George

Will Lyster seems to believe that workers who do not receive the minimum wage are simply people who have made poor choices. In reality, agricultural workers have consistently been among the lowest-paid workers in U.S. history not because of the inadequacy of workers but because they labor in an industry which has historically been exempted from many labor protections available to workers in other industries. For example, agricultural workers are exempt from the overtime protections guaranteed to workers in most other industries; and they are exempt from the protection of the National Labor Relations Act, which guarantees the right to organize collectively to advocate for better working conditions.

Even when laws protect workers, such as the minimum wage protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act, there are chronic and systematic violations of the law because government has allocated precious few resources to enforce those laws. This has been part of an egregious history of exploitation and abuse of farmworkers. Farmworkers are hardly lazy; the backbreaking labor they perform consistently rates a place among the top three most dangerous occupations in the U.S, according to the federal government. Workers labor in agriculture, sadly, because those workers have few other options.

The agricultural industry has long put forward the position that it deserves special protections from regulation. Since World War II, and the shameful and discredited bracero program, agriculture has sought to import large numbers of foreign workers on temporary visas so as not to have to compete in the U.S. marketplace for labor. Workers imported under the H-2A program are permitted only to work for one employer and only for the visa period. If the working conditions are abysmal, workers have little option other than to endure those conditions. For more information about so-called "guestworker" programs, I commend the Farmworker Justice Fund's website at www.fwjustice.org. A quote from that site follows:

We believe that guestworker programs inherently deprive farmworkers of the economic freedom and democratic rights on which this country was founded.

The people who harvest our fruits and vegetables, like other workers in this country, should hold immigration status or citizenship, not a nonimmigrant temporary work visa controlled by the employer. In addition to legalizing the status of many undocumented farmworkers who provide us with our food, this nation should substantially improve the inadequate, discriminatory labor protections applicable to farmworkers. We also should substantially improve the enforcement of labor protections, which will help farmworkers and help business by deterring employers from seeking a competitive advantage through the hiring of undocumented workers with the hope of exploiting such workers' vulnerability.

These policy changes would help create a more just environment for farmworkers in which they can organize themselves to bargain with their employers and seek appropriate government action from political representatives. We are for a nation of immigrants. -- Mary Bauer (via Electronic mail, October 13, 2003)