Migrant conference to be held. Discussion about how many might attend the conference, expectations. Interviewees talk about events that will take place at conference, a forum for migrants and response from legislators. Expect State Sen. Jerry Hughes from Education Committee, John Bowen from Maplewood. They hope 400 to 600 migrants would attend the conference, around ten percent of the 7,000 to 8,000 estimated to be working in the fields for American Crystal Sugar. For migrant workers taking a Sunday off to go to a conference is a considerable sacrifice in income. Most migrants work half a day Sunday, and go to church then work for the next five or six days. Reporter MFG.
Transcripts
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SPEAKER 1: First of all, on the agenda as a mass, most migrants being Catholics or partial Catholics or whatever. And then, we're going to have a lunch of Mexican food. Beans and tortillas, and mole boil. And then, we're going to try to provide some entertainment and--
SPEAKER 2: I'm following your forum for migrants. There's going to be a response from legislators. Now do you have-- what kind of commitments do you have from legislators to be there?
SPEAKER 1: We've got Jerry Hughes. Jerry Hughes is the Senator in charge of the education.
SPEAKER 2: Maplewood, I guess.
SPEAKER 1: Right. He's the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. And that's somewhere that we could get a few responses from him, I hope.
And then, there's another from Maplewood, John Boland, who said he's going to be up in the area. And he's going to try to make it. By the way, the reason they're coming, they're from my district. And I worked for them. So that--
SPEAKER 2: I see.
SPEAKER 1: So that may be why they're coming. And--
SPEAKER 2: Well, you've got some power there in the legislature, at least.
SPEAKER 1: Oh, yeah. And I'm working on-- I'm calling this afternoon to get some-- we sent out 200 invitations. And we're checking with them to see if they've received the invitations. And if they're coming, we'll put them on the stand.
SPEAKER 2: Among the migrants, about how many people would be attending this conference?
SPEAKER 1: We hope 400, 500, 600. And of course, depending on the weather.
SPEAKER 2: Is that about the number of people who come to work for American Crystal Sugar?
SPEAKER 1: Oh, no, no no.
SPEAKER 2: Well--
SPEAKER 1: Yeah.
SPEAKER 2: Fill me in on--
SPEAKER 3: The state human rights bill representative did some analytical research. He has come out with a figure of close to 11,000 men, women, and children that come up here. Out of those 11,000, you may figure that they're anywhere between 7,000 and 8,000 that are actually working out in the field. Out of those, we expect to maybe get 600 migrant workers.
SPEAKER 2: Now what does that indicate about the attitude of migrants toward getting together and acting together as a group? People who come to work in the sugar beet fields in Minnesota--
SPEAKER 1: What's their response to a conference like this? Well, first of all, that's given that we've done our work and gotten the publicity to everyone. And at that level, I think that if we got a 10% response out of anything, it would just be like a politics like any sort of an organization with anything. 10%, we would feel would be good enough to do.
SPEAKER 3: I think--
SPEAKER 2: That's about what you're talking about here.
SPEAKER 3: Right. The thing is that 600 would be a fantastic figure, given the fact that migrants come 15-- again 1,500 to 1,800 miles to work. And taking a Sunday off even to go to a conference is a considerable sacrifice in the income, let's say.
Most migrants might work half a day on Sunday and go to church, and maybe relax for the rest of it. And then, it's work for the next five, six days, see. So if we get that figure, I figure we're lucky.