Bakersfield-based Sun Pacific Farming Cooperative Inc. just announced that in March it will permanently lay off 2,100 fruit and vegetable workers, many of whom have worked for the huge grower for years, replacing them with workers supplied by farm labor contractors. By March, 100 percent of Sun Pacific’s work force will be controlled by contractors. It is part of a trend we’ve seen of growers replacing field laborers they directly hire with contractor-supplied workers. Many reasons are given for the shift, but a University of California specialist in labor management described it euphemistically as "a mechanism for a grower to get some legal distance from employees."
In agriculture more than most industries, growers use farm labor contractors to evade their legal and moral responsibilities as employers. Many of the worst abuses of farm workers happen at the hands of contractors, from cheating workers out of their pay to ignoring California’s heat regulation the United Farm Workers won in 2005, causing farm workers to die from the heat. Some contractors are reputable, but many are fly-by-night operators who undercut each other to get business from growers by shortchanging workers on their pay and failing to obey a host of protective state and federal laws and regulations.
When another big local grower, Sun World International, went last year from directly hiring workers to labor contractor crews, the UFW protested, noting contractors almost never provide health coverage or other benefits. There is nothing to protect farm workers from such exploitive trends except making sure the workers a voice in their own destiny through a union contract.
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President
United Farm Workers of America