsen and Arthur . Pube.41 Despte the presence of a
sgnfcant body of research spannng cose to three-fourths
of a century, there are st many unanswered questons
regardng mportant ssues reated to the detaed functon-
ng of the agrcutura abor market. A ma|or constrant has
been the absence of n-depth and sustaned research that
focuses on the constant, as we as the changng, nature of
the agrcutura abor market.42 Most studes, such as the
present one, at best carfy a sma segment of the compe
reatons found n the economc and soca sphere of whch
the agrcutura abor force s but one part.
Some of the questons that have been ony party
addressed n the terature on agrcutura abor n the Po
Grande aey are as foows:
To what e tent has the abor force been restructured
by ethncty, mmgraton status, and e perence n
the U.S. abor market
ow has the use of pece rates been abe to be used
to mantan earnngs at smar eves for sgnfcant
perods of tme
To what e tent has the acheved stabty n the
agrcutura ndustry acted as a wage-f ng and a-
bor-contro mechansm
What has been the prncpa mechansm that has
factated the cose nteracton between a set of
41 In addton to these we known researchers there has been a ong st of researchers that have dscussed one or more ssues reated
to agrcutura workers such as Aen (19 ), Brody (1985), Chan et a. (198 ), Coason (1954), Coney (19 ), Cruz Assocates
(1982), Foey (1988), G and G Assocates (1990) Garrson (19 ), Gover (1981), aynes (19 ), cks et a. (19 ), oz
(1989), Lower Po Grande Deveopment Counc (1989), Mar (1989), Meador (1951), Monte|ano (198 ), Pascencaet a. (1989),
and Webb (19 5). The ssues addressed have ncuded topcs reated to heath care, human servces, empoyment, and other reated
themes.
42 An e cepton to the genera narrowy focused research that e empfes recent schoarshp s that of the Te as ctrus ndustry study
conducted by Dr. Pay Marsha at the Unversty of Te as at Austn n the md-19 0s. Ts ndustry wde study not ony e amned
abor-management reatons, but aso encompassed producton practces, the roe of Farm Labor Contractors, the roe of technoogy,
and other ssues. Athough mportant recommendatons were not abe to be mpemented, nor the entre study pubshed n a snge
voume, the study provded a mode for the future study of agrcutura abor markets growers, FLCs, and workers were
ntervewed, and actua producton observed. See Coney (19 ), Gover (1981), cks (19 ), and Webb (19 5).
55
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packnghouses and FLCs, between growers and
FLCs, and between FLCs and workers In other
words, why are the channes of nteracton so m-
ted
What s the e tent of subsdzaton of Te as and
non-Te as agrcuture through pubc assstance pro-
grams that mantan the abor force for the ncreas-
ngy onger perods of unempoyment
ow key are hgh schoo dropouts n farmworker
househods to pursue farmwork as an occupaton
Why have efforts to unonze the agrcutura abor
force been argey unsuccessfu
as the e panson of soca servces acted to reduce
the efforts to deveop strong representaton among
agrcutura workers
To what e tent do e stng cash and n-knd asss-
tance programs affect the ncentve to accept nter-
mttent empoyment n ow-wage agrcuture n the
Lower Po Grande aey ow do such dsncen-
tves operate
To what e tent does abor-ntensve agrcuture n
the Lower Po Grande aey requre contnua re-
penshment of ts work force from Me co and other
foregn sources
Gven the dynamc nature of markets and a nput
cost factors n producton agrcuture both n the U.S.
or Me co, how do recent abor compensaton cost
ncreases n the Lower Po Grande aey affect the
decson to reocate producton n Me co, to shft
croppng patterns, or to mechanze
The foowng secton contans a synopss of the gen-
era characterstcs of the agrcutura workers ntervewed
n sprng 1991. Those ntervewed were dentfed through
severa sources and n mutpe parts of the county. The
ocatons and the proporton dentfed through each source
s as foows: Motvaton ducaton and Tranng, Inc., (the
TPA Secton 402 provder for Te as and Lousana) 32.2
percent Unted Farmworkers Unon, 24.4 percent the
Farm Labor ousng Pro|ect n Wesaco, 18.9 percent the
Farm Labor ousng Pro|ect n McA en, 4.4 percent
contact made through FLCs, 8.9 percent and through
growers, contractors and other sources, 11.1 percent.
Those ntervewed represented a wde cross secton of
vaey farmworkers. A tota of 2 preharvest, harvest, and
postharvest actvtes were reported these actvtes en-
compassed 25 dfferent crops. 0f those ntervewed, 54
percent were actvey nvoved n mgratng to other states
or wthn Te as n search of work, the remander were
amost e cusvey nvoved n agrcutura actvtes n the
Po Grande aey. Among those ntervewed, percent
ndcated havng two or ess work ocatons n the prevous
tweve months 2 percent reported havng fve work oca-
tons.
A of the workers ntervewed were of Me can de-
scent. Athough amost a the workers dentfed them-
seves as Me|canos, or Me can-Amercan, two edery
workers made t cear to the ntervewers that they were
Spansh ( spanoes ).
Severa resdent statuses were found among the farm-
workers ntervewed. The ma|orty reported beng born n
the Unted States or beng permanent resdents a sma
number reported beng foregn-born and not havng em-
poyment authorzaton. Tabe 3.3 summarzes some of the
prncpa characterstcs of the farmworker sampe.
Tabe 3.3 - Seected Features of the Farmworker
Sampe (n 90)
arabe
Foregn-Born versus U.S.-born
Foregn-born
U.S.-born
Se
Mae
Femae
Marta Status
Marred
Unmarred
Current ousng Arrangement
mpoyer Provded
Pubc ousng
0wned by Pespondent
Penta
0ther
Type of ousng
ouse
Apartment
Mobe ome/Traer
Percent of
Popuaton
2.0
28.0
8.9
21.1
55.
44.4
2.2
34.8
49.4
10.1
3.4
1.8
32.8
5.
Data on the proporton of U.S.-born and foregn-born
n the abor force, partcuary n Me can-orgn commu-
ntes, shoud be nterpreted wth some cauton. The pr-
mary reason for ths s the potenta confuson regardng
the technca and ega defntons of ctzenshp and res-
dency statuses. For e ampe, a recent survey conducted on
the newy egazed popuaton n Te as noted that, a-
though the genera popuaton may perceve the queston
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of U.S. ctzenshp as competey unambguous, for mm-
grants or chdren of mmgrants the ssue s not so cear.43
That survey reveaed t was dscovered that a sma, but
sgnfcant, number of those that apped for egazaton
under the genera amnesty or SAW provsons had no need
to appy for egazaton under these statutes. The prncpa
reason was that severa of these ndvduas were aready
U.S. ctzens undocumented U.S. ctzens because
of ther pace of brth or ther parent s pace of brth, or that
they coud have ad|usted ther status under the much sm-
per regstry provsons of IPCA. An addtona number
coud have ad|usted ther status based on the U.S. ctzen
status of ther spouses. In sum, PCA s egazaton pro-
gram resuted n the egazaton of an unknown number of
U.S. ctzens.
Moreover, one shoud be carefu about nterpretng
foregn born to mean a recent mmgrant a sgnfcant
porton of the foregn-born who were ntervewed had ved
n the U.S. for a ong whe. 0f a those ntervewed,
ncudng the foregn born, cose to 30 percent had entered
the Unted states before 19 3. Cose to two-thrds entered
the Unted States between 19 3 and 198 . Appro matey
12 percent entered the Unted States after 198 .
Among the farmworkers ntervewed, one of the for-
egn born persons was a U.S. ctzen another appcant for
egazaton had a U.S.-born mother (thus, techncay, the
person was egbe to be recognzed as a U.S. ctzen based
on the mother s status).
The data n Tabe 3.3. does not suggest a typca
farmworker to be a snge (unmarred) ndvdua vng n
rented quarters, as has been descrbed for Caforna and
Forda.44 The more typca mage s that of a marred
ndvdua who ves wth her or hs famy ether n a house
owned by the famy or n pubc housng.45
Patterns of Farm work
Crops and Tasks
Despte the preference among farmworkers for work
n specfc crops, choces about whch crops to work n are
not generay present. The ncreasng seasonaty of farm-
work among crops means that work must be sought and
accepted where found. Consequenty, there has been rea-
tvey tte specazaton n fedwork. Farmworkers nter-
vewed had been nvoved wth at east 2 tasks and 25
crops. Athough most were nvoved n harvestng tasks,
they were aso nvoved n mutpe tasks. Tabe 3.4 sum-
marzes the most recent agrcutura task performed and the
most recent crop and second most recent crop, as we.
Athough for cose to 0 percent the most recent
empoyment was n agrcuture, the other respondents re-
ported nonfarmwork as ther most recent empoyment.
Tabe 3.4 - Dstrbuton of Agrcutura Tasks
and Crops
Percent of
Popuaton
Most Pecent Task
arvestng 80.
Pantng 1.8
Sortng Gradng 1.8
Tyng 1.8
Packng 1.8
oeng 1.8
Mutpe Tasks 3.5
0ther .0
Most Pecent Crop
Tomatoes 12.3
Brocco 14.0
Cabbage 5.3
0nons 0.0
More than 0ne Crop 14.0
0ther 54.4
Second Most Pecent Crop
Tomatoes 14.3
Brocco .1
Cabbage 0.0
0nons 38.8
More than 0ne Crop 8.2
0ther 32.
43 See Pascenca and Wong 1991.
44 Pesearchers that have conducted recent farmworker surveys drawng ther data prmary from Forda or Caforna have postuated
the domnance of snge, foregn born maes as the more typca portrat of farmworkers n the U.S. as a whoe. Athough they are
certany correct n pontng to such a portrat n those ocatons, ths does not negate the presence of more famy orented unts n
Te as and ponts n the centra mgrant stream.
45 It shoud be noted that the mportance of pubc housng s key the resut of the seecton potenta ntervewees from the two farm
abor housng unts n dago County.
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Athough the genera pattern was one of mted spe-
cazaton, t was observed that there s a certan degree of
segmentaton n the dvson of abor across crops by
resdency and mmgrant status. There was a hgher repre-
sentaton of undocumented, newy egazed, and recent
mmgrants n the producton of tomatoes than n the other
crops. Smutaneousy, U.S.-born and onger-term mm-
grants reported more frequenty beng nvoved n the
producton of onons. Athough the sze of the sampe and
the sampng process do not aow the rgorous statstca
anayss of the avaabe data, the pattern that emerged s
probaby not the resut of bas n the seecton of ntervew-
ees.
Workng Condtons
The ntervews conducted wth 90 actve farmworkers
n dago County produced hghy consstent vews. Most
noted that the overa workng condtons and wages have
mproved very tte durng the past few years. Two farm-
workers n ther s tes, however, based on ther ong-term
nvovement n farmwork, ndcated that compared wth
the workng condtons that they have e perenced durng
ther many years n agrcuture, condtons are much better
now than n the od days. The foowng quotes provde
e ampes of some of the vews regardng genera workng
condtons:
A few years ago, we ddn t have toets or
drnkng water, now we have them n amost every
fed.
ow there s more pressure to speed up work.
The supervsors want to gve you fewer water
breaks.
We now have toets, but the toets are too
far away.
They have toets, but they don t gve you
tme to use them.
Severa of the workers ntervewed noted the fre-
quency of occupatona n|ures to themseves, famy
members, or other workers.
/ was workng n West Te as, and one day
the aera appcator began sprayng when we
were workng n the fed.
I was workng n afed and I hurt my back.
1 had to pay for my own care.
Because of medca probems wth the chem-
ca they use n onons, I found work n a meat-
packng pant.
My husband deveoped kdney probems
from workng n the feds, so now he s a store
cerk.
My wfe worked n brocco and some of the
whte powder they use got n her har and n one
ear. She got an nfecton and has ost her hearng
n that ear.
My brother got ked by a traer n a cucum-
ber fed.
My husband got hurt n the fed, so now he
ony does yardwork.
The ony crop that workers ob|ected to workng wth
was watermeons. As noted by one ntervewer, I won t
work watermeons, they got too many snakes n the fed.
Some of the undocumented workers observed that
there s a dua set of work e pectatons. There s one set for
documented workers and another for undocumented work-
ers. Accordng to these workers:
Workers wthout papers are at the mercy of
the growers.
The growers make us f the cans competey
and ony wth the best onons workers wth pa-
pers don t have to f them ke we do and they
are not as pcky about what they put n ther cans.
ery tte of a negatve nature was e pressed about
abor contractors or growers. 0ny one ncdent of confct
or potenta confct was recaed. Accordng to the worker.
0ne day we were workng n the fed and t
had started to ran pretty hard and the fed was
foodng. The contractor tod us that we had to
keep workng. We tred to te hm that t was too
hard. e tod us that we had to. We reay coudn t
do t and so we waked off the fed.
Amount of Avaabe Work
The cearest ssues noted by the workers ntervewed
were the decrease n the amount of work n recent years,
and ther weak barganng poston. As summarzed by one
worker,
The growers know that there are a ot of
workers, so they te us If you don t ke t,
eave...we 11 hre someone ese.
Comments about the amount of avaabe work ranged
from genera observaton about the fact that there s ess
work for each worker, to comments provdng an anayss
and e panaton for ths.
There are more workers now on the feds.
The crews used to be smaer, but now they
are bgger.
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ow there are ess acres and more workers.
We a work fewer hours.
Growers are rrgatng ess, so now we don t
have as much work.
In 1989 we usuay worked from :00 a.m. to
1:30 p.m., now we usuay work from :00 a.m.
to 11:00 a.m.
Before they used to et you work a compete
row, now they put more than one person per row.
There are many amnesty peope now. Grow-
ers have more workers to pck from.
Growers want to compete the harvest faster,
so they hre more peope to do the work. We ony
work a few hours a day.
Snce there s ess ctrus, there s now ess
work for everybody.
The actua number of days of work reported was
vared however, cose to three-fourths of the workers
reported workng fewer than 0 days. Beow s a summary
of the number of days of work reported for the prevous 12
months:
Less than 30 days 50. percent
31 to 0 days 23. percent
1 to 90 days . percent
91 to 120 days 5. percent
121 to 180 days 3.4 percent
181 to 240 days 4.5 percent
241 to 3 5 days 5. percent
In terms of number of days n a week worked, cose to
0 percent ( 8.3 percent) worked fve days or fewer. S ty-
seven percent worked fewer than 20 hours a week n ther
most recent crop.
Membershp n a Unon
0ny a sma fracton of the sampe of workers nter-
vewed were current members of a farmworkers unon
(12.2 percent). Ths ow membershp rate, however, does
not mean that workers dd not have contact wth a unon or
had never been members of a unon. In addton to those
that reported membershp, others ndcated beng a past
member of the Farm Labor 0rganzng Commttee
(FL0C), Unted Farm Workers Unon (UFW), or Te as
Famworkers Unon (TFW). 0thers ndcated recevng
servces from a unon but not beng members. Apprehen-
sons about beng dentfed as a member of a unon were
noted. 0ne worker made ths cear when he noted that: /
don t want to agtate, I |ust want to work. It was aso noted
that the cost of beng a member of a unon can be hgh: //
the owner contractor knows you are a unon member they
won t hre you or keep you.
Wages
Smar to workng condtons, there was a cear con-
sensus that, athough the houry mnmum wage has gone
up, pece rates, whch s the most common form of wage
payment, has remaned reatvey constant over severa
years. Workers offered the foowng comments:
When I was n hgh schoo the growers were
payng 1 per sack, now they pay about haf of
that.
The mnmum wage went up, but they st pay
the same pece-rate.
Severa of the farmworkers ntervewed tod of the
change n the buckets used n the nta pckng of onons
from a fve-gaon bucket to a s -gaon bucket at the start
of the season. When workers arrved at the fed they were
tod that they had the wrong buckets, athough they were
the same ones that they had been usng for years, and that
they need to use the new ones. If they wanted the new
buckets they needed to suppy these themseves or buy
them from the contractor-grower. eedess to say, the
workers bought the buckets or asked that the cost be
deducted from ther pay. The change n bucket sze, how-
ever, dd not transate to a new pay. They woud contnue
to be pad the same as when they used the fve-gaon
buckets. The cut n the rea wage dd not go unnotced by
the farmworkers. The rate was rased from 0 cents to 5
cents by some contractors/growers durng the season. The
8.3 percent ncrease n the pece rate dd not, however,
cance the 20 percent change n the sze of the bucket.
The workers ntervewed aso offered severa mpor-
tant observatons reated to the ncrease n pece rates,
houry pay, and bonuses. After acknowedgng that the
pece rate had gone up, some added comments about the
conte t of ncreases n some cases.
The pece rate went up ast year from 0
cents to 5 cents, but they ddn t gve us the 5
cents t the end of the season.
The tod us they were gong to pay a bonus
for pckng ceery, but at the end they decded not
to pay us the bonus.
They pay us the new mnmum, but they ony
pay t for the tme spent n cuttng and oadng.
So athough we are at the fed from :00 a.m. t
3-4:00 p.m., they ony pay us for part of the tme.
Athough my wfe and 1 work together, they
pay us separatey. The contractor adds what we
earned and dvdes t by two. e then puts n
dfferent fgures n the tte square showng the
number of hours we worked. Ths way t shows
that we earned the mnmum wage.
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A of my famy works my wfe and my
chdren. They then pay us wth one check.
When we work n onons for the packng
shed, they pay us n cash but when we work n
me Ions for the same packng shed they pay us wth
a check.
The tota wages earned vared. In response to the
queston of amount earned by the respondent n the ast
payment receved for the most recent crop, the foowng
amounts were reported:
50 or ess 2 .4 percent
51 to 99 2 . percent
100 to 150 .... 29.9 percent
151 to 199 .... 10.3 percent
200 or more .... 5. percent
Thus, sghty over haf of the empoyed workers
earned ess than 100 n ther most recent crop.
The actua wages reported aso vared by crop. Beow
s a summary of the averages earned when harvestng work
was pad by pece rate:
Tomatoes 44.2 cents
0nons . cents
Cabbage 43.3 cents.
Gven these wage eves, t may be suggested that the
prevousy noted hgher partcpaton of undocumented
workers n harvestng tomatoes and documented workers
n onons may be reated to the apparent segmentaton of
the abor force. In other words, gven the wage eve n
tomatoes, documented workers may be re|ectng the wage
eve offered and decdng nstead to work n another crop
or reman unempoyed unt somethng better comes aong.
Because of the sze of the sampe and the sampng process,
the potenta error n testng the statstca sgnfcance of
ths apparent assocaton s too hgh to produce a reabe
estmate.
Current Trends and Future Prospects
A Sgnfcanty Changed Lega nvronment for
Te as Farmworkers
To a greater e tent than esewhere around the country,
the South Te as agrcutura abor market has been nfu-
enced snce the md-1980s by a remarkabe proferaton of
new and broadened empoyment standards. In roughy
chronoogca order, t may be usefu to recap some of the
key egsatve and reguatory deveopments, as we as the
|udca decsons, that prompted many of them.
Workers Compensaton
Peactng swfty to a rung by a state dstrct court
|udge (Guadaupe Degado et a. v. State of Te as et a.
a speca sesson of the Te as egsature n une 1984
removed the 1-year-od e cuson of agrcutura abor
from the state workers compensaton aw the former
provson was found to have voated equa protectons
guaranteed by the state consttuton.4 ffectve 1 anuary
1985, empoyers of agrcutura workers n three dstnct
categores must ether have workers compensaton nsur-
ance protectng each such empoyee n the event of acc-
denta n|ury on the |ob, or face the prospect of defendng
themseves aganst a damage sut wthout the common-aw
rght to cam that the n|ury was a resut of the worker s
own neggence or the neggence of a coworker, or that the
worker had assumed the rsks that go wth the |ob. The
newy covered groups ncude:
A mgrant farmworkers.
A nonmgrant seasona farmworkers who are (a)
empoyed on a truck farm, or n an orchard or vne-
yard, (b) empoyed by a farm operaton wth a gross
annua payro at or above a certan yeary ad|usted
benchmark eve (currenty 29,81 ), or (c) em-
poyed by the same estabshment, n the same task,
at the same tme, and at the same ocaton as one or
more mgrant workers.
ear-round farmworkers and other nonseasona,
nontemporary farm personne workng for an em-
poyer who has a payro equa to or e ceedng the
doar fgure cted above, or who empoys three or
more nonmgrant, nonseasona farmworkers.
In return for securng workers compensaton cover-
age, empoyers are generay protected aganst fnanca
abty for on-the-|ob n|ures nvovng ther empoyees,
who ose the rght to sue the empoyer for damages reated
to the n|ury.4
4 udge says farm workers entted to |ob nsurance, ouston Chronce, February 24,1984.
4 The U.S. Supreme Court ast year affrmed one very pertnent e cepton to ths statement. In a unanmous rung on an appea
orgnatng n Forda (Adams Frut Co. v. Barrett), the Court found that the rght to sue an empoyer for neggence under the federa
Mgrant and Seasona Agrcutura Worker Protecton Act s not precuded by the fact that the empoyer had workers compensaton
nsurance, or even that the empoyee or the empoyee s survvng dependents have aready coected workers compensaton benefts
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Unempoyment Insurance
For more than 50 years, the abty of Te as agrcu-
tura empoyers for the payment of state unempoyment
nsurance contrbutons and, thus, the egbty of ther
workers for UI benefts mrrored the agrcutura cover-
age provsons of the Federa Unempoyment Ta Act. So
t was that as ate as 1985, the ncome securty afforded by
the Te as Unempoyment Compensaton Act e tended
ony to those farmworkers empoyed by agrcutura estab-
shments that used ten or more workers for at east 20
weeks durng the year, or pad farm wages amountng to
twenty thousand doars or more n at east one caendar
quarter. Gven the fact that nonagrcutura workers were
covered f ther empoyer had so much as one empoyee for
20 or more weeks, or pad as tte as 1,500 n quartery
wages, the same court nvoved n the workers comp
decson a year earer found the agrcutura provsons of
the Te as UI aw contrary to the Te as consttuton, on
smar grounds (Poberto Camarena et a. v. Te as m-
poyment Commsson et a/.).48
To address ths fndng, the state egsature enacted
new agrcutura coverage crtera |ust four months ater,
makng unempoyment benefts avaabe to and sub-
|ectng farm empoyers to UI ta abty on behaf of
the foowng categores of agrcutura empoyees:
A mgrant farmworkers.
A nonmgrant seasona farmworkers who are (a)
empoyed on a truck farm, or n an orchard or vne-
yard, or (b) empoyed by the same estabshment, n
the same task, at the same tme, and at the same
ocaton as one or more mgrant workers.
ear-round farmworkers and other nonseasona,
nontemporary farm personne workng for an em-
poyer who pays at east ,250 for agrcutura abor
n any caendar quarter, or empoys three or more
farmworkers for some part of a day n at east 20
dfferent weeks durng the year.
Pestcde Protectons
In a sgnfcant departure from the vrtuay unform,
amost perfunctory pestcde use and appcaton standards
adopted by most other states, n anuary 1985 the Te as
Department of Agrcuture under authorty of the Te as
Pestcde Contro Act mpemented some of the most
strngent worker safety requrements n the naton. In part,
the TDA reguatons prescrbe procedures for warnng
workers of recent and pendng pestcde appcatons, es-
tabsh e pct postappcaton fed reentry ntervas, and
requre pror notfcaton of nearby resdents and certan
pubc factes potentay affected by pestcde appca-
tons by arcraft.
Two years ater, the state egsature reversed the effect
of an agrcutura e empton n the genera-ndustry rght-
to-know aw enacted n 1985, by passng the Agrcutura
azard Communcaton Act, whch requres certan farm
empoyers who use substanta quanttes of restrcted ag-
rcutura chemcas to nform and tran ther workers re-
gardng the use of such substances, and grants empoyees
the rght to reated nformaton, tranng, and protectve
equpment. The Te as Department of Agrcuture began
enforcng reguatons under the new aw on 1 anuary 1989.
Fed Santaton
State reguatons requrng Te as farm operators and
other empoyers of workers at temporary or mobe work-
paces to provde ther empoyees wth toets, hand wash-
ng factes, and drnkng water have been n effect snce
1983, but t was not unt md-198 that agrcutura em-
poyers became sub|ect to smar federa standards. Whe
the U.S. 0ccupatona Safety and eath Admnstraton s
responsbe for enforcng the federa fed santaton re-
qurements, Congress has attached a rder to every Labor
Department fundng b approved snce 19 generay
prohbtng 0S A from enforcng any safety or heath
standard aganst farm estabshments that empoy fewer
than 11 workers.49
Because Te as does not have an 0S A-approved
occupatona safety and heath pan, federa aw bars the
Te as Department of eath from appyng the arguaby
more strngent state fed santaton standards to the arger
workpaces under 0S A s |ursdcton, eavng TD wth
authorty ony n those feds where no more than ten
ndvduas are at work.50
for body n|ury or death. A U.S. Department of Labor reguaton whch made state workers compensaton benefts the e cusve
remedy for n|ures stemmng from voatons of the Act was formay annued on uy 2,1991.
48 Farm aborers rued egbe for |obess pay, Fort Worth Star-Teegram, anuary 11, 1985.
49 Annuay snce 19 8, the D0L appropraton b has ncuded one e cepton to the enforcement ban: farm estabshments that
mantan a temporary abor camp are sub|ect to 0S A reguatons regardess of the number of workers they empoy.
50 TD s enforcement authorty s further restrcted by a provson n the Te as Santaton and eath Protecton Law ( ernon s
Ann.Cv.St. Art. 44 -1, Sec. 3) whch gves oca heath offcers prmary responsbty for abatement of nusances, ncudng
5 2
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Mnmum Wage
ver snce the mnmum wage provsons of the fed-
era Far Labor Standards Act of 1938 frst became app-
cabe to the agrcutura sector n 19 , the FLSA coverage
threshod has remaned statc ony those farm operatons
that used more than 500 worker-days of abor n any
caendar quarter of the precedng year are requred to pay
the federa mnmum wage. The houry wage foor tsef
has been rased four tmes n the past 12 years, as foows:
ffectve Date .... Federa Mnmum Wage
an 1,19 9 2.90
an 1, 1980 3.10
an 1,1981 3.35
Apr 1,1990 3.80
Apr 1, 1991 4.25
Agrcutura workers reman e cuded from FLSA
overtme pay requrements.
In estabshng the Te as Mnmum Wage Act n 19 0,
the state egsature recognzed the need to guarantee the
houry earnngs of empoyees unprotected by FLSA, but
ony farmworkers on reatvey arge farms those that
used more than 300 worker-days of farm abor n a caendar
quarter were covered by the state mnmum wage, and
the rate was hed frozen at 1.40 an hour for 1 years. Wth
amendments that became effectve on 1 September 198 ,
however, vrtuay a forms of agrcutura servce n Te as
have been sub|ect to the state mnmum wage, whch was
f ed at 3.35 an hour at the same tme.51
FICA and Income Ta Wthhodng
Begnnng 1 anuary 1988, empoyers who pay at east
2,500 n aggregate wages for agrcutura abor durng the
year must wthhod FICA ta es from each empoyee s pay
and contrbute an equa amount on the empoyee s behaf
even f ther annua agrcutura payro s ess than 2,500
but they pay at east 150 n cash agrcutura wages to any
one worker, they must wthhod and match FICA contrbu-
tons on that one worker. Before 1988, the 150 cash wage
test and an aternatve 20-day mnmum work tme test
both apped to the ndvdua worker were the ony
crtera used to determne a grower or crew eader s FICA
ta abty and (n the ong run) the worker s egbty
for Soca Securty benefts.
A reated change n federa ncome ta wthhodng
rues was enacted by Congress n 1989 and took effect on
1 anuary 1990, endng the ong-standng pocy of e -
emptng the agrcuture ndustry from wthhodng requre-
ments entrey. ow, to the e tent that a farmworker s
wages are sub|ect to FICA contrbutons as descrbed n the
precedng paragraph, ncome ta must be deducted from
the worker s wages as we.
The Gobazaton of Agrcuture
The future trends n domestc agrcutura empoyment
are aso shaped by nternatona forces the gobazaton
of agrcuture. As a resut of mutpe factors, throughout
the 1980s the Unted States e perenced an ncrease n
mports. 0ne of the factors, abor ntensve products such
as fruts and vegetabes has been ower producton costs n
other countres. A recent GA0 report noted the e ampe of
brocco producton n Me co where the drect cost was
estmated to be 4. cents a pound, n contrast to 13. cents
a pound n Caforna.5 Gven such overa cost dfferen-
tas, domestc agrcutura empoyment s key to e per-
ence a decne. Ceary, harvest abor costs are ower n
Me co, but the overa cost pcture s not aways so cear.
onabor costs of producton n Me co may be hgher than
n the Unted States n part because the nfrastructure s not
yet so we deveoped.
The gobazaton of agrcuture s not smpy a matter
of foregn competton. Me co s brocco producton,
for e ampe, s heavy nfuenced by the U.S. consumer
market and nvestment strateges of U.S. mutnatona
corporatons. Peportedy, over 50 percent of Me co s
brocco output n 1985 was processed by agrbusnesses
wth substanta U.S. equty nterests. 53
voatons of the state fed santaton provsons. In areas served by a county or regona heath offcer, TD generay w not take
steps to nvestgate, ssue ctatons or prosecute voatons, pendng acton by the oca authorty.
51 The Te as Mnmum Wage Act ncudes no admnstratve enforcement mechansm under the statute, the ony avenue open to
workers who have not receved mnmum houry pay s prvate ega acton n cv court. The Te as attorney genera s offce for
years, however, has vewed faure to pay the mnmum wage as a voaton of the state payday aw, whch requres payment of
unpad wages due wthn s days of demand by the worker and (snce anuary 1, 1990) empowers the Te as mpoyment
Commsson to mpose an admnstratve penaty of up to 1,000 aganst any empoyer who fas to pay wages n fu and on tme.
Unfortunatey, T C has had a backog of nvestgatons under ts new enforcement authorty and s unabe to act on cams wth
reasonabe speed.
52 See U.S. GA0 1988a.
53 Ibd
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Chapter 4
The ffects of IPC A
The ffects on Workers
Wages and Workng Condtons
Wages, benefts, and workng condtons for harvest
workers have generay mproved n the Po Grande aey
but mprovements occurred because of factors other than
IPCA. Wages of houry workers have ncreased as a resut
of ncreases n the federa mnmum wage. In addton,
frnge benefts and workng condtons for farmworkers n
South Te as have been mproved by the e tenson of
unempoyment nsurance and workers compensaton by
State aw (under threat of court acton) and wth the app-
caton of abor protecton measures to agrcutura workers
(for e ampe, pestcde protecton and rght-to-know pro-
vsons, fed santaton standards). The pcture wth re-
spect to pece rates, however, s m ed. For some South
Te as workers, pece rates have remaned reatvey con-
stant snce before IPCA s passage. More often, pece rates
have rsen sghty wth upward ad|ustments n the mn-
mum wage, but the proportonate ncreases n pece rates
are often ess than mnmum wage ncreases.
Workers Abty to 0rganze
0ny a handfu of farmworkers work under coectve
barganng arrangements n South Te as. 0ur study found
ony one sma contract wth a coupe of growers coverng
workers who harvested tomatoes for dryng. Ths contract
was mpemented at the nsstence of the customer a
restaurant owner who requred hs purchased tomatoes to
be pcked under unon contract.
IPCA has had tte mpact on unonzaton n the
Lower Po Grande aey. The character of abor unon
actvtes n the Po Grande aey has changed sgnf-
canty over recent years, but not because of IPCA. By a
reports, pcketng n the fed has decned, and South Te as
farm empoyers have been under no threat of strkes or
other abor actons over the past s years. The Unted Farm
Workers unon has turned from tryng to mprove earnngs
and workng condtons through coectve barganng to a
strategy of ega enactment, whch focuses on acton by the
courts and the Te as State egsature, and provdng drect
servces. Ths new strategy has met wth success across
Te as n severa respects t has heped to obtan the e ten-
son of coverage of unempoyment benefts and workers
compensaton to farmworkers, pestcde protectons and
tranng, and the provson of toets and drnkng water for
fed workers. Wages have not been sgnfcanty mpacted,
however. In addton, the Unted Farm Workers of Amerca
has tred to hep workers by provdng soca servces,
nformaton and referra servces, and by admnsterng an
organc farmng operaton.
The pestcde protectons and nformaton dssemna-
ton actvtes have ed to more assertve behavor on these
ssues on the part of workers, accordng to at east one abor
contractor ntervewed. IPCA, however, has not been a
factor.
Unempoyment Among U.S. Farmworkers
The effects of IPCA on the unempoyment of farm-
workers have been margna n the Lower Po Grande
aey. In fact, the ony empoyment effect detected n our
case study was that amnesty provsons may have ed to
ncreased crew szes on some propertes especay for
onon harvestng. Ths stuaton has spread e stng work
among greater numbers of workers, whch e acerbates
underempoyment. Weather (especay the recent freeze)
and the damage and threat of the whte fy (whch s
adversey affectng pantng decsons), however, have had
much more dramatc effects n ncreasng farmworker un-
empoyment n South Te as.
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The ffects on Producers
The Adequacy of Labor Suppy
By amost a accounts, the suppy of abor to agrcu-
ture n the Po Grande aey has been adequate durng the
past fve years and s key to reman so for the foreseeabe
future. Decne n ctrus producton because of freezng
weather has made more workers avaabe to the South
Te as vegetabe ndustry n recent years. Accordng to
amost a observers, IPCA has not had any notceabe
mpact on the suppy of abor n South Te as.
Do Legazed Workers Stay n Agrcuture
Thus far, the percepton from farm empoyers and
abor contractors s that most SAW workers appear to be
stayng n agrcuture f not n South Te as, then ese-
where. Intervewees were abe to dentfy severa workers
who have remaned wth the same empoyers. Some data
from a recent statewde survey across Te as, however,
confcts wth ths vew t found ony 10 percent of workers
remanng n agrcuture. It s possbe that the stuaton n
the Po Grande aey dffers from the statewde pcture.
0f course, neary everyone coud pont to a few e am-
pes of ndvdua SAWs eavng agrcuture for |obs n
constructon, tourst ndustres, nursery-andscapng frms,
sma-scae entrepreneura actvtes, and other smar
ow-wage, unsked work n addton, some returned to
Me co. We found tte evdence, however, that eavng
agrcuture was wdespread or that the workers who dd
eave agrcuture eft permanenty, nor does there appear to
be much concern about ths ssue among most growers and
contractors n South Te as. In any case, the contnued
nfu of undocumented workers, refugees, and other new
mmgrants repenshes any abor suppy vacuum caused
by e tng SAWs.
0ne abor contractor that was ntervewed aeged that
some Me cans tred to use the SAW program to obtan
ega status n the Unted States. e noted that he had hred
muscans, and even a medca doctor, for hs harvestng
crew, but most deveoped tte taste for farmwork and
returned to Me co.
The Impact of mpoyer Sanctons
The amnesty provsons of IPCA have heped to ega-
ze the agrcutura work force n the Lower Po Grande
aey, but t was not a heavy ega work force before
the enactment of IPCA. mpoyer sanctons appear to have
reduced or emnated tendences for empoyers to hre
workers wthout documents. mpoyers now cacuate that
t s not worth the rsk of ncurrng penates, especay
because ega aternatve workers generay are ready
avaabe. sts from I S staff to agrcutura operatons
reportedy have decned durng the past two years.
Peance on a Temporary Work Force
Because tte agrcutura actvty takes pace durng
the hot summer season n South Te as, most of the abor
force n dago County s temporary. Agrcutura opera-
tons are by nature seasona across the Po Grande aey
wth peak needs for abor comng n the Sprng wth
onon harvestng.
eed for a Suppement of Foregn Workers
South Te as agrcuture has no need for any speca
program to suppement ts abor suppy wth foregn work-
ers. Thanks n part to the freeze that wped out ctrus
producton n South Te as n December 1989, farmwork-
ers to pck wnter vegetabes are n abundant suppy. In fact,
there s nsuffcent work to keep everyone occuped. Fur-
thermore, very few ndustry representatves or nformed
observers e pect future abor shortages. If sutabe, effec-
tve, and effcent mechansms coud be found that ade-
quatey serve both worker and grower nterests, South
Te as coud suppy addtona Amercan farmworkers to
other agrcutura regons n the country needng workers
especay durng the summer growng months.
Labor Management Issues
Labor management practces have mproved over tme
n dago County, but ths accompshment has more to
do wth the prod of Te as State egsatve and federa and
State |udca actons rather than IPCA. The changng
structure of the ndustry toward arger enterprses has aso
payed a roe. Ceary, progressve abor management prac-
tces do hep to ncrease retenton rates even n an area of
abor surpus. It seems to matter tte, however, because
even empoyers wth ess progressve practces are abe to
attract workers n such an envronment.
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0ther ffects
Internatona Compettveness
The 198 Immgraton Peform and Contro Act tsef
has had margna effects on the nternatona compettve-
ness of South Te as agrcuture. The 1-9 reportng requre-
ments have margnay ncreased the paperwork burden of
producers. These requrements, however, are mnor com-
pared wth the mpementaton of varous Te as State
provsons for workers compensaton coverage, unem-
poyment nsurance coverage, pestcde postng and re-
cord-keepng requrements. As a whoe, these
requrements have made t ess possbe for sma farmers
to manage abor-ntensve agrcutura operatons from
ther ktchen tabe or back pocket. Together, these deve-
opments have had an effect on restructurng vegetabe
agrcuture n the Po Grande aey toward arger, more
sophstcated, operatons managed by shpper-growers.
In contrast to IPCA, dependng on detas negotated,
a free trade agreement wth Me co coud swamp any
effects of IPCA. Fuy three-quarters of the vegetabe
shppers n the Po Grande aey ether aready have fed
operatons n Me co or mport commodtes grown by
Me can producers. Most are famar wth the anguage
and cuture, and have estabshed busness connectons n
Me co, sometmes renforced through marrage and kn-
shp. Thus, they are we postoned to shft vegetabe
producton to Me co.
5
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Chapter 5
Concusons
0ther Issues
0ther ssues beyond mmgraton contro are of far
greater concern to South Te as agrcutura producers.
These ncude the cost of workers compensaton and other
nsurance, recent mposton of pestcde reguatons, e -
posure to awsuts, and ncreasng competton from Me -
co, as we as the ncreasng prospects of a free trade
agreement wth Me co.
Immgraton and the future avaabty of abor were
not mentoned even once as a ma|or chaenge by growers
ntervewed n dago County. At worst, competng and
mantanng the 1-9 form s vewed as an admnstratve
burden, though hardy a probem. It s |ust one of severa
admnstratve requrements that have been newy mposed
on agrcuture.
The chef chaenges ndcated by the growers-farm
empoyers n order of prorty are concerns reated to abor,
pestcdes and pests, market, weather, competton from
Me co, and abty ssues.
Labor ssues were mentoned by 15 of the 19 farm
empoyers that were ntervewed, perhaps n part because
the survey was ntroduced as beng prepared for the Com-
msson on Agrcutura Workers. By far the most sgnf-
cant abor ssue, however, was recent ncreases n the cost
of abor. Partcuary noted by nne frms was the ncreasng
costs of workers compensaton, whch have appeared
suddeny and unpredctaby. Peportedy, n some frms,
workers compensaton costs now amount to 20 percent or
more of payro costs.
Concerns about pests and ncreasng reguatons on
pestcdes receved second greatest menton. Producers
voced concern about greater restrctons both at the state
and federa eves. Te as has recenty mpemented re-
qurements regardng the notfcaton of workers and of
neghbors. The response may refect reacton to these new
procedures. Pecent spread of the whte fy receved speca
menton.
Concerns about the market and weather were ne t
most numerous. Cabbage producers were upset about the
poor prces that they have been recevng n recent years.
Many growers were concerned about the varabty of
prces that they receved for ther products.
0vera vauaton of IPCA
The amnesty provsons have heped to egaze the
agrcutura work force n the Lower Po Grande aey,
athough t was not a heavy undocumented work force
before IPCA. Thus far, the percepton from farm empoy-
ers s that most SAW workers appear to be stayng n
agrcuture many reman wth the same empoyers. 0ne
respondent suggested that the stay may be temporary he
forecast that workers w move after ther famy unfca-
ton procedures are accompshed wth the I S.
In summary, houry wages, benefts, and workng
condtons for farmworkers have mproved n the Lower
Po Grande aey, abet owng to factors other than
IPCA. These mprovements have been the resut of n-
creases n the federa mnmum wage, the e tenson of
unempoyment nsurance and workers compensaton
benefts by state aws passed under pressure from court
decsons, and the appcaton of abor protectons to agr-
cutura workers (for e ampe, rght-to-know provsons,
fed santaton standards).
ave IPCA provsons been mpemented wthout
harm to producers or to the ndustry To date, IPCA has
had tte mpact on agrcutura producton n the Lower
Po Grande aey.
Concurrent wth the enactment of IPCA, tota com-
pensaton costs of fed abor have rsen substantay n the
Lower Po Grande aey. As a consequence of ncreases
n the mnmum wage and the addton of frnges, the fu
houry cost of abor for some growers n the Lower Po
Grande aey has rsen from 3.35 n 1985 to as much as
5.98 by Apr 1991.54 Ths amounts to a 1 percent
ncrease n s years. It s not competey cear who s
bearng the burden of these new costs abor contractors,
for e ampe, cam they have been squeezed. Athough
5
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such cost ncreases certany have some effect on produc-
ton decsons regardng acreage panted, the ocaton and
method of producton, and croppng patterns, the sze of
these effects s uncear.
Dependng on detas negotated, a free trade agree-
ment wth Me co coud have ma|or effects on certan
producers. The few remanng smaer vegetabe growers
n the Lower Po Grande aey may be adversey affected.
Ma|or South Te as shpper-growers are not key to be
damaged because they currenty are we postoned to shft
to Me co. Many are aready bg payers n Me co. At ths
pont, t s uncear how much vegetabe producton w
reman n the Po Grande aey under condtons of free
trade wth Me co. As one ndustry assocaton e ecutve
ntervewed for ths study suggested, It may offer some
an e cuse to get out from under progressve changes n
state and natona abor aws.
54 The ncrease refects an ncrease from 3.35 per hour n 1985 to 4.25 per hour n Apr 1991, new workers compensaton costs at
20 percent of tota payro, new unempoyment nsurance costs at 3 percent of tota payro, and the new appcaton of soca securty
ta es at . 5 percent. In addton to these costs s the e pense of compyng wth the new fed santaton measures, pestcde
reguatons and rght-to-know tranng requrements. Together, beray cacuated, such compance costs may amount to an
addtona estmated 10 percent of payro. Thus, concevaby, tota nonwage costs coud amount to 40. 5 percent of payro, or an
addtona 1. 3 per hour on top of the mnmum hour rate of 4.25, for a tota of 5.98.
5 8
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5 1
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