Posted on 09/18/2005 8:25:27 PM PDT by Crackingham
It's the middle of harvest season for California raisin grapes, and only half of the farmworkers needed are in the fields. What holds for raisin grapes is happening widely in California agriculture. In the Central Valley alone, there is a shortage of from 70,000 to 80,000 workers to bring fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables to market, according to an estimate by the trade association Western Growers.
Some growers are planting fewer acres than normal as they scramble to save the season. Western Growers is worried that the lack of workers -- mostly immigrants from Mexico and Central America -- could cause $1 billion in losses to California agriculture this year.
Manuel Cunha Jr., president of Nisei Farmers League in Fresno, is getting 50 calls a day from growers asking where the workers are.
"It's a disaster," Cunha said. "We have an immigration program that is broken."
Many of the farmworkers who year after year make the trip from their homelands to California, doing the work Americans shun, have found their own ladders of success to climb. They're taking better-paying jobs in construction and landscaping in the booming Central Valley communities where they once picked a cornucopia of crops.
SNIP
The cries for help from growers are rekindling interest in a jobs bill by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., that would give an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants temporary worker permits and put them on a track to citizenship.
The legislation was developed over eight years by some strange bedfellows, including growers, the United Farm Workers, the AFL-CIO, the Republican caucus and more than 500 liberal and conservative advocacy groups. The proponents disagree about the root causes of the labor shortage but share the view that agriculture needs a fix.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Hopefully, they have some evacuees that are looking for jobs.
"A Day Without A Mexican!"
Wow, fascinating. This means that they will have to pay higher wages to make up for the labor shortfall. hmmm, I wonder if you could base an entire economy on this? Someone really ought to try...
The state government should have all those democrats collecting tax payer dollars do this work. At least they'd be doing something to earn their keep.
BTTT
LOL---I wast just going to say that the farmers should get together and send a plane to Houston...and pick up some evacuees...they just might like to trade some work for a place in wine country, California!!!
Um...not "no"....but
With all the displaced welfare recipients from Katrina, there is a ABUNDANT crop of workers just WAITING to be put to work!
We can cut down on welfare AND Illegal infiltrators in one shot!
But I'm sure GWB will fold like a house of cards when The Masshole Murderer Kennedy comes a' calling!
They prefer to have the picking done for free.
Well, it is a challenge to the American ingenuity to mechanize and automate these jobs. I'd like to think we'll meet this challenge.
I have no problem with temporary visa work permits, I have a big problem having it linked to citizenship. If they want that they should be applying on that track like everyone else, all those people who get sponsors and who sign documents which prevent them from getting any kind of gov assistance for 5 years.
We have THOUSANDS of displaced people from Louisiana who would LOVE to find good honest labor to feed and improve their families .... RIGHT!??!
< Choak! >
Just think for a minute.... if the left and media used Katrina to scream racist and GWB hates black people, what they would do if he suggested they might 'pick' things in a field!
It's pickin' time, boys and girls, you cons. I daresay upwards of 50K pickers could be had for the asking and the fuel to transport them. And, please keep in mind that the Constitution specifically permits this practice.
Well, this would be doable if that state's utterly incompetent gov't would use the resources at hand instead of ginning up new 'authorities' and 'programmes'
I know where ther's a LOT of people out of work right now.....maybe they would like these jobs.
I live in the valley and that is what my contractor friend told me. You know what,,,just having finished a home... most of the Mexican workers proved to be better construction workers than their counterpart US force. I saw them show up everyday on time and worked their backsides off. The white guys never showed up on time, complained, made excuses and didn't do a very good job. The truth.
I was referring to the evacuees from Katrina who I believe are U.S. citizens, former residents of LA, AL, and MS.
I don't think U.S. citizens require visa work permits. Correct me, if I'm wrong.
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