Fruits of wrath

Fruits of wrath

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Thousands of day labourers have blocked roads, staged marches and held meetings with lawmakers since March to rail against the grind of picking strawberries, raspberries and blackberries in the Baja California peninsula for what they say is as little as $1 an hour.

Genaro Perfecto, 38, pictured above with his family, is part of a growing underclass frustrated over pay and conditions in work that provides U.S. consumers with farm produce.

. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Huddled around a single flickering candle in a tiny wood and cardboard shack on scrubland in Mexico's northwest, impoverished labourer Perfecto and his family prepare to bed down for the night on a floor of bare earth.

His 3-year-old daughter asks for another blanket to keep out the cold, but they have run out - a sign of deep poverty in a life spent harvesting fruit bound for U.S. dining tables.

Having moved north to escape poverty in southern Mexico 15 years ago, father-of-five Perfecto says he is too poor simply to up and move away from this dusty stretch of heavily-fumigated industrial farmland known as San Quintin.

. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Companies operating in the area say they pay workers fair wages and provide them with adequate healthcare coverage. Local government officials argue that recent protests over wages by fruit pickers were politically-motivated.

"If you're ill, or cut yourself in the fields, they don't pay the day (if you are out for treatment)," Perfecto said. “You keep quiet, and keep working covered in blood."

The 38-year-old’s principal diet consists of refried beans or flour tortillas sprinkled with salt.

. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

In the last few months, anger over conditions faced by fruit pickers, which even some conservative Mexican media have characterised as "near slavery", has boiled over.

On March 18, more than 200 protesting workers on the peninsula were arrested in a clash with local authorities.

. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Strawberries are left at the municipal garbage dump after a work stoppage by pickers.

On average, Perfecto picks around 110 kg of strawberries a day, and up to 200 kg in high season. He says he earns between 850 and 1,200 pesos ($56 to $79) in a week that regularly exceeds 50 hours. That equates to between about $1 and $2 an hour.

. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Payslips of five of some three dozen workers interviewed by Reuters showed them earning between 782 pesos and 1,210 pesos ($51 to $79) per week. The slips did not provide a clear breakdown of the hourly compensation.

When asked how much it paid per kilo, BerryMex, a leading fruit grower in the area, stated only that workers had an "average earning opportunity" of $5 to $9 an hour with top workers making up to $10 per hour.

. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Among the labourers hauling heavy crates packed with strawberries was Carmen Reyes, 34, who is seven months pregnant.

Reyes says she’ll keep working as long as possible before the birth to keep earning, as she has done during her previous nine pregnancies. One of the children died at 2 months.

Like Perfecto, she lives in a makeshift shelter made from cardboard and plastic sheeting, and complains of rashes and skin discolouring from her work in the fields.

"When we're nearby cutting fruit, they don't care, they continue to fumigate," she said, gesturing to a white patch on her forehead. "They say it won't harm us, but we think it does."

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Slideshow

Pickers use handkerchiefs as protection against the sun and pesticides.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Pickers use handkerchiefs as protection against the sun and pesticides.

Perfecto and his wife Cecilia Feliciano, 37, stand with their daughters.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Perfecto and his wife Cecilia Feliciano, 37, stand with their daughters.

A picker knits in the courtyard of her house.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

A picker knits in the courtyard of her house.

A family live in this makeshift structure.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

A family live in this makeshift structure.

A picker plays guitar to his family in their shack.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

A picker plays guitar to his family in their shack.

A worker carries her baby on her back.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

A worker carries her baby on her back.

A boy plays in a toy car.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

A boy plays in a toy car.

Pickers board a bus to travel to their job.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Pickers board a bus to travel to their job.

Workers queue up to weigh baskets of strawberries.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Workers queue up to weigh baskets of strawberries.

An employee punches holes in paper to monitor pickers’ work.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

An employee punches holes in paper to monitor pickers’ work.

Pickers use these hand trucks in the fields.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Pickers use these hand trucks in the fields.

A cardboard house lies abandoned on the ground.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

A cardboard house lies abandoned on the ground.

Hector Martinez, 33, cooks food on an open fire.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Hector Martinez, 33, cooks food on an open fire.

Pickers wait for a bus to travel to their job.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Pickers wait for a bus to travel to their job.

Workers board a bus to travel to their job.
. SAN QUINTIN, MEXICO. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Workers board a bus to travel to their job.