Thursday, January 14, 2010
Advocates push change in working conditions for isolated immigrant sheepherders
lone and thousands of miles from home, the immigrant sheepherder roams some of the West's most desolate and frigid landscapes, tending a flock for as little as $600 a month without a day off on the horizon. "You take it or leave it. You take it because the economy is worse at home," Pepe Cruz, a 40-year-old Peruvian, said in Spanish. Cruz is one of hundreds of immigrants from South America, Mexico and Nepal who work as sheepherders in states like Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and California, and their brutal work conditions are getting increased attention these days. Advocates are pushing for improvements in working conditions for the sheepherders, with a Colorado lawmaker planning to introduce a bill this session to raise their minimum wage to $9.88 an hour. That is the amount other Colorado farmworkers are paid. Colorado Legal Services, a Denver-based nonprofit legal assistance network, visited sheepherders with temporary work visas in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and found they sometimes toil more than 90 hours a week, can't leave the isolated sites where they work and are grossly underpaid by U.S. standards. The group's report on the conditions was to be released Thursday...read more
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The herder banks or sends the 600.00 home. Everything he needs is free except the personal items that he wants to buy and in some cases clothes.The fact that he is thousands of miles away from home is because he has chosen to come to America to work. His sheep camp is visited every two to three days to resupply the food for his camp, gets his mail and feed for the sheep and horses. Most of them have cell phones that are partially supplied by the owner of the company and in many cases the camp has a solar cell to run his radio. The owner of the company puts in 90 hours or more to keep it going and in most cases makes about 1% of his total investment.
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