Abuses in the fields sometimes ignored

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.californianonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070927/OPINION/709270308/1014

By DORA ALICIA RASCON

Some jobs are easier than others; some are more pleasurable, more secure and better paid.

Working in the fields, certainly, is neither the easiest nor the most pleasurable, neither the most secure nor the best paid. But agricultural jobs in the United States alleviate the difficult economic situation of thousands of families from Mexico and Central America.

Working in the fields is the only chance of subsistence many of them have. As with other jobs, field work has physical and emotional "side effects." I have learned about this by listening to workers' stories, visiting fields and talking to overseers and supervisors.

In many cases, the workers do the same job no matter their age. It is evident that part of the population that works in the fields are minors, but ag workers say if they lie about their age, they have to work as hard as grown-ups. Gender makes no difference, because in the field "we don't have jobs for women or men; we only have a lot of work to do... period," said an overseer who leads a group of 25 lettuce workers.

Their physical condition doesn't matter, either. One hot day this past July, a very young woman using a shovel in a grape field begged the overseer to give her another activity to do, because what she was doing was very hard for her. The overseer told her that she was there to work, not to complain. When she was about to faint, the overseer let her suspend what she was doing, but she was not accepted for work the next day.

"I need people to work hard, not 'hens' who complain all the time," was the reason she was given. A young man who dared to argue with the overseer in an effort to get some help for the troubled woman also lost his job.

FULL story at link.