Migratory Labor in American Agriculture 1 "ACROSS THE NATION, and in nearly every State in which it is of significance, we have found great concern about migratory farm labor," the President's Commission on Migratory Labor 2 reports. "The public conscience is uneasy." The question is one of public policy, the Commission declares: "Shall we continue indefinitely to have low work standards and conditions of employment in agriculture, thus depending on the underprivileged and the unfortunate at home and abroad to supply and replenish our seasonal and migratory work force? Or shall we do in agriculture what we have already done in other sectors of our economy-create honest-to-goodness jobs which will offer a decent living so that domestic workers, without being forced by dire necessity, will be willing to stay in agriculture and become a dependable labor supply?" Repeated evidence is presented which indicates poor utilization of the farm labor force at hand. "The management of our farms must learn to do what management in industry and commerce have done to conserve human resources and increase the efficiency of its workers. We must build toward an agriculture that will yield a decent American income for those who provide labor." Changes will not be made overnight; the Commission observes that both private and public bodies must work toward this end. Who Are the Migratory Workers? Migratory farm laborers are those whose principal income is earned from temporary farm employment who in the course of the year move one or more times, often through several States. They do not maintain a stable home the year round, the Commission declared in starting its study. Farm workers become migrants because they find it impossible to make a living in a single location. The Commission is convinced that most migratory farm workers would settle down to steady jobs if they could find them. No single group has remained in migratory farm work. Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, "hobos," and "bindle stiffs" were each used in turn and then disappeared; the "Okies" of the 1930's settled down during World War II. Mexicans and other Latin Americans, the "Texas-Mexicans, and Negroes working out of Florida, many of whom are displaced sharecroppers, now constitute the bulk of migrant farm labor. Roughly a million migrants worked for farm employers in the United States in the postwar years. These include: domestic migrants, 500,000; Mexicans legally under contract, 100,000; Mexicans illegally in the United States (wetbacks), 400,000; and a small number from Puerto Rico and the British West Indies. Migrant workers have little or no connection with any community. Even the domestic migrants seem "scarcely more a part of the land of their birth than the alien migrants working beside them," the Commission observes. Their rootlessness is indeed shown to be basic to many of the problems observed by the study. Migrants generally are easily identified as outsiders. Skin color, stature, and language differences characterizing Mexican, Puerto Rican, British West Indian, and Negro migrants isolate them from the communities in which they find work. Laws governing education, relief, health, and other social benefits exclude them and their families. Domestic migratory farm workers have no protection through collective bargaining. As a rule, employers refuse to extend to them the guaranties which are given to alien workers imported under contract. Alien contract workers receive guaranties of employment, workmen's compensation, medical care, standards of sanitation, and payment for their transportation. The international agreement with Mexico set relatively high standards for Mexican nationals brought here under its terms. The Commission indicates that if such guaranties can be given alien migrants, the domestic migrants, too, should receive them. Most insecure is the illegal Mexican alien, the "wetback," who is under constant fear of apprehension and deportation. Employers seem inclined to take advantage of the "wetbacks' " disabilities and to hold them in "virtual peonage." The Commission found that the disabilities of the "wetbacks" resulted in wage scales in those areas where they are being used roughly 50 percent below wages paid in nearby areas where no "wetbacks" are employed. 4 The Commission reports that about 10 million farmers and part-time family workers are engaged in American agriculture. In addition roughly million wage earners depend principally on farm employment for their incomes. Of the hired farm labor group, a million get year-round or regular (150 to 250 days a year) employment; 2 million are seasonal nonmigratory workers; a million are the migrants. While migrants number only 1 out of 14 in the farm labor group, underemployment holds their contribution down to from 3 to 4 percent of the man-days of work required for the Nation's agricultural output. Nevertheless, their contribution is most significant at critical periods of crop production. Migratory labor is used chiefly in cotton, fruits, vegetables, and sugar beets, primarily on the larger farms which require large amounts of labor a year. There are 125,000 such large farms; these account for 2 percent of the Nation's total, but produce 7 percent of the value of all farm products. Increased Farm Productivity Farm output in 1949 was 27 percent greater than in 1940; yet 5 percent less labor was required. The use of hired farm labor dropped 8 percent in the decade. Mechanization has resulted in concentrating the seasons when hand labor is needed. Only a fifth of the Nation's hired farm hands are now needed for year-round work; in 1931, 46 percent were needed for 12 months, by 1949 only 19 percent were needed. Conversely, a greater proportion are needed for 2 months' work or less: in 1931, only 11 percent of hired farm workers were needed, but by 1949 this figure had risen to 27 percent. It is to meet this changed pattern of farm employment that migratory labor has come into prominence. Mechanization has not displaced human labor for many "stoop" tasks, although some advances have been made both in sugar beets and cotton. Cotton, however, stands alone in its dependence on migratory labor; in some fields cotton-picking machinery is not used when an adequate supply of labor is at hand. Many of the fruits and vegetable lines will continue to need seasonal labor. Job Standards Farm employers depending on migratory labor have a twofold demand: the labor must "be ready to go to work when needed; to be gone when not needed." The second aspect leads many farm employers to prefer alien labor. Migratory labor in American agriculture faces a series of low standards. The Commission's study touches such aspects as bad housing, poor sanitation, lack of medical facilities, and the problems of feeding, rearing, and schooling their children. It reports a serious continuing problem of child labor among the families of the migrant workers. These still unsolved problems have long been recognized. Wages paid to farm labor stand far below those paid in manufacturing industry. Perquisites added, such as housing, are estimated to be worth about 36 cents a day; for migrants who average only 100 days work a year, this means $36 a year added. In contrast, perquisites won by workers in industry, such as sickness benefits, paid vacations, pensions, welfare plans, and paid holidays, are estimated to average $120 a year for industrial workers. Average annual earnings of migratory workers having 70 days of farm work and 31 days of nonfarm work in 1949, were $514. One-third of them are women, who averaged 68 days (50 farm and 18 nonfarm). Children 14 to 17, who made up between a fourth and a fifth of the body of migratory farm workers, average between 75 and 80 days' work a year. In 1910-14, average hourly earnings of farm workers were 14 cents, while factory workers were earning 21 cents. By 1940, the farm worker's hourly average was 16 cents, while factory hourly averages had advanced to 67 cents. In 1950, the hourly earnings for farm workers was up to a 55-cent average, while factory average earnings reached $1.45 an hour. The farm worker's wage was 67 percent of the factory worker's in 1910-14; it had dropped to 24 percent in 1940; in 1950, it stood at 37 percent. The Commission heard protests in Texas, from the Brownsville area, that the "wetback" invasion was not restricted to farm work, but that union wage scales in the construction trades are being undermined by the use of the "wetbacks." Next to low wages, the Commission finds job insecurity a characteristic of the employment of migratory farm labor. Employment relationships are highly impersonal. Hiring is on a dayby-day basis. Labor turn-over in a harvest crew may be 100 percent within a week or less. Much employment is through the use of labor contractors. The typical labor contractor takes his profits out of the workers' wages. The contractor may be paid a piece rate for a job or he may retain a percentage of the wages earned by his crew. Changes of weather make work extremely undependable. Migratory farm labor has no such protection as "stand-by" pay or "reporting time" pay, such as is found in industrial employment. Migratory farm workers have few of the social protections which are commonly extended to indus trial workers. They have no unemployment insurance, no minimum-wage standards (except in part in the Sugar Act), no old-age and survivors insurance, no workmen's-compensation insurance in most States, and no disability insurance. Existing labor-management relations laws exempt agricultural employers from any obligation to bargain collectively with unionized employees engaged in most of the tasks for which migratory workers are hired; the Commission recommended extension of Taft-Hartley Act coverage to this employment relationship. 1 Migratory Labor in American Agriculture. Report of the President's Commission on Migratory Labor. Washington, 1951. Maurice T. Van Hecke served as chairman of the Commission. Noble Clark, William M. Leiserson, Robert E. Lucey, and Peter H. Odegard were the members. In addition to a staff of 13 members, special assistance was given the Commission by experts loaned by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Labor Standards, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, the United States Employment Service, the Wage and Hour Division, the California State Department of Industrial Relations, and the University of California. The Commission conducted public hearings in Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon, Colorado, Tennessee, Michigan, New Jersey, Florida, and in the District of Columbia. Recommendations in Secretary of Labor's 1950 Report "STRENGTHENING THE ECONOMY" was the theme of the thirty-eighth annual report of the Secretary of Labor, Maurice J. Tobin. After briefly reviewing changes in the economy brought about by the Korean situation in mid-1950, the Secretary pointed to the revived importance of veterans' reemployment rights and the increased interest in this phase of industrial relations on the part of employers, unions, and persons entering the armed forces. Legislative proposals affecting the interests of the workers of the country again occupied a central place in the deliberations of the Eighty-first Congress during the fiscal year 1950. The Department of Labor was called upon extensively for advice and technical assistance in the preparation and development of such legislation. Ten legislative proposals and a plan for the reorganization of the Department were advocated during the year, according to the report. Measures endorsed by the Department included legis 945927-51-5 lation (1) to provide more effective Federal programs of aid and assistance to the physically handicapped; (2) to broaden the coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act and to provide for industry-committee procedures to set rates higher than the minimum wherever possible, up to a dollar an hour; (3) to promote industrial safety through a program of Federal aid to the States; (4) to establish a Commission on the Legal Status of Women which would be empowered to make recommendations for legislation to abolish unfair distinction on the basis of sex; (5) to provide Federal regulation of private employment agencies engaged in interstate commerce; (6) to protect American workers on Government contracts performed outside the country; (7) t› extend Federal labor legislation to Puerto Rico; (8) to enable the Secretary of Labor to formulate a program to promote and encourage worker training on the job; (9) to ratify and give effect to Conventions adopted by the International Labor Organization; and (10) to end unfair wage discrimination against women. Various reorganization plans, the Secretary reported, "to rebuild and strengthen the Department of Labor" were approved by the Congress during the fiscal year 1950. Effective May 24, 1950, functions of all other Department officers, employees, and agencies were transferred to the Secretary and the position of Administrative Assistant Secretary of Labor was established. Authorization was given to the Secretary of Labor to coordinate the administration of legislation relating to wages and hours on federally financed construction projects by prescribing standards, regulations, and procedures to govern enforcement activities of various Federal agencies and by making investigations to assure consistent enforcement. The Bureau of Employees' Compensation and the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board were transferred from the Federal Security Agency to the Department of Labor. (The Bureau of Employment Security had been transferred to the Department in August 1949.) In this connection, the Department went on record as strongly favoring "prompt action to accomplish the recommendations of the Hoover Commission" (on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government) to transfer to its jurisdiction: (1) Selective Service System; (2) determination of minimum wages for seamen, now performed in the Maritime Administration of the Department of Commerce; (3) "prevailing wage" research, now performed by the various Federal departments and agencies, to be correlated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Industrial Hygiene Section of the National Institute of Health, now a part of the United States Public Health Service, Federal Security Agency. Other phases of the activities of the Department, discussed by the Secretary in his report, were: Labor relations; unemployment compensation; Federal workmen's compensation; wages and hours; Labor Extension Service; aid to handicapped; Social Security; industrial safety; fair employment practices; equal pay for women; rights of women; worker training on the job; regulation of private employment agencies and labor contractors; protection of American workers abroad; extension of labor legislation to Puerto Rico; international labor affairs; United Nations; budget and management; public information; the Department's library; personnel administration; and the activities of the Solicitor of Labor. EXECUTIVE ACTION in mid-March and April 1951 provided additional machinery for the administration of the Federal mobilization program. This took form in the creation of a new Advisory Board to the President, the reconstitution of the Wage Stabilization Board, and the establishment of new salary stabilization machinery. In addition, labor representatives returned to certain mobilization agencies and some personnel changes were made. The Director of Defense Mobilization and the Secretary of Labor jointly announced activation of a Nation-wide labor-management manpower program. A Controlled Materials Plan, to assure proper allotment of steel, copper, and aluminum for defense purposes, was also established. Organization for Defense Mobilization The President, by Executive Order No. 10224, established the National Advisory Board on Mobilization Policy on March 15, 1951. The Board is to be composed of the Director of Defense Mobilization as chairman and 16 members, all to represent the general public, 4 of whom are to be experienced in business management, 4 in labor, and 4 in agriculture, and 4 members representing the public. The Board shall advise the President "with respect to the current defense mobilization program or any phase thereof." Organized labor, as represented by the United Labor Policy Committee, announced on April 5 that labor would serve on this advisory Board. This was the first move toward rejoining advisory agencies taken by labor since the mass withdrawal of all labor representatives from the defense mobilization program on February 28. Labor is to be represented on the Board by William Green, AFL president; Philip Murray, CIO president; George Meany, AFL secretarytreasurer; and Walter P. Reuther, president of the International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (CIO). The advisory Board, in its first action on April 17, voted 12 to 4 (industry members dissenting), to advise the President to set up a new and enlarged Wage Stabilization Board with authority to make recommendations in labor disputes. In line with these recommendations, the President, by Executive Order No. 10233 of April 21, 1951, reconstituted the Wage Stabilization Board, to be composed of 18 members, 6 each representing labor, the public, and industry. The Board now has the authority to consider any labor dispute which is not resolved by collective bargaining or by full use of conciliation and mediation facilities and which threatens an interruption of work affecting national defense. Cases are to be submitted to the Board by direction of the President, or by consent of the parties. The order further specifies that the Board shall not urdertake action that is inconsistent with the provisions of applicable labor laws. Personnel Changes The President, on April 20, accepted the resignation of Cyrus Ching as chairman of the WSB and appointed as his successor, Dr. George Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania. The new chairman served 4 years as a public member (including chairmanship in 1945) of the World War II War Labor Board. Mr. Ching is to return to his previous directorship of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. William H. Harrison, Administrator of the Defense Production Administration, resigned on May 1. The President appointed as Acting Administrator, Edwin T. Gibson, assistant to Mr. Harrison (and formerly executive vice president of the General Foods Corp.). Labor representatives returned to their jobs in various defense agencies, following a meeting of the ULPC on April 30. The return of labor to the mobilization program involved some changes in assignments, as well as some new nominations. The committee's nominations for labor representation in the defense program are as follows: George M. Harrison, president of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks (AFL), as special assistant to the Director of Defense Mobilization. Mr. Harrison's previous assignment as special assistant to the Economic Stabilization Administrator to be filled by David J. McDonald, secretary-treasurer of the United Steelworkers of America (CIO). Albert J. Hayes, president of the International Association of Machinists (AFL), to return to his previous assignment as consultant to Assistant Secretary of Defense Anna M. Rosenberg. On May 3, the President named the 18 members of the tripartite WSB. Labor's representation on the Board was in line with recommendations submitted by the ULPC. (For a list of the members, see p. 711 of this issue.) Manpower Program A Labor-Management-Manpower Policy Committee was established in the Office of Defense Mobilization on May 3, and is to be co-chaired by Dr. Arthur S. Flemming of the Office of Defense Mobilization and Dr. Frank P. Graham, Administrator of the Defense Manpower Administration of the U. S. Department of Labor. It will consist of representatives from the fields of labor, industry, and agriculture, to be appointed by the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization. The new committee will have referred to it all questions of policy relative to the "mobilization, training, and maximum utilization of manpower in the defense program," and is directed to recommend action which, in its judgment, the ODM should take in this field. On its own motion, it may also make recommendations to the Office of Defense Mobilization on these policy matters. The Secretary of Labor on March 3 issued Amendment 2 to General Order No. 48 (establishing the Office of Defense Mobilization; Monthly Labor Review, Nov. 1950, p. 575). The amendment appointed the Regional Directors of the Department's Bureau of Employment Security as Regional Directors of the Defense Manpower Administration's regional offices and designated them as co-chairmen of the Interagency Regional Committees on Defense Mobilization established by the ODM on February 9, 1951. The order further provides for the establishment and outlines the functions of Regional and Area Labor-Management Committees for Defense Manpower. |