The shepherd was deep in the desert, 13km from the nearest road and more than 7.5km of rocky brush past the closest sign of civilization, a landfill. It was midafternoon, 43 degrees Celsius, and the 500 sheep he tends 24 hours a day, seven days a week were sleeping. But with nothing else to do, he was watching them anyway, pacing the parched earth with two panting border collies by his side.
Two years and eight months into a three-year contract as a shepherd under a federal guest worker program, the 40-year-old Peruvian said he was still waiting for a day off. He lives in a 2m by 4m trailer with no running water, no electricity, no phone, no toilet. "This is my bathroom," he says with a toothy smile, holding up a long-handled garden shovel.
The man, who asked that his name not be used for fear of angering his employer, is typical of shepherds in the US, approximately 800 of whom toil in California. Mostly from Peru and Chile, they live isolated, nomadic existences here, dependent upon their employers for food, mail and all contact with the outside world. Aside from tinny radios or tiny televisions that some keep in their trailers, they live much as shepherds have always lived, in the middle of nowhere with no human contact save for when their bosses come to move the trailer to a new grazing location or bring their weekly rations of food and water.
In the universe of migrant farm labor, shepherds make up the tiniest sliver, and are so invisible that, with a few exceptions, they have had no advocates to call for reform.
As federal guest workers, they are brought here because their employers, the sheep ranchers, could find no Americans willing to be shepherds, even here in California's farm belt, where unemployment in some counties is more than 15 percent.
That may be not only because their living conditions make migrant farm workers seem pampered, but also because under a quirk in federal labor laws, shepherds are excluded from minimum wage regulations. Until July 1, when California's Industrial Welfare Commission, which regulates working conditions, ordered sheep ranchers to increase wages to herders by US$150 a month, shepherds, who are essentially on duty 90 hours a week, made US$900 a month.
Still, shepherds in California, the second-largest sheep ranching state, after Texas, are the lucky ones. They make the most money. In other states, the pay is anywhere from US$600 to US$800 a month.
Shepherds are also on the legislative map. When the state Industrial Welfare Commission refused to set working conditions for shepherd, such as overtime pay and rest periods, state Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, drafted a bill that would require rest periods and basic amenities, such as toilets, lighting, water and regular access to phones.
The bill, which has passed the Assembly and is expected to be reviewed by a state Senate committee on Wednesday would require shepherds to be given a 30-minute meal break in a five-hour work period if someone is available to relieve them. It would also require employers to provide housing that includes toilets, heating, lighting, water, stoves and refrigerators.
"It's logical that at some point their conditions would have to change from the days of the Old Testament," Koretz said. "I'm generally trying to bring them up to the 20th century."
RSS