Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Mon May 5, 2014, 08:48 AM May 2014

Why Is This Farm Using Guest Workers as Strike Breakers?

http://www.thenation.com/article/179651/why-farm-using-guest-workers-strike-breakers


Migrant farm workers on strike against Sakuma Farms, a large berry grower in Washington State (Photo: David Bacon)

In 2001 Rosario Ventura came to the United States from Mexico and went to work in Washington State, picking blueberries for Sakuma Farms. “I was expecting a different type of work here,” she recalls, “but this is all there is. I thought I would save up something here and go back, but I haven’t been able to do it. It is too difficult.”

The first job she had was pruning blueberry bushes. “It was really hard. After cutting the branches, they’d spring back and hit me in the face or all over. It really hurt.” She stuck it out though, working summers in Washington, and in the winter trying to find work further south in California, near Fresno.

Two years after she arrived from Oaxaca, she met Isidro Silva in the Sakuma fields. Although they belong to two different indigenous ethnic groups—she speaks Triqui and he speaks Mixteco—they got married. For the next ten years they made the trip back and forth each year with their children.

“You don’t get enough work, and what little you earn is quickly used up,” Ventura explains. “My children are growing. They need clothes, all of that. We have to pay the rent, bills and everything we eat. We don’t ever have enough money, because it runs out like water.”
4 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Why Is This Farm Using Guest Workers as Strike Breakers? (Original Post) xchrom May 2014 OP
Now they know what it feels like joeglow3 May 2014 #1
what? i don't understand what you"re saying? xchrom May 2014 #3
I can blame multiple people joeglow3 May 2014 #4
Scabs have always been used to malaise May 2014 #2
 

joeglow3

(6,228 posts)
1. Now they know what it feels like
Mon May 5, 2014, 08:53 AM
May 2014

How many Americans did they do this to? Now they are seeing the shit wages they accepted and what it did to others. While protesting getting fucked over, are they apologizing to those families they fucked over?

 

joeglow3

(6,228 posts)
4. I can blame multiple people
Mon May 5, 2014, 01:25 PM
May 2014

These jobs DID once offer what they are fighting for. These jobs offered these benefits until illegals were working for less. What was created was a spiral downward. Now, these people are seeing the error of what they did and are demanding a return to the benefits once offered by the job.....only for THEM and not the people who had the jobs to begin with.

As the son of a union drywaller who was on the receiving end of the shaft in the 90's/00's, yes I blame multiple people. Clearly, the majority of my blame is on the government and companies, but I also blame the people who agreed to cut the legs out from underneath workers and are now complaining THEY don't get the benefits previously offered.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Why Is This Farm Using Gu...