A Year After a Violent and Costly Strike, Baja Farm Laborers See Uneven Gains El Jefazo - The Fulano Forum
go to original May 23, 2016

Last summer, VICE News traveled to northern Mexico and headed into the fields with the laborers to see their working conditions, then met the organizer leading the fight in the Baja town of San Quintín for better pay and conditions. (VICE News)

One year ago, a farm labor strike in this tranquil valley erupted in violence, with police and strawberry pickers clashing in a series of running battles that left government buildings torched, laborers bloodied and dozens of people arrested.

When the hail of rocks and rubber-bullets ceased, negotiations resumed and within a month labor leaders and growers had reached a historic agreement to raise wages and guarantee benefits for tens of thousands of farmworkers.

Today, this windswept region 200 miles south of San Diego is thriving again as a major exporter of berries and tomatoes to supermarket chains across the U.S., but laborers remain restive, expressing a mix of pride at their landmark achievement and frustration at the halting pace of change.

“We made progress, but there’s still so far to go,” said Rafaela Caballero, 27, looking up while picking strawberries on an early April morning.

Considered the most significant set of achievements for a farm labor movement in recent Mexican history, the 12-week strike fixed a spotlight on some of the ugly realities behind Mexico’s produce export boom.

What started as a door-to-door campaign by poor indigenous people ended up disrupting produce markets across North America and forcing the Mexican government and powerful agribusinesses to the negotiating table.

But the accord has played out unevenly across the 50-mile San Quintin Valley, with conditions often varying from field to field, grower to grower.

BerryMex, the region’s biggest grower and a major supplier for the powerhouse U.S. brand Driscoll’s, boosted its minimum daily wage to 226 pesos, about $12 — among the highest pay for farmworkers anywhere in Mexico.

And many growers now pay social security and other benefits.

But others continue skirting the legally required benefits and resisting the increases called for in the government-backed accord. And government officials, who were supposed to enforce labor laws, have provided only spotty oversight, pickers, growers and labor leaders say.

Perhaps the strike’s biggest gain was the creation of two independent farm labor unions. They are among the first of their kind in Mexico, but membership ranks appear thin and their storefront offices are barren — a reminder of the challenges ahead.

Read the rest at The Fulano Forum

Related: Extortion, Threats, Kidnapping: Workers the Hidden Casualty of Mexico's Violence (The Star)

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