Working In These Times
Working in the Shadows: Undercover Writer Sheds Light on Immigrant Labor
Gabriel Thompson at work in the lettuce fields of Yuma, Ariz.
They call them the “jobs Americans won’t do”: picking lettuce, pulling apart frozen chickens, toiling in a hot kitchen and other grueling, dangerous, mind-numbing or otherwise highly undesirable jobs.
Most people know that for years immigrants—disproportionately Latino —have made up the bulk of these workforces. Since immigration crackdowns and increased border security post 9-11, employers have periodically reported worker shortages especially for farms and slaughterhouses.
After reading a New York Times article about an exodus of slaughterhouse workers following an immigration crackdown, journalist and SEIU researcher Gabriel Thompson decided to spend a year “working in the shadows” – shoulder to shoulder with immigrants, doing the jobs most Americans like him notoriously “won’t do.”
And he found out why.
Thompson's experiences are chronicled in Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won’t Do, to be released in February 2010 by Nation Books.
Thompson is no stranger to labor and the lives of immigrant workers. (In 2006 he published There’s No Jose Here: Following the Hidden Lives of Mexican Immigrants, also by Nation Books, and he has covered a variety of untold stories on his blog, Where the Silence Is.) But his year on the job was still eye-opening and back-breaking.
Within days of his first job in a Yuma lettuce field, Thompson could barely move his 30-year-old body and he found out he had a “sweating problem,” in the words of his co-workers who were always friendly and supportive—if constantly baffled by his presence. Undercover, Thompson made up excuses for why a white man would take these jobs. The fact that he constantly had to answer the question “Why are you here?” shows just how institutionalized the segregation of our immigrant workforce is.
Union leaders and policy makers often say or imply that if the jobs now filled by immigrants paid more, Americans would flock back to them, unemployment would be eased and immigrants would not be needed to fill out the workforce.
Thompson’s experience shows that it is not so simple. While in past days “Americans” did grueling manual labor jobs on farms and in factories, expectations and life experiences have changed enough that even most unemployed and destitute “Americans” are not necessarily willing or able to take the kinds of jobs immigrants are doing, even if the pay is decent.
Thompson notes a farm owner quoted in the Arizona Republic saying that even if lettuce-picking jobs paid $40 an hour, Americans would “do it about three hours and say ‘That’s not for me.’”
When the infamous meatpacker Smithfield moved to hire more U.S. citizens, even $12 an hour wages significantly above the regional norm failed to attract and retain workers. Likewise, after the large immigration raid in Postville, Iowa in May 2008, there was high turnover of American workers who came to Iowa for jobs but soon decided it was not for them.
(Of course these are generalizations – there are some white, African-American or other “American” workers who spend years or decades working in these jobs.)
Even as a young healthy guy with a supply of painkillers and a mission in mind, it is a struggle for Thompson to make it through the year. And he knows his hard labor sentence will end, whereas his co-workers are likely still doing those jobs today, rarely taking time off even when suffering injuries or, in the case of one lettuce-picking co-worker, eight months pregnant.
Meanwhile, despite his obviously sub-par performance in the industries he delves into, Thompson is often in the bizarre situation of fighting against being promoted simply based on his skin color. Supervisors are baffled that he doesn’t want “more responsibility,” and more money, which they assume he is entitled to because of his race.
Thompson cites his admiration for “immersion journalists,” including Barbara Ehrenreich and George Orwell. And he makes clear that he was just trying to physically survive the work – a big enough challenge – not also struggling to feed and raise a family on paltry wages like his co-workers would be.
Thompson’s book reads like a journal or an intelligent, empathetic conversation, and effortlessly weaves together various themes and accomplishes multiple goals. Along with showing the difficulties of this work, it also brings the workers and the work they do “out of the shadows.” He highlights interesting daily realities and observations of this work—who knew lettuce workers begin the day with group calisthenics, or that frozen chicken breasts look like babies’ behinds, at least after you’ve seen thousands of them flying by each day.
Thompson also reminds us that as hard as these jobs are, immigrant workers maintain their humanity and sense of humor. They are not turned into a grim army of stoic automatons as some well-meaning but shallow media depictions might lead one to believe.
Ultimately the idea that most “Americans” won’t do these jobs even if the pay is better leads to the conclusion that these industries as currently structured aren’t sustainable or healthy any many levels – not only for the worker but the consumer, the environment and the economy as a whole.
When it is physically impossible to halve all the frozen chickens flying by, and a supervisor turns a deaf ear to his pleas for help, Thompson learns it is commonplace to let the birds be packaged without being halved as advertised (or so he assumes). And of course countless stories have come to light of E. coli on produce, unhealthy conditions in restaurants and other results of break-neck, mass-scale production, not to mention all the untold stories that would surely make consumers gag.
Thompson concludes by saying that there are no easy solutions, but that organizing and solidarity on many fronts is necessary—the goal being to increase unionization, reform labor and immigration law and generally institutionalize and bolster worker solidarity. All this will eventually lead to a new labor paradigm, Thompson believes. As tough as it was, his year on the job gives him hope.
”I never heard anyone utter those magic words, worker solidarity,” he writes, continuing:
But I saw it displayed countless times, and more often than not I was the beneficiary. It’s now time for all of us, the beneficiaries of so much invisible labor, to demonstrate our own solidarity by taking steps to make the lives of low-wage workers – undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens alike – more stable and more safe.
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Comments
Sister Lyderson,
With all due respect, I’m one of the millions of Americans who do “jobs Americans won’t do”.
I’m a carpenter - of course, I’m in the union and I make $ 41 bucks an hour when I’m working (and $ 430 a week from Unemployment when I’m not).
So I’m here to tell you that yes, if those jobs paid decent American standard of living level wages, Americans would gladly do them!
There was a time, not that long ago, when most janitors were Americans.
And most meatpacking workers too.
Of course, that was when those were decent paying jobs!
As for the idea that Americans are incapable of hard work, I call bullshit!
Now, perhaps Mr Gabriel Thompson isn’t fit for work.
But then again, if he’s one of the SEIU’s typical upper middle class Ivy League kids, that’s self explanatory!
A soft, privileged upper class life in elite suburbia is not going to make you able to do hard blue collar labor.
But the ghettos and working class neighborhoods of this country are filled with tens of millions of men and women just like me, who are ready, willing and able to work, and who would do every one of those “jobs Americans won’t do” - if they paid decent wages!
So, really, sister, quit the pro sweatshop propaganda!
Hello
Reading your comment I’m afraid maybe I didn’t make my point clearly (and maybe didn’t do Gabriel Thompson’s story justice in the process); I think the underlying message is that these industries have become (as opposed to in days past) structured in such a way that they are inhumanly grueling and dangerous for any worker. I know these sectors have always involved very hard work which as you say plenty of “Americans” were willing to do in the past, but the massive scale and the production line speed and/or amount of production expected of workers today has been greatly increased in the name of profit in recent decades, as I understand it, not to mention other labor, consumer and environmental effects of the shift to mega-farms, mega-meatpacking plants, etc. And I actually wouldn’t have included most carpentry/construction jobs in the “jobs (most) Americans won’t do” category, since as you say there are still well-paying union construction jobs and construction jobs (union or no) are often what immigrants who have been here longer or have more resources move “up” to. Gabriel describes this in his book in terms of most of the poultry workers being indigenous from Central or South America, since most Mexican immigrants with more social or economic resources have moved on to less onerous jobs. Likewise I would not include janitors in the “jobs (most) Americans won’t do” category…ultimately the point of Gabriel’s book as I see it (and of my post) among other things is far from criticizing American workers but rather illustrating how hard, dangerous and mind-numbing many of these jobs are and saying it would be better for everyone if these industries were reformed or restructured so that no one would be expected to do such jobs at any wage.
Indeed, you did NOT make your point clearly AT ALL
Basically, your article sounded like those articles you often read where middle class US citizen Latinos - and middle class White immigration advocates - say that “we need immigrants” because there are “jobs Americans won’t do” - oftentimes, these article often openly praise Latino immigrant workers for working at substandard wages.
Actually, throughout American industry, the pace of work has been sharply increased over the years - like the auto industry, the steel industry and yes, construction - where the bosses produce more than they did 30 years ago with far less workers.
In general ALL American industrial workers - immigrant or not - are working harder than ever.
And, quite frankly, Sister Lyderson, the only way out that I see is a full blown workers revolution against the capitalist system - because capitalism cannot survive without superexploitation at this point in history.
So please, Sister, the next time you write about this topic, do NOT say there are “jobs Americans won’t do” - until you talk to American carpenters who put up 100 boards of sheetrock a day on New York jobsites, or autoworkers in the Detroit suburbs who build 100 cars an hour!
Hi Gregory,
Thanks for your comments. First, I would say that you are right: I was definitely raised upper middle class and grew up soft in the suburbs (though poor grades kept me far from any Ivy league school!).
I also agree with your point that all workers—immigrant or not—are working harder than ever. Much of the book actually focuses on the very poor Americans who labor alongside poor undocumented immigrants—and the many similarities these two groups have in common (for one thing, they are both equally ignored in the stump speeches of politicians).
I don’t mean to insult American workers; I mean to explore working conditions that I think it’s fair to say are foreign to most US citizens—places like lettuce fields and poultry plants. I hope to shed light on what daily life is like for these folks, immigrant and citizen, who we depend upon but rarely hear from.
Again, thanks for the feedback!
Sincerely,
Gabriel
Gabriel,
You are quite welcome.
The problem is, as I pointed out in my other post, it’s all too common to hear immigration reformers go on and on about how immigrants do “jobs Americans won’t do” and even PRAISE the immigrants for working sweatshop jobs for chump change pay!
Needless to say, this offends American workers - of ALL races (I myself am African American) - who work just as hard as the immigrants, but for slightly more pay.
It would be more accurate to say that the intensity of work has been increased in ALL industries, manufacturing and service sector, with ALL workers working harder (just talk to a nurse, or a call center operator, or an aerospace worker, or a teamster warehouse worker ect)
Now, perhaps you intended this book for your upper middle class peers, who do NOT work those hard jobs that the rest of America does - actually, for most US residents (citizen and immigrant alike) we’re VERY familiar with those speeded up jobs already - because that is the day to day work reality of ourselves and our peers.
So, I hate to tell you, this is NOT news at all for most Americans - which is why American citizen workers like myself resent it so seriously when folks like you say that there are “jobs Americans won’t do” - and that’s why so many of my American born peers are taken in by right wing racist demagogues like Lou Dobbs who - on the surface- DO actually recognize how hard we work!
Of course, it’s vital to win American born workers to support immigrants rights and amnesty for the undocumented immigrants - and the way to do that is to point out that they work just as hard as we do and therefore deserve the same rights, rather than insulting us by, in effect, calling us lazy by saying there are “jobs Americans won’t do”.
Gabe,
I enjoyed you book. It proves what Yogi Berra said: “You can observe a lot just by watching.”
You did a wonderful job of showing the humanity of immigrant workers and rebutting the anti-immigrant argument that they are somehow bad people.
And you did the best darn job possible to make the economic case illegal immigrants take job opportunities, reduce the wages of native workers, and are a financial burden on American society. I know that you didn’t mean to – but for those of us old Harry Truman Dems (now living in exile—with no party of our own) whose fondest dream was always to eliminate poverty in this country, your book made the case.
Don’t confuse the two issues. “How they appear in the eyes of God” and “How they appear in the eyes of employers.”
No matter how wonderful illegal immigrants are as people, or how they appear in the sight of God, what you described in your book is that they are disposable as Kleenex in the sight of their employers. They are surplus. If they are injured or quit or fired, they are easily replaced at little cost. They are cheap and not worth retaining or protecting from injury. Use them and throw them away because they are not needed. If you don’t pay them, you can hire another or they may be so desperate that they may come back and offer to work again and take their chances. Their only value paradoxically is that they are cheap.
The problem is that they bestow their “disposable” status on other workers. If there are 50 workers competing for 40 positions, all 50 are surplus, not just the 40. Supply exceeds demand: It’s an employers’ market.
Now if 20 of those 50 workers are deported, now there are only 30 workers competing for 40 jobs. That’s a labor shortage. But don’t let the Chamber of Commerce fool you: It’s not a crisis.
It’s a routine problem in a market economy. When oil is in short supply, oil prices go up; when housing is in short supply, rents and house prices go up; and when funding is in short supply interest rates go up. That’s the routine way a market deals with it. Good for sellers and not so good for buyers. But many buyers are workers. They sell their labor. Why shouldn’t they benefit by the application of the same set of rules? Why not let wages go up.
The problem is not the market system. It’s the way in which it is managed. We flood the labor market with immigrant workers – far more than we can use. It’s like having 15 can openers in your kitchen. Who is the big loser? Somebody like the guy Kyle that you described in your book. If all the illegal immigrants suddenly left, the rest of us here wouldn’t suddenly become vegetarians. Kyle would earn more and chicken would just become a little more expensive. With the raise, Kyle would be able to eat better and pay the higher grocery bills. How much more would Kyle earn? Enough to get the jobs filled and eliminate the labor shortage. It’s almost tautological. He will earn even more if he is willing to work in the “Deboning Department,” doing the harder jobs that Americans won’t do for the same pay. Sooner or later, either someone must step forward to do the job or the job must be eliminated. And some jobs can’t be eliminated. And some jobs may have to pay a decent wage and medical insurance if we don’t import the world’s surplus laborers.
So in short, by demonstrating so clearly that these immigrant workers are surplus workers, you have demonstrated the harm that their presence does to others. I, for one, do not believe that the rich have an entitlement to poor people willing to work for poverty level wages.