European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily Magazine migrant workers it s like slavery it is slavery by Wayne King new York times despite substantial tightening of the nation s 14-year-old migrant worker Protection Laws in 1974, Many migrants continue Tolive in squalor and work under conditions that Legal Aid officials describe As Little better than slavery. Migrant Field Crews Are still drawn to Gether Rorri society s disinherited Alco Holics recruited off the streets old men with no place to go illegal aliens who cannot complain for fear of deportation even the retarded and insane lured off the grounds of mental institutions. Once recruited Many Are held in virtual bondage through intimidation threats of beatings or because they find after months of work that they owe Money to their Crew leaders for meals housing cigarettes and wine. It s like slavery it is slavery said George Carr a Young lawyer with Florida Rural Legal services inc., a congressionally funded Agency that is looking into conditions in Benson . A number of migrant Crew leaders operating in Florida also bring Crews to North Carolina. The Laws Are generally adequate he added but nobody enforces them you might As Well not have Laws. The migrants Don t have any Power they Don t vote they Don t have any Money or organization and they re kept too ignorant and scared to complain to  visits to Camps talks with migrants and interviews with officials have disclosed that while some migrant Camps were clean and passably operated much of the migrant system is still characterized by extraordinary human exploitation and degradation. Living conditions Are crowded and filthy. In some instances Crews of 40 work ers rely on two outdoor privies one for men and another for women. Single men Many of them alcoholics Are housed in the same buildings with migrant families. Families of six and More sometimes occupy a single 9-by-9-foot room with two Beds. Garbage cans and bottles litter some Sites garbage cans Are uncovered flies swarm and doors and windows Are often without screens or Are protected Only by badly damaged screens. Beds particularly those slept in by the alcoholics Are Sheet less stained by sweat and urine. The worst housing ranges from Concrete Block bunkers with Bare Concrete floors to ramshackle Frame outbuildings some with holes in the floor and Walls. Cleanliness varies from passable to filthy and foul smelling. Health inspections Are sporadic and have failed to Correct the worst abuses. At Ivory Wilson s Camp there is a Pigpen 75 feet from the ramshackle shed that houses 35 workers. Flies Buzz around garbage cans and two tumbledown privies. Wilson will not talk with reporters although he has said he does not run the Camp. Wilson has no certificate As a migrant Crew Boss was convicted under antislavery statutes in Florida although the convictions were overturned. He says his brother has a Crew Leader s certificate and it is his brother s Camp. However there is no record of any certificate being held by anyone in the Camp. Some of them the Crew leaders seem to be going Back to the philosophy of no work no food said Juanita Morrison who picking tobacco in a Field near Benson . Human exploitation Degra Dat Heads the Sampson Johnston county migrant health clinic. One Man was getting just Rice and grits. The complaints Are multiple. I had one baby that i did t think would make it through the door of the clinic it was so  although Federal Laws require registration of migrant Crew leaders and routine monitoring the Laws Are not enforced. Two Crew leaders operating in the Benson area have previously been convicted of Violat ing Post civil War antislavery statutes mandating penalties for involuntary Servi tude and peonage. Some Crew leaders operate under registrations granted to relatives and a number apparently do not Register at All. Many migrant workers routinely become indebted to Crew leaders. Although the practice is illegal Many Crew leaders charge 75 cents for a pack of cigarettes that Cost 30 cents in North Carolina and As much As $2.50 for an 80-cent pint of wine. Many illiterate migrants have no idea How much pay is due them and end up owing hundreds of dollars at the end of the season. They must thus go on to the next Job. Besides economic intimidation some migrants Are kept docile through threats of beatings and Are rarely allowed off the Camp property. Visitors Are kept out by no trespassing signs. Local Field labor is being displaced by migrant Crews which Are both cheaper and easier to control because they can be held within the Camps to tally dependent on the Crew leaders. The most easily exploited workers Are illegal aliens and 500 to 1,500 Ille gals As they Are called reportedly work around Benson. The lower estimate comes from a mexi can american who cannot find work or decent housing because of illegals. The higher comes from the area office of the employment Security commission. At the heart of the migrant system is the Crew Boss or labor contractor. The Crew Boss recruits workers for growers trans ports them from Job to Job and runs the migrant Crew Camp providing most of the necessities of life. In most cases he is both the Boss and the sole provider. Money paid by the grower for the crops the workers pick goes through the Crew Boss s hands and he keeps a commission As much As half the total. What is left is supposed to go to the worker although in practice the Crew Leader s Bills for necessities can exceed the Money the migrant earns keeping him in eternal peonage. Joseph Washington an aging Black Man who worked at a Camp outside Benson at first refused to talk with outsiders saying he had been told by his employers not to do so. After being assured of Protection however Washington fled the Camp and displayed his weekly pay envelopes. The envelopes showed that in a recent week he had been paid $53.97 for picking tomatoes but $40 had been deducted for Board and the remainder was credited to the outstanding balance he owed the Crew leaders$293.62. This left Washington owing $279.65 after three months of work. How did it happen that s what i d like to know said Washington when i works every  other pay envelopes show that he earned amounts ranging from $21.98 to $106.85, depending on his week s work. He Lias never been out of debt however and Lias owed As much As $482.48. Washington is not Good at figures. He puts his age at about 70." dozens of other new York times by Jackson Hillion economic intimidation. Migrants in the area Tell similar stories. Michael Walls who said he was recruited off the streets of Charlotte ., was told that he would make $100 a week when he was taken to a labor Camp near Benson. We were paid by Check Walls said which we would have to endorse Over to the Crew Leader. Our Check stubs did not show the number of hours we worked or the amount we picked or any deductions for room or Board or credit purchases. The Crew Leader would Cash our checks and deduct what we owed late saturday night to pay us so the store would be closed and we would have to buy from him. The most i was Ever paid for a week s work was $5 after he made his deductions. He sold wine to us every night. We could buy it on credit. He sold it by the pint and it Cost $1.75 a pint. He also sold White whisky for $2 a half pint and $4 a pint. We could also buy Beer for 75 cents a can. Cigarettes were 75 cents minimum a  Walls said he also had to pay $12 for a pair of used work pants and $28.50 for meals not including lunch in the Fields which he bought by turning Over tickets he had received for picking crops that Day. Walls said that the Crew Leader kept a gun in his room and would boast to people How he had killed one Man who disagreed with him so most of us were afraid of him. I personally saw him beat one of the work ers on the  the rewards to the Crew Leader can be great. One of them Wardell Wil Liams is said to have boasted in Florida that he had netted $450,000 Over several seasons. When arrested in Florida three years ago on charges of forcing involuntary servitude on migrant workers a Crew Leader named Joe l. Brown now operating in the Benson area had a tog containing $16,000 in Cash. Wednesday september 14, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 13