Wage and Cooperative Labor

Even farmers cultivating modest plots often hire wage labor at harvest time. Growers rush their harvests, especially if prices are high and the crops perishable. Most farmers turn to neighbors and relatives with a loose expectation of eventual reciprocation. Wage agreements actually came to be preferred over work exchanges since the implied finality leaves both parties free from future commitments that could conflict with their own schedules. Of course, poorer couples disproportionally rely on wage work, especially after opportunities diminished in the 1970s and 1980s. Nevertheless, wages in Buguias have remained much higher than those along the Mountain Trail, in part because no outside workers (Ilocanos and North-

ern Kankana-eys) lodge here. In 1986, when a full day's labor earned 15 to 20 pesos in Natubleng, workers in Buguias could earn as much as 35 pesos.

One specialized task has been particularly well rewarded with cash, namely the portage of vegetables from field to road. This job requires great strength and stamina, and is usually undertaken by adolescent boys and young men. Growers pay by weight and distance, with some variation for competitive bidding. Those strong enough to carry a number of sacks in quick succession receive ample rewards, and the best can reportedly earn 75 pesos in less than a full day.

Traditional labor exchange, ogbo, has rarely been applied to vegetable harvesting. Davis (1973:58) argues that hired labor is more efficient, a reasonable position considering the complex individual schedules that would have to be meshed as different growers reach hurried decisions on harvesting dates. Voss (1980) sees informal reciprocity in wage-labor agreements and argues that it is a modified form of labor exchange. This view is reasonable when applied to the few remote villages east of Buguias that have formed a semicooperative system of wage-labor exchange to bypass what would be excessive levies for vegetable portage.

Pure labor exchange does persist in select situations. Ogbo is still applied, for example, to the non-urgent but laborious task of new field preparation. Cooperative work parties are also organized along village or hamlet lines for road and trail maintenance, and for the construction of new traditional-style houses. And finally, irrigation system maintenance is performed jointly by all water recipients. Dangas, the prewar system of meat and beer "wages," also survives in attenuated form. Today farmers occasionally hire young men to clear brush or perform other heavy tasks in exchange for meat (often a cow's head) and—equally essential—San Miguel gin.

The clearing of new fields can be accomplished through one's own painstaking labor, through ogbo, or through dangas, but the more prosperous farmers usually hire outsiders on a contract basis. As in the old days, Kalanguya men predominate. Prosperous Buguias growers also commission contract workers to build new terraces, to saw boards, and to perform other skilled or tedious jobs. The worker's daily emolument depends on his rapidity of work, but it often reaches nearly twice the average daily wage. Conten-

tion not uncommonly erupts, however, as contract laborers are tempted to rush through their tasks, leading many employers to complain about the quality of the finished work.