Harvest season began this month and thousands of migrant farm
workers are expected to follow
– pumping money into the local economy and playing a crucial
role in the county’s largest business.
Harvest season began this month and thousands of migrant farm workers are expected to follow – pumping money into the local economy and playing a crucial role in the county’s largest business.
Many people don’t realize how farm workers affect the overall economic situation in the county, said Jess Murguia, employment program representative at the Employment Development Department.
“A lot of people try to put farm workers into a pigeon hole and that’s not the case,” he said. “For every farm worker other jobs are created, from packaging to the clerk at the grocery store… It’s quite a ripple effect.”
The season, which can last into November depending on the weather, brings anywhere from 3,000 to 9,000 farm workers into the county, Murguia said. The exact number of jobs held by migrant workers is unknown because there is no agency in the county that tracks them, Murguia said.
Seasonal farm work creates job growth – affecting the county’s unemployment rates beginning in the spring and continuing through the summer months, said Kathy Flores, executive director of the Community Services and Workforce Development Department.
In 2003, unemployment for the month of August bottomed out at 7.6 percent, while January showed a high of 12 percent, according to historical labor force data from the Employment Development Department.
Pride of San Juan employs between 500 to 560 migrant workers every season to do all the manual harvesting, with about 70 percent living in the county year-round, said ranch manager Mike Brautovich.
“About 30 percent go back to Mexico,” Brautovich said. “The others live in the county and draw unemployment (during the off-season).”
Much of the population disregards farm workers’ presence because it doesn’t affect their everyday lives, he said.
They don’t see the economic boost given to the county from the money they spend at gas stations, food establishments, clothing stores and the taxes they pay, he said.
“Unless you’re in ag, you totally overlook them,” Brautovich said. “You don’t see the money spent or the work done unless you’re a business owner and they’re spending their money in your business.”
Workers who harvest bell peppers, lettuce, cherries, tomatoes, broccoli and cauliflower live in a variety of areas during the season including the migrant workers’ camp on Southside Road. The camp, which becomes home to people looking for jobs from as far away as Mexico, Arizona and Texas, opens in June and houses more than 300 people, Murguia said.
“One of the biggest problems we have is that there’s not enough housing available for farm workers,” he said. “We’ve even had people living in orchards.”
Other workers stay with friends or relatives, attempt to rent lodging while they’re here or commute from areas such as the Salinas Valley, the San Joaquin Valley and south Santa Clara County.
Some of the large farming operations in those areas lease land in San Benito County, so they ship their workers here for the season to harvest the product and send it back, he said.
Also overlooked are the children of migrant farm workers who are forced to change schools when their parents take the seasonal work, said Jose Zepeda, coordinator of migrant education for the Hollister School District.
Children coming from Mexico and Arizona have to contend with a completely new environment during the season.
Most of the children whose parents migrate to the county join them in the summer and attend summer school in San Benito County, Zepeda said.
Only a handful accompany their parents at the beginning of the harvest season.
Adjustment is difficult for both groups of children making the change into a new school for a short period of time, he said.
“They do the best they can but it’s not easy,” he said. “They feel lost.”
