Layoffs Throw Chill Into Citrus Workers : Labor: Cold snap puts many at packing plants out of jobs. Officials estimate that shutdowns will displace 15,000.
At the Bee Sweet Citrus packing plant seven miles south of Fresno, owner Jim Marderosian gathered his 150 employees and told them what they already knew: All graders, packers and forklift drivers, everyone but a crew of six, had been laid off until late spring.
“We are smiling and making jokes but on the inside we are crying,” said Estella Gutierrez, a floor supervisor. “We knew this was coming. But we still don’t believe it.”
The brunt of the worst freeze to hit California agriculture since 1937 is being felt by those who can least afford it: the families who pick grapes in July, roll raisins in September, prune vines in December and rely on the citrus fields to carry them through winter.
Farm officials estimate that 15,000 pickers and packing house workers will be displaced as operations continue to shut down in Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties over the next week. Several thousand more--from sales representatives to truckers to the “bird dogs” who preview citrus for brokers--also will lose income because of the freeze.
On Friday, farm workers in the Central California citrus belt absorbed the news that a season of work has withered away. And, as they waited for a second freeze to descend, they tried to figure out how to weather the trauma of a winter without work.
“A lot of them will apply for unemployment,” Marderosian said. “A lot of them will try to get jobs pruning vines. But you’re looking at families that totally survive on the citrus industry. It’s going to be traumatic.”
In Fowler, Bee Sweet workers spoke of their fears for the lost season:
Teresa Perez, 29, said she might move to Washington to pack apples. A single mother of two, Perez said the $222 she earns each week as a packer is more than double the amount of unemployment benefits.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said through a translator. “All I’ve done is packing work. I can’t prune vines. If I don’t find anything, I’m thinking of going up to Washington and packing apples.”
Gloria Sanchez, 32, said she would stand in the unemployment line while her husband pruned grape vines. Although her husband is disabled by a bad back, Sanchez said he returned to the fields this month to prune vines. The couple and a 6-year-old child live with relatives and pool resources, so they can survive on his income and her unemployment checks.
“It could be worse,” Sanchez said. “There is nothing we can do.”
Ismael Vasquez, 26, said he would have to stop sending money home to his parents in Mexico. Because of the freeze, the forklift driver will lose his weekly wage of $300. The freeze will also cost Rosalva, his wife and a citrus packer, her $200 weekly paycheck.
This is Rosalva’s first year of work, so she is not eligible for unemployment benefits. Vasquez said he would begin looking for another job immediately.
“I came from Mexico six years ago and picked peaches. Then I got a job as a forklift driver,” he said through a translator. “This year was the first year we were climbing over the top. I was able to send money home.”
The cold snap has caused major damage throughout much of California’s $8-billion fruit and vegetable industry. Along with destroying big chunks of the citrus crop in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, it has hurt lettuce, broccoli, avocado and artichoke crops all the way from San Diego to Santa Cruz.
Two days of thawing weather provided a glimpse of millions of dollars in damage wrought by the bleak weather. Navel oranges, frozen on Monday, have lost their bright glow and firm texture. They are mush balls ready to turn rancid.
The trees themselves bear faded green leaves that curl up from both sides to form a cocoon against the cold. Young leaves are singed as if fire, not frost, has struck.
In Ventura County, agriculture officials said it is still too early to tell the extent of the damage and how it will affect the labor force. However, one agriculture official estimated that the county’s $806-million farming industry suffered more than $100 million in crop damage.
While many farmers said it is too early to tell how the freeze will affect layoffs, Ralph DeLeon, president of a Santa Paula labor contracting company, said the freeze has forced him to reduce--from 18 to two--the size of a crew that he employs to operate a local nursery that sustained major damage.
DeLeon said he also laid off half of the 200 field workers he had hired to pick oranges. He said, however, that he is considering hiring the 100 workers back to try to salvage the oranges for juice before another anticipated cold front hits this weekend.
Marderosian of Bee Sweet said he had not even reached full operation when five days of temperatures in the teens and low 20s froze operations earlier this week.
Navel oranges packed Friday had been picked before the freeze. The workers, who typically are employed through spring, must now wait until that time to learn whether Valencia oranges, a late crop, have suffered too much damage to harvest next May.
As the last of the day’s 6,000 boxes of navels rolled along the conveyor belt, Bee Sweet workers headed for home as if they had seen similar days.
Marderosian thanked them and wished them well.
“It’s part of the life of a farmworker,” Marderosian said. “But it doesn’t make it any easier.”
Times staff writer Hugo Martin in Ventura County contributed to this story.
