Laws to Aid Farm Workers Ineffective, U.S. Panel Told

Laws designed to protect the rights of migrant farm workers in the United States are not working, a panel on human rights was told Monday.

The U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe called the Capitol Hill hearing to draw attention to the problems of migrant workers. The commission, composed of members of Congress and Administration officials, is an arm of a worldwide organization dedicated to examining compliance with the Helsinki Accords, an international human rights agreement.

With the demise of the Soviet Union, the commission has shifted its focus from primarily examining abuses against political prisoners in the Soviet bloc to an emphasis on the rights of minorities and refugees in the United States and Europe, staff member Michael Amitay said.

“If we look at our own country before we criticize others, we can speak more credibly to other countries,” he said.

Although federal laws regulate everything from housing to minimum wage to health and environmental standards, the regulations have done little to raise migrant farm workers from poverty, the commission was told.

For example, a typical male working in Central California, considered “one of the better labor markets,” earned $4,005 in 1989, farm labor policy consultant Ed Kissam told the commission.

Kissam then recounted the stories of 19 migrant workers from Mexico who live in a two-room shack in Central California and workers who sleep in orange groves near Immokalee, Fla., and pay a dollar to take a shower at a general store.

Roger C. Rosenthal, executive director of the Migrant Legal Action Program, testified that only a third of all farm workers are covered by federal minimum wage and child labor laws, and none are entitled to overtime pay. Despite a 15-year battle to secure the right to toilets and drinkable water in the fields, 80% of all farm workers are exempt, he said.

The exemptions are usually based on the size of work crews and the number of hours they work.

Enforcement of the laws that do exist, Rosenthal said, ranges from “spotty” to “simply terrible.”

But the key to improving conditions for migrant workers is to grant them collective bargaining rights, said Carlos Marentes, director of the Union of Border Farmworkers in El Paso. Without this right, he argued, migrant workers never will be able to raise their wages and working conditions to the level of other workers.