Do you think the Mexicans that work for horse racing stables are being treated fairly?
The Mexicans are the majority that work for these highly profitable horse owners and trainers.
Hell,no- or at least not that I’ve EVER SEEN, and I’ve been around a long, long, time. Abuse and exploitation of workers is NOT just limited to the racing industry, either- what about the PERFORMANCE and SPORT HORSE INDUSTRIES? Are they somehow not as important? Well, they should be, because it is in THESE INDUSTRIES where MOST OF the really HORRIFIC ABUSES happen. These are the things which people outside the business talk about as horror stories, and with good reason. I know what I’m talking about here- I spent over 20 years in both of these businesses, and believe me, NOT MUCH has changed. I’ve seen people of Central American and Mexican heritage who were trying to support families of 4 and 6 kids on less than a $100 a week, with NO BENEFITS whatsoever. Do YOU consider THAT to be FAIR, pal ? I sure don’t, but perhaps you’re different. I’ve also been on farms where the Mexican workers ( known as ” hombres” in California and places like it) were forced to live in hot, dingy, run down mobile homes on the owner’s property, because they weren’t being PAID ENOUGH to allow them to live anywhere else. How’d YOU like to be on call on a 24/7/365 basis, with no time off and never even a chance to go to church on Sunday, often for YEARS at a time? And to know that if you miss even ONE DAY of work, regardless of the reason why, you’ll be shown the road in short order? How’d YOU like to be forced to work a 10, 12, 14, or 16 hour day in all kinds of weather, even if you’re sick with the flu or a bad cold, and shouldn’t even be out of bed, much less in a barn? I saw plenty of THIS kind of thing happen too, during my long years in the business, and I’ve experienced it MYSELF. How would YOU like to work at a place where you are NEVER ALLOWED TO LEAVE the property without permission, even to go to the FUNERAL of a loved one who has died? I had one employer who pulled this kind of CRAP too- it was one of the reasons I left there after only 9 months. I could go on forever, because I can think of SO MANY examples of abuse and exploitative behavior by employers in the horse business. I’ve seen people get FIRED ( that’s right, FIRED) for something as trivial as forgetting to turn off a lightswitch or roll a bandage the correct way- and have had it happen to me. I’ve been in situations in which I was expected to cater to the employer’s lifestyle ( which was usually very lavish) at the expense of my OWN- so I can understand where the workers are coming from. No, it’s NOT FAIR- but then, what in life IS?
People of Mexican heritage who end up working on horse farms usually end up doing so because NO ONE ELSE will hire them. The horse business in the United States is still one of the only places left where undocumented workers can get employment- and because the employers KNOW they are hiring undocumented people, they ALSO know that they can exploit and blackmail them- so they do it. There are employers out there who will treat people like this as worse than lepers, simply because they know they can get by with it-if the workers try to protest, all the employer has to do is pick up the phone and call the INS- and most people in this situation are smart enough to know that. There’s another side to this too, which Karin hinted at in her answer- which is that WITHOUT these Mexican workers, there would be a chronic LABOR SHORTAGE in EVERY PART of the horse business, regardless of where one is talking about. The great majority of AMERICANS simply will NOT DO the kind of work that these people do willingly, because they won’t PUT UP WITH or tolerate the abuses and exploitation, not to mention the low pay and lack of benefits, which go along with such work. This reason alone is why these farms and farm owners, not to mention the race trainers, look to Mexicans and other people of Central American heritage for help- they have no other choice, because there aren’t enough of our OWN people available, and the work must still be done. And then there are those Americans who consider the idea of working at a horse farm, shoveling manure, to be FAR BENEATH their station in life. We’ve ALL known IDIOTS like this- the people who have more MONEY than they do BRAINS. Right next to them, and worse in some ways, are the ones who think they are God’s gift to horses. Working for someone like this who happens to own a farm is a fate worse than DEATH for a lot of us- and those of Mexican heritage are no different, believe me. There are people in both the racing and the sport horse industries who have no business being there, because of the way they ACT. They treat their employees( and sometimes, their own families) worse than they would treat a dog or cat, and then they wonder why they can never get or keep good help. What goes around comes around, as the saying goes.
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