Shepherds’ Work Conditions Still Dismal After ’01 Law, Group Says

A state law passed four years ago to ensure that sheepherders have adequate living conditions is largely being ignored, with the majority of shepherds making do without proper shelter or sanitation, according to a recent report.

In 2001, the state Legislature mandated a number of improvements for shepherds, most of whom are legal migrant workers from Peru, Chile and Mongolia. The improvements boosted monthly wages, required that living quarters include toilets, heating and drinking water and ordered employers to provide access to regular mail service, transportation to the nearest town and access to a telephone or radio for emergencies.

Since then, life has changed little for the few dozen immigrants who roam the grasslands, deserts and foothills of California during grazing season. A survey by Fresno-based Central California Legal Services, which has tracked shepherds’ living conditions for years, found frequent violations.

Interviews with 22 herders scattered throughout Fresno, Kern, Kings, Merced and Tulare counties found that 20 had no toilet and 14 had no heat. About two-thirds also had no shower or access to a cellphone or radio for emergency medical communication.

“I remember being sick to my stomach and waiting for days before I could tell the foreman. Then I waited longer for him to bring me medicine,” Tito Macha, a Peruvian shepherd, said in Spanish from the legal service’s office.

Macha came to California in 1997 and worked as a shepherd until December, when his leg was trampled by a cow.

“Historically, there’s been abuse of these workers,” said Chris Schneider, an attorney with the group who has spent nearly 15 years working with shepherds.

The legal group’s survey results, released in March, don’t surprise Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), who sponsored the bill in 2001.

“In California, we generally have the strongest labor laws and the most inconsistent enforcement,” said Koretz, chairman of the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee. “This is a group that is among the most vulnerable and invisible, so it would be easy to sneak by without improving their conditions.”

Koretz said calling for a state Assembly hearing on the subject “might be the next logical step.”

California is home to the country’s second-largest sheep industry. Wool sheared in the state generated $2.8 million in 2003.

Ranchers such as Dominique Minaberrigarai, who said he follows the state law, said the mandated wage increase, from $900 to $1,200 a month, has hurt an industry that already was facing competition from synthetic fibers and the entry of China and other countries into the wool market.

Shepherds are paid much less -- about $650 a month -- in other states with sizable sheep production such as Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona. Because it’s hard to calculate how long herders work, they’re exempt from federal minimum wage laws.