ustxtxb_obs_1978_02_03_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

4″:7-5 Delicious ,4:”Nekmitpaklit %rev_ ,ir t ,L-Vil -WW1 p #42`4 z ‘f fr ik k Aot i tog Li r .L is 4094 .1 Ete,sr. iroki* VN-11 .0* *4’: #Z14.5LUNCH ‘” DINNER :41-51VSUN DAY BRl fita !.Z ZAVteeM .11:,,,,Wi rjr41 .7″fip. “,.,4”;>7:7 .0i, “%77,4 fi4SP4AV AVAltervse..”4,,, et -4 -0 qs 6 lieftia* 1N-1* 414 BARTON SPRINGS AT SOUTH 1ST AUSTIN, TEXAS 512/476-4838 k 441 004 Al l Stationer Copy Writing Editing Computer Sales and Services Complete Computer Data Processing Services 22 FEBRUARY 3, 1978 Common ground.. . from page 2 We need to educate the consuming public to some hard facts: that farmworkers receive as little as 3 percent of the final price of the food they labor to produce, and that it costs us a fortune in health and welfare taxes to keep farmworkers in poverty. We need to emphasize a fact that seems not to have occurred to many: that everyone else in society has the right to organize, so farmworke i rs are not asking for special privileges. Finally, we need to demonstrate to small farmers that their best interests lie with the farmworkers, not with the ag Barrientos, on the right, in family snapshot taken at childhood home near Bastrop. ribusiness corporations. The small farmer is being run out of business by these big conglomerates, and I believe the stability of the farm economy in Texas depends upon a coalition of small farmers and farmworkers. A bargaining bill cannot be bullied through the Legislature. It will take monthsmaybe yearsof discussion, education and negotiation. The publicity and hearings held during the 1977 session were a beginning. I watched some of the very conservative members of the House agriculture committee slowly become interested in what the migrant farmworkers had to say. I listened to these members ask farmworkers about their lives, their families, their incomes, and their feelings. I heard farmers and farmworkers expressing the same love for the land and pride in the food they helped bring to American tables. I think the committee members learned something in those hearings. We made some progress toward understanding, which wouldn’t have happened if the bill had not been introduced. And I think we took the first steps toward finding common ground and agreement. Gonzalo Barrientos represents a Travis County district in the Texas House.