This week, one family who has worked nights digging
clams on Puget Sound shores for ten years, showed me their records of hours
worked and how many pounds of clams per shift. As I did the math, knowing
that they get paid 30 cents per pound, I realized that on some of the coldest
nights in December, one elderly woman worked 11.5 hours, picked 6 boxes which
weighed 211.50 pounds to accrue a whopping $5.52/hour. Another night, she
worked 10 hours from 6pm-4am, picking 2 boxes for 75 pounds and thus $2.25 hour.
Fear and economic desperation keeps them from reporting this violation of labor
rights. Even right now in warmer weather, her fit adult son (father of 5
kids), is making between $8.60 and $14/hour. Since they get paid per pound,
this amount doesn’t include the hour-plus time they spend in the boat, waiting
for the tidewater to come in so they can return.
It seems slightly ironic, that as floods of
tourists come to visit our Skagit Valley tulips this Spring, tended to mainly
by newer immigrant workers (documented and undocumented), the anti-immigrant
sentiment is on the rise nationwide. As you see tulips in stores, enjoy tasty
berries this summer, and maybe eat clams, will join with me in thinking of the
farmworkers who labor long backbreaking hours to bring these treats to your
table?
It's not fear. They are carefully documenting everything, we've talked with lots of people from all sorts of departments with Labor and Industries. We've met with the company owner. This family knows what they are doing. They are taking low wages in the winter instead of not working at all. The company used to not work in the winter but the workers told the owner that they'd rather work. He told them and continues to tell them that they are under no obligation to work in bad weather and will not be treated differently if they choose to work only in the good seasons. These workers know what they are doing. That father of five is making enough to cover our rent when we can't and to give us a car when ours broke down, and to buy us pizzas when he sees our fridge is empty. His wife is making enough to take me clothes shopping so I'll "have something nice for work."
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that they are illiterate and don't speak Spanish and can't get better jobs. It's sad that the soil is crappy and their farms failed and they had to come here. It's sad that they were conquered by the Spaniards and the Aztecs before that.
What isn't sad is that a small business in our community is bending the rules and putting themselves at great risk in order to help a group of impoverished immigrants who can't find other work in the winter.
It's good that we think about farmworkers but we risk losing when we aren't clear and honest in our portrayal of what is going on on the ground.