Farm workers

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February 4, 2011 | 10:53 AM | By

Many braceros still fighting for lost wages


KPCC’s Brian Watt and Quyen Lovrich had a story last night about the continuing struggle of elderly ex-bracero guest workers trying to obtain lost compensation from the Mexican government.

Some 4.6 million Mexican workers were employed as agricultural guest workers in the United States between 1942 and 1964 through what was known as the Bracero Program.

A portion of the braceros’ wages was set aside for them decades ago in savings accounts for when they returned home as part of a binational agreement. A 2001 class-action lawsuit to force the disbursement of these savings resulted in the court approval of a settlement in 2008. Some braceros have already been compensated, the organizers of a protest outside the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles said yesterday, but there are tens of thousands of former laborers who are still owed. From the story:

The bracero program was a deal between the United States and Mexico that started during World War II. To address a labor shortage, tens of thousands of Mexican men like Juan Javier Jimenez traveled north of the border to work on farms or railroads.

“I worked in Salinas, picking lettuce.” said Jimenez, now 73-years-old and living in Los Angeles.

He also worked as a bracero in Arizona from 1956 to 1959. The Mexican government put 10 percent of the braceros’ wages into savings accounts for later use. Some braceros received their savings, but Jimenez and about 35,000 others are still waiting. Some have died.

Juan Jose Gutierrez, an immigrant right activist who direct the group Vamos Unidos, said he planned to meet with the acting Mexican consul general next week.

Among many ways in which the braceros’ legacy has been documented is an award-winning film, “Harvest of Loneliness,” which won for best documentary at last year’s Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.

The film featured interviews with ex-braceros and their families, some of which are in the trailer:

FILED UNDER: Economy, Politics/Justice, Braceros, Farm workers, Guest workers
November 24, 2010 | 5:00 PM | By

Remembering those who put food our our tables, and those who can’t afford it for their own

Photo by Donna Sutton/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Agricultural workers in a field near the California coast, August 2007

A couple of reports released in the past week are good food for thought as many of us head home early tonight to start Thanksgiving preparations.

One gives us a reason to consider ourselves lucky if we’re in a position to indulge at the holiday table; the other, a sense of understanding of the difficulties faced by the people who grow and prepare our food, in particular the female workers who make up a large segment of the food industry.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that around 15% of U.S. households, 17.4 million altogether, didn’t have enough money for food at some point last year. Of those, 6.8 million households had chronic financial problems that forced them to miss meals on a regular basis. Minorities, along with single parents, were among those who had it worst. From the report:

Very low food security was more prevalent than the national average (5.7 percent) for households with children headed by single women (12.9 percent), women living alone (7.4 percent), men living alone (7.1 percent), Black and Hispanic households (both 9.3 percent), households with incomes below 185 percent of the poverty line (14.4 percent), and households located in principal cities of metropolitan areas (6.8 percent).

Also in recent days, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a report chronicling the wages and working conditions of female agricultural workers (22 percent of the farm labor force is female) and food industry workers, including poultry workers (more than half are women, and at least half are Latino). The report called working in a chicken processing plant “one of the most dangerous occupations in America.”

As for farm workers, there are problems beyond the backbreaking work, among them “higher rates of toxic chemical injuries and skin disorders than any other workers in the country,” per the report. The sexual harrassment of female workers in the industry is pervasive as well.

Among the recommendations in the food industry report: Better federal and state oversight, along with immigration reforms to stop the current cycle of exploitation that involves undocumented workers.

Those of us who are fortunate enough not to lack food for our tables, nor to have to make a difficult and dangerous living growing it for the tables of others, have much to be thankful for.

And to the workers who put long hours into growing, raising and processing our Thanksgiving dinners, mil gracias.

FILED UNDER: Economy, Health/Education, Politics/Justice, Farm workers, Southern Poverty Law Center