Rural News: April, 2001 - Volume #7

RURAL AMERICA

Census: Changing Face
The changing face of rural America is one of the most dramatic results of the April 1, 2000 census (www.census.gov/).

Poultry, Meatpacking Labor
The US Department of Labor in January 2001 said that a February-August 2000 survey of 51 of the 174 US poultry processing plants by its Wage and Hour Division found none of the plants to be in full compliance with

San Joaquin Valley: Census, Jobs, Tulare
California had 33.9 million residents in April 2000, and for the first time, non-Hispanic whites were not a majority of the state's residents; whites were 47 to 49 percent of the state's residents.

California: Welfare
The number of welfare cases in California fell 40 percent, from 925,000 in 1995 to 555,000 in 2000.

FARM WORKERS

California: EDD, Enforcement, Housing
The California Farm Bureau reported that the top farm stories of 2000 were the November 2000 elections and low farm prices; farm labor did not make the top ten list.

UFW: Strawberries, Mushrooms, Corona
There were numerous marches and ceremonies in honor of Cesar Chavez on March 31, the state holiday in Chavez's memory that was celebrated on his birthday for the first time (www.chavezday.ca.gov).

ALRB, NLRB, Unions
The ALRB issued two decisions in January-February 2001.

Southeast: Protests, Oranges
About 300 farm workers and their supporters marched to Tallahassee in January 2001 to pressure Florida Governor Jeb Bush to organize negotiations with tomato growers

Northwest: Minimum Wages, Apples
The Idaho Legislature in March 2001 on a 41-28 vote raised the percentage of farm workers covered by minimum wage legislation from 70 to 95 percent of the 15,000 to 33,000 seasonal farm workers

East, Midwest: Labor, Dutch
In New York, labor activists are trying to end the exclusion of farm workers from overtime laws.

IMMIGRATION

Guest Workers: Mexico-US Negotiations
Mexican President Vicente Fox and US President George Bush met on February 16, 2001 in San Cristobal, Mexico, Fox's hometown in the state of Guanajuato.

Braceros: Lost Savings?
The US signed a bilateral bracero (person who works with arms or hands) program with Mexico on June 23, 1942

H-2A: AEWR, Sheep, H-2Bs
DOL announced that it would not publish 2001 Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWR) for at least 60 days until it reviews the fairness and accuracy of the methodology.

Canadian Guest Workers
Ontario's Foreign Seasonal Farmworker Program for Agriculture admitted about 14,500 foreign workers in 2000, including 7,000 from Mexico;

OTHER

Farm Income, Commodities
US net farm income was about $45 billion in 2000, and is expected to drop to $40 billion in 2001; the federal government provided $22 billion in support to farmers in 2000.

Europe: Ag Guest Workers
The production of fruits and nuts, vegetables and melons and horticultural specialties such as flowers and mushrooms (FVH commodities) is generally smaller in northern than in southern European countries.

Mad Cows, GMOs
European agriculture was rocked by two problems in 2000-01: livestock diseases and the genetically modified organisms in crops.

RESOURCES

DOL Report on Farm Labor
The U.S. Department of Labor issued a 22-page Report to Congress in December 2000 that reviewed conditions in the farm labor market and recommended changes

Farm Worker Health
A study of farmworker health, "Suffering in Silence: A Report on the Health of California's Agricultural Workers," was released on February 8, 2001

MSFW Profiles
The Migrant Health Program (MHP), through the National Center for Farmworker Health, commissioned estimates of the number of migrant, seasonal and nonworking dependents