Nothing changes. Every few years or so, the media are surprised to discover that migrant farm workers are being miserably paid and despicably treated by the industry that profits from their labor. Articles are written , stories appear on the TV, various officials express shock and promise action, then… nothing.
A Los Angeles Times report revealed that, even if they receive the legal minimum wage, many farm laborers earn less than $17,500 a year because of the low pay and the seasonal nature of their work. Moreover, they are often “housed” in shacks, old chicken coops, shipping containers, and squalid motels.
Undocumented immigrants make up as much as 70 percent of the industry’s workforce, so agribusiness interests from Florida to California are now demanding a special exemption from their president’s planned lockout of Mexican laborers.
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