8/10/00
UFW reply to Bush’s farm worker & Latino
appeal: ‘look beyond rhetoric to policies’
With Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush "reaching out" to Latinos and farm workers while campaigning yesterday and today in Oxnard and Salinas, Calif., Cesar Chavez’s successor as United Farm Workers president cautioned voters to "look beyond [Bush’s] rhetoric to the policies he has supported as governor of Texas."
UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez, who is also Chavez’s son-in-law, issued the following statement from the union’s Keene, Calif. headquarters.
It’s nice to see a Republican candidate for high office reach out to Latinos and farm workers, and speak to them in Spanish. But our people are sophisticated enough to look beyond [Bush’s] rhetoric to the policies he has supported as governor of Texas.
!The minimum wage for farm workers in Texas is set at $3.35 an hour. Farm workers employed by small growers in many parts of Texas get paid nearly $2 below the federal guarantee of $5.15 per hour when they work on piece rate (so many cents per unit). There are certain exemptions for small employers in the federal minimum wage law. Farm workers laboring for these small growers must rely on the state to step in and set the minimum wage. The California minimum wage for farm workers‑–and all workers–is $5.75 an hour.
!Under recent changes in Texas’ workers compensation system supported by Gov. Bush, it is very difficult for farm workers to show a degree of disability required for them to claim workers comp benefits.
!Unemployment and poverty in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas is among the highest in the country. While the national unemployment rate is around 4% and it is low in Texas overall, it ranges between 14% and 16% in the largely agricultural and Mexican American south Texas counties, according to state figures. When workers who don’t file for unemployment benefits are considered, joblessness in south Texas jumps to between 25% and 30%.
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appeal: ‘look beyond rhetoric to policies’
With Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush "reaching out" to Latinos and farm workers while campaigning yesterday and today in Oxnard and Salinas, Calif., Cesar Chavez’s successor as United Farm Workers president cautioned voters to "look beyond [Bush’s] rhetoric to the policies he has supported as governor of Texas."
UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez, who is also Chavez’s son-in-law, issued the following statement from the union’s Keene, Calif. headquarters.
It’s nice to see a Republican candidate for high office reach out to Latinos and farm workers, and speak to them in Spanish. But our people are sophisticated enough to look beyond [Bush’s] rhetoric to the policies he has supported as governor of Texas.
!The minimum wage for farm workers in Texas is set at $3.35 an hour. Farm workers employed by small growers in many parts of Texas get paid nearly $2 below the federal guarantee of $5.15 per hour when they work on piece rate (so many cents per unit). There are certain exemptions for small employers in the federal minimum wage law. Farm workers laboring for these small growers must rely on the state to step in and set the minimum wage. The California minimum wage for farm workers‑–and all workers–is $5.75 an hour.
!Under recent changes in Texas’ workers compensation system supported by Gov. Bush, it is very difficult for farm workers to show a degree of disability required for them to claim workers comp benefits.
!Unemployment and poverty in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas is among the highest in the country. While the national unemployment rate is around 4% and it is low in Texas overall, it ranges between 14% and 16% in the largely agricultural and Mexican American south Texas counties, according to state figures. When workers who don’t file for unemployment benefits are considered, joblessness in south Texas jumps to between 25% and 30%.
end