Pay draws foreigners to hard work

San Antonio Express-News ^ | 3 June 2005 | Jesse Bogan

[Racehorse]

"Does anybody want to do that in the United States?" he asked, pointing to a horizon full of onion fields. "No insurance. No benefits. No A/C. You lose money by taking too many breaks. It's crazy, man.

"Who is going to come do this when they can get (minimum wage) at McDonalds in the A/C?"

[. . .]

To many of them, used to heat and hard work, this was a pay raise. One man who jumped trains to get to the border from Honduras said the $200 he earned here in three full days would have taken a few months doing farm work back home.

[. . .]

As long as they don't draw attention to themselves, the U.S. Border Patrol leaves them alone, managers said. One worker who was deported said he came back to the fields the next day.

A Border Patrol spokesman in Washington said the agency isn't responsible for workplace enforcement, but rather protects the border from undocumented entrants.

[. . .]

A San Antonio-based representative of the United Farm Workers, Rebecca Flores, estimated that 80 percent of agricultural field workers in the United States are undocumented.

"It is just a pecking order in terms of what (employers) can get out of cheap labor," Flores said. "The immigrant who has no rights and has no protection is the one who will take those jobs."

[. . .]

As a team, Hernandez said, his family [wife plus 6 children] can cut 250 sacks, or $175 worth, in half a day — they rarely work longer than that.

[Racehorse]

70 cents per sack . . . in the heat of a South Texas onion field.

But it is the conditions imposed by farmers, the article says, and not just the low pay and harsh field conditions which keep citizenry out of the field. Good article. Take a look.

[gubamyster]

ping

[Sacajaweau]

Now SPEND the money in America and pay taxes....and then tell me what $200 will buy.

[blackie]

Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!

Be Ever Vigilant!

Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!

[KittyKares]

It's not too bad when you get subsidized housing with several working members of their extended family living in one house, food stamps, free health care, free education, etc.

[A CA Guy]

You have to start forcing the farmers to get the proper permits for people to work and then they should only use legal papered immigrants with proper visas.

I think outside of the above way, all illegal employment by companies should start to be fined at $10,000 per violation until the employers are to afraid to hire them.

I can understand that the reason an illegal comes here is there is some money, any money to pay them. In many cases like being from Mexico and other places, their own governments and countries are so corrupt and dysfunctional that they are the armpits of the world.

[DumpsterDiver]

A San Antonio-based representative of the United Farm Workers, Rebecca Flores, estimated that 80 percent of agricultural field workers in the United States are undocumented.

I don't think Cesar Chavez would be happy to hear that.

"It is just a pecking order in terms of what (employers) can get out of cheap labor," Flores said. "The immigrant who has no rights and has no protection is the one who will take those jobs."

That doesn't say much for the employers, does it.

[jeremiah]

Kids on summer vacation used to do a lot of the harvesting of vegetables and fruit. I did it, my whole peer group used to go out and work the strawberry fields in the spring, the bean fields later on, and apple picking in the fall. Part of it was not getting an allowance, and another part of it was, it was not illegal to work. If the illegals were not here doing the work, new methods would come on line to pick up the slack. Cut off the social service pipeline to those not willing to work now, would provide the workers necessary to fill the smaller needs of a 21st century farm.

[tinamina]

Yes, we did this too. All the kids in our county paid for their school clothes, spending money, college funds by picking strawberries, raspberries, cucumbers, bulbs and whatever else every summer. My youngest sister started when she was 8. I think it gave us a work ethic not found in today's youth, and took some of the burden off our parents. Of course it really helped my parents out because they had 12 children. But they never took a dime of our money, although they could have used it for groceries I'm sure. There were migrant workers in the fields too, but they went home to Mexico when the season was over.

[BIGLOOK]

That's day labor in Texas. Once the fields are harvested, usually quickly, workers are paid and they go home. $200 for 3 days work for a single laborer or $200 for a family in a half day is NP 2162, mucho dinero on the Mexican side of the border.

The farmer doesn't have to file any withholding until labor exceeds $600. The migrants usually clean up in a few days, then on to the next farm and then home at the finish of the season.

What's happening with the latest mass invasion of illegals is something else. They're staying in the North.