Deck 11: Food and Labor, Margaret Gray

Question 1

1) The food industry is the largest employer in the U.S. and accounts for _____ percent of all U.S. jobs.

A) two
B) seven
C) ten
D) fourteen

Answer 1

D

Question 2

2) The majority of farm workers in the U.S. are

A) immigrants
B) family members
C) U.S. citizens
D) slaves

Answer 2

A

Question 3

3) For U.S. agriculture, what are some of the advantages to using mostly immigrant workers?

A) They tend to be easier to control.
B) Immigrants are often ignorant of the laws that would protect them.
C) immigrants from poor countries often have a high level of desperation.
D) All of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

4) Which concept describes the shift from largely Japanese to workers from Central America in California agriculture?

A) Labor cycles
B) Precarious work
C) Ethnic succession
D) Exploitation

Question 5

5) Differences in status that leads to an expectation of one party having dominance is referred to as

A) ethnic succession.
B) power hierarchies.
C) social structures.
D) precarious work.

Question 6

6. Farmworkers are covered by most federal and state labor laws. ?

Question 7

7) The New Deal, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the National Labor Relations Act were legislation designed to strengthen the rights of workers, and each

A) excluded farmworkers from protections.
B) allowed for the widespread unionization of farmworkers.
C) led to immediate improvements in farm work.
D) legalized the use of immigrant workers in agriculture.

Question 8

8) Working conditions on local, smaller farms, and on organic farms are

A) significantly better than those on large industrial farms.
B) similar to those on large industrial farms.
C) significantly better than industrial farms because of widespread unionization of farm workers on such farms.
D) are not characterized by paternalism, like large industrial farms.

Question 9

9) Paternalism refers to

A) sexism and racism that continues to characterize much of employment in the food industry.
B) the rewarding of workers for good behavior.
C) an extremely hierarchical relationship in which the employer's control extends into the everyday lives of workers.
D) the process of replacing of one group of workers by a different ethnic group.

Question 10

10. While much of farm work is precarious work, this is not the case for food processing jobs, which tend to be safe and high-paying jobs. ?

Question 11

11) In poultry processing, employers have actively recruited immigrants and women to take the place of local workers

A) in an attempt to find cheaper, more docile workers.
B) because local workers didn't want the low-paying jobs.
C) in order to groom them for supervisory positions.
D) in an attempt to rent the vacant temporary housing facilities.

Question 12

12) Wage theft is

A) when one worker steals the paycheck of another worker.
B) when some workers are willing to work for less than other workers.
C) when an employer does not pay the employee for all the hours they worked.
D) when an employer refuses to pay overtime.

Question 13

13) Which of the following are problems in the food processing industry?

A) Firing injured workers
B) Denying medical care
C) Blocking unionization
D) All of the above

Question 14

14) Enforcement of laws that protect farm workers is challenging because

A) most farm workers do not want to report labor abuses or reach out to regulatory agencies out of fear of reprisal.
B) farms are located in rural areas and hard to reach.
C) they originate at the local level and vary from county to county.
D) All of the above

Question 15

15) Sexual harassment in farm work and food processing

A) is not a problem.
B) is strongly penalized when it takes place.
C) a tool of labor control.
D) was a problem when there were large number of female workers in the past, but is no longer an issue.

Question 16

16) Work centers are

A) farm worker unions.
B) organizations focused on improving farm worker conditions, but which do not gave collective bargaining power.
C) job placement organizations for migrant farm workers.
D) labor contractors that farmers hire to manage their workers.

Question 17

17) The process of coming together as a group to push for a common goal and effect policy change is called

A) socialist reform.
B) code of conduct.
C) collective action.
D) consumer campaign.

Question 18

18) The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has engaged in collective action in Florida and developed a consumer campaign that

A) teaches consumers how to work on farms and in processing plants.
B) calls on consumers to donate to farmers so they can improve working conditions.
C) relies on consumers to put pressure on companies to make a change, sometimes through the use of boycotts.
D) All of the above

Question 19

19) The Fair Food Program's code of conduct does not require

A) worker-to-worker education.
B) health and safety councils.
C) zero tolerance for forced labor.
D) retirement benefits.

Question 20

20) One significant barrier to improving conditions for farm workers is the price we pay for food. Estimates suggest that raising the wages of farmer workers to $15 per hour would

A) make farming considerably more expensive and result in many farmers losing their farms.
B) make little difference in the price of food.
C) lead to the firing of most farm workers to keep food costs cheap.
D) dramatically make food prices in the supermarket, increasing hunger for the poor.

Question 21

1. Define precarious work and provide an example of how much of farm work is precarious work.

Question 22

2. Define paternalism and explain how it can be a form of labor control.

Question 23

3. What is a consumer campaign and how can be it used to improve the conditions of farm workers?

Question 24

1. A key argument in Lesson 11 is that the structure of the labor market in food and agriculture affects the lives of farm workers. Write an essay that examines how two key structures, power hierarchies and labor laws, impact farm workers and result in much of farm work being precarious work.

Question 25

2. Write an essay that outlines the key mechanisms by which employers exercise control over workers in food processing. Identify four mechanisms of labor control and discuss the ways that they discipline workers.