The News-Gazette’s partnership with the U of I’s journalism department has produced another excellent piece on “poverty and related issues in Champaign County.”
Yesterday’s piece was titled “Migrant family who worked in Rantoul leaves worse off,” and it was written by Shelley Smithson, who also co-wrote the series’ first entry in July. Yesterday’s entry focuses primarily on the Ortiz family, who moved to Rantoul for the summer and fall in order to detassel cornstalks, and later inspect the harvested grain for seed corn companies. They lived rent-free at the old Air Force hospital.
About 1,500 farm workers and their families travel from Texas and Mexico to Champaign and surrounding counties each year, according to the Community Health Partnership of Illinois. The organization provides medical and dental care to seasonal agricultural employees and their children.
They work for seed companies such as Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Trisler, Syngenta and Remington.
Many migrant workers didn’t get ahead this summer.
The family came to Rantoul because there was no work in Texas. They said they left poorer than when they came.
“We don’t have any money, but we’re excited to be going home,” said Dora Ortiz, a 45-year-old mother of three. “I came with $1,500 and I’m going back with less.”
The families made $8 an hour, but the reduced acreage committed to seed corn this year meant that there were fewer hours to be had.
For the past two years, they worked six or seven days a week, loading the bus at 5 a.m. and getting home after dark, said Dora Ortiz, Alejandra’s older sister. This year, they were lucky to get 40 hours a week, she said. “Last year and the year before, we made $6,000 to $7,000,” Dora said.
The summer’s cool temperatures meant that detasseling and harvesting took more time than usual, Geneser said. But there was also less work to do every day.
That’s an adequate introduction. If you have time, read the whole article. It’s an illustrative look inside a world that many of us hadn’t had a clue about.