When the "machines" were first introduced, the supervisor told us that whoever had the best efficiency rating each week would get a paid day off. It's hard to convey how profoundly this threatened our culture of solidarity. In the vines, everyone moved at more or less the same pace. The faster workers slowed down to help the slower ones with their rows, and everyone emerged almost simultaneously, their creates full of tomatoes. With the threat of being sent back to Mexico hanging in the air, the last thing anyone wanted was to draw attention to himself by standing out as faster or slower than the rest.