4 comments:

• Sam Heller posted at 8:27 pm on Wed, Nov 3, 2010.

  Posts: 170

  Give me a break. The boyfriend, father of the child, drove his girlfriend, and her father, around AFRAID to take her for medical care. He stated that he went to a store to get alcohol to rub on her skin to take her body heat down. Too bad he did not take her to the emergency room. Oh...yeah.. he and she were here illegally so he refused to seek medical care and killed her.

  He also stated that she was ill and throwing up before work.Why did HE force her to go in the field? Funny that he is no longer around to testify.

  Blame the farmer because the boyfriend and her Dad were uncaring jerks. In my mind, they killed her.
  

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• Alice Dodson posted at 8:06 am on Wed, Nov 3, 2010.

  Posts: 20

  Doug, I basically agree with what you said with the exception of "legal" being the key word. If people want to work in this country, receive fair pay to support their families, this would not be a problem if they cared enough about this country to become legal residents, then they would have a leg to stand on. The field workers who are here legally know exactly what I'm talking about. They won't stand for the mistreatment, because they are not afraid of the retaliation of losing their jobs. Many of whom are legal are having problems finding jobs because the "contractors" don't want to pay for their hire. If there were not illegals here willing to work for peanuts and take whatever abuse is dealt out, then the honest, legal workers would stand a chance.
  I have lived here on Harold St. in the heart of the eastside for 26 years now, so do have a handle on what I'm talking about.
  Many of the workers of whom we speak use the system. They know no hospital will refuse delivering of the babies who will become US citizens by birth, then they are free to put up with their low paying jobs and collect the benefits. I personally know of many home owners here on the Eastside who will rent a 2 bedroom house to 4 people. The house is not a slum house, just as mine is not, but it certainly becomes one when the 4 people to whom the house was rented to pack in 8 other people!!
  You make very good points and I do as well.

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• Doug Chaney posted at 8:18 pm on Tue, Nov 2, 2010.

  Posts: 1232

  Alice, I work with many of those people that are encouraged to stay here on the eastside of Lodi in those slumhouses, as many as 12-20 per small apartment or single family dwelling, owned by the slumlords and wealthy investors of livable, lovable Lodi. They are the ones that are afraid to speak up for themselves for fear of deportation and these "labor contractors" per se, along with many of the farmers and grapegrowers who merely exploit them for their cheap labor and willingness to work many long days for less hourly pay by cheating them of hours. Just ask one of those labor contractors how much per hour they deduct from these field workers' pay just to procure their job for them? Those I have information on hold anywhere from $2-4 an hour with no questions asked from the laborers themselves for fear of losing their paltry jobs. The employers hiring them are well aware of the games that are played that benefit their own bank accounts and that's why the law should be changed to make the employer responsible for each and every employee in his fields or on his property. And if any government subsidy monies, grants or contracts are given to this corporation (employer), all employees should be e-verified using the federal program to insure that each and every worker is either a citizen or has work documents allowing them to be here for work. And all payrolls should be certified to guarantee these low paid workers are getting every hour and every cent they are entitled to, with any deductions to their paycheck itemized on their paystub, along with their federal and state taxes. It's time once again the employers should be solely responsible for their own workers and not some sketchy charactered "labor contractor", many from south of the border themselves making a living from the exploitation of these hard working, mostly immigrant field workers who line the pockets of the wealthy.

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• Alice Dodson posted at 8:41 am on Tue, Nov 2, 2010.

  Posts: 20

  This is always a sad situation when someone dies. But manslaughter charges???? That is extreme. People who work in the fields, furnace room, steam pressure rooms, and the like already know the working hazards. There are lots of people who work in these occupations and prepare for such. The workers make sure they take enough liquid to stay hydrated, etc. If not, they would all be sick or dead.
  People have to accept the consequences of neglecting their own health. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but surely the workers need to think for themselves.
  Florentino Baustista as stated is illegal- shouldn't have been here in the first place.

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