Summary: Hired Farm Workers

Introduction: In 1910 mexicans fled from Mexico to work in agriculture in America, “they labored in inhumane conditions” and the people they worked for “ignored state laws on working conditions”(Tavaana). This is how the farm workers would work before the United Farm Workers Union came along. They didn’t have the rights they deserved, they were treated however the growers would like to treat them because they would go around the law and do what they wanted. Farm workers didn’t have unions and the rights that they do now back in 1910.

From 1880-1906, western farmers were affected by multiple issues that they saw as threats to their way of life. The main threats to the farmers were railroads, trusts, and the government, because these institutions all had the power to drastically affect the ability of the farmers to make profits. Therefore, the farmers were not wrong to feel frustration toward those institutions when the institutions caused the farmers to live lives of increasingly extreme poverty.

Thousands of families journeyed to California, settling in San Joaquin Valley. From 1930 to 1936, the Dust Bowl caused damages in agriculture in the Central Valleys all the way to the East Coast of the U.S. At the time, the majority of the farmers were from Oklahoma, in other words, they were American. Although most of the farmers fleeing the Dust Bowl were U.S born, some were Mexican-Americans living in Texas, Arizona and the states closer to the border (Gregory). However, this event did not fully give rise to the Mexican Migrant Farm Workers’ community. It was instead, the beginnings of successful farm labor in the valleys of California, which transformed California’s view towards farming. California seemed perfect, the climate was good for a diversity of crops and it promised a lot to the desolated farmers from the East. Why was this significant to the formation of the Mexican Migrant community? In other words, if the Dust Bowl would not have happened, then farm labor would have not been as significant in California as it is. Californians would have continued mining and building factories in soils that today, are used primarily for agriculture. James N. Gregory, professor at the University of Washington argues that “The twentieth century drained rural Americans from the land as surely as it improved the technology and efficiency of farming” as he discusses the effects of the

Mexican immigration has a large impact on the United States both politically and economically. Focusing on the labor market, and how over history, especially throughout the 20th century, American employers in various industries, have benefited from the immigrant workers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Recognizing the value of immigrants willing to work various job positions for low wages, during worker shortages in America. In the 1990s alone the number of Mexican Immigrants workers grew by 2.9 million, a 123 % increase. (PP.

Cesar Chavez fought alongside farm workers to improve their lives, so for a city that is populated by mostly farm workers, he really made an impact to the community. Cesar Chavez has improved the lives of many, if not, all of the farm workers in the United States, and his

With tension on the rise, American farmers continue to demand reforms to lift their burden of debt as well as greater representation in government. Recently, with the tremendous growth in industrialization of oil and steel, migrants have felt the difficulties associated with farming and continue to fall into arrears. New

Undocumented immigrants make up a large portion of the workforce doing jobs that are undesirable to many people. They leave their stable live in search of better opportunities for their family. The people who come to the united states do not come because of their own benefit. They come in search of benefitting their next generation. Immigrant workers know that the position that they are in is not the best and is more difficult to change their own path in life, so they put their focus on raising children in an environment where their children can see the benefit if certain commodities like an education. Although they have difficult jobs with small compensations and no benefits, they continue to work to serve as an example that hard work is the

Inside the Labor Unions The Labor Unions protect their workers in many different ways people do not know. The Unions make it possible for their members to receive adequate pay better benefits, have left of absences, and have vacation time when you

The two articles, Bound Labor in Southern Agriculture and The Lives and Labors of the Cotten Mill People are tied together by the common theme; labor. Throughout reading these articles we learn about the lives of the tenants, planters, mill workers, and mill owners. We studied the differences and similarities of the lives of African American men and families who were still in the labor force and how freedom wasn't so free for them. We also learned about the mill workers and their way of life.

TJ Edgar Flushing Migrant farm workers in America go through struggles that middle class and privileged people of any race couldn’t even begin to comprehend without deep research. The types of pain that migrant farm workers endure on a day to day basis is incredible. As the consumers in a modern capitalist society, middle-class Americans are the reason that migrant farm workers have to raise their kids preparing them to work in servitude. The migrants don't want to work in the harsh conditions but they have to in order to have a “steady” income. Migrant farm workers in America are some of the most vulnerable of the oppressed groups because they work hard for endless hours at a time to provide to

The Effect of Immigrants in American Agriculture: Over the past couple decades the number of undocumented immigrants involved in American agriculture has increased by the hundreds. They have dominated the fields on the west coast and have been put to work in some very harsh conditions. Many

Farmer Career My entire life I have been on the farm with my dad and grandpa. When I was too little to drive the tractors I would sit and just ride around with them. Now that I am old enough to drive them, I have a lot of experience, and as a farmer working with your family and friends you hire you can take some days off if needed without getting in trouble.

The U.S.- Mexico Bracero program was originated in Stockton, Ca., on August 4, 1942. The immigrant workers also faced harsh conditions, most of the work that was left for the immigrants was work that no one else was willing to do. Summarized best, “During the United States– Mexico Bracero Program, 1942-1964, U.S. agribusiness employed a coercive factory regime, introduced mechanization and increased work hazards, and employed a dual wage structure to keep Mexican contract workers at a serious disadvantage to advance their own collective well–being”(Mize). Although the immigrant workers faced harsh working conditions, the Bracero program stimulated economic growth in the western farming industry, and was deemed a success for the American agriculture business.

Agriculture industries employ more undocumented workers than any other industry in the country because it cost less. Half of California's 700,000 farm workers are estimated to be undocumented. Thirty years ago 50 percent of farm workers in California were immigrants, and now it’s 92

I woke up before my alarm. A distant square of eerie half-twilight from the window held the familiar outline of the locust tree. In the dark, I fumbled to dress without waking my parents. I slipped outside.