Slavery in America: 90¢ an Hour & -20°F Below Zero

Slavery in America: 90¢ an Hour & -20°F Below Zero
Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:12:00 -0600
_

By Jacob Carpenter, The Red Pill

Colorado sheep-ranchers take advantage of immigrant workers in the Badlands of Wyoming


We had been on the road for hours, leaving the interstate and then digressing to smaller and smaller highways. Differing vistas of the Colorado landscape got wilder and more vacant the further north we drove. Driving through Maybell, we took a right and headed through Irish Canyon, on the road towards Rock Springs, Wyoming. Dropping down into Wyoming the sagebrush flats opened up on either side of the highway. Stretching into the distance and disappearing over the horizon, empty barren land devoid of anything but roads built by the gas companies and herds of sheep tended by imported slave labor.

With us on our journey were three Chilean men who had worked out here for anywhere from a year to three. Brought straight from their native land on work Visas, they had been promised food, clothing, shelter and a good paycheck to herd sheep on some of the roughest landscape in the west. Unfortunately for them, they did not receive adequate food, clothing, pay or medical attention. All they found was brutal winters with a constant wind that could cut to the bone and sweltering summer heat that would make a lizard pant.

We had originally expected to find the sheep camps worked by men from Peru, Chile and Ecuador, but the Colorado sheep ranchers had gone even further afield than expected to find workers to take advantage of, Nepal. Walking up to the first sheep camp trailer, my fingers ached to the bone in the cold, dry, wind as I held onto my camera. When no one answered our knock we turned to leave. Riding towards us on horseback was the first of three Nepali men that we found tending sheep in the Wyoming badlands.

Since sheep-herding is most likely the loneliest job within the continental United States, his happiness at visitors was almost overwhelming. In broken English and gestures, he showed us his home. A tiny tin trailer with a bed and wood stove that put out barely any heat. Its window was covered by cardboard and his pantry held nothing but rice, canned beans, tomato sauce, green beans, and a few spices. He kept track of the months by watching the dates change on his carton of eggs. Occasionally he could kill a sheep for food, but the only place to store the meat was in a cardboard box next to his bed. His clothes were ragged and well worn, his boots and gloves were held together by duct tape and his bedding was nothing but a thin sleeping bag and a blanket, hardly fitting clothing and bedding for a part of the country that can see wind chill factors in the negative 20s and whiteouts that can literally spring from nowhere.

The next couple of camps were in much the same shape, little tin trailers that should be condemned; mangy, ragged packs of dogs either starved for attention or cowering. Horses standing with their asses to the wind, shivering in huddled crowds, gaunt ribs showing through their thick winter coats and smiling Nepali men who were simply joyous to have someone visiting besides an angry boss yelling at them.

As we talked, the the true story of abuse and wage slavery came out. These men had signed a contract in Nepal (They are in the U.S. legally on a H2A work visa) to work eight hours a day, and when they landed in the U.S., the contracts were changed to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no vacations, ever. Adequate shelter and food were supposed to be supplied, but our own eyes showed us the falsity of that agreement. The biggest crime, however, was the 650 dollars a month these men received as compensation for their labor. When you do the math, 650 dollars a month for 24 hour shifts, 7 days a week comes 90 cents an hour. You can get paid more in, China, an hour than that, hell you could make more money an hour flying a sign on a street corner an hour than you could herding sheep.

more...

http://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/3521/Slavery_in_America_90_an_Hour_20_F_Below_Zero

to live and work in those conditions-that would cure it one way or another.

Why would they? Really.. Why? It's not like any but maybe 20 of them would really give a crap if they bothered to hear this, and since dealing with an issue like this won't REALLY help them get reelected....

in the clothing factories of the Mariana Islands.

nt

We had originally expected to find the sheep camps worked by men from Peru, Chile and Ecuador, but the Colorado sheep ranchers had gone even further afield than expected to find workers to take advantage of, Nepal.

Last time I looked on a map Nepal wasn't any where near central america. China is closer. LOL

Edited to check spelling, god forbid that I make a spelling era when pointing out another's lack of map knowledge, LOL.Can't nit pick when you could be nit picked back.

The Chileans said that they would not have come if they had known what the conditions were truly like. And they are the ones with the better working conditions!

I have watched it now for over 30 years and it just gets worse.

If ag workers were paid in the same way as other workers (by the hour and with adequate housing available) I estimate that food prices of all kinds would triple.

Only a few cents on each food dollar goes to the farmer. You're paying for advertising, glossy packaging, unnecessary processing...

I hope that it comes to be.

n/t

Just a PSA for knitters and spinners: check into the farms where your wool is coming from. I've seen small-time farmers have disgusting and horrific barns (and I grew up on a farm, so I know what it's supposed to look like and smell like), and now these big-time ranchers are getting reported. I just went to a small farm for a fleece yesterday, though, that was just lovely--clean, happy animals inside the house and out in the barn, sheep kept in the barn in the real cold (not all do that), and a gorgeous fleece with all the signs of a happy, healthy ewe.

And people wonder why commercial wool is itchy. It's because it's lower quality than what you can get from a spinner's flock. Much lower quality.