Farm Workers Of America Summary

One issue that landowners and farm workers greatly differ in is the necessity of unions. “I saw the need to change the California feudal system, to change the lives of farm workers, to make these huge corporations feel they’re not above anybody…I try to organize the United Farm Workers of America.” (Terkel Pargraph 1). Many times landowners and farm workers view unions differently because farm workers believe unions are the path towards better working conditions while landowners believe it limits their power of controlling the farm workers. Acuna was the leader of a union of farm workers who were convinced that the life the current farm worker had was not fair and should be altered, but the only way to do this was through unions. They believed

“Illness in the fields is 120 percent higher than the average rate for industry. It’s mostly back troubles, rheumatism, and arthritis, because of the damp weather and the cold” (Terkel paragraph 4). Working in the fields is very tough because there are multiple diseases and injuries that quickly harm workers. Through the long period of time they spend arching their backs and crouching down they receive terrible back problems and rheumatism arthritis. They receive these troubles due to them working under extreme heat or cold conditions without any breaks. Most of their sicknesses are caused by the pesticides that are placed on the plants. Although farm workers claim to have no safety precautions measured, landowners do not agree. They believe that they give enough safety precautions to the farmworkers when it is needed such as working under the shade and offering water. They do understand that working under 105° weather is difficult, but the workers must get used to it because it is their job and if they don’t like it, then they can quit; they are the ones looking for a job, not the land owners. Safety precautions are another subject that they differ in because the farm workers believe that there are no adequate precautions made, but landowners

"In fact, they treat their implements better and their domestic animals better. They have heat and insulated barns for the animals but the workers live in beat up shacks with no heat at all." (Terkel Paragraph 3). In farms, it is quite common to notice animals have veterinarians to be able to cure them when sick or view plant tools being constantly taken care of, but what is never seen are appropriate conditions for farmers. While the animals live like kings in their insulated barns with coolers and heaters, workers suffer the most by living crammed in their low-quality shacks. Despite being human, they are being treated worse than the animals and plant's tools even though they put in the work to take care of the plants, their tools, and occasionally the animals. They should at least have the same house conditions that the animals have because without them, there would be no plants to sell. The landowners believe that they do give appropriate personal treatment since they try to provide shacks for them to live in since the majority does not have a home. Even though it is true that they give superior working conditions for the animals and tools, it needs to be this way because both must be kept under the right conditions or they could get harmed; unlike them, workers can protect themselves and come up with other ideas to fix their living