MUSCATINE

CONESVILLE, Iowa — They detassel corn and pick melons for 14 or more hours a day in the scorching sun because Americans won’t do it.

That’s what Tom Bell said Thursday afternoon on the grounds of a labor camp in Conesville, where more than 600 Mexican migrant workers live while farming Iowa’s land. Bell operates Bell’s Melons and Bell’s Detasseling. He is also in charge of the camp which is run off of an H-2A Certification for Temporary or Seasonal Agricultural Work. The H-2A program is a way for farmers to bring non-immigrant foreign workers to the U.S. on a temporary basis to do work that farmers can’t find others to do.

“They are hard workers and this is a miserable job,” Bell said. He said the $10.44 an hour he pays them “is a hell of a wage in Mexico. All they gotta do is work.”

The fruits of their labor help the Iowa farmer, and also give workers money to take back to their families in Mexico. All of the men are supposed to have visas and most have permission to work in Iowa for up to 45 days.

Inside a warehouse that just opened last month, hundreds of bunk beds were empty Thursday, except for the few occupied by men who were too sick, or not up to working that day. The others were in fields anywhere from Mediapolis and Morning Sun to Waterloo and Washington. Their work benefits the other farmers who own the properties in those towns.

There’s no air conditioning in the warehouse, which looks like a makeshift military barracks. A screened-in wall helps provide ventilation for the two large rooms. Bell said the building was very expensive.

“This is premiere in the state of Iowa for migrant workers,” Bell said.

A man washed his face in the sink inside, but dozens of portable restrooms are lined up near the building with handwashing stations to complete the amenities.

Lost in translation

A lot of things are lost in translation at the camp.

Carlos Rich, an organizer for the Center for New Community’s Midwest Immigrant Health Project in Eastern Iowa, translated for the few men who wanted to speak to Iowa newspaper reporters who’ve visited over the past few days. The Center for New Community is a national organization committed to building community, justice, and equality.

Rich had called reporters to have them meet with the men who claimed to be unjustly fired.

He said he wants to bring the issues the migrant workers face to the light of the public. But those who speak up are not treated kindly, Rich implied, as he sat under a tree in the yard of a quiet Conesville neighborhood with eight migrant workers who said they’d been fired Thursday and given no reason why.

One of those fired was Hector Manuel Cardona-Ramirez, 29, of Colima, Mexico. Cardona-Ramirez spoke for the others who sat in a circle under a shade tree.

Cardona-Ramirez spoke of a man named Cesar Castillejos of Mexico, who got him and his friends to sign contracts and promised that they’d make 60,000 pesos (about $5,977 in the United States) in 45 days to take home to their families.

“All you have to do is come to America and work, and get money,” added Cardona-Ramirez, who was repeating what he had been told by Castillejos.

But that deal soured when a few of the men began to miss work because they were sick or didn’t work fast enough, said Cardona-Ramirez.

The men said that Bell fired them on the advice of two of the lead workers in the field — a man they called “Junior,” and his wife, whose name they didn’t know, but who others referred to as “Dianna.”

“We’re sending you back to Mexico,” is what Cardona-Ramirez said Bell told the workers.

The eight men claim they are ill. One has a slight rash on his belly, another has a lump on his wrist, and another has a bug bite on his face. All had expressed having previous symptoms of fatigue while in the fields. They said many men even fainted in the fields from time to time.

Bell said all of the men had seen a doctor. The bug bite was a bee sting and the lump on the arm was a tumor or cyst. The men who were complaining of the heat had a right to do so, he added, and said they don’t have to keep working if they are ill. Cardona-Ramirez said said he doesn’t force people to work if they can’t, but he pays them only for the days they work.

Cardona-Ramirez said that the men had seen a doctor and that they had been given medicine when necessary.

Bell insisted that the men hadn’t been fired and that they could come back to work.

This was a surprise to the men.

They were adamant that they had been fired and called upon Rich to help them get back home to Mexico. Among them, brothers Alberto Camacho-Espinoza and Juan Manuel Camacho-Espinoza, said they were supposed to be cooking and on light duty but were told to work in the fields the day prior.

“They cannot hack the field,” he said. “We try to find them light work but there’s not a lot to do but send them back if they don’t want to carry out the job.”

He also said they have Workman’s Compensation if it comes to that.

Because the Midwest Immigrant Health Project has become involved and the workers have been speaking to reporters, Bell said he and his wife, Terri Bell, are nervous, but know they’ve been running the same business under the appropriate regulations since 1999.

“These guys who are complaining don’t want to work. They were found sitting off to the side and smoking for hours. Then they were told to call it a day,” Tom Bell said. “Those who want to work come back every year. They get a chartered bus here and everything runs smoothly.”

He said this isn’t the first time that workers have complained and that makes him uncomfortable.

“I was sued by Legal Aid in 1991 and it took me three years in the court system to get it resolved,” Bell said. “I ended up winning the case but it broke me.”

He has been bringing in workers — first from Texas and then from Mexico — since 1987.

Rich said his concern is the health and well-being of the workers. The migrants complained to him about the bad food and lack of water. It was noted later, however, by Bell, that the men have clips on their belt loops for water bottles and their food is prepared by some of the same people who have cooked at Muscatine restaurants.

But still, Rich said, “I am here to make sure their health needs are taken care of and while they express these other concerns I will bring that forward too.”

Labor pains

Migrant workers in Conesville say they've been left stranded after being unjustly fired, but the owner of the labor camp tells a different story