The people's voice., 1959-05-01

There are two million farm
workers;
The average migrant worked
only 81 days in 1857 and earned
$3.50 for the year, including non
farm pay;
Some 100000 foreign workers
are imported annually, the great ma
jority being Mexican;
American farmworkers have al
most no protection, with no minimum
wage, no jobless pay, no right to
join a union;
American migrant workers, be-
cause they travel, do not have resi-
dence rights and so cannot vote and
cannot get welfare help or medical
care as needed;
Migrant children get little or no
education;
Agriculture is the biggest viola
tor of the child labor law.
These major viewpoints came out
of the hearings:
l. Farm organizations.
Reuben Johnson. co-ordinator of
legislative services. National Farmers
Union, said the NFU favors farm
minimum wage. He said the use of
cheap labor by factory farms speeded
the trend toward bigger and fewer
farms and depressed earnings of
family-operated farms.
Matt Triggs, assistance legislative
director of the American Farm Bu-
reau Federation, said the Farm Bu-
reau opposed unionization of farm
workers. He also contended farm
minimum wage would be too "com-
plicated" to administer.
2. The Eisenhower Cabinet.
Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft
Benson, in message, said simply:
"Just as agriculture needs these mi
grant workers, so they need agricul-
ture." Otherwise, some workers would
be on relief, he said.
Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell, |
while more courageous on this sub
ject than any previous labor secre-
tary, still was blinded by the states
rights approach.
Mitchell, whose wage-hour study
will not be ready until late next year,
said the migrant worker needs de-
cent federal minimum and stable en-
ployment. Beyond that, he said, labor
and other groups must go to the
states to win adequate housing, safe
education, medical
care and workmen's compensation.
LITTLE ACTION BY
EXPECTED
While Mitchell did recognize that
migrants had no union spokesmen
and no voting power, he did not men
ion that every state legislature in
he union, save Alaska's is over
represented from the rural area. SO
here will be little action by the
states.
3. The employers.
John Seabrook, whose union-shop ,
actory farm covers $4,000 acres in
Iew Jersey, Pennsylvania and Della
ware, saw a federal farm minimum
IS the key to curing the farm labor :
'IOOlSHl. Ile SuSSSoCSu d lOW llllll-
mum to start, with annual increases. i,
Ie relied on his own experience to )
rgue that higher wages mean higher
and greater efficiency.
he AFL-CIO Meatcutters' Union en-
oys an average wage of over $1.50 =
n hour on Seabrook Farms.
a. Organized Labor and farm
v
AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Will s
am F. Schnitzler, in making the his \
oric announcement of labor's pro- p
osed organizing drive, said labor G
lso would push for a congressional a
lvestigation of "this national dis 1
race" of farm labor exploitation. f
amily-type farms would be excluded
/ the efforts to win legislative pro- C
ection and the right to join unions. a
James B. Carey, president of the o
International Union of n
Electrical Workers, expressed conf n
ence labor would pitch in behind f;
ampaign ''to wipe out peasantry in 81
merica". 81
Ernesto Galarza, secretary-treas- h
rer of the AFL-CIO National Agri- S
1lt11ra1 Workerc TTnion described