Mr. VELASCO. It was only after the war that the Filpinos were granted the privilege to get married interracially, and for all these reasons, on May 10 through May 18, the farmworkers held a march from Indio to Calexico, on the border of Mexicali.

The purpose of this march, it was a 100-mile march to the border, is to protest against illegal recruitment of green carders by contractors and growers, and to appeal to the brothers in Mexico to unite with us in our struggle.

We feel that our fight as domestic workers here in the United States is also their own fight, and just wages and better living conditions and the future of our children will also benefit them.

The rally won a very strong support by campesinos, or the farmworkers. There were about 400 marchers from El Centro down to Calexico, and were joined by over 2,000 supporters right there at Calexico.

Then the rally was so successful that everybody had expressed their opinions on behalf of the farmworkers. I can say many guests around here, like Senator Kennedy and Senator Mondale were there, and Congressman O'Hara was there, and Senator Yarborough was also there, and other representatives from the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers were there.

In order that the farmworkers can have a union of their own, it is necessary to bring the farmworkers' union up to the living standards. Strong legislation is needed to protect the union. You see, the farmworkers union is just like a newborn baby, and it needs all the protection until it becomes strong, like legislation under the Wagner Act.

We need all kinds of protection, and we also need legislation to prohibit the importation of green cardholders to break our strike, and we need also in that legislation a freedom of speech in a way that we can communicate with the workers, and the right to strike to put it on a level of power equal to the power of the growers.

So those are the basic points which we want legislation to help the farmworkers form a union of their own.

That is all I have to say, gentlemen.

Senator MONDALE. Thank you, Mr. Velasco, for excellent testimony. I recently received a report from California, and I would like to read it and ask you if this would be an accurate description of what goes on at the border.

This is a report by David Averbuck, one of the unions' lawyers to Jerome Cohen, counsel to UFWOC. Mr. Averbuck reported:

On April 27th, 1969, 10 separate investigations were made on the border at Calexico and Mexicali. At 11:00 P.M., 20 organizers and myself went down to the border and stationed ourselves at the corner of Imperial Avenue and Third Avenue in Calexico. We had ten automobiles with us, and thus were prepared to follow ten vehicles north to the Coachella Valley carrying green card holders from Mexicali who were breaking our strike in the grapes.

At 1:00 A.M., the people started crossing the border in groups of around five or six. Many went parallel to the border and ended up in the "Hole." The "Hole" is a flat area where dozens of trucks and buses line up to haul Mexican nationals to the fields in the Coachella Valley, the farms near Brawley and Calipatria, and the ranches in the Imperial Valley. Most of the contractors who bring the green carders to break our strike line their buses and trucks on Imperial Ave. and in a vacant lot on that street between Second and Third Avenues in Calexico.

36-513 0-70-pt. 5A- -2

By 2:00 A.M., the recruiting is begun by the contractors and the foremen. All that the green carders are usually told is that there is a job in the grapes, that the pay is between $1.50 to $1.65 per hour, and that the job is for a grower in the Coachella Valley. The workers ask no questions because it is a buyer market-by the end of the morning hours, many farmworkers will have to go back across the border to Mexicali without a job. Of the dozens of farmworkers that we talked with, none were told that there were certified labor disputes at the ranches to which they were to be taken; none were told that under the law they were in jeopardy of losing their green cards.

At 3:00 A.M., the buses and trucks start for the north. There usually is no charge for the workers who go on the buses during the hours of 3:00 to 5:45 A.M. (actual travel time varies, but with the bus I followed it took 2 hours and 45 minutes to get the green carders from Calexico to the vineyards near Mecca. For those workers who come in private cars and pickup trucks, the fee is usually $2.00 round trip.

Approximately 700 green carders from Mexicali came up to the Coachella Valley vineyards from the Imperial Avenue area. In the "Hole," although I had to leave early and did not see how many more came, thousands of green carders were packed in trucks and buses like cattle. In some trucks, there are four rows of people (with each two rows facing each other) packed in like sardines, women placed indiscriminately among the men, some of whom are drunk or sleeping. Should there be an accident or fire, there would be no escape and we would have the same tragedy that occurred in Salinas, California, a few years ago when several dozen farmworkers were trapped in their burning vehicle and died.

The bus we followed came up Highway 111 and made only one stop at the Immigration and Naturalization outpost north of Nieland, California. The bus was driven by a green carder named Eliseo Biscara. The bus was owned and operated by a farm labor contractor from Indio named Oscar Ortega. Ortega has admitted to me in front of four witnesses that he hauls workers from the border to Bianco Fruit Corp., Coachella-Imperial Distributors, Karahadian and Sons, Inc., Cy Mouradick and Sons, and Richard A. Glass, Inc., and that he and his men have not informed the workers that there are labor disputes at these ranches.

At each of these ranches, as you now are quite aware, we have certified labor disputes by the Secretary of Labor. Five days before I followed the bus, I informed Henry C. Felchin (Head of El Centro Office of Border Patrol) that Ortega was illegally recruiting workers in Mexicali to break our strike. Despite the fact that the bus was clearly marked (“Oscar Ortega"), the border patrol officer detained it for only four minutes; that works out to 6 seconds per passenger. Biscara later told me that the border patrol officer did not ask where the bus was going. Ortega is now hauling approximately 300 workers alone.

The bus arrived at the field at 5:45 A.M., and the workers were told to work at six in the morning. When we talked with the workers from Mexicali, none were aware that they were breaking the strike or that a dispute existed.

The ranches which all the vehicles went to were around the Coachella Valley, and included: Bianco Ranch #3 (1968 Dodge stationwagon with ten green carders, license No. CRE 825); Heggblade-Marguleas (we have a certified strike here; 1959 Chevy stationwagon with nine workers, license No. KO 443); Hopper Ranch (ten people there, 50 more from Mexicali); etc.

Finally, the green carders return to Mexicali at 6:00 P.M. after leaving around 3:30 in the afternoon. Since most of the green carders live in the outskirts of Mexicali, they don't get home until around 7 to 7:30. Then up at one in the morning on the next day to start all over again.

Signed: David Averbuck.

Would that be, in your opinion, an accurate description of what is going on along the Mexican border?

Mr. VELASCO. This is correct, Senator.

Senator MONDALE. Was that the reason for your march and rally at Calexico, to try to demonstrate these facts and the need for reform along the border?

Mr. VELASCO. Yes, Senator.

Senator MONDALE. In your opinion, if the situation along the border is not corrected, would it ever be possible for farmworkers to have

the same opportunity to organize, and have collective bargaining, as has been available to all other workers in this country for nearly 34 years?

In other words, will we need reform along the border if we are going to have hope for collective bargaining and the right to organize? Mr. VELASCO. Yes; we need that.

Senator MONDALE. Senator Murphy?

Senator MURPHY. How many immigrants would you say come across the border illegally? Would you have any knowledge of that? Mr. VELASCO. I believe there are over a thousand of these people from Mexicali crossing the border.

Senator MURPHY. Crossing illegally?

Mr. VELASCO. It would be illegal on the viewpoint that they are not told they are working in strike areas.

Senator MURPHY. That isn't what I mean. I am not speaking of the green card holder. Under the present law, the green card holder comes in legally, and he has all the rights of citizenship except that he can't vote. I am referring to the illegal immigrants who come in without green cards?

Mr. VELASCO. I presume there are some people who do not have a green card among those people.

Senator MURPHY. Is the condition worse now than it used to be? Mr. VELASCO. I believe that it is much worse now than it was.

Senator MURPHY. How do you designate the strike? Do you just decide that you will strike or do the workers in the vineyards have a vote?

Mr. VELASCO. When the workers walk out of a vineyard, that is a strike. They are walking out on a strike.

Senator MURPHY. When we held hearings up in the San Joaquin Valley 2 years ago, we had great difficulty in understanding this to be the case. I had a list of vineyards that were supposed to be on strike. I picked out six of these vineyards at random and called the State Labor Office to find out if there had been an official notification of a strike. I was told that none of them had been officially notified.

This is why I am wondering how you notify the employer at the vineyard that there is a strike.

Mr. VELASCO. This is the way it happened in June 1968, Senator-——— Senator MURPHY. Where was this?

Mr. VELASCo. In Coachella.

We had some pickers in a vineyard, for example, and some workers walk out from the vineyards, and along with us, along with us were two from the Department of Labor, taking the names of the people who walk out and to certify that there is a strike going on in there.

That is a certification by the Department of Labor that the strike had been declared in that vineyard.

Senator MURPHY. The fact that the Department of Labor personnel witnessed the men walking out is all you need to certify that there is a strike condition existing?

Mr. VELASCO. That is right, Senator.

Senator MURPHY. Were the 2,000 persons that joined in the march in Calexico green card workers?

Mr. VELASCO. Many, or most of those people are green card holders, Senator.

Senator MURPHY. Are you saying that the green card holders would also like to have a union as much as the domestic worker would? Mr. VELASCO. That is correct.

Senator MURPHY. Has the system of recruitment changed much during the last year, or is it practically the same as it has been, to my knowledge, for 20 years?

Mr. VELASCO. It hasn't increased very much since the strikes have begun, Senator.

Senator MURPHY. You say there was great interest exhibited by the AFL-CIO. Is it generally known that the AFL-CIO is strongly behind the attempt to organize?

Mr. VELASCo. Correct.

Senator MURPHY. I read often about Mr. Chavez, but I don't read much about Mr. Meany or Mr. Reuther. Would that be a fair statement to say they are just as interested?

Mr. VELASCO. I would like to answer it this way, Senator. I know that the AFL-CIO is backing us by financial means, and the organizational man, William Kircher, has been working along with us. Senator MURPHY. As you know, Walter Reuther is no longer part of the AFL-CIO; he is with the Auto Workers.

Mr. VELASCO. Yes.

Senator MURPHY. Is financial assistance coming from the United Auto Workers as well?

Mr. VELASCO. That's right, Senator.

Senator MURPHY. I don't have any other questions. Actually, Mr. Chairman, there is not too much about this subject that I am not familiar with and, as you know, I introduced legislation yesterday which would make it possible for farmworkers to organize and bargain collectively. I hope it will be successful, because I know the social and economic problems facing the worker.

I am sorry to say that I wasn't as knowledgeable as I should have been about the conditions of entry and the restrictive laws. I certainly will look these up and do my utmost to see that if there are any that haven't been changed, that they will be soon.

Thank you. I have no more questions.

Senator MONDALE. Senator Schweiker?

Senator SCHWEIKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to ask a few questions. One is the pay that the green card holders usually get. Is this pretty standard, or does it vary quite a bit?

In the areas in which you work, what is the starting pay for a green card holder?

Mr. VELASCO. Before the strike, they were not paid as much as domestic workers were paid, you see.

Senator SCHWEIKER. Could you give me some figures? You were paid about what, and what were they getting before the strike?

Mr. VELASCO. We were paid-it ranges in wages from different growers. Dalatan, $1.15 and $1.30 an hour.

Senator MURPHY. Can I ask another question?

Was there also a piece rate over and above that?

Mr. VELASCO. Yes, Senator. There is also a piece rate per box. It is 25 cents a box.

Senator MURPHY. In other words, you get a minimum of $1.10 plus a piece rate of 25 cents a box?

Mr. VELASCO. And the piece rate is just solely a piece rate. It is 25 cents a box, or 32 cents a box. It all depends on the contractor.

Sometimes the contractor is one who gets the big slice, and says, "That is what I can give you, boys."

Senator MURPHY. Does he also offer more money to the better workers?

Mr. VELASCO. For the green card workers, you say?

Senator MURPHY. No; the better workers. When the contractor goes to the pit down there, doesn't he generally know the best workers and try to get them on a piece rate?

Mr. VELASCO. Usually those who work on piece rate are the younger ones. Piece rate is something that you have got to work like hell, you know. You triple your effort, as when you work by the hour, because you want to make money, and you have to be able to make that money. Senator MURPHY. I am working harder now than I ever did. I wish I was working on a piece rate.

Mr. VELASCO. And when the hourly rate is concerned, $1.10 an hour, there is an incentive of 5 cents per box that you are paid for the box that you pack, you see, and usually a picker makes an average of three to four boxes an hour, so if you make four boxes an hour, you have 20 cents on top of your $1.10, and some of the farmworkers who make beyond four boxes, the quality of the job is not as good as when you make three or four boxes an hour.

You see, you try to cheat some way if you make beyond four boxes an hour.

Senator SCHWEIKER. I would like to come back to my original question.

You were starting to tell me the difference between what you were getting and what the green carders were getting before the strike set in. You started to tell me, if I have it straight here, that you were being paid $1.10 minimum, plus how much a box, 5 or 25 cents?

Mr. VELASCO. 5 cents.

Senator SCHWEIKER. Which would probably be another 20 cents per hour, four boxes, so you are really talking about roughly, $1.30. What were the green carders getting before the strike, or were they getting the same pay?

Mr. VELASCO. Again, like I said previously, it all depends upon the contractor that hires them, you know.

Senator SCHWEIKER. Could you give me an average, a couple of figures to get a feel for what we are talking about? Were they being paid substantially less than you folks, or not?

Mr. VELASCO. In most cases, the contractor cannot blindfold these green carders, too, you know, so he has to meet this squarely, or he cannot produce workers for the grower. But there are some vicious contractors, and he will slice a little bit for his own bread and butter from the green carders.

Senator SCHWEIKER. What happened to the wages after the strike? You implied there was some change.

Mr. VELASCO. Yes. After the strike, there was a raise in wages. It used to be $1.10, $1.15, or $1.20. The reason for that is for the growers to attract the workers to come in.