WA state-based Sakuma Bros. Farms...Driscoll...pays workers $6 DAY. so we can have cheap food.

[jtuck004]

In California, and other states.

Got your smoothie ready? Millions will. And even if the berries didn't come from Driscoll's they most certainly affected the price, availability, and quality of what you did buy, as well as any wages or perhaps what the farmer was paid.

Are these the Southerners people disparage for slavery? Southern California?

"Berry Farmworkers Toil 12 Hours A Day For $6. Now They’re Demanding A Raise."

"Some of the farmworkers who make it possible for U.S. consumers to have berries for breakfast are paid about $6 a day. Those farmworkers include children toiling for 12 hours a day at 85 percent the amount of money that adults get paid. Many farmworkers do not get lunch and rest breaks and are subjected to terrible housing conditions..."

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2016/04/01/3764433/driscolls-boycott/


In this photo from Tuesday, May 10, 2011, farm workers weed strawberry rows on a field outside Salinas, Calif. The strawberry field fumigant methyl iodide is being pulled from the U.S. market by its Tokyo manufacturer. Arysta LifeScience Inc. confirmed in a news release late Tuesday, March 20, 2012 that it was immediately suspending the sale of all formulations of the fumigant Midas, saying the decision is based on its economic viability in the United States. (AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka)
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Anyway, if this is reasonably accurate it is a liability to our country. Today. Pres needs to fix this by next week even if he kills the damn berry market. He could send the Army out to protect the fields, serve three good meals a day, and some emergency $$ relief from the state. That alone would get them more than what is being left for them today. Else what good are Democrats?

I wouldn't mind voting for the candidate that shows us stuff like this. Especially if they aren't profiting from the negative effects on these families, even more than the rest of us are. Seems like one might be more likely to work on the things they show a real interest in.

But about that tax increase. Let's hold off and use it to pay people a fair amount to gather berries, and a few other jobs. And send their kids to the schools we already have, that place we say is important, eh?

That might be one hell of a stimulus right there.

[Silver_Witch]

1. California's Shame.

[Recursion]

2. FLSA has never effectively applied to farm workers, unfortunately

Here and there in some situations, sure, but Americans like cheap groceries more than they like farmworkers.

[RobertEarl]

3. That's not true

"Americans like cheap groceries more than they like farmworkers."

Americans don't understand that the farmworkers are being screwed. Hence OP's like this.

Or that the berries from California are dependent on the socialist highway system which makes it feasible for berries to be trucked to the east and sold at below market eastern rates.

[ReRe]

4. K&R for exposure!!!

Shame on this country. Shame.

And what makes this worse yet, I surmise that the farms get subsidies! IOW, tax breaks. How much you want to bet the farms pay little if any taxes at all?

This would be a good question to ask Robert Reich. This has to be unlawful! What does this problem fall under? The Labor Dept & NLRB, the Agriculture Dept?

The activists need help from the USG. Maybe PBO should make a sachet around thru these farms and take a look at the books, the living conditions, the working conditions, and why aren't the kids in school? Don't tell me the governor's don't know this is going on in their states. How can they turn their heads from this cruelty? I would shut the farms down down. Where's the Health Depts?

Eff Americans who want cheap berries. I'm growing a patch of strawberries in my own back yard this summer. Same with tomatoes and peppers of all kinds, and if I really worked at it , I could get two crops of green beans this season. All organic, no pesticides, fresher than fresh as long as you'll hit the garden everyday and harvest.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. The wages being discussed are paid in Mexico, not in CA, just to be clear. The photo is of

Salinas but the text is about wages in Mexico. Not that the pickers here have some golden life but I think the photo caption confuses the facts of the text. Unless you are actually suggesting sending our Army to Mexico.

[Yo_Mama]

6. Not in the US - in Mexico. This is written to make it appear this happens in the US.

Federal minimum wage applies to farmworkers.
https://www.dol.gov/wecanhelp/farm_workers.htm

If this were true, one damned call would be all that's needed, rather than the army.

US minimum wages do not apply to other countries. I would prefer we not launch an armed invasion of Mexico. Perhaps diplomatic pressure for better labor standards?