European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 12, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Shrimps the mexican connection  a shrimp boat Heads for port at nicknamed the shrimp capital of the by James Sterba new York times the 35 women who sort and Box shrimp at Tex mex cold in Are Quick with their with the help of they can Grade and package for freezing some pounds of shrimp an their base pay is an hour their take Home pay an the 160 women who Peel and Devin shrimp removing the dark dorsal vein at Camarones selector just across the Border in Are also Quick with their without they can remove the shells and Back veins from some pounds of shrimp an their base pay 99 cents an their Home pay 65 cents an it is that bask disparity in wages that both lures mexican workers into the United Stales and propels Labo intensive industries into labor Union officials charge that both movements Are Cost ing workers jobs at a time when unemployment rates remain but a look at the shrimp Industry around which Calls itself shrimp capital of the shows a different virtually All the jobs requiring labor Are performed by men and women of mexican some arc Many Are mexican citizens living legally on this Side of the some Are mexican citizens who live in Mexico and commute to jobs in Brownsville or work in factories set up in Mexico by companies shrimp boat owners and shrimp company processors contend that they simply cannot ind Many citizens who Are willing to work at which Are often part for wages at the Federal minimum of an hour or slightly at the same they say there is an abundance of mexicans who arc eager to Lake those jobs and grateful to get but for the most Labo intensive chores of peeling and Devening processors avoid even minimum wages by trucking their shrimp across the Border into wages of 99 cents an hour seem paltry by but they Are above average for workers in with a permit that costs a u s shrimp boats can net shrimp in mexi can the boats have Threeman Crews a Rig Man and Many of the Rig men Are mexican Ameri most of the who remove the Heads from shrimp and clean the Are the boats from Brownsville Are unloaded at the port near usually by a majority mexican boat maintenance and cleanup Crews at the port Are also mostly Lawrence manager of Gulf shrimp hires 50 to 60 mexicans in the Peak season to unload the ice the shrimp and Load them onto i dont care How Many people Are sup posed to be out of you just cant get americans to do this he the shrimp Are then trucked to Tex Max cold storage for boxing and de the company production agrees with what with food unemployment checks and so people dont want to work Over he the 35 women who work on his sorting and packaging line work Odd de pending on the amount of shrimp caught that All of them Are of mexican and about a dozen Are mexican citizens holding work u the shrimp buyer wants his shrimp shelled and he might get in touch with Robert and Michael a father and son team that runs a trucking company out of their trucks pick up the Frozen of shrimp and carry them across the Border Bridge into Matamoros to Camarones which they also own and the shrimp Are unloaded and then placed on Large stainless steel tables where their 160 women employees remove the shells and veins at a rate of eight shrimp a the All mexican work eight hours a five or six Days a they Are paid 175 pesos a Day about at uie current Exchange that figure includes most the cleaned shrimp Are thin bagged and trucked Back across the Border into Large numbers of them then go to a breading Plant that also employs hundreds of mexican american and mexi can after the shrimp Are Frozen again and packaged the Label on the package most often product sometimes the shrimp travel a route that appears to have been choreographed by Mack for shrimp caught by mexi can shrimp out of Are trucked North to the United states for sort freezing and storage in but if the buyer wants them they Are loaded Back onto trucks and car ried Back across the Border to then they Are trucked Back across the Border into the United states for final the Label most often product of even shrimp caught in Asia or Africa sometimes end up in Matamoros for clean the shrimp May arrive in new or somewhere on the West then because of Mexico Low labor the shrimp May be trucked All the Way to from where the Cross Border ritual begins once and the boxes May end up product of or packaged in with no hint of the shrimps Ori new York Timon shrimp processing Plant at Brownsville with automated equipment mexican women across the Border Devin shrimp by june 1977 the stars and stripes Page 9