—Lancaster Farmlm. Saturday. Oct. 12. 1974
14
Organizing the Agricultural Labor Force
•Many individuate and
group* in Pennsylvania have struggl'd
with the question of supporting efforts
to organize farm workers into unions
The support usually includes manpower
and/ or financial contributions for organ
izing efforts or support of consumer bov -
cotts of certain products.
This question presents the public with
some difficult dilemmas with regard to
appropriate actions Objective evidence
makes it obvious that there are real
social problems in the plight of many
American farm workers. What is not so
obvious is what the appropriate solutions
to those problems are While much has
been said and written about the issues
by the advocates on either side, there
have been many distortions and inac
curacies on both sides. There is little
objectivity in information regarding
union membership, participation, strikes,
working conditions, performance under
contracts, and violence alleged by the
various parties to agricultural-labor dis
putes. This presents a dilemma to indi
viduals and groups concerned with social
justice seeking to make mfoimed and
objective judgments about the issue.
In order to understand the issue, some
background information about the eco
nomic status of farm workers and the
structure of agriculture is essential.
The economic status of
farm workers
There is no question that “farm labor
ers” as an occupational group fare sub
stantially worse economically than most
other occupational groups in the econo
my Census data show that only private
household workers- (domestics) rank
lower in average annual earnings This
is partly because rates of pay for many
agricultural jobs are low, but also be
cause of the large component of seasonal
workers in the farm work force For
example, in 1972 (the most recent year
for which national data are available)
there were 2 8 million persons who did
some farm work for wages in the United
States at some time during the year
However, 40 percent of that number did
less than 25 days of farm wage work dur
ing the entire year Another 37 percent
did from 25 to 150 days of farm wage
work during the year Only 13 percent
worked as many as 250 days at farm
wage work in 1972 Obviously, average
earnings data across such a diverse lahrr
force arc very misleading. ’
Only about a quarter (24 percent in
1972) of the hired farm work force is
chiefly engaged in farm work during the
year Others are chiefly engaged in non
farm work, operating their own farms, or
are not in the labor force at alt most of
the year Persons not in the labor force
most of the year account for much of
the seasonality of farm employment. In
1972, nearly half (47 percent) of the
hired farm work force indicated their
chief activity during the year was "keep
ing house,” or "attending school.” Stu
dents represent a large component of
the hired farm work force, although most
of them work relatively few days at farm
work and therefore account for relatively
little of the total hired agricultural labor
input (For example, in 1972 there were
approximately 825,000 youth 14 through
17 years of age who did some farm work
for wages, of which 56% worked fewer
than 25 days, and another 30% worked
from 25 to 74 days) Only a small num
ber of these ycuth were migratory work
ers, and they worked only a few days at
farm wage work.
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increase your calf livability. Why not call your Beacon Dealer or Beacon
Advisor today
H. JACOB HOOBER
INTERCOURSE, PA
A recent study by Penn State showed that of 12,000 calves started,
more than 18% died in their first 12 months. Beacon’s Complete Calf
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increasing calf livability.
Be-Co-Nurse milk replacer is one cornerstone of this program. It
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Beacon Golden Calf Starter is the second foundation stone of the
program. It is fortified with vitamins A and D, plus Aureomycin. Partially
pelleted, Beacon Golden Calf Starter is a highly palatable grain ration
that ca!»es love.
Beacon Calf Power and Beacon Scour Stop-R offer a scour prevention
and control program that is highly effective. Calf Power is recommended
for calves under undue stress. Scour Stop-R provides a “Feed and Treat”
method of combating scours when they actually occur.
THARPE it GREEN MILL H. M. STAUFFER & SONS, INC. 0. KENNETH McCRACKEN
Churchviile. Md
fed Belefskl
Ph. 523-9173
Beacon Feeds, York, Pa.
While wages earned by farm wage
workers ore low, they are related to the
duration of work The wages earned by
all farm wage workers in 1972 averaged
$1,160, or about $l3 20 per day. How
ever. this average is greatly influenced
by the fact that 40 percent of these
workers 'only averaged 9 days of farm
wage work and had average total farm
earnings for the year of only $94. By
contrast, those workers who worked 250
days or more at farm work had average
annual farm earnings of $4,358 and aver
age total anneal earnings, including non
farm earnings, of $4,551. These figures
relate to cash wages and do not include
the value of prerequisites, such as hous
ing or meals, that may also be provided.
There are too few migrants in the
farm work force to provide statistically
reliable data on annual earnings of mi
grants related to the duration of their
work. The data that are available show
that daily cash wages are similar among
migrants and non-migrants (actually
slightly higher for migrants) However,
migrants average fewer days of work and
therefore have lower total annual earn
ings. Only about 7 percent of the hired
RHOADS MILL, INC.
Selinsgrove & Milton, Pa
Chester Weist
Ph. 741-2600
v **nt n m f n r' w ' r- r»-.-. *•
EARL SAUDER, INC. VAN-MAR FEEDS
NEW HOLLAND, PA. LEESPORT, PA.
LEOLA, PA.
Beacon Reps.
R. E. Rudisill Richard B. Kendig
Ph. 854-2281 302-478-3058
Phone 717-843-9033
farm work force (or fewer than 200,000
persons in 1972) were migrant*.
The above in not intended to imply
that farm workers’ incomes are not low,
hut to suggest that the problem is relator)
to the duration of the working season,
which is short for many agricultural
activities An examination of hourly pay
rates for farm workers also suggests this
In October, 1973 (the most recent period
for which statistics are available) the
U S average hourly rate paid to farm
workers was $2 24 ($217 in Pennsyl
vania, $2 83 in California). For workers
paid piece-rate, which includes many mi
grants, the U S average hourly earnings
were $2.71 ($2 69 in Pennsylvania, $3ll
in California )
The structure of the
agricultural industry
Much of the discourse on the farm labor
problem (and other agricultural prob
lems such as the recent concern over
food prices) creates the impression that
the agricultural industry is dominated by
large corporations. Whether this is true
is essentially irrelevant to the economic
(Continued on Page 15|
& SON manheim, pa.