A vegetable grower-shipper to whom I had not spoken for at least five years got back in touch last month after reading an article about farm labor in his local paper. While his own terms of employment for field workers are better than the local industry norm, he had no question about the general accuracy of the report, only about what in the world could be done to change things. To those three should probably be added both product market competition and the increasing legal obligations and liabilities attached to employment as an institution. Opinions differ on which of these are chicken, egg, and rooster, but there is consensus among observers of the farm labor scene that somehow they all fit together. Widespread recognition that workers are hurting is not matched by general agreement on what or who is responsible for this state of affairs.
Some critics point first at farm owners and operators.
Terms of employment on the farm are clearly an important, though by no means the sole, determinant of worker incomes and life-styles, but growers cannot set those terms independent of other business factors. Many farm employers who would like their workers to have higher wages, more benefits, and steadier jobs find it infeasible to provide them. But many are already at the top of our range, which is high for the area, and there's no way I can afford to raise it with grape prices being what they are. And don't get me started about all the government paperwork we have that only adds to our costs. Given that employers in agriculture, as in other industries, are not able to provide fully for the needs of their employees, to say nothing of the unemployed, difficult issues of public policy must be faced.