Coffee pickers are often migrant workers, living in huge airplane hangar-like abodes with one hundred other families during the picking season. One hundred family hearths fill the dwelling with smoke, starting at 3a.m., when the women rise to begin making the daily tortillas. Lice and fleas abound, and sanitary conditions are limited. Often finding clean water is next to impossible. As running water is not available, people bathe, water cattle, and urinate in the same river water where they drink.
Children pick beans, as well as pregnant women.
However, pickers get paid an extremely low, piece-work wage. In Guatemala, for example, a worker is paid two cents for a pound of green beans. Needless to say, the daily necessities are not met. Three out of four Guatemalan children suffer from malnutrition in the coffee producing areas. Health care is poor, or non-existent, and educational opportunities are the same.