The Adjusted Normal, 52. The Fruit We Eat.
Last Saturday the temperature rose to 44ºC/111ºF in the region of Murcia. That afternoon, a man was brought to the health clinic in a small town in a van, from which he was apparently let fall out. He soon fell unconscious. Shortly thereafter, he died of a heat stroke, and the medicalized ambulance that arrived couldn't do anything.
The 42 year old man was Nicaraguan, and here illegally. He came to Spain to escape death threats, and tried to find work not only to eat, but also to send money back home, where he left a wife and children, including a newborn he still hadn't met. He had been recruited that day by a man, who was later arrested, to go work in a field picking watermelons. Given the expected temperatures, these workers were supposed to be told to work only until midday, instead of stopping at midday and continuing in the afternoon. But this man and his companions were not told to do that.
Conditions at different farms are now being looked into. Workers are generally forced to work even during the hottest hours of the day, sometimes without fresh water, and almost never with a shelter to retreat to, out of the sun. This man was never given any water; he had to take enough water with him in the morning to last him all day. The recruiters are paid by the farmers to round up workers for the day. Those workers are almost always people here without papers, and these people tend to work at whatever they are told to, in whatever circumstances there are. This man had had dust kicked in his eyes, and been called "stupid" and "slow". Because he wasn't a legal immigrant, he couldn't speak out against the abuse. He simply would not be picked up for work again.
Sometimes, these immigrants without papers aren't even paid. When they are paid, they're paid miserable sums: 20, 25, or 30 euros, not the minimum legal amount for farm workers, which hovers between forty and fifty euros for an eight hour day. That is one reason why these workers then live in shanties and abandoned buildings; they aren't paid enough to live decently and send money home to their families. Then, when a pandemic like this comes along, infection spreads like fire.
Most of what we pay per kilo for any fruit or vegetable goes to middlemen and the farmer. Very little of it goes to the person who picks the piece of fruit you bite into.
When the confinement didn't let migrants go from farm to farm to pick produce, farmers were desperate. Very few local people wanted to work on the farms. The conditions were deplorable for the minimum pay offered. Many farmers complained about threatened inspections, saying they would let produce rot if they were told to pay better salaries. Once restrictions upon movement were lifted, things went back to normal, with the lowest of the low receiving mere coins for labor-intensive work. And it ended up costing the life of a person who had wanted to escape death, and help his family eat.
Life continues. But not for all.
The 42 year old man was Nicaraguan, and here illegally. He came to Spain to escape death threats, and tried to find work not only to eat, but also to send money back home, where he left a wife and children, including a newborn he still hadn't met. He had been recruited that day by a man, who was later arrested, to go work in a field picking watermelons. Given the expected temperatures, these workers were supposed to be told to work only until midday, instead of stopping at midday and continuing in the afternoon. But this man and his companions were not told to do that.
Conditions at different farms are now being looked into. Workers are generally forced to work even during the hottest hours of the day, sometimes without fresh water, and almost never with a shelter to retreat to, out of the sun. This man was never given any water; he had to take enough water with him in the morning to last him all day. The recruiters are paid by the farmers to round up workers for the day. Those workers are almost always people here without papers, and these people tend to work at whatever they are told to, in whatever circumstances there are. This man had had dust kicked in his eyes, and been called "stupid" and "slow". Because he wasn't a legal immigrant, he couldn't speak out against the abuse. He simply would not be picked up for work again.
Sometimes, these immigrants without papers aren't even paid. When they are paid, they're paid miserable sums: 20, 25, or 30 euros, not the minimum legal amount for farm workers, which hovers between forty and fifty euros for an eight hour day. That is one reason why these workers then live in shanties and abandoned buildings; they aren't paid enough to live decently and send money home to their families. Then, when a pandemic like this comes along, infection spreads like fire.
Most of what we pay per kilo for any fruit or vegetable goes to middlemen and the farmer. Very little of it goes to the person who picks the piece of fruit you bite into.
When the confinement didn't let migrants go from farm to farm to pick produce, farmers were desperate. Very few local people wanted to work on the farms. The conditions were deplorable for the minimum pay offered. Many farmers complained about threatened inspections, saying they would let produce rot if they were told to pay better salaries. Once restrictions upon movement were lifted, things went back to normal, with the lowest of the low receiving mere coins for labor-intensive work. And it ended up costing the life of a person who had wanted to escape death, and help his family eat.
Life continues. But not for all.
I have a new coworker. He´s happy where we work. Before he used to work in a granite quarry at Portugal for 700 euros, 11 hours day.
ReplyDeleteCrisis is bad for working people.
Yes, the crisis is bad, and it makes many people take whatever they can get.
Delete