Speech #860263896

I oppose the extension of this law for 2 more years or even 1 more yearif these amendments cannot be adopted. Our State labor commissioner and his assistant. Tom Current. have made a detailed study of the migrant workersboth domestic and Mexican nationals. In a hearing conducted by Secretary of Labor Mitchell. Commissioner Norm Nilsen had this to say: We in Oregon have made a close study of the conditions of migratory farmworkers and can cite them. chapter and verse. However. every State in which any study has been made has found conditions similar. or worse. to those found in the State of Oregon. A number of State agencies. at the request of a State legislative interim study committee. conducted the extensive survey in 1958 which led to the accumulation of a mountain of information on conditions in Oregon. The bureau of labor interviewed over 1.200 migrants in a scientific sampling of this States sizable migrant population. In doing so. staff members of my department worked long hours. 7 days a week. during many weeksthey lived with the migrants. worked in the fields with them and sought them out wherever they werein the camps. in the fields. even in the railroad jungles and the taverns if that was where they were. Other agencies took assignments related to their jurisdiction. In Oregon the public employment service is not under the bureau of labor. This separate department. therefore. had a different assignment from ours. The State employment service interviewed over 4.000 growers with respect to their problems and their viewpoint. The welfare department talked to all of the migrant applicants for aid during a 2month period throughout the State. The board of health interviewed 2.000 migrants relative to their health and checked the sanitation of a large number of camps and fields. The industrial accident commission checked over 500 trucks and buses for safety. The following comments relate in very brief form the findings of these agencies pertinent to the three major areas treated by the regulations proposed by the Secretary of Labor at this hearing.