Mr. WHITE. Definitely it has caused a decline in our particular situation. We are near enough to the clinics so that the families that had chronic problems that needed to be, let's say, straightened out, got the assistance in time, I think, to help us, even to the point where the recordkeeping system now doesn't seem as important as it used to.

There are days now when I even fail to check the camp to see whether they are all working or not. I go by the time cards in the rack.

At one time it was serious enough that I had to check it every day. Now I do not do that, and I believe that we have accomplished quite a lot with the amount of funds that we have. I can definitely see the difference.

Mr. BLACKWELL. You are not giving specific percentages of decline, but if you used to have to check the camp and you no longer consider that a necessity, that implies a dramatic decline in absenteeism.

Mr. WHITE. I look at it from this viewpoint; that it has probably maybe caused a 30- or 40-percent difference in ours. At the same time we have caused families to become aware of medical assistance and a lot of them now have even decided to seek medical aid from a doctor or professional in town on their own.

Those that have transportation eventually go to a doctor and change over. I think maybe this will be the answer in future years when compensation becomes great enough to agricultural workers where they can afford to do it.

Mr. BLACKWELL. Worker attitude is of course subjective and difficult to evaluate. Do you have impressions of better attitudes on the part of the worker that would make him either a better worker or a more satisfactory person to have in your business operation because of the migrant health project?

Mr. WHITE. Definitely, we do. The first experience I had with the attitude change was several years ago when the Asian flu became a serious problem. In our packinghouse we employ approximately 170 workers, and I can recall one afternoon when 80 of those people fell

out with the flu.

We took immediate steps to try to remedy or prevent, and we finally supplied medicine and doctor care for particularly the packinghouse crew and the key workers in order to prevent such a thing happening in the future. We haven't done this in the last 2 or 3 years because we have the other program in effect, but when the workers know that you are trying to help, it changes their attitude, and when the farmer helps to support the program, they will get hold of it a lot quicker than they would if it is ignored. We have encouraged it.

Mr. BLACKWELL. Eighty of your workers contracted the flu out of a crew of 170?

Mr. WHITE. That is correct.

Mr. BLACKWELL. That has a rather ominous economic implication. If you had a serious epidemic during a critical time of your processing and picking it would mean dollars out of your pocket, wouldn't it, if your workers weren't there to move the crop?

Mr. WHITE. That is correct. In a fresh vegetable crop you only have a matter of hours or at the most a day or two to stay within the maturity limits of the harvest on the particular crop when it needs to be harvested, and it is a loss if it is not properly harvested and refrigerated and shipped in that length of time, and with a major epidemic like this, it can really put you in a tight spot.

Mr. BLACKWELL. So even the loss of a week's harvest time due to a major epidemic would have a serious economic impact on your crop, wouldn't it?

Mr. WHITE. Definitely it would.

Mr. BLACKWELL. How many members are in your co-op, Mr. White?

Mr. WHITE. There are five at the present time.

Mr. BLACKWELL. And all of them are using the pooled camp facilities and the day-haul?

Mr. WHITE. The way we are set up, as I explained earlier, we are a family co-op, which is my father-in-law, myself, two brothers-inlaw, and another member of the family. We farm as one total unit. We turn our production over to the cooperative and it operates this one major unit. We farm in two counties and three major farms, and this is consolidating our management and our sales force and also our labor.

I have been responsible for the labor and the production in the co-op for, well, since its existence.

Mr. BLACKWELL. What is the peak labor force of the five members? Mr. WHITE. We have a peak force of from a thousand to 1,400, depending on the year and the yield. Usually 1,200 would be a good average. At the present time we have about 500 or a little better employed.

Mr. BLACKWELL. How long have you been farming tomatoes in Palm Beach County?

Mr. WHITE. We started in Palm Beach County in 1953.

Senator WILLIAMS. This committee sponsored legislation providing for a minimum wage for farmworkers on the larger farms. You are clearly under the minimum wage, aren't you?

Mr. WHITE. No, sir; we are not.

Senator WILLIAMS. You are not, with that number of workers?

Mr. WHITE. We are under the minimum wage, I guess, for agricultural workers, if that is what you are speaking of, yes.

Senator WILLIAMS. Yes.

Mr. WHITE. I think all the farmers pretty well pay that because when a large one has to pay the scale, the small ones have to follow or they do not get the labor.

Senator WILLIAMS. Even though they are not under the legal jurisdiction of the minimum wage legislation as a practical matter, they will have to follow you?

Mr. WHITE. The economics would dictate that.

I believe the one thing I would like to comment on is the minimum wage for agricultural workers as it is listed doesn't cover everything that it costs the farmer. We supply our labor with their housing, their electricity, their gas, and all the utilities, and even the transportation to work in addition to this wage in most cases, with the exception of day-haul crews which do not get all of these same benefits.

You add all this up, and it takes the farmer quite a lot more than what appears on a payroll sheet.

Senator WILLIAMS. The minimum wage is still at a dollar an hour, as I recall but in February it goes to $1.15. I imagine your workers make a lot more than that, anyway.

Mr. WHITE. We work on an hourly base. Our own minimum is a dollar. Many make more than that, and of course the packers make

more.

Senator WILLIAMS. Because not only do they have the floor of the minimum wage. They have the piece rate?

Mr. WHITE. We do not work piece rates, but we remember that if the dollar is the minimum, it is only your lower or less producing worker that is going to make a dollar. If a man is worth more than a dollar, definitely you are going to pay him more than a dollar. This is true in any industry, I think.

Senator WILLIAMS. This is December. Are you harvesting anything right now?

Mr. WHITE. Yes; we are harvesting in fact quite a lot of tomatoes right now. We are harvesting about 10,000 or 12,000 20-pound cartons of tomatoes today at the present time, which is a little more than we usually do in the first of December.

February, March, and April are our heavy months.

Senator WILLIAMS. I am advised that you and Dr. Brumback are good friends and closely associated.

Mr. WHITE. Yes, sir.

Senator WILLIAMS. And you worked this appearance here in Washington before this committee out together; is that right?

Mr. WHITE. That is correct.

Senator WILLIAMS. Well, we are grateful, indeed, to both of you. Do you farm in two counties?

Mr. WHITE. We farm in two counties.

Senator WILLIAMS. We know that Palm Beach County has a good working health program. How about the other county?

Mr. WHITE. The other county that I farm in is Martin County, which is on the north boundary of Palm Beach County, but the laborers that we have in that particular county do not receive the services or are not available to them as they are in Palm Beach County. I am not sure what the extent of the program is in Martin County, but we are located in a rural area that does not have access to the clinics in this particular county.

Senator WILLIAMS. Wouldn't it be in the interest of growers in your position to stimulate Martin County to start these health programs?

Mr. WHITE. It would be of interest to us. However, you probably know that most farmers are so busy tending to their own business that the majority of them do not give labor the attention that it needs.

I have been labor-minded since I have been in this business. I suppose that is why I am here today. I think, if they were approached, and maybe it should be my responsibility to try to help with this, that it would be in the best interests of all of us to try to promote this program, to get it to those workers that are not receiving it now. Senator WILLIAMS. Are you a member of any farm association? Mr. WHITE. Yes; I am a member of the farm bureau, and other local associations.

Senator WILLIAMS. You are a member of the farm bureau?
Mr. WHITE. Yes, sir.

Senator WILLIAMS. I don't know if they have taken an official position on the extension of the Migrant Health Act. Have they?

Mr. BLACKWELL. They have no position. Mr. White, you are speaking as a grower, as an individual, and not for the farm bureau? Mr. WHITE. I am speaking strictly as an individual grower right

now.

Senator WILLIAMS. Well, you certainly have a most enlightened labor policy. That is obvious from what we know and what you said here today. Sometimes we wish we could get a positive position from the farm bureau organization. We haven't been successful to date, have we Mr. Blackwell?

Mr. BLACKWELL. No, sir.

Senator WILLIAMS. They did support the housing bill for migrant workers. Mr. White, see if you can't get the farm bureau to think your way on health matters.

Mr. WHITE. All right; I will try.

Senator WILLIAMS. Anything else, Mr. Blackwell?

Mr. BLACKWELL. No.

Senator WILLIAMS. At this point I will insert in the record the prepared statement of Leonard E. White. We are grateful, indeed. Mr. WHITE. Thank you.

(The prepared statement of Mr. White follows:)

PREPARED STATEMENT OF LEONARD E. WHITE, VICE PRESIDENT, FLAVOR PICT Co-op, INC., DELRAY BEACH, FLA.

The Migrant Health Act needs to be extended if we are to make any progress for the underprivileged migrant agricultural worker who usually does not meet residence requirements where he lives. The transient nature of his occupation usually leaves him unknown and often unaccepted in society.

Because the migrant usually lives in a rural area in a labor camp, or housing furnished by the farmer, he often does not have access to local programs designed to meet the needs of local residents.

His education is usually neglected and he does not realize what medical attention he requires. The community in which he lives is not often aware of his existence or needs until an epidemic or disaster of some kind brings attention to the general public.

Hospitals and county governments do not provide for migrant care in their budgets. The local community does not usually feel that the migrant is their problem because of non-residence and therefore excludes him from local assistance. Most clinics and doctors are located in cities or highly populated areas and in surroundings foreign to the migrant laborer. Further, because of his work schedule, loss of time and pay, he does not seek medical aid when it is needed. To provide the minimum of care for these people we should make clinics available in large labor camps, or other rural areas where the migrant can be taught what he needs to know about his own personal health as well as having medical assistance available possibly after work hours or at least accessible to him.

Much progress has been made since our local mobile clinics have been operating in rural areas. Many cases that could cause epidemics or serious health hazards are discovered sooner than they would if neglected, saving much time and grief to the migrant as well as losses to the farmer, the local hospitals, etc.

The total amount of migrant labor used in South Florida has not decreased in the past 10 years. The size and scope of the problems still remains before us. It is too much to tax a local community to pay the bills that they might not have any control over. The problem is interstate and national in scope.

There has been and still is a lot of talk of mechanization taking over the agricultural industry, which would replace the migrant. With mechanization advancing in the past ten years, it still has not relieved the need or visibly reduced the number of migrant laborers needed to harvest our crops. Our population is growing requiring more food. In the next four or five years it does not appear that varieties of vegetables will be developed fast enough to lend themselves to mechanical harvesting as fast as some would think. Some particular crops such as beans can be harvested mechanically for fresh market, others for processing may be harvested mechanically and this is being done. In Florida where the nation's large supply of fresh vegetables, for winter consumption is grown, a different problem exists. Most vegetables for fresh market must be harvested by hand until such time as the machinery and varieties are developed to change over. This takes several years at a minimum and very likely later than the extension of the Migrant Health Act would last. Any decrease in migrant labor needs is yet to be seen, and it does not appear to be as soon as most would like to think.

Senator WILLIAMS. The witness list indicates that the next three witnesses have much in common, all coming from the health care area and farmwork. Possibly we ought to create a little panel of Mr. Jose Gonzales, Dr. Virgil Gianelli, and Dr. Robert Locey.

Why don't you one by one identify yourselves and the position from which you speak.

STATEMENTS OF JOSE L. GONZALES, DIRECTOR, LAREDO-WEBB COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT, LAREDO, TEX.; DR. VIRGIL GIANELLI, PROJECT DIRECTOR, SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY, STOCKTON, CALIF.; AND DR. ROBERT P. LOCEY, DIRECTOR, MIGRANT HEALTH PROGRAM, TRICOUNTY ASSOCIATED HEALTH DEPARTMENT, ST. JOSEPH, MICH.

Dr. LOCEY. Dr. Robert P. Locey, from the southwestern corner of Michigan.

Dr. GIANELLI. I am Dr. Virgil Gianelli.

Senator WILLIAMS. That is St. Joseph, Mich.?

Dr. LOCEY. That is St. Joseph.

Dr. GIANELLI. And I am from California. I am a physician in private practice, also project director for our local project, and presidentelect of my society.

Mr. GONZALES. I am Jose Gonzales, acting administrator of the Laredo-Webb County Health Department, and project director of the Laredo migrant program.

Senator WILLIAMS. You share that activity in common, do you not? You are all project directors in this field?

Dr. GIANELLI. Right.

Whom do you wish to have first, Mr. Chairman?

Senator WILLIAMS. Why don't you start, Dr. Gianelli?

Dr. GIANELLI. Thank you.

This morning I wish to outline for you experimental programs undertaken by the San Joaquin Medical Society as they relate to medical care of migrant agricultural workers.

For the sake of orientation, the society comprises four counties in central California, of which San Joaquin is ranked as the fourth richest agriculturally in the Nation with a 1966 farm income of $252,862,843. During 1965, farm employment ranged from 11,750 in the winter to 24,475 in the fall at the peak of the tomato harvest. The volume of farm workers depends heavily on migrants who come to San Joaquin County during the major harvest activity. As near as we can determine, the migrant population is between 12,000 and 14,000 with the major influx of out-of-State workers from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and New Mexico entering California at the South and following the crops northward through Oregon and Washington.

In 1954, the San Joaquin Medical Society, in an attempt to bring the benefits of modern medical care to all people, established the foundation for medical care, which embraced the principles of prepayment, fee schedule, claims review and quality control. It was then that our agricultural committee began meeting with representatives of organized agriculture in an attempt to meet the bealth needs of the worker. This activity continued for 6 years without bearing fruit.