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George, Will Lyster's response of October 13 was both mean-spirited and inaccurate. He seems unable to sympathize in any way with indigent people whose options are limited. It does not appear to me that he has ever talked to a farmworker. That is too bad. The men and women whom I have met who labor in the fields have served as great inspirations to me. I consider myself lucky to work advocating for better conditions for the people who do the hard work of living and who make our bounty possible. While I earn a lot more money than my clients (though not nearly as much as I'd like) the truth is that I don't work nearly as hard as they do. It's not because I am smarter or more ambitious or a better person than they; it is because I was lucky enough to have been born in this country and provided an excellent public education. That education provided me the luxury of choosing among many occupations. I am Caucasian; I am a U.S. citizen, and I speak English fluently. Those are all accidents of birth, yet they have placed me in an enviable economic position relative to most of the rest of the world. If Will Lyster honestly believes that the system we have is a meritocracy, I invite him to go out in the world and actually talk with ordinary hard-working immigrants. Lyster is wrong, too, about overtime protections for farmworkers. Agricultural workers are covered by the minimum wage protection of the Fair Labor Standards Act (the federal law which governs wage payments) but are specifically exempt form the overtime provisions. This is true for H-2A workers and other agricultural workers, as well, with few exceptions. See 29 U.S.C. section 213(b)(12). Farmworkers have been exempt from the overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) since the Act was passed in 1938; I am sorry news has not made it Mr. Lyster's way. When Congress passed the FLSA in 1938 it created a national minimum wage, a forty-hour workweek, mandatory overtime wages, and child labor provisions. Farmworkers were excluded from all of these protections until 1966, when about 30%of farmworkers were provided with minimum wage protections. The law was amended twice in the 1970s to cover most farmworkers, although the current version of the FLSA specifically denies farmworkers the right to overtime pay, excludes laborers on small farms from any protection, and allows children as young as twelve to work in the fields. Farmworkers do suffer long periods of involuntary unemployment. They must also travel, typically at their own expense, long distances for low-paying jobs. When they work, they often work extremely long hours. A fruit harvest may last only several months or weeks, for example, but the work is arduous and the hours long during that time. Overtime protections would make a big difference in increasing the take-home pay workers receive. It would also create some disincentive for employers to demand that farmworkers work excessive and dangerous hours. I have talked to workers who have labored for over 100 hours in a week without overtime pay. Last year, a Virginia farmworker died in the field from heat exhaustion. Long hours and lax enforcement of health and safety regulations combine to make agriculture dangerous work-heavy machinery, heat, and pesticides are real hazards. One last point: Lyster asks us to support SB 1641 as a way to support farmworkers. I assume that he means SB 1645, which is the compromise legislation supported by both grower and farmworker advocates. While not perfect, we support the bill, too. It will give many workers who have given a great deal to this country the chance to obtain what they deserve: permanent residency and a chance at full and fair participation in this nation. Mary Bauer (electronic mail, October 15, 2003)
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