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Jewish World Review Augus 9, 2005 / 4 Av, 5765 Humane treatment for workers is a tough row to hoe By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Salud Zamudio-Rodriguez came to the United States from Mexico nearly 25 years ago to do — as President Bush likes to say — "jobs that Americans won't do."
Some people hate that phrase, angrily insisting that the issue isn't work ethic but wages, and that there is no job that Americans won't do if the price is right.
Is that so? I wonder what the asking price would be to work alongside Zamudio-Rodriguez picking bell peppers near Arvin, in the southern San Joaquin Valley. A crippling a job that requires workers to spend most of the day hunched over, it's grueling and dirty, and it would be tough enough to do in perfect weather, let alone in Central California where summer temperatures soar to 108 degrees. Having come to the United States in 1981 and received his green card, 42-year-old Zamudio-Rodriguez labored for pennies. Farm workers in California usually make minimum wage. Under the state's minimum wage law, which is slightly more generous than the federal law, that pencils out to $6.75 an hour, or $54 for an eight-hour workday.
That's considerably less than the asking price of one of my U.S.-born readers who boasted that he would gladly pick lettuce — for $1,000 per week.
Even if a lettuce grower were willing to pay that, he would simply pass that cost onto the customer. And a Cobb salad would be as pricey as caviar.
Of course, Americans won't pay those prices for produce. They'll simply shop for less expensive alternatives, relying on fruits and vegetables imported from foreign countries. That gives farmers little incentive to boost workers' wages.
What farmers and other employers have an incentive to do is bring in more workers. The more workers they have at their disposal, the harder they can push them and the more they can depress wages. That's why management loves the idea of so-called guest workers, a temporary (and thus disposable) work force. Whenever employers get the itch, they turn to Republicans in Congress, with whom they have long had a relationship that resembles the one between the organ grinder and the monkey. The latest members of Congress to monkey around with the idea of establishing a temporary worker program are Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
These border-state senators have drafted legislation called the Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act of 2005. The bill is a gift for employers. It establishes a new visa category to allow foreign workers to enter the United States to work temporarily (up to two years). Workers can reapply and participate for a total of six years.
I don't understand why lawmakers insist on catering so much to employers. Especially when human nature tells us that, the easier it is for someone to get something, the less likely he is to take care of it.
No one took care of Salud Zamudio-Rodriguez. According to media reports, on July 13, he tried to keep up when the tractor, which sets the pace of the picking, suddenly sped up on orders from the foreman. Whereas the usual speed allows workers to pick three buckets of bell peppers in 15 minutes, with time for a drink of water, the faster pace required them to pick double that in the same amount of time with no water. Near the end of the day, Zamudio-Rodriguez complained that he wasn't feeling well. Suddenly, he collapsed. An ambulance was called. En route to the hospital, Zamudio-Rodriguez died.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't seem to care about such burdens. Last week, he announced an emergency order requiring employers to provide a set amount of water and shade for workers who feel the symptoms of heatstroke. Brushing aside the political wrangling, Schwarzenegger said the rules should have been put in place "many, many years ago." He's right.
A lot of Americans probably don't care what happens to people like Salud Zamudio-Rodriguez. But they should at least have the decency not to insult his memory, and those of others, by insisting that people like him are taking jobs that Americans are dying to do.
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Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
