Dairy farmers in Vermont work towards keeping their immigrant employees safe, and everybody wins. That is except ICE.
It will be interesting to see if the state of Vermont continues to be as welcoming when the percentage of immigrant workers reaches the same as in North Carolina or Virginia.
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On New England's dairy farms, foreign workers find a home
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff
Boston Globe
September 22, 2007
It looks like the quintessential Vermont dairy farm, like a page out of a storybook, with its red barns, rolling green fields, and black-and-white cows. And this farm is also typical in another way: Inside the barns, the men milking cows are from Mexico and Guatemala.
Some have documents that allow them to work in this country. Others do not, said the farmer who employs them. Legal or not, he said, they have improved his life.
...The dairy farms that define the northern New England countryside have come to depend on foreign workers in the past five to 10 years. Farmers say they have faced a crippling shortage of Americans willing to do the physically demanding, round-the-clock job of milking cows and cleaning barns. To fill the burgeoning gap, many farms have hired workers from Mexico and Central America, who often speak little English and lack proper documents but show up on time, learn quickly, and work tirelessly, farmers say.
That pipeline of largely illegal but dependable labor is threatened, however, by paperwork, fees, and government limits on the work that laborers can do and the length of time they can stay,
...Worsening the problem, they say, is a crackdown by federal agencies, felt in the past two years, including heightened scrutiny of hiring practices and a beefed-up Border Patrol presence at the Canadian border.
Critics of the crackdown say the resulting atmosphere, charged with fear and tension, has also eroded the quality of life of some foreign workers, and may discourage others from coming to the region. Many foreign workers stay indoors day and night because they fear discovery by authorities. Some have given up grocery shopping, playing soccer, and walking outside. Although most dairy workers who illegally enter the country cross the border from Mexico, farmers and advocates say that some fear the extra scrutiny found in northern New England, where Border Patrol agents roam the countryside on patrols.
Some dairy farmers, and other concerned Vermonters, shop and wire money for workers and drive them to visit relatives on other farms.
The farmer at the picture-perfect Vermont dairy farm said he has advised his workers not to open their doors to border officials. He does not allow them to work outdoors because he fears they could be caught.
The workers cut through the barns on the property to reach the trailers where they live instead of walking on the road, the farmer said.
"If we had a tunnel, they'd use that," he said. "We have to do a good job on the border, but I don't think we need the Border Patrol driving into the yard, looking for guys who milk cows."
He said agents have driven through his farm on patrols.
...Dairy farmers say workers earn about $8 per hour and often choose to work 60 or 70 hours per week. Many farms provide housing.
"It's not because they're cheaper," said Sheldon Sawyer, a New Hampshire dairy farmer who employs two foreign men with working papers. "We get them because we need them."
Among immigrant workers, dairy farm laborers are especially likely to lack papers, say their employers. Because dairy farms operate year round, they do not qualify for the seasonal visas that allow other foreign workers to participate in agricultural work including blueberry and apple harvests. New England dairy farmers have urged federal legislators to create a new guest worker program to accommodate them.
...farms reported that half as many workers showed up as in previous years, said Juan Perez-Febles, who monitors migrant workers for the state Department of Labor. As a result, many berries went unpicked.
...Some Vermonters say foreign labor is essential to preserve the rural landscape. The state lost 2,000 farms from 1977 to 2003, according to the Vermont Dairy Promotion Council.
Residents, church leaders, and health and social service workers in dairy-rich Addison County, south of Burlington, help legal and illegal foreign laborers find healthcare in the face of language barriers and fear of deportation. They have formed the Addison County Farmworkers Coalition, which also lobbies for federal policy changes that would make it easier for foreigners to work on dairy farms legally...
Jenna Russell can be reached at jrussell@globe.com.
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photo: http://spectre.nmsu.edu/media/photos/052402dairy.jpg
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