Workers Not Eligible for Aid After Freeze

While many Ventura County citrus growers who lost crops to the December freeze have qualified for federal disaster relief, local officials have concluded that farm workers did not suffer job losses severe enough during the cold snap to warrant similar emergency assistance.

That decision has drawn quick criticism from farm labor advocates, who say that the effects of the harsh weather have not been thoroughly examined and may not be known for weeks to come.

“How can the county be saying that the disaster was significant enough to merit relief for growers but not significant enough to merit relief for workers?” fumed Santos Gomez, lead attorney for Oxnard-based California Rural Legal Assistance, which provides free legal aid to farm workers.

“I think it’s a bit premature to make that determination,” he said. “Simply because workers had enough resources to pay their bills this past month does not mean they will have enough resources to do so in coming months.”

In the wake of the winter freeze, the state Office of Emergency Services asked Ventura County officials to determine the impact on the local work force, prompting an informal survey in recent weeks of growers, labor groups and farm worker advocates.

State officials wanted that information to determine whether Ventura County should be included in a request for federal assistance being prepared for half a dozen Central Valley counties, where the bitter cold ravaged citrus crops and threw thousands of laborers out of work.

But county officials said that while some laborers lost work or have seen their hours scaled back since the start of the year, the impact has not been significant enough to warrant an application for federal aid.

Such emergency assistance would have allowed local workers to apply for a range of federal benefits, including grants for temporary housing and extended unemployment benefits.

“We pretty much established that we are not going to be needing that kind of assistance,” said Laura Hernandez, assistant director of the county emergency services office. “I’m hearing that the impact has not been significant, that farm workers are still finding work. They may not be working full time, but they are continuing to work at least part time.”

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In late December, four consecutive nights of below-freezing temperatures inflicted $657 million in damage to California’s citrus crop.

The San Joaquin Valley was hardest hit, with the arctic blast ruining the region’s entire lemon crop and damaging large sections of its lucrative orange groves. The cold snap caused $74.3 million in damage to Ventura County’s lemon, orange and avocado crops.

Almost immediately, the six hardest-hit counties--Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Monterey and Tulare--were declared disaster areas by state officials, the first step in seeking federal relief for growers and workers.

That was followed late last month by a federal disaster declaration for 18 counties--including Ventura County--to allow farmers who suffered large losses to apply for low-interest loans.

While that declaration did not extend to farm workers, state officials have been scrambling to meet the needs of those left unemployed by the freeze. Gov. Gray Davis waived the one-week waiting period for farm workers to apply for unemployment benefits and last week funneled $4.5 million to provide job assistance to those displaced by the cold.

Statewide, 5,533 workers have filed freeze-related claims for unemployment benefits, the vast majority of those coming from Central Valley laborers. While it is not known how many of those claims were filed locally, growers estimate that local job losses were minimal.

“I really don’t think there was much of an impact on laborers in the Ventura County area,” said Glenn Miller, president of Saticoy Lemon, a countywide processor and packinghouse. “It has been slower than usual, so the amount of work has been reduced. But most of the fruit that is out there will still be harvested so it won’t have a big, big impact on the laborers in Ventura County.”

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Early last month, growers estimated that as many as 450 laborers across the county had been laid off because of the dearth of fruit available to pick and pack. Several packinghouses that processed fruit from the Central Valley temporarily shut down or cut back their operations.

Limoneira Co. Vice President Chris Taylor said most workers at his operation--the county’s largest--were unaffected by the freeze. The biggest hit was felt in the packinghouses, where about 35 workers were laid off because of a lack of oranges coming from the San Joaquin Valley.

“There has not really been any reduction in labor in the fields,” Taylor said, noting that the packinghouse employees will return to work in the spring when a new crop of oranges comes due. “We give them [displaced workers] all the different alternatives and point them in the right direction to try to get them as much help as possible.”

But farm labor groups and agencies that help feed and clothe the poor worry that the effects of the freeze may not be readily apparent at this time.

Ruben Castro, senior case worker at Catholic Charities in Moorpark, said he has noticed about a 30% increase in the number of farmhands coming to his agency for help in recent weeks. Although the freeze hit more than a month ago, Castro said that workers tend to show up at his doorstep only after they have exhausted their resources and have nowhere else to turn.

“People won’t come until their cupboards go bare,” Castro said. “They live on such tight budgets that missing just a few days’ work can be devastating.”

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Attorney Gomez estimates that 15% to 25% of Ventura County’s farm labor force has been affected by the freeze, either through job losses, reduced hours or some related difficulty. And he that fears the situation could worsen.

Gomez said he understands that unemployed field hands from the Central Valley have been arriving in recent weeks in Ventura County, where the freeze didn’t harm local crops as badly, and that in the long run local workers could find themselves competing for fewer jobs at lower wages.

“I’m not necessarily convinced anyone has taken the adequate steps to ascertain whether there has been a significant impact to farm workers,” Gomez said. “I just worry that we’re going to see the full impact of this in weeks to come and by then it will be too late to get any help for the workers.”