{"id":27649,"date":"2021-08-17T15:40:15","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T22:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/?p=27649"},"modified":"2021-08-17T15:40:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T22:40:15","slug":"heat-bad-housing-and-labor-abuse-the-reality-of-many-h-2a-workers-by-david-bacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/heat-bad-housing-and-labor-abuse-the-reality-of-many-h-2a-workers-by-david-bacon\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat, bad housing and labor abuse – the reality of many h-2a workers by David Bacon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/

In November of 2020 Roberto arrived in California’s San Joaquin Valley to pick oranges, tangerines and lemons for Porterville Citrus, a large grower.\u00a0 He’d been hired in Veracruz, Mexico, by a recruiter for Fresh Harvest, a labor contractor who brings workers to the U.S. every year under the H-2A temporary visa program.

\u00abWe were being paid by the hour, but they put production quotas on us and continually demanded more,\u00bb he said in an interview in May.\u00a0 \u00abThey said we’d be fired and put on a blacklist if we didn’t meet the quota.\u00a0 In the oranges, we had to fill a bin every hour.\u00a0 If there was a lot of fruit in the trees, we had to fill it every 45 minutes, or even every half hour.\u00bb

Roberto’s experience is not unique.\u00a0 Last year, in the middle of the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Labor gave certifications to California growers, allowing them to bring in about 25,000 H-2A workers.\u00a0 This year many of those workers are laboring in the extreme heat wave in the San Joaquin Valley, where temperatures rise to over 110 degrees by early afternoon.

People keep working in the heat motivated by fear and economic necessity.\u00a0 \u00abWe all come from marginalized communities in Mexico where there’s no work,\u00bb Roberto explained.\u00a0 \u00abIt’s easy for the company to take advantage of our need.\u00bb\u00a0 In his crew of 45 pickers, eight were fired in six months for not meeting the quota.\u00a0 \u00abIt was completely exhausting,\u00bb he said.\u00a0 \u00abThe food the company gave us wasn’t enough and we were tired all the time.\u00bb \u00a0

Like most of the H-2A workers I’ve interviewed, Roberto asked me not to use his real name.\u00a0 \u00abAll the people I work with are afraid of reprisals if we speak up.\u00a0 We can be fired at any time.\u00a0 The company tells us we can’t come back the next year if we don’t do what they want.\u00bb

Roberto was housed, along with several hundred other H-2A workers, at the Palm Tree Inn, a rundown motel by the freeway in Porterville.\u00a0 \u00abSome of us were living 3-4 people in one room,\u00bb he said \u00aband there are rooms with as many as 8 or 10.\u00a0 In the van or bus going to and from work we’re crowded like sardines.\u00a0 During the pandemic we’ve been very worried about it.\u00bb

The Nation, 8\/13\/21
https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/
article\/economy\/california-farmworkers-extreme-heat\/<\/a>
https:\/\/
davidbaconrealitycheck.
blogspot.com\/2021\/08\/heat-bad-housing-and-labor-abuse.html<\/a> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avisosyconvocatorias"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27650,"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27649\/revisions\/27650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colef.mx\/elmuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}