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Immigrant Shepherds Endure Harsh Work, Low Pay


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http://www.komonews.com/news/business/81517562.html

 

WAMSUTTER, Wyo. (AP) - Alone and thousands of miles from home, the immigrant sheepherder roams some of the West's most desolate and frigid landscapes, tending a flock for as little as $600 a month without a day off on the horizon.

 

"You take it or leave it. You take it because the economy is worse at home," Pepe Cruz, a 40-year-old Peruvian, said in Spanish.

 

Cruz is one of hundreds of immigrants from South America, Mexico and Nepal who work as sheepherders in states like Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and California, and their brutal work conditions are getting increased attention these days.

 

Advocates are pushing for improvements in working conditions for the sheepherders, with a Colorado lawmaker planning to introduce a bill this session to raise their minimum wage to $9.88 an hour. That is the amount other Colorado farmworkers are paid.

 

Colorado Legal Services, a Denver-based nonprofit legal assistance network, visited sheepherders with temporary work visas in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and found they sometimes toil more than 90 hours a week, can't leave the isolated sites where they work and are grossly underpaid by U.S. standards. The group's report on the conditions was to be released Thursday.

 

Rep. Daniel Kagan, a Democrat from Denver, said sheepherders often don't speak English, don't know where they are, and depend entirely on their employers for food, water and contact with the outside world.

 

"It struck me as a situation rife with the possibility of abuse, and I was afraid that we were looking at a situation of indentured servitude, of near slavery, right here in Colorado, and that troubled me a lot," Kagan said.

 

The struggling U.S. sheep industry argues the immigrants - and the current pay scale - are crucial to its survival and that the jobs give foreign workers opportunities for a better life back home.

 

Peter Orwick, executive director of the American Sheep Industry Association, said any cost increase to ranchers - wages, fuel, grain - can shut them down. About two-thirds of U.S. ranchers have quit over the last 15 years because of competition from abroad and the competition to wool from synthetic fiber, he said.

 

"We couldn't survive without these men," said Anthony Theos, a rancher and president of the Colorado Wool Growers Association. Theos said he provides modern 16-foot trailers, solar panes for electricity and propane tanks to heat food. Workers keep most of the $750 a month they're paid, Theos said.

 

"We want them to be comfortable," he said. "They protect our livelihood."

 

Colorado Legal Services interviewed 93 shepherds over two years in western Colorado and adjacent parts of Wyoming and Utah. Sixty-one came from Peru.

 

They work seven days a week and are on call 24 hours a day, the survey found. In some cases they are miles from the nearest town, living in small, often shabby trailers with room only for a bed, a woodburning stove and 5-gallon water coolers.

 

Seventy percent of workers interviewed said they didn't have a toilet and 54 percent said they had no electricity. Forty-two percent said their employers kept their passports and other documents and that they feared deportation if they complained about conditions.

 

Cruz has worked off and on as an immigrant sheepherder for 10 years. Typically, he and other herders work at ranches for three years, then have to go home for a time before reapplying for temporary H2-A visas, which are largely designed for migrant laborers.

 

Cruz said he earns four times what he can in Peru and has put two siblings through college. He also wants to start his own bus company.

 

"Based on what I know about the minimum wage, what they pay us is very little," Cruz said as he drove one frigid day along the Wyoming plains spotted with snow and sagebrush, a rifle on the front seat of his truck for marauding coyotes.

 

"I knew what I was coming to because I'd had relatives who had come here to do the work."

 

His day can begin at 4 a.m. and end late at night during lambing season. He delivers food and supplies to other shepherds, as they tend grazing flocks, round up strays with trained dogs and protect the sheep from predators.

 

"All day I have to take care of them," said Jose Quijeda Ricaldi, 35, a native of Peru's Junin province, who tends to more than 2,100 sheep.

 

The sheepherders with the H2-A visas are exempted from federal minimum wage standards because it's hard to tabulate their hours. And while housing and food are provided, federal rules don't mandate running water, toilets or electricity.

 

"I think it's just sort of been frozen in time. Nobody's really petitioned to have these conditions improved," said Jennifer Lee, an attorney for Colorado Legal Services.

 

In California, lawmakers passed a law in 2001 raising sheepherder wages after Central California Legal Services published a survey chronicling their lives. Chris Schneider, executive director of the group, said California sheepherders are supposed to be getting paid $1,422 a month but that it doesn't always happen.

 

Over the last decade, the U.S. Department of Labor has collected $216,443 in back wages for 133 sheepherders nationwide and fined employers $77,725.

 

Dennis Richins, executive director of the Western Range Association, said ranchers who amass worker complaints are kicked out of his trade group.

 

Lee said the CLS survey is not meant to be all encompassing, but that it does provide a needed snapshot of the industry.

 

To find the sheepherders, CLS workers often spent hours following footprints in the snow.

 

On a recent trip into Uintah County, Utah, a sheepherder on horseback trotted toward the CLS Jeep. He said his name was Gonzalo, from Peru, and has a wife and five children back home. He declined to give his last name because he didn't know if he would get in trouble with his boss.

 

He said he is so isolated that he passes the time by talking to his dogs and sheep.

 

He then reined his horse and galloped away into the field of snow, his two border collies behind him.

 

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I was struck with how the "campitos" pictured in this article look so much like Romany bowtop vardos. Not so nice inside, though. And that galvanized roof must be insufferably hot in the summer! Well, these vardos are pretty fancy on the outside too, but they're for taking to the horse fair at Appleby and are suitably tarted up.

 

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These are a bit more like living wagons you normally see.

 

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I don't know what the answer is for the immigrant sheepherders. I didn't notice whether the articles said how well paid the American sheepherders are paid.

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The conditions described in these articles are absolutely inexcusable. If the sheep ranching industry really cannot afford to treat these shepherds humanely and pay them a living wage, then their industry needs to either change or go under. This is not an acceptable business model.

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What struck me most in the article was when the rancher stated that low WOOL prices were what was causing the lack of money to pay shepherds. I managed to make some money selling specialty wool to a craft market, but it was still the market lambs that paid the bills. I believe there is a vast, untapped market in the US for American lamb. I'm not nearly enough of a business person to know how to connect that market to the ranchers, but it seems that when extremely small-time producers like me are selling lamb at a premium price, even in this economy, the big guys should be able to figure something out.

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^^I agree. There are American chefs who would use American lamb year round if it were available to them. Most I've talked to have said they use in when it is available and then use NZ lamb the rest of the year. Isn't this part of what the American Lamb Board should be doing (helping ranchers market their lamb)?

 

J.

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Historically, farm workers are paid a pittance- and I should know- I was one for years. The low pay, and poor living conditions exists in all jobs where immigrants are utilized, to pay less and and get more work. From the Thouroughbred race tracks, to apple pickers, to shepherds.

 

In NY state there are relatively new laws on the books requiring a standard of living quarters for apple pickers. The money though completely unacceptable to most of us, is a LOT more than they would make in their home countries. This is why there are no complaints, unless a resident speaks up for them.

 

One thing to remember, farm work is not a 9-5, 5 day a week job. When I did it, I was LUCKY to get one day off, and I made $5.00 an hour. No pto either.

 

I am in agreement that conditions need to improve, and the afore-listed article will hopefully start some positive change.

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This is the life they chose and this is the way those jobs are run. It may not be the best in the world, but they are working, earning a living and taking care of their families. It is not easy work and as they say, the more physical the job, the less one gets paid. All the farmers I know work 24/7. Some may have better living conditions than these guys, but this is round the clock work.

 

All I have to say is they are willing to do a job no one else wants. At least they're working. It's more than I can say for all the dead beats sitting on their couches drinking beer and collecting welfare and food stamps. The only real gripe I have about the migrants is I know most are illegal, but I guess that's a whole nother post

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This is the life they chose and this is the way those jobs are run. It may not be the best in the world, but they are working, earning a living and taking care of their families. It is not easy work and as they say, the more physical the job, the less one gets paid. All the farmers I know work 24/7. Some may have better living conditions than these guys, but this is round the clock work.

 

All I have to say is they are willing to do a job no one else wants. At least they're working. It's more than I can say for all the dead beats sitting on their couches drinking beer and collecting welfare and food stamps. The only real gripe I have about the migrants is I know most are illegal, but I guess that's a whole nother post

 

I agree that it's the job they choose and some things are just a part of being out there- there are not going to be a ton of amenities out trailing sheep, the shepherds have to be nearly as portable as the sheep, so an RV is out of the question and some places are just to remote to get anything up there at all. So it may boil down to either not having these large commercial range flocks (which would make me kinda sad, but maybe I'm just being selfish) or allowing that the shepherds will not have the best of living arrangements. I do think it would be a good idea to have advocates in place and require that contact be made (via phone probably, which it seems most of them have and the one's I've met have) once per quarter or so to verify that they are getting paid, suitable food, etc. And some sort of middle man so that there is oversight over terminating/deporting employees so that they do feel they can speak up without consequences.. I do not think that most of these herders are illegal, there are companies that contract out workers, perhaps the easiest thing would be to make them accountable for the welfare of their workers.

 

I have gotten to do some work alongside some of these workers- admittedly for only a day, but they did not seem dissastified. There were four Peruvians, it seemed like a work day was also a social occasion for them (as it involved beer :rolleyes: and really delicious dutch oven cooking by the forelady's mother). Each was normally alone with their band and one or two dogs. One worker was there for his third contract, none of them had running water, but they did have camp wagons, propane and water tanks. I don't know about the toilet facilities, we did have a portapotty near the work pens, but I don't imagine that was convenient for them most of the time. One was very lonely for his family and my friend, who speaks Spanish, was able to get his phone card working for him.

 

The pay is very low, I think they got $800 per month plus food. I will say it's not enough and a good herder deserves much more, but I know that at least two of the workers were not considered to be any good by the forelady and that she was PO'd because there wasn't alot she could do about it. It was either put up with what you have- herders too lazy to move their wagon and graze ewes far enough to get good feed on very minimal range- or go without any herder for months while you wait for a replacement.

Not a judgement on either, I wasn't there long enough to say, but just another perspective.

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My husband and I cowboyed and packed mules for a lot of years. The work is hard, the pay was low, the conditions are harsh. It's the way it is.

 

I don't doubt that there are some sheep outfits that mistreat their herders just as the articles state. There are a***s for bosses in any walk of life, and immigrant workers have always trod the edge, especially when they don't speak the language.

 

Still, I doubt whether articles like this can be viewed as unbiased. Here they seem to have sought out all the very worst case scenarios, and portrayed even simple things in the dimmest light.

 

I've been out there. I've been 20 miles off the blacktop and 70 miles from town. My husband and I would go days and weeks without seeing a soul, and then only when we went back to headquarters for supplies, or if the boss drove out to check on us. Whether it's a cow camp or a sheep camp, I think most ranchers take care of their help. After all, if a man is starving or miserable, he's not going to take proper care of your sheep or cows, and if he's not on the job, you're going to lose livestock.

 

What raises my eyebrows are the depictions, there, of the living conditions. Sheep camp or cow camp, there is no hauling a fully equipped RV, complete with generator and all the amenities, out to the back of beyond. You'd break an axle, the generator is gonna break down, and there's damned sure no place to empty the waste tank. There is no hauling out a Honeybucket outhouse, because the service vehicles can't get out there to empty them. There is no running water, because nobody is installing plumbing on Forest service or BLM grazing land, and there is no electricity because the nearest power line is probably thirty miles away.

 

That's cow camp. That's sheep camp. That's how it is. You keep perishables in a cooler or sink 'em in the creek, you live out of cans, you shower from a bucket, and you cook over a propane or Coleman stove. You dig your own outhouse and toss your fireplace ashes in to hasten waste decomposition. You get your drinking water from a spring or from a 50 gallon drum hauled out from headquarters. You work long hours and get dirty, and sometimes you get hurt. It's primitive. Yes. It's rough. Yes. It's not for the fainthearted. Yes.

 

But unless an employer is deliberately withholding means of making their herders' lives more comfortable, the primitive lifestyle of tending herds on the range is not grounds for public outcry.

 

Again, I don't doubt there has been abuse in the employment of immigrant, non-English-speaking sheepherders. But I mistrust that this seems to condemn the entire lifestyle, out of hand, simply for the fact that it's "primitive."

 

Out West, some things still have to be done the old way, or they don't get done at all. I'd sure hate to see American ranching go down the tubes, because city folk got upset over the lack of a flush toilet sixty miles from town.

Cheers ~

 

Gloria

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I think my biggest concern would be simply to make sure that the employees were in fact being paid as promised. I think it could be very tempting for an unethical employer to take advantage of the fact that these men don't speak the language and have no recourse if the employer stiff them their wages. The rest, as Gloria described, is to be expected, given the job. I don't think there would be harm, though, in keeping track of the shepherds and making sure that they were indeed gettting paid.

 

J.

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I think my biggest concern would be simply to make sure that the employees were in fact being paid as promised. I think it could be very tempting for an unethical employer to take advantage of the fact that these men don't speak the language and have no recourse if the employer stiff them their wages.

 

That is true wherever an immigrant works, not just on farms/ranches. I believe immigrants are far more likely to be stiffed working as housekeepers, nannies and hotel staff in big cities as then working on ranches. Some of the inner city stories I've heard are truly sickening.

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Sure immigrants in general are more likely to be taken advantage of, and of course it's compounded by the fact that many are illegal immigrants, and the employer isn't paying social security or whatever. It seems to me, and I'm sure this isn't a terribly popular opinion, that if it's a job no one else wants to do (for the wages that are customary), then provisions should be made to insure that the folks who do agree to do the job are in fact paid whatever low wage they're supposed to get. I don't know that immigrants in cities are more likely to be stiffed than ranch workers, but maybe it's true. At least in cities there's the chance that the immigrant can access resources that can help them, which is not true for the workers out on the range. In other words, I think it's important to have some sort of advocacy in place for workers who are isolated, especially, so that they aren't taken advantage of.

 

J.

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The complaint isn't that the living conditions are primitive. The complaint is that the living conditions are primitive, the work is hard, AND the workers are not fairly compensated for working hard and living in primitive conditions. Average pay for these workers is less than $900/month for working 14 hour days, 7 days per week for an entire season. That's about $2.00/hr (and that does not include any compensation for being "on-call" 24 hours per day).

 

The employers try to justify these wages by claiming that they provide "room and board" but the "room" is primitive and the "board" is minimal and neither justify the difference in wages paid versus a decent living wage.

 

I've worked in tree planting camps for months on end where "room" was a tent that I supplied and I got paid piece work (cents per tree planted) but at least if I worked hard, I could make good money. These guys, when they get paid at all, get paid crap wages.

 

Like most of these jobs, the employers justify hiring migrant workers (including undocumented or illegal migrants) with the excuse that "no American will do the job". Americans would do the work, but not for $2/hr.

 

 

 

But unless an employer is deliberately withholding means of making their herders' lives more comfortable, the primitive lifestyle of tending herds on the range is not grounds for public outcry.

 

Again, I don't doubt there has been abuse in the employment of immigrant, non-English-speaking sheepherders. But I mistrust that this seems to condemn the entire lifestyle, out of hand, simply for the fact that it's "primitive."

 

Out West, some things still have to be done the old way, or they don't get done at all. I'd sure hate to see American ranching go down the tubes, because city folk got upset over the lack of a flush toilet sixty miles from town.

Cheers ~

 

Gloria

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