Community Organizers’ Fight Against Exploitative Employer’s Leaves a Lasting Impact on Their Community
National Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) is recognized annually from September 15th through October 15th. As part of our ongoing Historical Impact Litigation series (to read our story from last year, The Onion Revolt, please click here), we’re honored to release a story dating back 32 years. Today, over 78% of farmworkers in the U.S. identify as Hispanic or Latino and continue to experience limited protections and unethical working conditions. During this HHM, TRLA shares a story highlighting the power that comes when a hundred jalapeño workers unite and use their voices to demand justice.
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It all started 32 years ago, on Tuesday, January 7th, 1992, when a hundred jalapeño pickers went on strike, lining Border Avenue in Weslaco, Texas, across from the Santa Sarita Import and Export Company.
The workers were protesting their employer, Santa Sarita, for its unfair and illegal wage practices that left many workers earning less than the federal minimum wage.
While they demanded wage increases – TRLA would file a lawsuit on their behalf against Santa Sarita for violating the Federal Labor Standard Act.
The unlawful practices taking place at Santa Sarita leading to the 1992 strike
Day in and day out, workers destemmed and packed jalapeños to be shipped to various food companies for salsa.
Their compensation? $1.25/hr to $2.50/hr.
Meanwhile, the federal minimum stood at $4.25/hr. Nearly up to a $3.50/hr difference, Santa Sarita justified the workers' wages by using the piece rate wage practice, where workers are paid per unit rather than by hourly or yearly salary.
Santa Sarita paid its jalapeño workers $1.25 per filled bucket of jalapeños.
Frustrated by the limited pay and work environment, Dagoberto Hernandez, the strike spokesperson, explained to the McAllen Monitor how impossible it was to fill more than one or two buckets per hour, meaning workers only earned about $2.50/hr maximum. Other workers felt similarly; Danny Garcia, a Santa Sarita employee, explained that, at times, he received only $30 to $40 a week despite working full-time.
Today, this is roughly $60 to $70 a week, which is not ideal for a single person working full-time, let alone for a family with children.
While piece rate is not an illegal wage practice, employees need to earn at least the federal minimum wage by law. If not, the employer must make up the difference if employees do not produce enough to equal $4.25, explained the TRLA Attorney on the case, Beth Crabb.
Santa Sarita knowingly cut corners to avoid paying its workers a fair and legal wage.
Discrepancies filled the workplace, from inaccurate employee records and no punch-in clock-in systems for employee hour tracking, often leading to the misrepresentation of the number of hours employees worked on their pay stubs.
Before the 1992 strike: Deplorable conditions were increasingly common
At a time when large corporations constantly challenged workplace rights – TRLA’s Weslaco office, which primarily worked on farmworker cases, dedicated much of its time advocating and educating the community on worker rights and self-advocacy.
With the growing interest in the community, conversations ranged from how to unionize to collective bargaining and organizing to protect themselves from exploitative corporations.
As the community met often, union and organizing meetings were not always formal. Most looked like a group of workers coming together after a long day with some cervezas to talk about their experiences with local growers. Growers, or labor contractors, were contracted by larger companies to find and hire farm workers to harvest crops for them.
For many businesses, this was another method of cutting labor costs and limiting their liability by indirectly employing workers. Across the board, managing farm work needed more structure and safeguards for employees; this meant no time-keeping clocks, little to no supervision, and no mandated breaks.
The Mid-Valley Community Center, a non-profit raising hell on behalf of farmworkers across El Valle
To improve the standard of working conditions, a group of community members from farm working backgrounds banded together to create an organization that would protect the interests of workers.
The Mid-Valley Community Center, an independent non-profit run by Jose and Manuel Torres, paralegals in the TRLA Weslaco office at the time, was created to give farmworkers the space to present their grievances against their employers.
While the Mid-Valley Community Center was not associated with TRLA, its founding members were connected within the local farmworker community. They regularly referred friends and family to TRLA when legal intervention was needed. The community center had an organizing committee supporting local workers in their striking and collective bargaining efforts.
Santa Sarita workers sought guidance from the community center before the 1992 strike.
Santa Sarita jalapeño workers had enough: The 1992 strike began and set the standard for fair worker compensation
As local news outlets arrived on the scene, Santa Sarita workers were surrounded by the support of the local community, family, and friends. Feeling empowered, the workers held their position. The strike continued from the morning of Tuesday, January 7th, until the late hours of the night, as workers entered negotiations with Santa Sarita to end the strike.
When the strike ended, Weslaco TRLA Attorney Micheal Kirkpatrick announced the news alongside strike spokesperson Dagoberto Hernandez.
Santa Sarita agreed to pay the workers $4.25/hr, with the understanding that workers would need to fill at least two buckets of jalapeños per hour.
The Santa Sarita case catalyzed action against other companies, inspiring more workers to pressure their employers by organizing and pursuing legal action.
Attorney Kirkpatrick explained that this case changed the piece rate system to an hourly wage system where workers were guaranteed the minimum wage. This also meant that the company would implement a time clock system to help workers and management keep track of hours worked.
With the changes, workers received a 60% increase in take-home pay.
Attorney Kirkpatrick took the lawsuit to bankruptcy court, as Santa Sarita had previously filed for bankruptcy. The plaintiffs testified in this hearing and, as a result, were able to recover damages.
Above all, the Santa Sarita case set the precedent that an employer cannot get away with illegal and unfair wage practices.
The Santa Sarita case opened the doors for other local workers experiencing unlawful and unethical workplaces to seek justice
After Santa Sarita, TRLA became aware of similar practices happening at Pace Foods.
As a household salsa name across major grocery chains, controlling 27% of the market, Pace Foods had an estimated annual sales of $170 million. Their strategy for increasing profits? Cutting labor costs by hiring labor contractors.
Pace Foods hired labor contractors to find workers who would harvest jalapeños. Like the Santa Sarita employees, these workers earned as little as $2.50/hr to pick jalapeños used to make Pace’s famous salsa. In addition to being responsible for picking the jalapeños, Pace Foods instructed the workers to destem each jalapeño before packing it into a bucket. This significantly slowed the production process, and since the workers were working at a piece rate, they made even less money than before.
With growing dissatisfaction against Pace Foods, the jalapeño pickers sought action against the company.
In July 1993, TRLA and Attorney Kirkpatrick (who also led the Santa Sarita case) filed a lawsuit in federal court in McAllen against Pace Foods for violating the Federal Labor Standards Act. This lawsuit also highlighted the need for improved working conditions in the field, Pace Foods' inaccurate payroll records, and the lack of reporting for social security.
As the media began to report about Pace Food’s workers, Pace Foods representatives started to understate the company’s involvement and responsibility regarding the wages of the jalapeño pickers.
Kirkpatrick argued a *joint-employer theory, claiming Pace Foods controlled the jalapeño picker’s day-to-day operations and was considered an employer rather than a contractee.
Pace Foods eventually settled rather than facing these arguments in court, providing individuals with damages and a class-wide agreement to pay all jalapeño pickers at least the federal minimum wage.
Today, as the agricultural industry shifts, it poses new challenges for workers
While Santa Sarita and Pace Foods exposed rampant illegal wage practices and unsafe working conditions within the agricultural industry, today, workers continue to endure unstable work, retaliation, injuries, pesticide exposure, unpaid wages, inadequate housing, and much more.
Agricultural work continues to be one of the most intense, physically demanding, and necessary jobs of our time. Yet workers continue to have limited protections for themselves and their families.
As temperatures continue to rise in Texas, the legislature announced in 2023 that employers are no longer legally obligated to provide “rest breaks” to outdoor workers. Heat strokes and occupational injuries are prevalent in this line of work, and Texas is one of the few states in the U.S. that does not require employers to provide workers’ compensation for agricultural workers.
Most recently, the H-2A program, meant to aid farmers during seasonal labor shortages, has exploded in the U.S. It has become another way for employers to exploit vulnerable American and foreign agricultural workers. Whether that has been through physical or emotional violence, false or inaccurate jobs, limited jobs, coercion, or racial discrimination, just to name a few. The program poses a daily challenge for workers on the field, from varying protections from wage and retaliation to housing conditions, depending on your immigration status.
Our roots date back to the ‘70s when we were Texas Rural Legal Aid, and our program filled the need for many farmworkers across the state. Today, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) continues to fight against bad-actor employers and corporations exploiting agricultural workers and even against those corporations committing fraud against the federal government hiding behind the H-2A program in Texas or the Southern part of the country.
It continues to be increasingly difficult for workers and their families to navigate their situation, whether actively on the field or after returning home from seasonal work. With more than 2.4 million agricultural workers in the U.S. (likely higher), limited protections, the spread of hateful, false information, and the threat of job loss due to technology, it continues to be at the forefront of our work to empower and seek justice for all agricultural workers within our communities.
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*Joint-employee theory: This happens when multiple employers share responsibility for employees' work conditions and responsibilities. In this case, all employers are legally responsible for labor standards and laws and are jointly accountable if anyone violates them.