Unionists return to the fields to unearth the origins of the organised labour struggle.
Given the fruit's delicacy, mechanised forms of gathering are entirely out of the question. And in its stead, one witnesses the arched backs of seasonal and non-seasonal workers, for the most part of Mexican origin, who are forced to work 12 hours a day for paltry wages without medical insurance, or job security, lacking adequate sanitary or housing facilities and often subject to forms of sexual harassment. Some 80 per cent of all US strawberries come from California - which itself accounts for 10 per cent of the world's annual supply. This meagre salary, situated well below the poverty line, has remained so for some 20 years now, ever since national production doubled. In Sacramento and Los Angeles, lobbying groups for the strawberry industry have retaliated against unions' accusations of poor working conditions, by claiming they are misleading the public.