Workers' call for help deserves a listening ear

News-Journal editorial (10/09/00)

When Jeb Bush was running for governor in 1998, he made sure he was photographed talking with farmworkers in several farming communities.
Last year, when representatives bearing 5,000 signatures on petitions arrived in Tallahassee to ask Bush for help in negotiating a living wage for pickers in south Florida, he gave them 10 minutes.

When workers gathered Thursday in the broad plaza just outside Bush's office, he didn't come out to greet them - though he did send a letter refusing to mediate a wage dispute between growers and workers. Nobody from Bush's office put in an appearance.

When asked why he wasn't talking to the workers, Bush replied "If they were sincere about asking for my assistance, there's a better way to do it."

How could these workers be anything but sincere? Many are in desperate straits. In areas that were hard-hit by flooding, they're worse off now than they were two years ago. Health risks from pesticide exposure still run high, and living conditions at many of the farms are still substandard - even subhuman.

It's easy to see why the workers were so eager to talk to Bush during the election, and why they are frustrated and angry now. They are promising a month-long series of protests, and threatening a work stoppage.

During his time in office, Bush has worked on behalf of farmworkers - including those who toil in West Volusia ferneries. He recently directed $100,000 in federal funds to help workers who lost wages because of south Florida flooding. The state has improved educational outreach and worked for better housing in many areas. State funding is helping to pay for a 60-unit apartment building dubbed New Hope Villas in Seville.

But Bush's work isn't done. Florida's farmworkers still cling to the desperate edges of poverty. A typical family of six subsists on $12,000 a year in Pierson, says Alfredo Bahena, coordinator in Volusia and Flagler counties for the Farm Worker Association of Florida.

It may be outside Bush's authority to boost wages. That's not what they're asking for. They want Bush to help them convince growers to come to the bargaining table, in regional meetings around the state.

In doing so, Bush might irritate some of his state's biggest campaign contributors. But if he doesn't, he could potentially alienate this state's largest-growing demographic segment. Most of the agricultural workers in this state are Hispanic, and within five years, Hispanics will be the largest minority population in Florida.

A government's greatest duty is to those in greatest need, and the need in the farmworker community remains overwhelming. Workers are not asking too much when they request that Bush make a few phone calls to growers on their behalf.