unites 



Carolina Crab Hoxises 



and 



^Nlezxican Pickers 



Just after sunrise, about 100 women 

 — mothers, daughters, in-laws and 

 neighbors — gather around stainless 

 steel tables, knives in hand, swiftly pull- 

 ing delicate meat out of steamed blue 

 crabs. 



The scene has been repeated in 

 coastal North Carolina for generations. 



But this is April in Chiltepec, a 

 small town in Mexico's Tabasco State. 

 By the first of June, these workers, 

 along with about 1 ,000 other Mexican 

 women, will be practicing the art of crab 

 picking a world away. In fact, Mexican 

 women now make up the vast majority 

 of crab pickers in North Carolina. 



The picking room in Chiltepec is 

 not much different from a picking room 

 in Oriental. Both are rural coastal com- 

 munities. Chiltepec is on the Gulf of 

 Mexico; Oriental, the Pamlico Sound. 



All crab plants have one identifying 

 aspect — the smell. This fruit of the sea 

 has a strong aroma, which mixes with 

 the scent of disinfectant required by 

 health inspectors. Workers and visitors 

 forget about the smell while there is 

 work at hand, but the scent lingers in 

 hair and clothes. 



By Katie Mosher 



The buildings themselves are stark, 

 with few windows or decorations. Crab 

 plants in the United States tend to be 

 cinderblock buildings painted white. But 

 like many homes in Mexico, the plant in 

 Chiltepec is painted bright blue. 



• • • 



Just after sunrise, 

 about lOO women — 

 motners, daughters, 

 in-laws and neighbors 

 — gather around 

 stainless steel tables, 

 lenives in hand, 

 swiftly pulling delicate 

 meat out of steamed 



blue crabs. 

 The scene has been 

 repeated in coastal 

 North C arolina 

 for generations . 



Picking crab has traditionally been 

 women's work in Tar Heel coastal com- 

 munities such as Oriental, Belhaven and 

 Columbia. Older pickers say men con- 

 sider it "sissy work." A few men work 

 in the crab plants, hauling fresh crabs 

 from dock to steamer, then the cooked 

 crabs to the picking tables and finally, 

 carrying away the scrap shells. 



Although owners cannot discrimi- 

 nate against male pickers, tradition at 

 the coast has seen men gathering the 

 catch and women processing it. But 

 now, owners of North Carolina crab 

 plants can find neither local men nor 

 women to fill the open slots at the pick- 

 ing tables. 



"I'm always looking for workers — 

 always, always," says Patty Buck, 

 owner of Mattamuskeet Seafood in 

 Hyde County. "I try to hire everybody 

 local that is possible." 



When Buck opened the plant 10 

 years ago, she had 120 local women 

 working in two shifts. Now she has 

 barely two dozen local workers, and 

 many of those only work a few days a 

 week. 



Continued 



1 JULY/AUGUST 1994 



