Our Vision
America's treatment of its migrant and seasonal farmworkers has long been our national disgrace. John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Edward R. Murrow's 1960 documentary, Harvest of Shame continue to have relevance today. In Fast Food Nation (2001), Eric Schlosser discusses the 3.5 million fast food workers and goes on to say, "The only Americans who consistently earn a lower hourly wage are migrant farm workers."
Daniel Rothenberg's fine book about farmworkers, With These Hands: The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today (1998), concludes: "The key components of the farm labor system have been a steady oversupply of workers and the use of a series of techniques to consistently disempower farmworkers." As we enter the 21st century, how could Government empower farmworkers to improve their wages and working and living conditions?
What could Government do to modernize and improve agricultural labor conditions? Specific policy suggestions are listed on the following pages. To summarize:
- End discrimination against farmworkers in labor laws so that farmworkers enjoy rights on the job that other occupations enjoy,
- Enforce labor laws more effectively and improve access to the justice system to implement farmworkers' rights and to protect law-abiding employers against unfair competition by labor-law violators,
- Adopt policies that reduce poverty among farmworkers. Promote better wages, working conditions, health status, job safety, and housing to attract and stabilize the agricultural labor force, increase productivity, continue growth of exports, and reduce poverty and its consequences.
