In November of 2020 Roberto arrived in California’s San Joaquin Valley to pick oranges, tangerines and lemons for Porterville Citrus, a large grower. 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.
«We were being paid by the hour, but they put production quotas on us and continually demanded more,» he said in an interview in May. «They said we’d be fired and put on a blacklist if we didn’t meet the quota. In the oranges, we had to fill a bin every hour. If there was a lot of fruit in the trees, we had to fill it every 45 minutes, or even every half hour.»
Roberto’s experience is not unique. 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. 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. «We all come from marginalized communities in Mexico where there’s no work,» Roberto explained. «It’s easy for the company to take advantage of our need.» In his crew of 45 pickers, eight were fired in six months for not meeting the quota. «It was completely exhausting,» he said. «The food the company gave us wasn’t enough and we were tired all the time.»
Like most of the H-2A workers I’ve interviewed, Roberto asked me not to use his real name. «All the people I work with are afraid of reprisals if we speak up. We can be fired at any time. The company tells us we can’t come back the next year if we don’t do what they want.»
Roberto was housed, along with several hundred other H-2A workers, at the Palm Tree Inn, a rundown motel by the freeway in Porterville. «Some of us were living 3-4 people in one room,» he said «and there are rooms with as many as 8 or 10. In the van or bus going to and from work we’re crowded like sardines. During the pandemic we’ve been very worried about it.»
The Nation, 8/13/21
https://www.thenation.com/
article/economy/california-farmworkers-extreme-heat/
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