Posted on 07/31/2011 10:12:27 AM PDT by sbMKE
Fine, shut them down immediately. If they cannot or will not follow the law then what other laws are they violating?
In the food industry there should be zero tolerance for this kind of ignorance.
I saw a very similar headline yesterday supposedly from another state in the midwest. Must be the Dem talking point for this weekend.
A computer program? That’s weird. I would have thought that rising fuel and energy costs would kill the industry first. Of course, even if the farmers did whine about that, the lowlifes in the state run “media” wouldn’t report it.
I'm sure someone will figure out how to shovel poop and milk cows eventually!
This is a great idea
“perhaps David Geiser should demand legal American youths get up off their arses and work...maybe we need a ‘draft’ of sorts to start this ball rolling. E-Verify makes more sense all the time..........”
Makes more sense than all the BD mooooochelle is throwing out.
get out and work, that fat will come off and they will be healither and feel better
Back in the early 90s one of my Senior NCOs owned a farm about 12 miles from base. It was his home town and of his more than 20 years in service he had been gone from home just two years (we called it Homesteading).
Anyway, he bragged he received about twice what he made from the Air Force from the Feds for keeping over half his land fallow. He also said he received other subsidies that totaled his AF pay and because of that he was quite hard to deal with.
I finally got fed up and pressured him to retire from the military and go farm.
Agriculture does not need illegal immigrants. I know many farmers and ranchers that do not hire illegals and they do just fine. Their cows don’t die and their crops don’t rot- they are able to get legal immigrants and/or citizen employees. The Ag industry is just like other industries, there are those that follow the law and those that don’t. The sad thing is those that follow the law have to compete with those that don’t. That is truly unfair and must be stopped.
Agriculture is where this mess all started with the illegals, many of my family and friends worked in agriculture jobs and were forced out by illegals many years ago. Many owners wanted the illegals because they would not only work for lower wages, but would tolerate unsafe or otherwise bad working conditions. At the time those of us that needed and wanted the jobs tried to speak out about what was happening but no one cared. It wasn’t their job. As the years have passed illegals have moved into construction, motels, restaurants, you name it illegals have taken the jobs.
We simply cannot afford to subsidize illegal workers and need the jobs for citizens.
That number is complete rubbish.
Take out the owners, herd managers and the farm support people who aren't on the farm every day: Milk Inspectors, DHIA Technicians, Holstein Classifiers, Milk Haulers and vets. And then the number (unless you're on an Amish Farm) is 99.9%.
That is correct. The daily hired labor on dairy farms in the US not part of management in almost 100%. NONE of them are "believed" by anyone to be undocumented. ALL are known to be illegals.
That may be true where you live, but not here. In my area there are farmers that hire only illegals, some that hire both legal and illegal workers, and some that never hire illegals. The sad thing is the farmers that don’t hire illegals have to compete with those that do.
“If E-Verify passes, it will kill the dairy industry in Wisconsin,” Reinhart said. “I’m scared to death.”
Perhaps the dairy industry in Wisconsin “needs killin”
Or needs to adapt.
This is incorrect. It happens because Americans will not do this job for anywhere near the minimum wage, and illegals will do it for far less. The current Federal minimum wage is $7.25. That's $14,500 in a 2000 hour labor-year. I've had farmers already tell me, "Good milkers want $25,000/year. Why should I pay them that?" When I tell them they shouldn't have slave labor on their farms, they just laugh.
The problem is not the employees, the problem is the employer. Farmers are simply NOT willing to pay what farm labor costs and they know that no one will enforce the law.
Second that! And why should a business ower skip paying taxes, skirt environmental regulations or under-pay employeees? Because these actions are illegal.
My business puts me on Farms ALL OVER the Lower 48 United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, every day. It is true EVERYWHERE. And New Mexico is one of the worst offenders. Poor land quality and lack of water in the desert Southwest change the outdoor aspect of the business — and that is all. In any location where labor is intensive, illegals are used.
If the Federal government wants to close the budget gap, all they need to do is visit milking parlors during milking times. The current fine, I believe, is $7,500 per illegal, with an additional $7,500 if ICE can prove that a pattern of illegal hiring practice exists. In almost all cases, that would amount to a fine somewhere between $30,000-$60,000 even on moderate sized farms.
No, the fine itself won't amount to much against the billions we owe, but the resulting drop in crime, welfare, school costs and infrastructure that doesn't need to be paid for will be a good start.
And that is what it amounts to. We the taxpayers are funding the very people who take corruption as a way of life.
What the Democrat masters do not understand is that if the illegals were allowed to vote today, the Dems would benefit but only for a season. Beyond that, the new legals would vote in their own. And as far as corruption goes, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Wherever illegal migrant farm workers have settled the crime rate has sky rocketed along with the other ills brought by them. I’ll pay 5 cents more for a head of lettuce to hire Ameicans. Lets start by employing welfare fraud recepients and put them in the fields. If they don’t like it then they don’t eat. Guess what, they’ll work.
Slavery didn't end.
It evolved into the current illegal alien/cheap labor system presently in place.
These whinny dairy farmers make me sick.I’ve been farming for 40 plus years and never once hired an illegal.Pay a decent wage and you’ll have no problem finding Americans who will work hard.(It would help farmers a bunch if the government would stop messing with the dairy industry.)
My job puts me in very close contact with farmers, and my first thought is they always whine about labor costs, but how much of the price of a tomato at the grocery store is labor cost? Fertilizer, transportation, seed stock, planting, livestock, spraying, fuel, equipment leases or purchase payments, they all seem to me to be a much larger portion of a 50 cent tomato than labor.
I deal with a guy nearly every day that owns about 4 different dairies. He pays his employees crap wages, (even the legal American citizens), none of his trucks would pass a DOT inspection (but he has a ‘F’ plate which exempts him), he and his kids all get a new $40,000 truck every other year which is a write-off, and he employs a bunch of illegals.
He’s essentially getting subsidized by the US taxpayer on health costs for his employees (they go to the emergency room), wages (the illegals game the system by not showing they’re married, the ‘wife’ applies for welfare, WIC, foodstamps, etc...as a single mother with anchor baby) Taxes (farm subsidies and property tax exemptions), and since he doesn’t have to pay overtime wages (farm employees are exempt) the income taxes, social security, and medicare taxes paid are reduced.
So, how many employees does it take to produce 100,000 gallons of milk per year? How much would it raise the price of a gallon of milk if the dairy paid for health insurance, overtime, and increased wages for not hiring illegal aliens? How much would the price of a tomato increase if the same things were required? How about a head of lettuce?
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