The farms specializing in agricultural exports near San Quintin, Baja California, offered their labourers a 15% raise so they would end a two-week strike. However, the labourers' leaders immediately claimed that the offer was unacceptable because they wanted insurance benefits, higher wages, and an end to what they consider to be abusive attitudes against the workers.
The strike of 50,000 labourers has included the closure of the main highway that runs from north to south in Baja California, clashes with the police, and the arrest of dozens of people supporting the strikers.
The workers refute the Governor
The government of Baja California said that thousands of workers had returned to the fields and that 80 to 90% of the production operations in the fields had started again.
However, activist Fermin Salazar said on Monday that the strike continued and that the 15% wage increase offer was unacceptable. Governor Francisco Vega said in a statement that the workers had accepted the wage increase and that they had also reached a 64-point agreement. Salazar, however, insisted that the problem was still unresolved. "The state government was not able to solve the problem, so we need the minister of the interior to come," he said.
At the beginning, the labourers were asking for a wage increase of 300 pesos ($19.70) per day. However, some voices say they have reduced their demands to 200 pesos. So far, most of the labourers around the valley of San Quintin are paid less than $8 a day to collect fruits and vegetables.
The valley of San Quintin has an area of 8,500 hectares devoted to the production of fruits and vegetables for export, such as tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, onions and raspberries. Salazar admitted that several labourers had returned to work, but said, that didn't mean the strike was over.
The increase can't be higher than 15%
Marco Antonio Estudillo, spokesman for the Agricultural Council of Baja California, which brings together the operators of the farms, said the producers couldn't offer an increase higher than 15% because it would be commercially unsustainable. "No other industry can make the effort of increasing wages that high as it will affect other costs, technology investments, etc.," said the spokesman via email.
The strike affects almost half of farms in San Quentin
Estudillo said that, up to last Friday, 45% of the crops had been affected by the strike, which had caused losses between $80 and $100 million dollars.
Many of the labourers are people who have migrated from southern states such as Guerrero and Oaxaca. Their demands include health care, overtime pay and one paid day off per week. Workers have reported that they are being forced to work overtime without being paid and that they have received threats that if they complain, they won't be re-hired.
Source: ADNSURESTE.INFO