Farm Employee Satisfaction: It’s Not Money, It’s Respect

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

Showing respect to your field and farm workers and can really pay off. According to Raul Calvo of Employers Services, he’s all about leadership, management development, human resources, and employee relations training. Calvo described a situation recently in the central valley. It was a farm operation with two Labor contractors contributing.

California farm workers harvesting tree fruit

The employees from both farm labor contractors are interested in the same thing. “We want more money and we want more benefits. We want to improve our lives.’ So, they all wanted this,” said Calvo. The UFW union showed up and was able to latch on some of the employees of one of the Labor contractors.

“The UFW was able to convince almost all of the employees from farm labor contractor one to walk out of the field,” he said. These employees basically went on strike until they get higher pay. After seeing one group walk, Calvo decided to talk to employees from another company to see their views on the subject. “It got down to yes, we want a better life. Yes, we would like this company to pay us more and to give us more benefits, but we’re willing to give them the benefit of the doubt,” Calvo said.

The other companies treated their employees with respect and that is why they did not walk out. The company relates to their employees and treats them as individuals.