They were among the highest paid people in the US working class. That’s the equivalent of about $50 an hour today. The guys who cut the lettuce made about $20 an hour. When I worked on a celery harvest crew in the mid-seventies, we made about $14 an hour. How much did piece-rate vegetable workers earn in the mid-1970s, at the height of UFW power? These people, along with the lettuce workers, were the heart of UFW strength in the fields. They never split up if it comes to a strike-they either strike together, or they don’t strike. The result is that they have a tremendous amount of power and leverage at harvest time, because they can’t be replaced except by other crews with similar skills. The core of the crew will stay together over many seasons. You can’t get on a crew unless the members want you and are willing to carry you while you learn the work. The men typically come from the same small towns in Mexico, often they are brothers and cousins and fathers and sons.
It’s done by collective piecework, with a crew of thirty to thirty-five people, paid for each box of celery.
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