North Carolina Farmworkers Reveal a Hard Life

By Maria-Pia Negro Chin, OSV News

RALEIGH, N.C. (OSV News) — A day after breaking bread with farmworkers and listening to their stories, a delegation on a pastoral visit to the Diocese of Raleigh heard a series of presentations on realities, best practices, current policies, and pastoral insights by diocesan volunteers and leaders at the Catholic Center in Raleigh last month.

The pastoral visit was organized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees, and Travelers. Participants from the USCCB and the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network, joined by Raleigh parishioners and community organizers from Aug. 1-4, witnessed the efforts of parishes accompanying workers and learned about their working and living conditions.

The panels and subsequent Q&A sessions were frank and full of details and anecdotes about the conditions many farmworkers in North Carolina live in. For example, although both ministers and members of civic organizations said some H-2A workers’ conditions are reasonable and humane, many camps have substandard dwellings or inadequate working conditions. The H-2A program allows foreign agricultural workers to work in the U.S. temporarily.

On paper, the H-2A program requires that employers provide clean housing while seasonal workers remain in the country (sometimes up to 10 months), fund the workers’ transportation, and pay them $15.81 an hour (the current rate in North Carolina). Advocates, however, say that often this is not the case.

A parish volunteer on one of the panels said many farmworkers are exploited by contractors who illegally “charge them so they can get a visa to work” and often arrive with a lot of debt. Often, the trailers where they live are in bad condition with defective appliances and bed bugs, she said, adding that often there is no air conditioner inside the crowded dwellings. She also said that workers in remote areas are vulnerable to robbery and exploitation.

Church volunteers, she said, can refer the workers to civic associations so they can see how to enforce their rights.

Pastoral presence calls for a delicate balance

In some cases, there is a delicate balance when trying to help farmworkers, panelists and audience members said.

Church ministers can go into the work camps where people live, which are private property, only if they have permission from the owner. Preaching is fine, one said, but criticizing conditions or giving workers information about their rights can cause people to be banned from entering and bringing the sacraments to farmworkers.

Jesús García, a parishioner of St. Ann Church in Clayton, who has been volunteering in migrant ministry for nearly a decade, said the message he shares with the men at the work camps is “God loves you. You are not alone. Keep at it.”

He often goes to the fields to give catechism classes or prepare people for their sacraments, such as first Communion and confirmation. “The need is outside (the parish), with these suffering workers,” he said.

“They make lines of 30-40 people waiting for a blessing” when priests are able to visit the workcamps, García recalled. “Sometimes people ask why they do not come to church. It is because they do not have command of their own time, others do” and the workers often lack transportation.

Extreme heat threatens workers’ lives

During his part of the presentation, Passionist Father Peter Grace, the pastor of St. Ann in Clayton, talked about having to bless the body of a worker Juan José Ceballos, 32, who died July 6 because of heat, he said. Another panelist later shared photos of the last time the parish visited Ceballos and his co-workers. He was originally from Hidalgo, Mexico, and was known for his work ethic. He went to work in North Carolina to provide for his wife and two children.

Local news reports said the North Carolina Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Division is investigating the workplace death and that the National Weather Service reported the maximum temperature on the day of Ceballos’ death was 101 degrees Fahrenheit in a nearby county.

Like most states, North Carolina has no standards or regulations about these risks — only five states do — and the federal government’s heat safety recommendations are not always enforced.

During the conversations at the diocesan Catholic Center, Leticia Zavala, a farm labor organizer in eastern North Carolina, said that the laws in place offer “minimal protections.” She pointed out that it was not until 2008 that growers were required to have a mattress for the workers, referring to an amendment to the 1989 Migrant Housing Act of North Carolina.

Fear of retribution for speaking out

Zavala explained that because farmworkers need to come year after year to provide for their families, they are nervous about complaining or denouncing problems to the authorities.

“The moment you speak up, there is no guarantee that you will return,” Zavala told the delegation. “You are punished, you are blacklisted.”

Zavala’s Durham-based organization, “It’s Our Future,” came with someone who might be in that situation: Valente Martínez Serrano.

Martínez, who is from Hidalgo, Mexico, shared his testimony with the group. He had been coming to work as an H-2A worker since 1999. A few days ago, Martínez and his fellow workers had to take a break in the shade after working nearly five hours cutting tobacco by hand in 90-degree weather, he said, when the owner approached them and yelled at them. That is when he decided to walk away.

Martínez had also felt ill the day before, with the heat and humidity, and was told to keep on working.

“I told him I could not because I did not want to die,” he said, adding that the mayordomo (crew supervisor) threatened his job.

Martínez told the group that after leaving his current employer, he asked the North Carolina Growers Association — a network of farm owners that manages the H-2A workers’ visa applications for its members, which had placed him with this current employer — if he could work elsewhere. But there was no room anywhere else, so he decided to head back to Mexico, knowing that breaking his contract meant he would likely not be asked back next year.

Having older kids who also work, 56-year-old Martínez said that he is not worried that he is likely blacklisted for leaving the work camp. Last year, he said, he could withstand working with temperatures in the 100s, but this year, he had to leave the field when the temperature reached the high 90s.

Martínez also said he wanted to speak up, so farm owners and supervisors respect their rights, which includes the right to rest and water, as stated in their contracts.

In an interview with OSV News, Martínez said he hoped workers’ rights would be respected.

“They rent us as merchandise … to work with one rancher, to work with another,” he said. “They should not treat us like animals. We are human beings.”

Greed versus human dignity

Talking to the delegation, as well as with OSV News, Bishop Luis R. Zarama of Raleigh discussed the dire conditions that many of the migrants who come here with an H-2A visa are forced to live in, which include overcrowded dwellings, and having their movements restricted because of the lack of transportation, not to mention workplace hardships.

“To a certain extent, these migrants who come to work in the fields, even though they have their permits, it is a form of a new slavery because, as I mentioned, the conditions in which they live … the working conditions — (involve) often subhuman conditions,” he said.

At the root of this is greed. “Everything is measured with money. How much you can have, how much you can produce. It’s not (measured by) how we can help to protect human dignity,” the bishop said.

The difficult lives that the workers have is a reality “that in one way or another is ignored,” he said. The bishop noted that often migrants are criticized, but also used “for political campaigns — each party uses them according to their convenience.”

Bishop Zarama also mentioned how essential farmworkers were during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when they continued working to provide food for the country. He said that then, and now, these workers are often taken for granted.

“We don’t realize that … there were hands there who make it possible that we have the food we eat,” Bishop Zarama added.

He pointed out how the Hispanic community at the diocesan cathedral regularly brings food to the migrants, and they come with a priest to celebrate the Eucharist and hear confessions — something that happens in different parishes around the diocese.

“It is an act of humanity to accompany the rural migrants,” he said.

Feeling the church’s embrace

After witnessing how the diocese is accompanying the migrant worker population, the delegation continued talking to workers during the XIII Encuentro Católico de Campesinos at a Redemptorist parish Aug. 4. Several parishioners contributed to the annual encounter, which included Mass, confessions, food and games, and it was another time to walk with the farmworkers.

There were a lot of donations for workers to get clothes and other items. Local hair stylists also offered free services, and a free clinic was provided for workers to talk to doctors, nurses, and medical students. About 300 people participated this year, including volunteers.

“Our intention is for them to spend a nice time and they can forget a bit about the stress, of the worries of their daily toil,” said Jesus Garcia, who was volunteering to set up tents. “It’s a way to thank the guys for all the work that they do in the state of North Carolina.”

During the Mass, Bishop Zarama encouraged workers, reminding them that a good friend accompanies people through their hardships and asking them to invite Jesus to be part of their day.

“It is not easy,” he said of their lives and suggested offering up the work as a prayer for their loved ones back home. “May God repay you. May God repay you for your hands, for your knees, for your backs, for your headaches,” he said. “For all the sacrifices you make.”

Since it does not happen often, hearing people thank them for their work was gratifying, said Cruz Orozco, a seasonal farmworker.

He told OSV News many workers were looking forward to the event.

“I am grateful to those people” who organize the annual gathering, Orozco said. “There are games, gifts, and everything. … There is even free food. And the Mass. It’s very nice.”

Orozco has been coming to work in the fields for 12 years, and now with his work he pays alimony, since a few years ago he and his wife separated. Speaking with a representative of the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network on the pastoral visit delegation, he explained that while earning around $400-600 a week may not seem like much, that amount can go far in Mexico.

Orozco talked about his two children and how, early that morning, he learned that his grandmother had died. Although he knows that his grandmother — who was 104 years old — rests in peace, what was difficult was “not being able to be with your family … with your people” at that time.

“That’s the price we have to pay today,” he said. “When it’s your son’s birthday, your daughter’s birthday, or at that time, well, the wife’s birthday, right? And you have to be here.”

He has been going back to the same ranch for years, where there are only 12 workers and he says they are fortunate that their boss doesn’t pressure them and lets them leave early if it’s too hot. Since there are only a few of them, the boss knows them, Orozco said. And that makes a difference, he reflected, sharing what some of the people in other workcamps must go through.

When asked again about the best part of the farmworkers’ meeting, he quickly responded, “The Mass and prayer.”

“There is no church very close to where we are,” he said. “So, you leave fulfilled … blessed” after this campesino encounter, he added.

Featured image: Bishop Luis R. Zarama of Raleigh, N.C., hugs an attendee of the XIII Encuentro Católico de Campesinos on Aug. 4, 2024, an annual event for farmworkers in the Raleigh Diocese, many of whom are temporary H-2A agricultural workers. About 300 workers and volunteers participated this year. (OSV News photo/courtesy of USCCB Public Affairs)