Dirk Stemerman:
This weekend, Cesar Chavez celebrations will ensue, though the holiday — officially March 31 — is observed on Monday, April 1 (no fooling).
But while many will join the festivities honoring the Chavez legacy, most farmworkers struggle to climb above the poverty line. Many of their children don’t know the leader’s history and associate the day with nothing other than a day off school.
In the 1960s and ’70s, as president of the United Farm Workers (UFW) Union, Chavez’s struggles ultimately led to many farmworker benefits and protections still in place today. Because of these efforts, farmworkers have clean water and toilets in the fields, lunch breaks and collective bargaining rights among other legal protections.
Chavez also focused the UFW’s efforts to strengthen farmworker health and safety regulations. Included among these efforts was the removal of the widely used short-handled hoe which caused excruciating back injuries. He also drew national attention to the fight against chemical pesticides.
Ultimately, due in part to the efforts of Chavez, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act passed in 1975 with the goal of ensuring peace and stability between employer growers and farmworkers. The Act, now part of the California Labor Code, protects the freedom of association rights of agricultural employees, and explicitly prevents employers from using coercive tactics that discourage collective bargaining agreements.
But times have changed since the Chavez era and employers have grown wiser. Stop a farmworker on the side of the road and inquire as to the name of his employer and odds are they either won’t know, or will provide an incorrect answer.
Many growers nowadays run multi-million dollar operations with few, if any, actual produce-pickers "on the books." Instead, they use farm labor contractors to supply workers — and absorb any risk. The employee actually "works" for the contractor, but thinks he works for the produce company whose name appears on the package at the local grocer.
The liability for problems plaguing fieldworkers such as rampant sexual harassment, work-related injury claims and wage claims for failure to pay a minimum wage are transferred to the contractor. And if the grower sets certain goals for production and communicates those goals to the contractor, the grower can turn a blind eye to the methods by which such goals are accomplished. If anything untoward occurs, the grower can skirt responsibility and simply point a finger elsewhere.
Adding another layer of confusion to the mix, the labor contractor sometimes doesn’t even hire these workers — they are sent workers from staffing companies.
Such tactics, along with the seasonal nature of farm work coupled with the migratory pattern followed by these workers, make it extremely difficult for unions to organize farmworkers — and that’s just how big ag likes it. Should things change, membership at a few local country clubs might drop off.
For now, growers can continue to exploit workers without getting their hands dirty — by having labor contractors do it for them.