Immigrant sheepherders from South America working in western Colorado routinely are paid low wages and live in small campers without electricity or toilet facilities, according to a report to be released today.
However, officials with the sheep industry vehemently dispute the report’s findings, calling them anecdotal and unsubstantiated.
The report by Colorado Legal Services was based on interviews over two years with 93 of the estimated 300 immigrant sheepherders working in the state under H-2A visas. The herders who granted interviews were promised anonymity.
The workers, mostly from Peru, are brought to the U.S. under the visa program to work for up to three years herding sheep.
However, the program has few safeguards for the workers, the report said.
“A lot of the actual shocking stuff is allowed under current law,” said Jennifer Lee, a Colorado Legal Services attorney who oversaw the report.
The report states that almost three- fourths of the workers said they didn’t have any days off during the course of a year, 70 percent did not have a functioning toilet and 80 percent were not allowed to leave the ranch. Hours were long for monthly pay that ranges from $650 to $750.
In addition, the report stated that more than one-third said they were paid less frequently than once a month, in violation of federal rules.
“Many of the conditions described were drastically worse than those existing for farmworkers, let alone for other types of laborers in Colorado,” the report said.
Peter Orwick , executive director of the Colorado-based American Sheep Association, said ranchers in the state look out for the workers’ welfare and pay them on time.
Running water for toilets and electricity are logistical problems for remote areas at 9,000 feet above sea level, he said.
“The two or three folks involved in the report seemed very big on getting press attention and very slight on substantiation,” Orwick said.
Orwick said that the conditions can’t be that bad if sheepherders and their relatives keep returning to the ranches from their home countries.
“There is no excuse or reason or issue or grievance that is not being addressed,” he said.
