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Local Attorney Heads National Association, (posted 1/18/99) By Wende Schwingendorf Lillian G. Apodaca has come a long way from the tiny northern New Mexico town of Lumberton, where Apodaca's family traces its roots back to the mid-1600s. Today, she's an attorney in construction law with the Albuquerque firm of Crider, Bingham & Hurst P.C. She's a wife and mother of two children. And she is the new president of the 25,000-member Hispanic National Bar Association. "I love it because of the diversity of the people-we have Hispanic Americans from Puerto Rico, from Cuba," she says of the group that represents Hispanic American lawyers, judges, law professors and law students in the United States and Puerto Rico. "We have Mexican Americans, South and Central Americans, and New Mexico Hispanics. "Plus, everyone is truly committed," she says. "We deal with common issues that are cohesive to most (of us)." The group's mission includes increasing Hispanic judicial appointments and political representation, and addressing issues of concern to Hispanics nationwide. Apodaca says she also plans to use the organization's influence to find ways to increase college recruitment and make more scholarships available to Hispanic students given the changes in affirmative-action laws. "We must reach out to Hispanic students," Apodaca says. The early days Apodaca, 45, says her father inspired her to be a lawyer. She was born in Lumberton, just outside the Jicarilla Apache Reservation and five miles south of the Colorado-New Mexico border-a place her family has lived for generations. Her father and brothers ran the family ranch, while she, her mother and her sisters ran the family grocery store. "My family was involved in politics there, and my father, I think, would have been an excellent lawyer," she says. "The inclination and interest were there, and that's where my interest started." But Apodaca followed an indirect path to law school. Like many children of northern New Mexico families, she went to a boarding school, St. Michael's in Arizona, just west of Gallup. She went to another private school in New Hampshire in the summer. "Most of us-about 90 percent-studying there went on to Ivy League schools," she says. "But I knew I couldn't stay back East. I didn't see the benefit of staying. "I decided to come back and attend New Mexico State." In college, she earned a bachelor of arts degree in government from NMSU in 31/2 years. "I have this nasty little habit of finishing school early," she says with a laugh. "They wouldn't let me start law school right away, so I came home with no idea of what to do." A phone call from an Aggie professor brought her back to NMSU to work on a master's degree in urban affairs until she could begin law school. "I went for one semester," she says. "That summer, I got married and moved to Wichita (Kan.), where he (husband James M. Apodaca) was a teacher." She finished her master's at Wichita State, worked as an urban planner for the city of Wichita, then studied for her law degree at nearby Washburn Law School in Topeka, Kan. James, once a communications professor at Wichita State, joined Lillian at Washburn and also earned a law degree while working at the Governor's Office in Topeka. "I finished early again-in 21/2 years," she says. A two-year assignment working in municipal bond law for a Kansas firm came and went, but Lillian, James and their first child, Micaela, kept putting off buying furniture. The reason? She says it was a yearning to return to the high deserts of New Mexico. "It was around Christmastime-that's the busiest time of the year for municipal bond lawyers," she recalls. "I love Christmas, and we were trying to figure out how to get home for the holiday. "One week before, we just decided we were coming home. We came back without jobs or plans." Her first interview was with Crider, Bingham & Hurst P.C. James currently practices criminal law in Albuquerque. Love of New Mexico Apodaca's passion for her home state extends into everything she does- from collecting books on New Mexico to researching names of families who have lived here for generations. Holding a stack of index cards and a yellow note pad, she shows the names of families she has found anywhere from obituaries to phone books. "The more unusual the name, the better," she says, running her finger down the list. "I'd like to compile a book of names of old northern New Mexico families." She says she appreciates the uncustomary nature and culture of the state. "My favorite phrase is one by former Territorial Gov. Lew Wallace- 'All experience gained elsewhere, fails in New Mexico,' " she says. "That's a perfect way of explaining how unique it is here." It's only fitting that the bar association's national convention at which Apodaca became president in October was held in Albuquerque. In her acceptance speech, Apodaca outlined goals for her year in office. The first is to create a five-year strategic plan for the group. "We're at a point where we need to go a step beyond where we are," she says. "We are currently without a plan. We need to put our objectives in black and white, so everybody can work in the same direction." The plan will focus on promoting more Hispanics for judgeships. And she wants to focus on attracting more Hispanic college students. The organization has spent the past two years compiling a list of qualified applicants for the U.S. Supreme Court and is also working on bilingual, immigration and Census 2000 issues. Colleague Wayne Bingham, of the Crider, Bingham & Hurst law firm where she is a shareholder, says Apodaca is just the person to accomplish those goals. "It's a question of access and letting Hispanic students know what's available for them," he says. "Lillian is envisioning Hispanic lawyers nationwide going to the high schools as role models-and making them aware that they can realize their dreams. "I think that's one very viable and measurable way of making sure education is accessible," he says. "Lillian is very good in marshaling the members to get the campaign going for Hispanic judiciary appointments," Bingham says. "The association is also interested in promoting aid to Nicaragua and the Honduras. We've gotten faxes in our office from the White House to Lillian giving her the status of the aid." Apodaca says she became involved with the organization when a colleague who was the regional president overseeing New Mexico asked her to take over the position in 1992. From there, Apodaca says she "fell in love with the group." She is the fourth female president in the history of the organization, which was founded in California in 1972 as La Raza National Lawyers Association. Mark S. Gallegos, president of the group in 1988-1989, also hails from New Mexico but now resides and practices in Miami. Although Apodaca's frequent trips take her away from her beloved home state and her family-her daughter, nicknamed Mykki, is now 19, and her son, Santiago, is 6 -- she says her family is used to her absences. "As president-elect and as a regional president, I had to do a lot of traveling," she says. "They're used to it now. Plus, it's like a mini-vacation for me-and in this profession, it's hard to get away." Copyright © 1997, 1998 Albuquerque Journal President Names Montoya as U.S. Representative to U.N. General Assembly, (posted 1/18/99) WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The President today announced his intent to nominate Regina Montoya to be United States Representative to the Fifty-third Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Regina Montoya, of Dallas, Texas, is the volunteer National President of Girls Incorporated, formerly known as Girls Clubs of America, an organization dedicated to helping every girl become "strong, smart and bold." The President of WORKRules, which specializes in workforce training and media and community relations, Montoya is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. Fluent in Spanish, Montoya is a nationally recognized speaker, drawing upon her experiences as one of the first Hispanic women to be elected partner in a major law firm. She was one of the highest ranking Latinas in President Clinton's administration, where she served in 1993 as White House Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and as a corporate board member. Montoya is a member of the Board of Trustees of Wellesley College and is a former Vice President and an Elected Director of the Board of the Harvard Alumni Association. Montoya received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is married to Paul Coggins, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, and they are the parents of 12-year-old Jessica Coggins. Big Six Produce Companies, (posted 1/18/99) The Big Six US Produce Companies with annual sales of $13 billion include Dole Food Company, $4.3 billion sales in 1997; Chiquita Brands International, $2.4 billion; C.H. Robinson Worldwide, $1.8 billion; Fresh Del Monte Produce, $1.2 billion; Sunkist Growers, $1 billion; Tanimura & Antle, $1 billion; FreshPoint, $800 million; and Fresh America, $350 million. The growth of giant produce companies is attributed to consolidation in the grocery industry: the top 10 US supermarket chains account for about 50 percent of retail food sales, up sharply from one-third in 1995. Dole operates as producer, buyer or seller in 90 countries around the world. Its Dole Japan subsidiary, for example, has shaken up the cooperatives that market much of the produce grown in Japan by offering to pack produce in US-style sheds, rather than having farmers pack their own produce. About 40 percent of Japanese farmers are 65 or older. Chiquita has benefited from rising banana consumption-per capita banana consumption in the US has doubled since the 1970s. C.H. Robinson is primarily a transporter of produce, while Fresh Del Monte passed from Mexican to Chilean ownership in 1997. Sunkist is a citrus cooperative known for navel oranges, while Tanimura & Antle is a relatively new lettuce-based company, launched in 1982. Dole and Chiquita would be the major beneficiaries of a WTO ruling against the EU, under which the US charged that EU preferences for bananas from former colonies discriminated against Central and South American bananas that are mostly grown or marketed by Dole and Chiquita. The US announced that, if the EU did not dismantle its license system as ordered by the WTO, the US would impose 100 percent tariffs on selected EU exports to the US. Cadiz Inc. (formerly Cadiz Land Company) is a Santa Monica-based company that owns 57,000 acres in the Central Valley and the Mojave Desert, including 19,000 acres of prime agricultural land operated by its Sun World International Inc. unit. Cadiz's Sun World subsidiary grows, packages and sells 75 varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables; Cadiz's sales in 1997 were $100 million. Cadiz contributed $133,000 to Governor Gray Davis in 1997-98. Consolidation in food retailing continued, with Kroger's announcing plans to buy Fred Meyer, becoming the leading food retailer with $43 billion in sales in 1997. Albertson's/American Stores (Lucky, Jewel) would be number two, with 1997 sales of $34 billion; followed by Safeway/Dominick's, $27 billion; Walmart, $25 billion; Costco and Sam's, $21 billion each; and Ahold/Giant, $19 billion. Second Harvest, the nation's sixth-largest charity and largest network of food banks serving the needy, received about one billion pounds of donated food in FY98, but less is coming from food companies, who have grown more efficient and thus have less food to donate. Second Harvest says that 26 million or 10 percent of Americans received food from one of its 188 programs, and that 20 percent of them are working poor. There are about 400 certified farmers markets in California, and they have annual sales of about $100 million. Marc Lifsher, "How Cadiz CEO Became A Key Adviser to Davis," Wall Street Journal, December 9, 1998. NAFTA at Five, (posted 1/18/99) NAFTA had its fifth anniversary on January 1, 1999. There were numerous report cards, and their major conclusion was that neither the benefits nor the costs of NAFTA were as large as predicted. President Clinton predicted 200,000 additional US jobs each year due to NAFTA, while estimates of US job impacts after five years range from 160,000 jobs gained to 420,000 jobs lost. Clearly, Ross Perot's prediction that NAFTA would unleash a "giant sucking sound" of US jobs moving to Mexico proved false. US employment in August 1998 was 14 million more than in January 1994. In Mexico, NAFTA was not a panacea, but probably prevented a bad economic situation from being worse. Mexico spent foreign money furiously in the early 1990s on questionable projects; after the peso devaluation in 1994-95, workers wages fell 60 percent, and have not yet recovered. Labor. Mexico may face the first sanctions under the labor side agreement of the North American Free Trade Agreement for not protecting worker rights in an automobile brake plant outside Mexico City owned by Dana Corp. of Toledo, Ohio. Workers at the brake plant, which operates under the name Itapsa, tried to organize an independent union because, according to the complaint, wages were stuck at $5 a day and there were dangerous levels of asbestos dust. When they voted on September 9, 1997, they had to do so in an open meeting, in the presence of outsiders carrying sticks and pipes. Mexican labor officials acknowledged that union representation elections usually are not conducted in secret, even though workers can be dismissed if they vote for the losing union. On December 3, 1998 eight Mexican apple pickers who had worked in Washington testified in the first hearings held by Mexico on alleged US violations of NAFTA's labor side agreement. A coalition of Mexican unions filed a 30-page complaint in May 1998 accusing the Washington apple industry of routinely violating the rights and threatening the health and safety of mainly Mexican apple pickers. There have been 20 complaints been filed with NAFTA-established oversight commissions in the United States, Mexico and Canada since January 1, 1994, including, 12 against Mexican firms, six against U.S. companies or agencies and two against Canadian entities. This is the first complaint that led to a hearing in Mexico. The Mexican government in November launched an investigation of firms that transfer funds from Mexicans in the US to their relatives in Mexico, charging that they advertise seven percent commissions, but charge 20 percent. The "Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor" will provide posters to Mexican consulates in the US that outline the true cost of the average $300 monthly transfer. According to the Mexican consumer office, Money Gram and Western Union have $1.2 billion a year in profits from Mexican money transfers. Mexico: Economic Changes, (posted 1/18/99) Mexico has had to reduce government spending several times as the price of oil fell-one-third of government revenue comes from oil sales. The PRI vowed to keep its government budget deficit at less than 1.25 percent of GDP to avoid another devaluation after the 2000 presidential election, and the final federal government budget for 1999 was $103 billion. Mexico's economy is expected to grow three percent in 1999, down from 4.5 percent in 1998; seven percent in 1997; and 5.1 percent in 1996. In 1997, Mexico had a $410 billion GDP. The peso in November stabilized at about 10 pesos to US$1, and is expected to drop to 11 pesos to US$1 in 1999. The reduced budget has called attention to a new anti-poverty strategy that substitutes cash assistance for government-run stores that sell discounted food. Mexico in January 1999 ended subsidies on staples such as tortillas, and expanded its first cash assistance program for poor residents, Progresa, which provided $800 million to 11 million Mexicans in 1998. Mexico plans to make cash payments on behalf of half of the poor rural children in 2000. The Progresa cash assistance program, designed by Deputy Finance Minister Santiago Levy, identifies poor families and provides them with cash assistance if they send their children to school and to the doctor for checkups and vaccines. Levy aims to overcome the "poverty trap," families so poor they cannot take advantage of schools and clinics that are available. A family with seven children received $10 a month, which supplemented their $30 monthly earnings as farm workers. The payment increases if the children attend school; the maximum cash payment is $63 a month, and the average payment is $33 a month. Progresa embodies many academic ideas-higher payments to families with girls, checks payable to the mother, and required attendance at talks on nutrition and health. The cash assistance program replaces subsidized food distributed through the government-run Conasupo stores, which were also a source of corruption. Mexico abolished tortilla subsidies in January 1999, and after protests tortilla makers agreed to keep their price at a maximum 3.50 pesos ($0.35) a kilogram. The minimum wage in Mexico City is 34 pesos ($3.40) a day. The average Mexican eats 117 to 120 kilos (257 to 264 pounds) of tortillas a year. In 1950, about 73 percent of Mexicans were poor, and 33 percent were classified as extremely poor; in 1984, these percentages had fallen to 28 and 13 percent. However, in 1994, 32 percent of Mexicans were considered poor, and in 1996, about 36 percent, with 20 percent in extreme poverty. Mexico in 1996 had 20 million households with an average of 4.5 persons each and with an average monthly income of 5,100 pesos, or about $575 at the 1998 exchange rate. If these households are ranked from poorest to richest, the amount of income received by each 10 percent or two million households is as follows: the poorest 10 percent of Mexicans households received two percent of Mexican income in 1996, the next decile three percent, the next, four percent, five percent, six percent, seven percent, nine percent, 11 percent, 16 percent and 37 percent. The average monthly income of each decile in 1996 (expressed in 1998 pesos) was: 907 pesos for the poorest 10 percent, 1,525; 2,003; 2,488; 3,031; 3,719; 4,549; 5,835; 8,143; and 18,586. About 65 percent of those in the poorest 10 percent of households are in rural areas. The US reports annual income for each 20 percent of 70 million families. In 1996, the poorest 20 percent of US families received four percent of total income (five percent in Mexico); the next 20 percent received 10 percent of income (nine percent); the next 20 percent received 16 percent (13 percent); the next 20 percent received 23 percent (20 percent); and the richest 20 percent received 47 percent (53 percent). Income equality can be summarized in a Gini coefficient, which ranges from zero for perfect equality to one for maximum inequality. In 1996, the US Gini coeffficient was 0.38 and Mexico was 0.57; by comparison, Sweden's Gini was 0.32, and Brazil's 0.60. Mary Beth Sheridan, "Mexico drops subsidies on staples and targets its poorest citizens with direct cash payments," Los Angeles Times, January 7, 1999. INS: Smuggling, Not Sanctions, (posted 1/18/99) Despite an announcement by INS Commissioner Doris Meissner that "The focus of our worksite enforcement needs increasingly to be directed at employers. Work is the incentive that brings illegal immigrants into our country. [Enforcement] can't just be done at the border." In December 1998 the INS unveiled a five-year plan to combat smuggling and document fraud, but not to step up enforcement of employer sanctions. The draft "interior enforcement strategy," which was mandated by Congress to be released in April 1998, calls alien smuggling a $7-8 billion a year industry and justifies a stepped-up effort to deal with smuggling by noting that smuggling allows terrorists to enter the US, and that the aliens smuggled into the US can increase social service demands. Meissner said that: "There is a much stronger political consensus about border enforcement than there is about the way enforcement should be done away from the border." Another INS official said there is a tendency to focus INS resources on border enforcement because of a "unique coalition of special interest groups that join together and influence both political parties against effective interior enforcement - and specifically work site enforcement and employer sanctions." Between FY92 and FY97, the number of fines levied against employers decreased from 2,000 to 888, and fines levied decreased from $17 million to $8 million. About 2,000 employers nationwide participate in the voluntary Basic Pilot program, under which the Social Security and immigration (A-9) numbers of all newly hired workers are verified by the SSA and INS. The INS did not request more inspectors to enforce employer sanctions in the FY99 budget; in its FY98 proposal, 130 more inspectors were requested, but Congress did not provide funding for them. In November, 1998, DOL's Employment Standards Administration signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the INS that will end the practice of ESA investigators informing INS when they investigate worker complaints and suspect violations of immigration laws. The change is intended to make unauthorized workers more willing to work with ESA to complain about wage and safety violations. This new agreement replaces a 1992 MOU that required ESA to contact INS with information about suspected illegal migrants. ESA and INS will continue to share information when ESA investigations are not triggered by individual complaints. In Fresno County, the INS launched a project to help local employers to re-verify the documents submitted by newly hired workers. As a result of audits at 14 agricultural businesses, employers were asked to have 1,000 workers re-verify their legal right to work in the US. Hundreds reportedly quit their jobs, which prompted farm labor advocates to complain that the INS had waited until after the harvest to begin its enforcement crackdown; none of the 14 businesses was fined. Many labor activists complain that sanctions enforcement is being used to deter unionization. The percentage of unauthorized farm workers is increasing. California data from the National Agricultural Workers Survey suggest that about 42 percent of the workers employed on crop farms between 1995-97 were unauthorized, up from nine percent in 1990-91. About 91 percent of the workers interviewed were born in Mexico and 26 percent had been in the US for less than three years. Their average age was 33 in the mid-1990s, and about three-fourths earned less than $10,000 annually. H-2A Program: Changes Proposed, (posted 1/18/99) On October 2, 1998, the Department of Labor published "streamlining" revisions to its H-2A regulations, 20 CFR Parts 654 and 655, in the Federal Register. Among the proposed changes are a reduction in the time before the employer needs workers to file an application, from 60 to 45 days, and a reduction from 30 to 15 days that DOL has to inspect the housing that will be provided to H-2A workers. US employers wishing to have nonimmigrant farm workers admitted under the H-2A program need a certification from DOL that: (1) there are not sufficient U.S. workers who are able, willing and qualified, and who will be available at the time and place needed to perform the labor or services involved in the petition; and (2) the employment of the alien in such labor or services will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed. The key hurdle for most growers is the requirement that employers who want H-2A workers must list the jobs in the ES's interstate job clearance system, in effect offering a contract to US workers that includes the same wages and working conditions offered to the H-2A workers. California's Cal Jobs system had one farm worker job listed in December and two jobs for crew leaders. Most of the job orders received by EDD are "suppressed" at the request of the employer, which means that visitors to the Cal Jobs web site (www.caljobs.ca.gov) do not see them. Agricultural Producers, a California-Arizona organization of citrus growers, contributed $5,000 to the National Council of Agricultural Employers in an effort to enact H-2A reform in 1998. Most Agricultural Producers members report that they have an adequate labor supply, the Agricultural Producers plan to review the possibility of using the Agricultural Producers-related Farmers Harvest organization to secure H-2A workers for member growers. Georgia. On May 13, 1998, the INS launched operation "Southern Denial" in the Vidalia onion industry, apprehending 21 of the estimated 3,500 to 5,000 peak harvest workers, and leading to Congressional complaints of heavy-handed enforcement. The INS operation was stopped after one day, and growers and the INS agreed to a series of changes for the 1999 season, including: (1) hiring only legal workers; and (2) making available to the INS business records, including FLC agreements. The INS was widely criticized for "bowing to grower pressure" and suspending work place inspections even when it knew that illegal workers were being employed. The GAO did a follow-up study of operation "Southern Denial" that stressed three points: (1) onion growers knew that many of their workers were illegal, and formed an organization, Vidalia Harvesting Inc, to obtain legal H-2A foreign workers; (2) growers abandoned the H-2A strategy when they learned that they would have to pay the DOL-determined prevailing wage of $0.80 per 50-pound bag of onions picked (growers maintained that the prevailing wage was $0.70 to $0.75 per 60-pound bag), and provide housing at no charge to domestic and H-2A workers; and (3) growers really took little interest in where workers came from or went to-they told GAO that FLCs "and workers just 'show up' without advance notice" when they are needed (page 12). The GAO report noted the reduced numbers bandied about in May-June 1998. GAO noted that there were 147 registered growers of Vidalia onions, and that the peak labor force was 3,500 to 5,000, not the 10,000 claimed by some reports. The GAO also stressed that growers did not want to spend money on recruitment. As one condition of approving the H-2A petition that was withdrawn, DOL required growers to offer FLC-recruiters in the Rio Grande Valley, where most onion workers are from, at least $8 per worker recruited. Growers thought this was too much, although one FLC in south Texas reported that onion growers could get all the legal workers needed for recruitment fees of $250 to $450 a worker. The question in 1999 was whether onion growers would turn to the H-2A program, legal workers from Texas, or machines-a mechanical harvester can harvest 15 acres a day; the equivalent of a crew of 60 workers. Georgia onion growers began growing and marketing Vidalia onions about a decade ago and created a major agricultural success story when they won a federal marketing order designating a 20-county area for Vidalia sweet onions. Vidalia onions represent about 10 percent of U.S. onion sales. US onion production has expanded fastest in Georgia, from 2,000 acres of Vidalias in 1987 to 16,000 acres in 1997. GAO. 1998. H-2A Agricultural Guestworker Program: Experiences of Individual Vidalia Onion Growers. Washington. GAO, September 10. GAO/HEHS-98-236R. B-280987. MSFW Services: MHS, 402s, (posted 1/18/99) Budgets for the major federal MSFW programs increased for FY99, which began October 1, 1998. The Big 4 programs received almost $700 million: Migrant Education got $355 million, Migrant Health expects about $83 million, Migrant Head Start expects $186 million (four percent of the HS allocation), and JTPA 402 programs received $72 million. Other federal programs that serve primarily MSFWs and their children include (ED programs) HEP, which got $9 million in FY99; CAMP, which got $4 million; and Migrant Even Start, which expects $4 million. DOL programs include disaster assistance, $7 million and $10 million for migrant farm worker youth. HHS will provide $39 million in rural outreach grants, $500 million in community service block grants, and $200 million for NIOSH; in addition, refugee and entrant assistance ($415 million) and ED's Bilingual and Immigrant Education programs ($380 million) serve some MSFWs. The $7 million in DOL disaster payments for farm workers are expected to provide about 20,000 emergency payments that average $350 each to eligible workers; agencies administering the grants can recoup 10 percent overhead. The largest allocations are to Texas, $1.3 million; Georgia, $1.1 million; and California, $0.9 million. MHS. The Migrant Head Start program provides child care and early childhood education for the children of low-income migrant farm workers at no cost while they are working away from their homes. MHS stopped payments to the Washington State Migrant Council in Sunnyside, saying it closed its MHS centers too early in October 1998. The WSMC, with a $20 million annual budget, provides services to migrant workers and their children. The University Migrant Workers Project at the University of Minnesota estimates that 20,000 migrant farm workers (up to 54,000 with dependents) enter Minnesota each year, and that many of the children of migrants are not immunized. In one survey, only 57 percent of migrant children under two had at least one measles vaccination; the US goal is 90 percent. 402. DOL has offered job training programs for migrant and seasonal farm workers since 1973, first under section 303 of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) and since 1982 under section 402 of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which replaces JTPA, farm worker training is in section 167. Unlike most federally-funded training programs, the 402 system is federally- administered, which means that the federal government runs the annual competition for funds and ensures that service providers are satisfying program requirements. The amount of money that each state can compete for is based on that state's share of eligible farm workers. In recent years, about $70 million a year has been allocated to single or multi-state service providers that served 50,000 to 60,000 farm workers a year. For example, the Merced-based Central Valley Opportunity Center trains about 300 farm workers a year at a cost of $23,500 a worker trained and placed; in 1992-93, about 25 percent of those trained were placed in training-related jobs. DOL has been allocating funds to states based on the number of eligible farm workers enumerated in the 1980 Census, adjusted with data from the Special Agricultural Workers legalization program in 1987-88. In 1997, DOL proposed moving to a two-part formula, with half of each state's allocation based on the 1990 Census count of eligible farm workers and half based on state shares of labor expenses, adjusted for differences in hourly earnings, in the 1982 Census of Agriculture. In 1998, DOL proposed a new formula that utilizes data from the 1992 Census of Agriculture, the USDA Farm Labor Survey, the NAWS and the Census of Population. The five-part formula is based on standardized hours of work-COA labor expenditures divided by average hourly earnings reported by employers for the state or region in the FLS. For example, in 1992, California included 31 percent of standardized hours of work on farms with crop SICs. Standardized state shares of crop and livestock hours are adjusted: crop hours are adjusted with NAWS data and livestock hours are adjusted with COP data. The adjustments from the NAWS aim to establish state shares of 402-eligible persons/time; 402-eligibility requires, for example, at least 50 percent of earnings must be from farm work, doing at least 25 days of farm work in the previous 12 months or having farm earnings of $400 or more in the previous 24 months, family income must be below the Lower Living Standard Income Level (LLSIL) level and workers must be legally present in the US. According to NAWS data, these eligibility criteria varied significantly across the US. In Texas, for example, 52 percent of the standardized crop hours were 402-eligible, while in North Carolina and Virginia, only 20 percent were 402-eligible. The adjustment for where eligible farm workers spend their time also varied across states. For example, Alabama had the highest factor reflecting total days in the state divided by farm days, 1.7, while Montana, Connecticut, Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming had the lowest ratios, 1.2. The third adjustment reflects turnover, or the ratio of eligible workers to eligible work days: this varied from a high of 0.014 in Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Colorado, Utah, Arkansas, Nevada, Florida and Arizona to a low of 0.005 in Maine, Wyoming, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The crop part of the new allocation formula accounts for 77 percent of each state's share of 402 funds. The livestock share, which adjusts standardized livestock hours by state shares of eligible workers on the basis of COP data, accounts for 19 percent of the formula. The number and eligibility of forestry/fishery workers, which accounts for five percent of the formula, is derived from the COP. DOL is delaying the implementation of the new formula until 1999. If implemented, the new formula would shift 402 funds away from states that had relatively large shares of low income farmers in 1980, such as Mississippi, and from states with relatively high percentages of unauthorized workers, such as the Carolinas. States gaining funds include California, Oregon and Washington, as well as southwestern states such as Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado. Michael Doyle, "Farm committee will review job training," Fresno Bee, November 19, 1998. California: Enforcement, Workers Comp, (posted 1/18/99) Enforcement. Federal and state labor law enforcement agencies, as part of the TIPP program, conducted an "investigative survey" of 66 randomly selected vineyards in January-February 1998; these vineyards had 23 FLCs working while the inspections were carried out, and they were also inspected. There are about 8,000 grape employers in California, and a peak 80,000 workers are involved in winter pruning and tying operations. Most of the workers employed during the inspections were older and more skilled pruners; the average crew size was 10 to 15. The results of the inspections were "troubling," since 20 percent of the growers and 52 percent of the FLCs were not paying their workers the minimum wage of $5.75 an hour--369 of 1,000 workers involved in the inspections were owed "make-up" money, so that they received at least the minimum wage. In some cases, several workers were listed as one employee, workers were illegally charged for tools (employers must provide tools free of charge to workers who earn less than twice the minimum wage), and employers often reported that workers did fewer hours of work than, in fact, they did. Despite new criteria for determining joint-employer situations, DOL found that only about one-third of the FLC-grower relationships constituted joint employment. Most of the minimum wage problems were found in piece rate crews. Piece rates were highest in the Napa-Monterey coastal areas, where some workers earned $10 to $13 an hour. However, most of California's grapes are in the San Joaquin Valley, and piecerate wages of $0.17 to $0.22 a vine gave many workers hourly earnings of $6 to $6.25 an hour. As a result of the minimum wage hike, some growers are switching to hourly pay to avoid having to keep account of each worker's production and hours of work. Investigators reported that some employers believe that piece rate workers do not need to be paid the minimum wage. Some workers who knew they were not being paid the minimum wage nonetheless did not complain because there were few other jobs available; they felt it was better to receive $5 and have work then complain and be potentially jobless. The Targeted Industries Partnership Program was billed as both enforcement and education and involved both employer and worker advocates in meetings that discussed the laws to be enforced. In TIPP's second annual report, it was emphasized that cooperation would help to direct "the resources of employer groups... toward educating their constituents and encouraging voluntary compliance with labor and health and safety laws rather than resisting TIPP and its compliance efforts...employer groups have come to recognize the futility of lobbying to protect the recidivist employer." TIPP's California component turned the collection of civil money penalties and back wages over to the Franchise Tax Board. TIPP led to an automated data base of registered FLCs in California. In agriculture, a grower who contracts with an unlicensed farm labor contractor is held jointly liable for the wage and hour, housing, pesticide and transportation violations of the unlicensed farm labor contractor. Steve Smith, a lobbyist for the California State Employees Association, was named by California's Governor Gray Davis to head the Department of Industrial Relations. Workers Compensation. An analysis of claim data from the Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau found that paid claims from the 14 farm worker occupational categories fell from about 40,000 a year in the 1980s to 30,000 a year in the early 1990s. There are several possible explanations, including rising premiums that encouraged employers to develop safer work places, and more illegal workers, who may not file claims, even though they are covered if injured at work, and less fraud. About two-thirds of the 673,000 paid claims between 1978 and 1994 were in four categories: orchards, 23 percent; truck crops, 21 percent; vineyards, 14 percent; and nurseries, 10 percent. However, the highest injury rates were on stock farms (20 percent of the FTE workers had a paid claim in 1994) and dairy farms (15 percent); 13 percent of FTE orchard workers had a paid claim. For more information: www.cirsinc.org Unauthorized workers are entitled to workers compensation benefits. In Foodmaker, Inc. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board and Margalis Ortega-Ruiz, an unauthorized worker suffered a back injury, and her doctor said that she could return to light work. However, since she was unauthorized, she could not be rehired, and the WCAB ordered Foodmaker to pay her $16,000 in rehabilitation benefits. Ortega-Ruiz was hired in 1990 at a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant, injured her back in 1994 lifting a heavy box of lettuce, and quit 10 days later. Foodmaker denied her claim for workers' compensation benefits because she didn't report the injury prior to leaving employment. Under California law, a "qualified injured worker" is eligible for rehabilitation benefits of up to 18 months if the employer has no alternative or modified work available for the employee to perform within medical restrictions. Food Maker said it could provide her with light work, but that the company learned she had presented false documents to be hired, and that it could not re-employ her in the modified work. Workers' Compensation Judge Maury Gentile ruled that Ruiz-Ortega was entitled to rehabilitation benefits because the law covers all persons "lawfully or unlawfully employed," including "aliens." A divided Workers' Compensation Appeals Board agreed, and a Court of Appeal denied Foodmaker's appeal. However, the California Supreme Court ordered a judge to decide if Food Maker would have offered the woman light work if she had been authorized: "Foodmaker was unable to offer Ortega-Ruiz a modified job because she had violated the law by residing in this country and because Foodmaker was complying with the law by not putting her back to work. Simple fairness dictates that Ortega-Ruiz not receive any vocational rehabilitation services, much less a range of services, if those benefits are being provided just because she entered the country illegally." The court noted that, if Ortega-Ruiz had legal status, she could have returned to work and the employer would have received a premium refund, instead of incurring the high cost of rehabilitation. "Illegal Immigrant Not Entitled to Rehabilitation Benefits as Injured Worker," Metropolitan News-Enterprise, October 8, 1998. Farm Labor Data, (posted 1/18/99) There is no one source of data on persons who work on US farms for wages. Each source of farm labor data can be likened to a window that permits a look inside a room of unknown size and shape. These windows range from peepholes to picture windows, and the glass from clear to obscure, depending on the sampling frame and size of the survey, as well as definitions and questions asked. Most US researchers rely on the decennial Census of Population and the monthly Current Population Survey to examine socio-economic patterns. The CPS obtains information from about 60,000 of the 100 million US households and obtains demographic information on household members as well as information on the primary and secondary employment of those 15 and older during one week of the month. The CPS reported an average 900,000 farm workers in 1997. Their median age was 33; 83 percent were male; 52 percent were non-Hispanic white and 41 percent were Hispanic; and 59 percent were not high school graduates. Hispanics were two-thirds of the hired farm work force in the west, one-third in the south, but only three percent of hired workers in the midwest. Employment varied in 1997 from 589,000 in January to 1.1 million in July. There were distinct differences between hired workers in crop and livestock production. Crop workers were more likely to be older (median age 35 compared to 29 in livestock), more likely to be Hispanic (53 percent compared to 25 percent), less likely to be US citizens (56 compared to 81 percent), and more likely not to have graduated from high school (66 compared to 49 percent). About 85 percent of both crop and livestock workers were male; both had median weekly earnings of about $280. Median weekly farm worker earnings of $277 were the second lowest reported: only private maids earning $206 a week had lower earnings. Full-time US wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $500 in 1997; farm worker earnings were 55 percent of the median for all workers. Between 1990 and 1997, real median farm worker wages declined about six percent, compared to a one percent increase for all US workers. Over 70 percent of hired farm worker families had incomes below $30,000 in 1997, compared with 38 percent of all wage and salary families. Wages and Benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes an employee cost index, which divides the total compensation of employees in the private nonfarm economy into wages and salaries, including bonuses and commissions, and benefits, both mandated Social Security and voluntary health insurance and pension contributions. In March 1998, the average total compensation of private nonfarm workers was $18.50 an hour, including $13.47 an hour or 72.8 percent in wages and salaries, and $5.02 an hour or 27.2 percent in benefits. The benefits included legally required benefits worth $2.16 an hour or 11.7 percent of total compensation and voluntary benefits worth $2.87 an hour, or 15.4 percent of total compensation. October 1998 and Annual Averages. The USDA's quarterly Farm Labor reported that there were 1.25 million hired workers employed on US farms during the week of October 11-17, 1998, down from 1.45 million in July 1998. In October, about 79 percent of the workers were employed directly by farmers and 21 percent or 263,000 were employees of agricultural service firms, including 95,000 in California and 5,900 in Florida. Field workers had average hourly earnings of $7.15 an hour in October 1998; livestock workers $7.28. The Farm Labor report defines migrants as workers who could not return to their usual residence after doing farm work. In 1998, migrants were 7.3 percent of hired workers in January; 6.6 percent in April; 13.7 percent in July; and 11 percent in October. The USDA obtains employment and earnings data from farmers and one question asks them whether the workers they hire directly are expected to be employed 150 or more days on the farm. About 80 percent of directly hired workers in January were expected to be employed 150 or more days, 77 percent in April, 66 percent in July and 71 percent in October. About 67 percent of hired workers in October were on farms with annual sales of $250,000 or more; 53 percent were employed on farms with 11 or more workers. The annual average employment of all hired workers in 1998 was 880,000, the same as 1997. The annual average wage rate was $7.47, up from $7.35 in 1997. The field and livestock worker combined annual average wage rate was $6.98, up five percent from $6.64. H-2A Workers. In 1997, DOL certified the need for 23,352 H-2A foreign farm workers, up from 17,557 in 1996 and 12,173 in 1994. In 1997, 62 percent of the jobs certified were in southeastern tobacco, another 18 percent were in northeastern apples and seven percent were in western shepherding. Reflecting the tobacco jobs, North Carolina had 28 percent of the H-2A certifications in 1997, followed by Virginia with 16 percent and Kentucky with 10 percent. On December 15, a federally mandated reduction of 18 percent of the amount of flue-cured tobacco that can be grown in 1999 was announced. The tobacco acreage allowed - 319,061 acres - will be the smallest tobacco quota in the program's 60-year history. Chip Jones, "Flue-Cured Leaf Quota Cut by 18 percent," Richmond Times Dispatch, December 16, 1998. Effland, Anne and Jack Runyan. 1998. Hired Farm Labor in US Agriculture. Agricultural Outlook. October. AGO-25. 19-22. aeffland@econ.ag.gov, jrunyan@econ.ag.gov Midwest: Migrants, Eggs, (posted 1/18/99) NBC's Dateline ran a one-hour special on migrant farm workers on December 4, 1998, following a family from south Texas that picked cucumbers in Ohio, and encouraged their children to work in order to maximize the family's piece rate earnings. The family was very unusual-it was large and legal; most migrants are solo men. The Muskegon Chronicle ran a series of articles on farm workers on November 22, 1998, written by a reporter who returned to farms in Western Michigan's Ottawa and Oceana counties where he had worked as a teen. A couple with medical assistant licenses elect to continue to migrate to do farm work so that they can live with their migrant families in the summer months. The Michigan Commission On Spanish Speaking Affairs believes that Michigan is the fourth-largest employer of migrants at 45,000 a year. The United Paperworkers International Union in October 1998 suspended an organizing drive at the former DeCoster Egg Farms, now Maine Ag and Quality Eggs of New England. In March 1998, workers voted 52 to 21 against the union. In Ohio, workers at the Buckeye Egg Farm voted 36-23 in August 1998 against representation by the United Food & Commercial Workers Union. Buckeye argued that it was a farm and not covered by the NLRA, but the NLRB ruled that Buckeye was a nonfarm operation. Buckeye in 1997-98 settled citations that it failed to provide workers overtime pay. Buckeye, which currently has about 2.5 million chickens, plans to expand to have 18 million chickens in north-central Ohio. Federico Martinez, "Generations of migrants maintain the cycles of life," Muskegon Chronicle, November 22, 1998. Strawberries. On November 5, 1998, an investigative hearing examiner for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board ruled that the July 23, 1998 election at Coastal Berry Co., in which workers voted 523 to 410 for the Coastal Berry Farm Workers Committee, should not be certified because Coastal had left 162 workers in the Oxnard area off the list of voters by mistake. The Coastal Committee, which alleged that Coastal deliberately provided an incomplete list, appealed the ALJ decision to the five-member Board. Under ALRB election rules, eligible voters are farm workers on the payroll during the (usual weekly) payroll period before the petition was filed, for example: week 1, pre-petition; week 2, union files election petition; week 3, election. Coastal said that 162 of its Ventura County employees were not on the list of farm workers given to the ALRB in July 1998 because they were being laid off and had been moved to a special payroll list. Therefore, those Ventura employees never were notified of the election. In December 1998, the ALRB found that Coastal did not instigate or condone violence that broke out on July 1, 1998 between pro- and anti-UFW pickers. The UFW charged that Coastal foremen encouraged the violence. The UFW on October 14, 1997 filed a suit in Santa Cruz Superior Court, UFW v. Dutra Farms, that aims to show a relationship between strawberry growers and anti-UFW organizations such as the Strawberry Workers and Farmers Alliance, the Agricultural Workers Committee, and the Coastal Berry Farmworkers Committee. The UFW produced bank records that showed that that strawberry growers and packers and the Western Growers Association contributed to the AWC and other "worker" organizations, with New West Fruit Corp. contributing $10,000. Several articles in Metro Santa Cruz laid out the relationship between the Los Angeles-based Dolphin Group and the Strawberry Workers and Farmers Alliance; the alliance is run out of the offices of the Dolphin Group, a public relations firm. In mid-December, the UFW announced that it was distributing the $283,000 won by 491 raspberry employees of Reiter Berry Farms who charged that they were not paid for time spent preparing and cleaning up after work. Reiter is the largest supplier of berries to Driscoll. Gargiulo workers received $575,000 to settle unpaid work time claims, and Salinas Berry Farms paid $120,000 to settle sex discrimination charges and $29,000 to settle unpaid overtime charges. James Lorenz, Jr., a former CRLA attorney, filed another lawsuit against the UFW, charging that the UFW failed to pay required overtime wages to some of its organizers. Lorenz has filed other suits against the UFW, including a well-publicized case, later dropped as not credible, that charged that the UFW was asking female union organizers to offer sex in exchange for signing UFW cards. The strawberry industry won the right to continue to use methyl bromide, an odorless gas that is injected into the soil under plastic coverings to control a range of pests, until 2005. Some 300 to 400 pounds of methyl bromide is normally injected in each acre. In 1995, about 4.2 million pounds were used on California strawberries, followed by 1.2 million pounds for wine grapes, 0.9 million pounds for almonds and 0.8 million pounds each for lettuce and carrots. Oceanview Produce. On December 18, 1998 the ALRB counted the ballots and decertifed the UFW as representative for farm workers at Oceanview Produce Company near Oxnard: the vote was two to retain the UFW and 29 for no union. Oceanview, a subsidiary of Dole Food Company, once had about 600 workers in Ventura country. Oceanview workers voted for the UFW in May 1994, after a pay cut for celery harvesters. Just after the election, Oceanview closed its strawberry operations, displacing 350 to 400 workers, citing five years of poor profits. A three-year contract was signed and, before it expired, workers requested a decertification vote, which was held February 3, 1998. The UFW challenged the decertification vote and filed unfair labor practice charges against Oceanview, claiming that Oceanview "instigated, supported and financed the decertification campaign." The ALRB dismissed the UFW's charges and certified the election. Oceanview workers were quoted as saying that they did not receive sufficient benefits for the two percent of wages that they paid in UFW dues. Some also complained that their health care premiums increased from $20 a month to $50 a month under the UFW plan. LM-2. The UFW's financial report for 1997 indicated an income of $7.6 million and expenditures of $7.2 million. The UFW's income included $3.7 million in contributions, $1.5 million in dues and the repayment of $1 million in loans. The UFW's expenditures included $2.7 million for administration, $1.8 million paid to 104 employees and $800,000 for professional fees. The UFW reported 26,000 members in 1997. Dues are two percent of earnings, so $1.5 million in dues suggests that UFW members earned $75 million, or an average $2,900 each. Sonoma. The UFW in November 1998 called for a boycott of Gallo of Sonoma wines (including Turning Leaf and Gossamer Bay) to put pressure on Gallo in contract negotiations. In 1994, the UFW by a 80-21 vote won the right to represent farm workers employed by Gallo Winery vineyards in Sonoma County. Gallo appealed the ALRB's decision to certify the UFW as bargaining representative; negotiations for a contract began in 1997. In July, 1998, a state mediator was called in to resolve a dispute over whether 250 workers hired by labor contractors should be covered by the agreement. The UFW charged that Gallo has been bringing FLC crews from the San Joaquin Valley who are housed in motels while working in Sonoma county. The UFW has won three election victories in Somona county; it had one contract with Asti vineyards in the early 1970s. In December 1996, the UFW negotiated an agreement with St. Supery Vineyards in Napa. California winemakers responded that growing competition for field workers is resulting in better wages and benefits. In Sonoma and Napa counties, vineyards produced nearly $6 billion in revenue and hired more than 100,000 workers. There are more than 8,000 vineyards in California, 1,500 of them in Sonoma county. Other. Cal Poly and E & J Gallo plan a 150-acre teaching vineyard near San Luis Obispo to teach students about vineyard management, which prompted the UFW to mount an informational picket line in Modesto, where Gallo has its headquarters. Cal Poly uses a labor contractor to pick crops grown on experimental plots. A review of changes in the farm labor market since 1962 profiled the UFW and reported that wages, benefits and working conditions have improved, but emphasized that much remains the same. California's minimum wage is $5.75 an hour, but many workers do not participate in benefit programs because of the premiums or co-pay requirements. The UFW was reported to have had a peak 80,000 members (other estimates are 50,000) in the early 1970s, and 27,000 members in 1998. Since 1994, the UFW has won 17 consecutive elections and signed 21 new contracts with growers. The 8,000-acre Giumarra Vineyards asserts that its working conditions are "among the best in the world," although workers complain that Giumarra does not provide them with tables to pack grapes into 22-pound cartons. The UFW has one table grape contract, with Nash-de-Kamp farms in Tulare County. The Teamsters voted by mail for a new president of the 1.4 million member union. James P. Hoffa, son of James R. Hoffa who disappeared in 1975, defeated Tom Leedham in the December 3, 1998 ballot. Ron Carey, won a narrow 1996 re-election that was overturned because of campaign finance violations. Fred Alvarez, "Area Growers Fear Power May Erode Under Davis," Los Angeles Times, January 3, 1999. John A. Lehr, "Produce workers vote out union," Ventura County Star, December 19, 1998. John A. Lehr, "Reiter Berry Farms settles lawsuit with workers for $283,000," Ventura County Star, December 22, 1998. Rene Sanchez, "In California's Vineyards, Grapes of Wealth and Wrath," Washington Post, December 6, 1998. Fred Alvarez, "Berry giant is crucial to UFW's plan to organize pickers," Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1998. Steve Schmidt, "3 decades after Chavez hunger strike, UFW wages old battles," San Diego Union Tribune, November 8, 1998. Michael Merrill, "Records back UFW claims," Santa Cruz County Sentinel, November 10, 1998. Mary Spicuzza, "In Deep With the Dolphin Group," Metro Santa Cruz, October 15-21, 1998. Washington: Farm Worker Housing, (posted 1/18/99) Washington State Governor Gary Locke has made farm worker housing a top state priority in 1999. Locke has proposed a $40 million plan to build housing for 10,000 people over ten years; to consolidate and improve housing regulation in the state Department of Health, and to create a one-stop information clearinghouse on farm worker housing. Finally, Locke plans to once again permit tent housing for farm workers and cherry harvesters. The Governor's Advisory Board on Affordable Housing called farmworker housing "Washington state's number one rural housing need." Washington had a three-year pilot program, which expired in 1998, that permitted farmers to provide housing in tents for farm workers in short-season crops such as cherries. The law authorizing the pilot program, SB 5503, begins: "The Legislature finds that there is an inadequate supply of temporary and permanent housing for migrant and seasonal workers in this state. The Legislature also finds that unclear, complex regulations related to the development, construction and permitting of worker housing inhibit the development of this much-needed housing. The Legislature further finds that as a result, many workers are forced to obtain housing that is unsafe and unsanitary." SB 5503 required drinking water within 100 feet of all dwelling units, lighting and electricity, where available, and heating when the temperature drops below 60 degrees. In 1998, after the Washington State Board of Health voted to increase tent camp standards, many cherry growers closed their camps. As a result, some farm workers lived on river banks, producing some of the worst housing conditions since the 1930s. Farm worker advocates want more money for settled or permanent farm workers, not just for migrants; growers favor the construction of housing for migrants. In 1997, at the request of the UFW, Locke vetoed a bill, SB5668, that would have established Temporary Worker Building Codes to encourage the construction of more temporary housing for farm workers. The bill was pushed through the Legislature by Washington's first Hispanic senator, who estimated that temporary housing built under relaxed codes would cost about $22 a square foot, compared to $100 a square foot for permanent housing that meets current codes. The two commodities attracting the most attention due to inadequate housing are cherries and apples. There are about 3,600 apple growers in Washington, but only 200 of the state's 1,000 largest growers provide housing for farm workers, according the state Department of Health. Mattawa, a city of 5,000 along the Columbia River, attracts about 5,000 migrants to pick apples each fall. In 1998, many migrants camped on land owned by the Grant County Public Utility District, which set up portable toilets and a trash bin, but not electricity or running water just outside of the city in Sentinel Gap. In the city of Mattawa, many migrants live 12 to 15 people in each mobile home. The state is constructing the Esperanza migrant center in Mattawa to house up to 300 people in farm worker families in shipping containers, refurbished as living units with windows, air conditioning, heat, bathrooms, kitchens and bunk beds for up to six people a unit. Some apple growers provide housing to their workers. Ralph Broetje, a 4,000-acre apple grower near Prescott, provides housing in 80 family houses and two 14-unit apartment buildings for many of his 650 year-round workers. Broetje spent $5 million to build housing, and charges $350 a month for a three-bedroom home and offers 60 day-care slots for $7 a day. Broetje Orchards has a peak 1,250 employees who harvest four million bushels of apples each year. Most harvesters, who get a piecerate of about $0.01 a pound for picking apples, earn $5.75 to $6.75 an hour, with many men in two-earner families working as harvesters and their wives working as warehouse workers. Broetje's wife operates the Center for Sharing, a Walla Walla-based nonprofit agency. Washington had a large apple crop in 1998--about 100 million 42-pound boxes, or two-thirds of the 11.5 billion pounds of US apples. Washington growers received an average $12.50 a box for fresh apples, down from $16 a box in 1997--some experts put the average cost of production at $12 a box, meaning that many growers just broke even. The Asian crisis slowed exports and reduced prices so much that some growers, for the first time in memory, have left low-quality apples that would be used for juice on the trees because of low prices, just $20 a ton, down from $180 in 1995. The retail price of fresh US apples averaged $1 a pound in 1998, and the farm price averaged $0.25 a pound. Americans consume 18 to 20 pounds of apples a person every year, compared to 50 pounds a person in some European countries. Washington's apple industry has expanded from 5,600 growers and 115,244 acres in the mid-1970s to 3,800 growers with 172,000 acres in the mid-1990s, and most experts predict that the trend toward fewer and larger will continue. Washington State University economist Tom Schotzko predicted that the five largest apple grower-packers will control one-third of Washington's apple production by 2010 and the top 20 will control two-thirds. US apple growers are worried about increased international competition, especially from China. China is believed to have about one million acres of apples, 75 percent Fuji apples, compared to 450,000 acres in the US. Acreage is expanding; China is expected to produce 40 percent of the world's apples by 2005, some 20 million metric tons. As infrastructure and quality improve, US apple growers are worried that Chinese apple exports may displace US apples in east and southeast Asia. One-third of Washington apples, and one-fourth of US apples, are exported. The US produces about five million metric tons of apples and projections suggest six million tons by 2010. In November 1998, voters approved Initiative 688, which makes Washington the first state to index the minimum wage. The minimum wage increased from $4.70 in 1998 to $5.70 on January 1, 1999, is scheduled to rise to $6.50 in 2000, and then rise each year with inflation. About half of Washington's farm workers are believed to earn less than $6.50 an hour. In November 1998, the Washington State Migrant Council was ordered to repay $2.2 million of the $2.5 million received since 1993 in Migrant Education funds. Investigators found that 1,700 children the Sunnyside-based council was supposed to be serving through the Title I Migrant Education Program, also were receiving funding through two other government child-care programs. The Council receives $20 million a year in state and federal grants to provide social services to low-income farm workers and their families, and more than half of its budget goes to a statewide network of 26 child-care centers. Lynda Mapes, "Housing Farmworkers-Locke's ambitious plan to build for 10,000," Seattle Times, January 4, 1999. Jake Batsell, "Wage hike expected to have mixed impact on consumers," Seattle Times, November 5, 1998. Alex Pulaski, "Farm union decries guest-worker hires," Oregonian, October 30, 1998. Wendy Harris, "Orchardist goes to great lengths to accommodate farm workers," AP, October 19, 1998. Eric Pryne and Jim Lynch, "Farmhands make home at squalid campsite," Seattle Times, October 7, 1998. Southeast: North Carolina, Kentucky, (posted 1/18/99) North Carolina. There were 150,000 Hispanics in North Carolina in 1997, making them two percent of the state's residents, according to the US Census. Other estimates put the number of North Carolina Hispanics at 250,000 to 300,000. The INS has eight agents to enforce employer sanctions in North Carolina, about one for each 16,000 employers. The INS says: "The chance of being encountered by the INS, with our resources, is slim." The INS did not fine an employer for hiring illegal workers in North Carolina between 1994 and 1998. In 1992, the INS fined Barnes Farming Corp. in Spring Hope $15,000, the largest INS sanction levied in North Carolina. North Carolina employers report that their biggest fear in hiring immigrant workers is the Social Security Administration, which rejects payroll taxes associated with false Social Security numbers; the IRS then imposes fines. There are an estimated 3,000 to 7,000 Hispanics among the 30,000 residents of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and their number is increasing as unemployment falls. In July 1995, the 500 workers at the Case Farms poultry processing plant in Morgantown, North Carolina voted to have the Laborers International Union of North America represent them. However, there is still no contract. After eight months of bargaining that ended in December 1998, the workers, 90 percent of whom are Hispanic immigrants, rejected a proposed contract on the grounds that it did not offer enough of a wage increase. Kentucky. The Lexington Herald-Leader published several articles on Hispanic immigration to Kentucky between December 20- 22, 1998. The US Census estimated that the number of Hispanics in Kentucky increased by 37 percent between 1990 and 1997, while the overall state population increased by six percent. For more information: http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/hlprojects/mexico/index.shtml Most experts credit the H-2A program with introducing Mexicans into Kentucky. Agriculture Labor Services in Lexington sends a recruiter to Monterrey to find workers. Today, the Hope Center, Lexington's homeless shelter, has become a day labor market where farmers and other employers seek Hispanics who have recently arrived in the area. Delaware. About 150 Black chicken catchers in the Delmarva area sued Perdue Farms in September 1998, arguing that they are nonfarm workers entitled to overtime after eight hours of work each day under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Most catchers earn piecerates, dividing about $2 for each 1,000 birds caught, and averaging up to $100 for an eight-hour work night-most chickens are caught at night. Perdue says that since 1992 chicken catchers have been hired and paid by independent contractors and not subject to supervision by Perdue, and thus are not Perdue employees. In 1996, the US Supreme Court held in a case involving Holly Farms, later bought by Tyson, that chicken catchers were nonfarm employees and thus covered by the National Labor Relations Act. The U.S. Department of Labor informally told the poultry industry that the Supreme Court ruling probably means that chicken catchers are also nonfarm workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act and thus are entitled to overtime after eight hours a day or 40 hours a week. Valarie Honeycutt and Andy Mead, "When lifestyles, looks, languages clash, settling in can be difficult," Lexington Herald-Leader, December 20- 22, 1998. Ned Glascock "Underground in Carolina," Raleigh News & Observer, November 29-30, 1998. Kate Shatzkin, "Perdue sued by chicken catchers; Suit claims they are employees, not contract workers; Issue is overtime." Baltimore Sun, September 19, 1998. Attorneys for Eight Officers, Two Plaintiffs Present Views, (posted 1/18/99) By Patricia Nealon, Globe Staff, 01/12/99 Perhaps one of the attorneys for the City of Somerville said it best: "This case involves diametrically opposed views of what happened," attorney Peter Brown told jurors yesterday in federal court. At issue is what occurred inside and outside a Somerville nightclub more than four years ago and whether eight current and former members of the Somerville police force violated the civil rights of two Hispanic college students arrested that night. The version offered by the two men who are suing the police and the city, Christopher Mittell and German Alfonso, is that they were bystanders swept up in a barroom brawl sparked by a chance encounter between a narcotics detective and a man he had had a run-in with years before. It ended with both men being hit, choked, threatened, taunted as "spics," and falsely arrested, their lawyer, Robert LeRoux Hernandez, told jurors in his opening statement. But the police officers being sued - none of whom was investigated internally by the Somerville police - contend that Alfonso and Mittell fought with them in the parking lot, and apologized afterward. The incident occurred Oct 8, 1994, outside the Night Games nightclub at the Holiday Inn. Defendants in the federal lawsuit are John Bossi, a former lieutenant who is now retired, Sergeants John Aufiero and Michael Cabral, Detectives James Hyde, Christopher Ward and Patrick Irving, and patrolmen Timothy Doherty and Joseph Blair. Although the attorney general's office has been investigating the incident since last year for possible criminal charges, none have been brought. Doherty, whose attorney, Douglas Louison, told jurors he acted "professionally and honorably that night," is expected to testify in support of Mittell and Alfonso. Hernandez told jurors that Alfonso and Mittell were roughed up by Aufiero, Hyde, and Ward in the aftermath of a fight between Irving and Michael Henderson, who had been arrested by Somerville police on a previous occasion. Mittell was allegedly held in a headlock by Hyde while Hyde offered Ward a chance "to get a couple of licks in," Hernandez alleged. And Alfonso suffered a broken finger while being subdued and handcuffed by Aufiero, Hernandez claimed. After Alfonso and Mittell were put in the back of the police wagon with Henderson, Hernandez contends Hyde climbed in and pummeled Henderson - who is not a party to the suit and said he does not remember what happened. "He [Hyde] was yelling, and screaming, out of control," Hernandez said, and Mittell and Alfonso could smell alcohol on his breath. Later, at the police station, Alfonso heard Henderson "squeal like a pig" after he was taken out of the back of the police wagon, said the lawyer. But Brown, who represents the City of Somerville as well as Bossi, Aufiero, and Cabral, offered a far different version of events. Brown said Aufiero responded to a commotion outside and found Alfonso on Ward's back. He pulled him off and handcuffed him, Brown said. Bossi never even got outside to the parking lot, Brown said, because he was inside tangling with another patron, Joseph Spear. And by the time Cabral, the street supervisor that night, arrived at the scene, "everybody was calm," Brown said. Aufiero, according to Brown, persuaded Bossi to downgrade the charges against Alfonso and Mittell from assault and battery on a police officer to being in a "fray," or brawl, a minor offense, after they told him, "We didn't mean it. We didn't know you were police." Most of the defendants, including Ward, Hyde, and Aufiero, were in plainclothes that night. Attorney Austin Joyce, who represents Hyde, Ward, and Irving, said Alfonso and Mittell were arrested after Hyde and Aufiero found Ward on the ground under a pile of people. Irving, he said, was not around during the fight. He had gone home after his tangle with Henderson, Joyce told jurors. This story ran on page B02 of the Boston Globe on 01/12/99. © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. JSRI Home | Community Connections | Latino News Archives
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