CHARLOTTE NEWS & OBSERVER February 13, 2006
Farmers avoid migrants' union contract
Two years ago, a labor union swept into farm country, promising big changes for the migrant workers who tend and harvest many of North Carolina's crops. Now, the agreement that unionized thousands of Mexican field hands is in danger of collapse. Many farmers in this, the state with the nation's lowest rate of unionization, simply aren't willing to abide an organized work force. "This is a right-to-work state, and people shouldn't be forced to hire union labor," said Larry Wooten, president of the N.C. Farm Bureau, a trade group that is helping farmers find nonunion labor. The agreement, signed in September 2004, compelled the approximately 1,000 farmers who hired legal seasonal workers through the N.C. Growers Association to use unionized employees. The association agreed to recognize a union, the Ohio-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee, allowing workers to file grievances and demand benefits. At that time, the association brought in about 10,000 seasonal workers each year -- nearly all the state's legal migrant workers. But in the two growing seasons since the agreement, farmers have abandoned the association in droves. Some have found other ways to get legal workers, while others have opted to use the illegal immigrants who make up the vast majority of the state's approximately 80,000 seasonal laborers. This year, the association is down to about 500 farmers and will bring in only about 5,000 workers, director Stan Eury said. He said that if membership dips below 350 farmers, the association probably will shut down. The association uses a federal program that allows farmers to bring in seasonal workers when they can't find American laborers. Many farmers say the process is so complicated and costly that they need the help of a group like the growers association. The association fills out worker requests, finds workers, applies for their visas and arranges their travel. If the association dies, the approximately 5,000 workers who signed cards will remain members. But the union will no longer have bargaining power.
Farmers' complaints The state's dwindling tobacco farms, along with the growing expense of legal migrant workers, probably have contributed to the association's decline. But Eury said the big problem is the union. Under the agreement, union membership gives workers an edge in getting rehired the next year. That advantage has helped the union sign up more than 5,000 workers. But Eury said it makes workers less motivated, prompting complaints from farmers. Libby Whitley, who runs a competing labor supply business in Lovingston, Va., said some of her new North Carolina clients tell her that union organizers have given workers the impression that "if they want to sit on their bucket, they're still going to make $8.24 an hour." Federal rules guarantee guest workers wages of more than $8 an hour. Illegal immigrants who do the work typically make the minimum wage, $5.15 an hour. Billy Carter, a Moore County farmer who gets workers through the association, said he hears complaints about union workers from other farmers -- and many are adamant that they don't get as much work out of their employees as they used to. Carter said he's not sure whether the workers have changed, or if anti-union sentiment has colored farmers' views. Baldemar Velasquez, president of the union, said organizers have pressed for reasonable water breaks, but he said they would never encourage workers to be lazy. And he said workers who have bad records with their employers are not invited back. "We take pride in representing good, hard-working people," Velasquez said.
Big hopes When the agreement was announced, union officials said it began a new era: Farmworkers finally would have the right to demand better working conditions without fear of losing their jobs. Workers pay 2.5 percent of their salaries in dues. Velasquez also promised that the deal would give the union a foothold to recruit some of the state's many illegal-immigrant farmworkers. At the end of last year's growing season, the second since the union deal, workers gathered at a forum in Raleigh and said their relations with farmers had vastly improved. Many said they had better housing, more breaks and several other new amenities. They recounted stories of asking their employers for concessions -- a car for workers to use, the rescheduling of their duties -- and, for the first time, getting "yes" for an answer. Farmers complained about the deal from the start, and the Farm Bureau passed a resolution opposing unionization. For those who wanted legal workers, though, the association was virtually the only help available. Now, several other groups have started soliciting North Carolina farmers with letters and phone calls offering legal, nonunion workers. Whitley's company, Mid-Atlantic Solutions, is among them. She said she now has North Carolina clients for the first time. Whitley, along with many farmers, says that workers who come in under the federal migrant labor program -- who are protected by federal law, get free transportation and live in state-inspected housing -- don't need representation. The workers who really need help, they say, are illegal immigrants who have no such protection. Velasquez said it's too soon to predict the end of the Growers Association. Even if it dies, he said, he will fight for concessions from individual farmers. "It's a constant struggle," Velasquez said. "That's why farmworkers have always been left behind."
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