The new grapes of wrath [View All]

U-T SPECIAL REPORT
The new grapes of wrath

Migrant fieldworkers are losing their traditional livelihood to mechanized pickers, global competition

By Diane Lindquist
STAFF WRITER

January 23, 2005

PARLIER – For the past century, raisins in California's Central Valley have been harvested in exactly the same way: a monthlong frenzy of hand picking that required more workers than almost any other crop.

Last season, many raisin growers turned to machines to do the work. Although they had long held out, they are now joining growers nationwide in embracing mechanization to fend off global competition.

But the switch to mechanical harvesting is taking a heavy toll on the Mexican migrants who fill most of the state's lowest-paying farm jobs. With machines picking more crops, the need for field hands is falling sharply. Where 50 men once were needed to harvest a field of raisins, five now suffice.

"I've been going all over the valley looking for work, but there isn't any. If I'm lucky, I get one or two days a week," said Fidel Rosales Rodriguez, who last spring paid smugglers $1,200 to sneak him from Mexico into California.

Even legal fieldworkers say they have never experienced such a tough year. There were more migrants, they complain, and jobs were all but impossible to find.

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Diane Lindquist: (619) 293-1812; diane.lindquist@uniontrib.com



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