walterr,

Thanks for dragging the conversation into the gutter with your personal insults. Why is it that the most immoral people always hold themselves out as the most moral?

Anyone who thinks NAFTA is the genesis of the neo-slavery described in the article above should look up the excellent documentary "Harvest of Shame." That film was produced in 1960, and it depicts the (at that time) decades-long plight of migrant farm workers in the U.S. NAFTA came into effect in 1994 -- 34 years later.

Your argument that "no one else will" do the jobs that illegal migrants do is uninformed and insulting. I myself have done many of these jobs, and my friends and family members have done them and are still doing them in some cases. Poverty in the U.S. is at a peak, yet you have no compassion for our own poor -- you would take the food from their tables without a thought.

As to exploitation of migrants, those who would legalize neo-slavery have to take personal responsibility for the abuses described in the above article. For myself, I have long advocated that illegal employers should be required to pay a $5000 severance bonus to each of their illegal employees.

And illegal is illegal. The description is accurate. I stand with Cesar Chavez in opposition to the exploitation of illegal migrant workers by illegal employers.

Walterr:

Good on you!

To Mr. Gerald, Mr. Bob K. and anybody else who may be as ignorant as them:

First of all, if you are going to refer to people, you do not call them illegal or even aliens, second, free trade agreements such us NAFTA, CAFTA and many others do not invite people to come this nation, but instead, force them to come here in search for jobs that were taken away by the multinational corporations. Such agreements have not only affected people in Latin America but also people in the United States. Immigrants do not leave their native countries because they want to, but because they are forced to seek better opportunities as any other person would. And for what? To come to a nation like the United States to be exploited and discriminated from people like these two (Bob k. and Gerald).

Do not blame the people that come to this nation to work to help their families; blame all the neoliberals, corporations and people in power who create free trade agreements such as NAFTA that only benefit a select few, the rich. People in power do not care about the middle class or the lower class or anyone else who comes here with documents or without them. Agreements like NAFTA have kept wages as low as $1 a day, especially in exporting industries such as Maquiladoras in Mexico. Small farmers in Latin America cannot compete against big farming corporations or U.S. Farming subsidies. People need to educate themselves and be open-minded about such matters. According to the New York Times migration before NAFTA was less than 400,000 per year and after NAFTA undocumented migration has continually increased by 500,000 per year (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/weekinreview/18uchitelle.html)

I could continue to talk about this issue, however, the main concern at hand is that abuses towards forced laborers need to stop. The reality is that the jobs of the so-called "illegal immigrants" were not taken away from the white people, if they do no do it, no one else will. Do not blame any president or government but blame yourself for supporting a system that oppresses people here and every where else in the world.

GERALD is right.

Neo-slavery in U.S. farm fields has been going on for decades -- long before NAFTA and the WTO. It expanded following the 1986 Immigration Act which gave amnesty to about 3 million illegals. That law also provided for penalties for illegal EMPLOYERS (like the one in this story), but Reagan, Bush I and Clinton chose to lightly enforce those penalties and and under Bush II enforcement has dropped to near zero.

As a result, illegal migrants have been encouraged to come (and are often recruited in their home countries by agents for U.S. employers) and today we have 12-20 million illegals, and neo-slavery has spread to meatpacking, manufacturing, food processing, construction, landscaping, building maintenance and other industries.

Those of us who remember the 60s and 70s know that many of these were the best-paying blue collar jobs around. Today, corporate media lies that they are jobs that "Americans won't do." The money "saved" by paying slave wages and no benefits goes to Wall Street, while working-class Americans see their jobs go to migrants and wages and benefits plummet across the board.

And of course, these same working/middle-class wage earners are forced to subsidize the labor costs of the illegal EMPLOYERS with their tax dollars in the form of food stamps, housing subsidies, cash assistance, public schools, etc.

In 2007 Bush II and his DEMOCRATIC allies in Congress tried to pass their comprehensive immigration "reform" bill, which would have forgiven the penalties incurred by illegal EMPLOYERS under the 1986 law and legalized this whole stinking neo-slavery system. Ironically, it was Republicans in the Senate who led the fight to defeat that monstrosity.

Just like the cotton gin ended the need for cotton pickers, machinery today is capable of picking fruit and vegetables in our fields. On top of all the other bad results of neo-slavery, it is stifling development of this machinery -- which creates jobs for engineers, designers, mechanics and equipment operators, instead of field hands.

It's disgusting the way poor people are exploited in this country. Do they provide places where people can relieve themselves after drinking water? They're doing a poor job of allowing people to keep themselves hydrated in the excessive heat, so I guess it doesn't matter if there is a rest room near.

Before they eat, Buddhists say prayers of thanks and include remembering all the anonymous workers who helped get food to the table. I think we should too, to remember the hard work it takes.

There is no real journalism these days.
It is all politics. Normally you wouldn't have even heard about this girl.

The reason this happened is because Cal OSHA is not doing their job, is it because they're understaffed or is it because of corruption...where are the journalists today? Are they all just propagandists...real journalism means finding the criminals responsible for understaffing OSHA or outright corruption...otherwise this will happen again and again. There should be surprise checks at least once a month for every operation and the fines should not be maxed out at 25K but should be unlimited, this subcontractor and the company that contracted them should be sued by the family for millions! Why don't we know the names of these companies in this article???

Most of you people would make good slave masters. Forget about poor working conditions.
N.A.F.T.A. IS NOT THE CAUSE OF IT ALL.
If they paid decent wages alot of our
citizens would do the work. I did in Montana when I was a kid. I lived in Eugene, OR. a few years back and it was nice to go to a fast food place and see "all" american citizens working there. I didn't meet anyone there that couldn't speak english.
What's wrong with turning our prisons in to farm chain gangs? Alot of states have prison farms that work quite well.
We don't need all the illegal aliens. Your suposed to feel sorry for them because they say many of them pay in S.S and can't collect. Our leaders love it because they just absorb all that money into the general fund. It's coming out now that your S.S.N. could be currently used by three or four People. The I.R.S. knows who is illegal and just pockets the money in a different account.
California is still fighting to give them all amnesty. It is all about money and votes.
The problem is with our Goverment and it's outdated regulations,and stranglehold on the common worker. There are unions in California but the Goverment has tied their hands in many areas just by "helping import illegal aliens".
I gave up and moved from PHX. AZ.after I called the police on a crack house there.
The house had already been abandoned and stripped. When the police showed up all they could do was run them off the property. The cop came accross the street and explained that he couldn't touch them. None of them had I.D.s and they claimed not to know who owned the car in the driveway. The policeman told us he figured they were illegal. After he left they came back for their car.

Quoting from the article: "Under rules enforced by Cal-OSHA, each worker is supposed to be provided one quart of water per shift. Employers are required to provide shaded areas and allow workers to take five-minute breaks as necessary to cool down".

I'm not personally familiar with the conditions where these people work outdoors and evidently under the sun, very directly, but the above seems considerably skimpy to me; if these people work full days anyway, which I assume they do. Far up north, enough anyway, five minute breaks might suffice, but while one quart of water per day may also be enough, I would not want to be a farmhand who's restricted to this in strict terms. Water should be available as needed, not based on some damn govt regulation limiting the amount.

Perhaps relevant, perhaps not, some people sweat or transpire more than others, so they lose water and, therefore, hydration more quickly; I think, anyway.

"During eight hours of work beginning at 6 a.m. in heat that topped 95 degrees, Bautista said that workers were given only one water break, at 10:30 a.m. And the water was a 10-minute walk away - too far, he said, to keep up with the crew and avoid being scolded."

At that heat, one quart of water per day is even much too little, imo. They should be provided with minimally three quarts and allowed to use whatever amount they wish from this. They could also be provided with smaller bottles, say two half pint bottles, or one pint, which the workers could then and easily carry with them as they work their way through the fields.

Our leaders have all but broken the unions. They have done their best to divide us and turn us against each other.
I say let the crops rot in the fields.
When people get hungry enough they will work them jobs.
When a farmer sees his crops going bad he will pay more. Does anyone really know how much farmers get in subsidies from the goverment?
I say turn the prison systems into large scale farms. Chain gangs are not illegal.

jruebl

>>But why was she 17 years old and pregnant?<<

Because she was having sex with her boyfriend. I take it you've never been 17 and pregnant. It is not a death sentence, neither is it the end of your life, unless you let it be.

I've been there, and I'm not catholic, my being 17 simply predated effective birth control by a few years, and abortion was something I'd never heard of [I also predated 'sex-education'!]

Umm, yes its the fault of CAFTA, NAFTA, etc.

But why was she 17 years old and pregnant? THAT is not the fault of the West. THAT is CATHOLICISM and backwards cultural behavior. Her death was a tragedy, yes, but we cannot excuse cultural attitudes that are alos a part of keeping these people in poverty in their own countries.

FUCK CAPITALISM!

All of us, are guilty for this young woman's death....we shop..."they" provide....

unless, we til, we plant, we harvest...anything....we are guilty of slavery....

WE are lying to ourselves....
WE must wake up ....Reality is about to sink in

xntrk-
Thank you very much for an eloquent piece- please don't apologize- I'm gonna copy it and put it in my docs to keep. most of us who post here seldom never know what we are talking about- it's great to hear from someone who does.

I'd also like to tell Florentino and Maria's family how sorry I am, and how ashamed of this country I am today.

I have supported and donated to the UFW since Ceasar Chaves called for the boycott on green grapes in 1969. I had my first argument with my new Mother-in-Law when she tried to buy grapes for Thanksgiving 1969.

IMO, the Farm Workers are the only organization in the country that tries to improve things for these under-paid, over-worked, migrants, who put the food on our tables and suffer from chemical contamination, sun stroke, poisoning, and who knows what else, for half the money they should be paid - or maybe 10% for the illegal contract employees.

As a kid, back in the dark ages when my family had no money and I was expected to earn my school clothes etc., I worked in the bean fields, and the raspberry and strawberry fields in the NW, and the pie cherry orchards in Colorado. Truth is, I did as little work as possible and usually snuck off to go swimming in a river or irrigation lake in the afternoon.

The one time I went on 'vacation' with my Aunt and Uncle to pick strawberries and stayed in a migrant camp for a week was an eye opener. [I was maybe 12 years old]. We got a family cabin, but the single men - mostly Mexican - were housed in barracks with no amenities [for that matter, we had no running water].

I cannot imagine living like that as a matter of course - and then be treated like dirt on top of everything else. When I was a young married woman [1960?] my best friend who owned a raspberry farm in the Puyallup Valley, Washington was complaining about new legislation that forced them to put in showers for the "Damn dirty Indians". I replied that they probably wouldn't be dirty if they could take a shower...

That ended the friendship, but it was not a loss!

People who buy their groceries at super markets and have never pulled weeds, and hoed the corn and beans, so they'll have food for the winter have no concept of how hard this work is. That's why we had slaves to do it till 1865 - Hard working White Americans didn't want to work THAT hard if they could bully someone of a darker color to do it for them.

Things really haven't changed all that much, even tho, according to Obama, there is "No Black America" I suppose the are no migrant farm workers, legal or illegal, either.

Sorry for the rant, but it really upsets me to see how little things have changed since the Civil Rights Movement of the '60s.

Support the United Farm Workers - sent them $25 bucks once in awhile if you can afford it. They'll put it to good use.

Good point, old goat. And is that all Maria's life was worth, a $25,000 fine? People pay with their lives for not having unions to defend their rights.

BeForKids

If Cal-OSHA is at minimum a quart of water in 95 degree heat, what is done about electrolyte loss through perspiration?

"Under rules enforced by Cal-OSHA, workers are supposed to be provided one quart of water per shift".

I have worked in agriculture and construction in 95 degree heat and one quart per hour was barely enough. Is 8 hours considered a shift? Agriculture and construction workers routinely work shifts in excess of 8 hours.

Just another tragic story about some of the HARDEST workers in the USA today! When will we give ALL workers the respect and protections they deserve? Labor...whether in the factories, offices, restaurants or fields....badly needs a more just playing field. Crime in the suites is more rampant than crime in the streets!!!

It is time to serve justice to the working of America.

Condolences to the hard-working immigrants who die bringing us food to the tables and who are under fire by Lou Dobbs and minds like his!

peace!!

MS

"They will urge punishment for those responsible for her death."

NAFTA, CAFTA, IMF, WTO -- Hang them HIGH.