California S Farm Labor Problems

The Farm Labor Problem: A Global Perspective explores the unique character of agricultural labor markets and the implications for food production, farm worker welfare and advocacy, and immigration policy. Agricultural labor markets differ from other labor markets in fundamental ways related to seasonality and uncertainty, and they evolve differently than other labor markets as economies develop. We weave economic analysis with the history of agricultural labor markets using data and real-world events. The farm labor history of California and the United States is particularly rich, so it plays a central role in the book, but the book has a global perspective ensuring its relevance to Europe and high-income Asian countries. The chapters in this book provide readers with the basics for understanding how farm labor markets work (labor in agricultural household models, farm labor supply and demand, spatial market equilibria); farm labor and immigration policy; farm labor organizing; farm employment and rural poverty; unionization and the United Farm Workers movement; the Fair Food Program as a new approach to collective bargaining; the declining immigrant farm labor supply; and what economic development in relatively low-income countries portends for the future of agriculture in the United States and other high-income countries. The book concludes with a chapter called "Robots in the Fields," which extrapolates current trends to a perhaps not-so-distant future. The Farm Labor Problem serves as both a guide to policy makers, farmworker advocates and international development organizations and as a textbook for students of agricultural economics and economics. Describes the unique character of agricultural labor markets providing consequential insights Contextualizes the economics of agricultural labor with a global perspective Examines the history of farm labor, immigration, policy and collective bargaining with a view to the future

Migratory farm workers employed in 688 countries in 46 states in 1965 represent a 9 percent increase over 1964. Average earnings for the migratory farm worker in 1965 were $1,737. In spite of the new legislation, which is described, there are additional needs in the areas of wages, child labor, health, education, day care, housing, sanitation, and Volunteers in Service to America. The following corrective legislation was recommended: (1) extension of collective bargaining rights to migrant workers under the National Labor Relations Act, (2) modernized recruitment procedures to result in substantial year-round employment and a more stabilized labor supply, (3) establishment of a national advisory committee, (4) rapid tax amortization for construction of migrant housing, (5) extension of compulsory workmen's compensation laws, (6) unemployment insurance laws for migratory farm workers, (7) modification of old age, survivors, and disability insurance, and (8) public welfare assistance based on need rather than residence. The appendixes contain information concerning domestic agricultural migrants in the United States by states and county and grant assistance by state and project. A map of domestic agricultural migrants by county in the United States and a minority report by two committee members are included.

Historical account of the social conflict between agricultural workers and agribusiness, and the role of state intervention in California, USA - analyses agricultural trade unionism since 1870, immigration of Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans and Filipinos, and its regulation; examines the economic recession of the 1930s, rise of rural worker organizations, internal migration, and state-enrolled contract labour; reports on the formation of the United Farm Workers and its struggle for trade union recognition, opposition, and state mediation. Bibliography.