Labor Contractors

Both large and small farmers used contractors to recruit laborers for planting, cultivating and harvesting crops. Contractors would compete against each other, finding jobs for their crews in the fields or in packing sheds. Growers preferred working with contractors because contractors were legally free of some health and safety regulations faced by growers if they provided housing.[1] Sometimes, a grower used several contractors to recruit enough workers for a large harvest of lettuce, for example. The jobs were usually short term compared to the few job positions that were permanent on the farms.In the 1920s and 1930s, some Filipino and Japanese labor contractors helped organize unions for both altruistic and self-serving motives.  They often provided room and board for their crews, deducting the charges on payday. This provided a handsome addition to their income but as growers lowered wages, contractors had to lower fees charged to their crews. Some contractors were scrupulously honest like, Rufo Canete who even provided housing for striking workers who didn’t work for him.[2] Other contractors disappeared with the payroll after picking it up from the grower and before distributing it to his workers. Today, labor contractors supply most of the workers for farms in South County and in northern Santa Barbara County. They are bonded, licensed by the state, and often provide training and safety programs for their workers. For Further Reading:Federal Writers' Project. A Documentary History of Migratory Farm Labor in California. Raymond P. Berry, ed. 1938. http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb88700929&query=&brand=calisphere

Fisher, Lloyd Horace. The Harvest Labor Market in California. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953.

Mitchell, Don. The Lie of the Land: Migrant Workers and the California Landscape. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.