Summit focuses on economic, spiritual needs of produce workers

Known as the nation's winter salad bowl, Yuma-area fields produce all but a small percent of the lettuce that goes into salads and onto sandwiches in the U.S. from November to March.

It takes many hands to nurture the crops, harvest the lettuce and ready the produce for its journeys to the far corners of the nation and even foreign destinations.

Employers and the workers they employ each winter face many challenges, said Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Diocese of Tucson, who is leading a delegation in Yuma this weekend to explore those challenges and hopefully become part of the solution.

His trip to Yuma is a follow-up to a visit he and other clergy and diocesan staff made last fall, when they talked with growers and went into the fields to hear the stories of farm workers.

"That was a very good learning experience," Kicanas said. "We heard the concerns of the growers and the needs of the farm workers."

On one hand, he said Thursday just as the meeting kicked off, growers increasingly are struggling to fill the crews they need as a result of the economy of the produce industry, lack of domestic workers who are willing to work in the fields and tightened border security that is stemming the flow of migrant workers.

On the other hand, those migrant workers from Mexico face a host of challenges as they struggle to provide for their families, Kicanas said.

The challenge to the church and society in general is to see the human face of this struggle, he said.

"There is one great need ... that is to see the face and hear the voice of the migrant worker. They are not criminals. They are humans like all of us.

"Their concern is for their children. They're trying to work to provide the needs of their families. One effort of the diocese is to help people come to know the challenges and the desperation they feel."

Kicanas said many people in the United States are now feeling that same desperation with the economic crisis facing this country. "People are unsure and anxious. They're losing their jobs and homes."

Migrant workers live with that uncertainty and anxiety all the time, he said.

The hope is that the church can become part of the solution for both growers and workers.

For example, Catholic Relief Services has developed a project to address labor issues in Yuma County by facilitating the H2A guest worker program, helping Mexicans access that program so they can work in the fields here.

But one issue of the H2A program, Kicanas said, is that growers are required by the federal government to provide housing, whether the workers want it or would prefer to return to their homes across the border each night.

The diocese would encourage the government to provide greater flexibility to Yuma-area growers for the housing requirement, he said.

The diocese also has issued a "Pastoral Statement on Farmworkers" advocating for better wages, such as for overtime, the time spent en route to the fields and for weather-related work stoppages.

Access to medical care and concern about families the workers may have to leave behind for extended times also are issues. These issues apply for workers toiling in the fields on both sides of the border.

Other efforts seek to provide community services to the workers and their families while also campaigning in Washington, D.C., for immigration reform.

As part of the summit, the clergy met with growers, then visited Yuma-area fields on Thursday. Friday, the delegation will be in San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., visiting farm workers in the fields and their families in their homes.

Saturday, they will conduct a binational Mass with farm workers in an onion field in San Luis Rio Colorado.

Joining Kicanas are Bishop Isidro Macias Guerrero of the Diocese of Mexicali; Bishop John Manz of the Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Sister Myrna Tordillo, coordinator of Migrant Ministries; Jose Lopes of the Diocese of Stockton Migrant Ministry; Ralph McCloud of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development; Monsignor Richard O'Keeffe of Immaculate Conception Church in Yuma; and others who work with migrant workers.

Their efforts were applauded by grower Rick Rademacher. "The more attention paid to what's going on the better. This puts the national spotlight on the problems ... a human face."

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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.