Internal Hierarchies
Carswell “Carl” Moore was a labor contractor or crew leader or crew boss who, along with his wife Lucille, ran three migrant labor camps in Steuben County beginning in the 1980s. The photograph here probably dates to the late 1980s. Following in the footsteps of his father, Albert, Moore’s role as crew leader was decisive when it came to how the hired hands would live and work—or even whether they would return home with money in their pockets. That was because he acted as an intermediary with farmers: usually, a crew leader contracted for a harvest, then brought workers North to harvest. Weekly wages were paid by him as an intermediary to the workers, including deductions for meals.
Carl Moore’s recollections reached back into the 1920s, when crew leaders like Tater Boy Robinson or Miss Sugar would transport Florida workers to New York in six-wheeled trucks with hay bales for them to sleep upon. His mention of a crew leader “bringing up about 60-70 head” or “125 head” suggests how coldly the work of hired labor was calculated. In addition to the structural power wielded by crew leaders, they possessed at least three other instruments. The first was physical: crew bosses often carried guns; relied upon violence, mistreatment, and hired henchman; and prohibited migrants from leaving the labor camp. A second power was financial: some crew bosses encouraged workers to gamble, to purchase cigarettes or alcohol at drastically inflated prices. Moore recalls some workers returning to Florida with no money. Lastly, what might be called cultural power was aligned against migrants: crew bosses possessed the mobility of transportation, knowledge of the area, and were considered a minimally acceptable delgate in communities hostile to economic or racial outsiders.
The structure of hired labor before the 20th century may have differed from this in some ways, but individuals without property, who lacked legal or political representation, must have experienced a similarly precarious workplace. But it’s clear that, in the years since mechanization displaced potato pickers, exploitive practices continue in the New York dairy industry among migrant farmworkers—more than 90% of whom are undocumented. According to the 2017 report MILKED, “Farmworkers are excluded from many of the basic labor rights and protections that workers in most other sectors of the labor market take for granted.” 97% of the workers surveyed live in farmer-provided housing, often substandard, and are effectively confined “on the farm where they are constantly available for long shifts for low pay, and vulnerable to wage theft and hazardous working conditions. Moreover, they suffer isolation from the broader community that could offer them support” (33, 12, 10).
The material conditions in migrant labor camps are a reflection of values. Dairy workers are bluntly told that “a cow is worth more than a worker and that a worker is easier to replace” (31). Once the products of farm labor are given precedence, the hierarchies of camp life follow.
Works Consulted
-- Fox, Carly, Rebecca Fuentes, Fabiola Ortiz Valdez, Gretchen Purser, and Kathleen Sexsmith. “Milked: Immigrant Dairy Farmworkers in New York State.” Workers’ Center of Central New York and the Worker Justice Center of New York. 2017. Link to document.
-- Getman, Roberta. “Exploitation of Migrants by Crew Leaders: A Proposal for Change,” IUSTITIA 1.2 (1973): Article 5. Link to document.
-- Harper, Dean, et al. “Exploitation in Migrant Labour Camps.” British Journal of Sociology 25.3 (Sept. 1974): 283- 295. Link to document.
-- Moore, Carl. Interview with Sylvia Kelly and Julia Stewart. 23 Mar. 2006. Courtesy of Geneseo Migrant Center.