Ripe crops languish in the fields. It's harvest time, but where are the farmworkers?

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/18/05 | George Raine

[rottndog]

deja vu?

[NavySEAL F-16]

Hopefully, they have some evacuees that are looking for jobs.

[bethtopaz]

"A Day Without A Mexican!"

[linear]

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...

[concerned about politics]

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.

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.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Txsleuth]

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!!!

[Itzlzha]

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.

Um...not "no"....but "HELL NO!"

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!

[cynicom]

They prefer to have the picking done for free.

[GSlob]

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.

[Ruth C]

I doubt that very much.

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.

[dufekin]

You might not realize this truth, but this labor shortage is merely another symptom of an ailing, depressed economy. We now have the worst economy since Herbert Hoover; that's the absolute truth, according to unbiased, nonpartisan economist and distinguished Senator John Forbes Kerry. Most Americans, according to the latest DNC/Push-poll, long for the prosperity that President James Earl Carter brought to America, leading to an impressive 18% inflation and 12% unemployment by the time he completed his term.

[hombre_sincero]

We have THOUSANDS of displaced people from Louisiana who would LOVE to find good honest labor to feed and improve their families .... RIGHT!??!

< Choak! >

[Ruth C]

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!

[SAJ]

One MUST ask exactly how many non-violent felons are in Calbania's assorted penal institutions.

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'

[Ann Archy]

I know where ther's a LOT of people out of work right now.....maybe they would like these jobs.

[BigFinn]

They're taking better-paying jobs in construction and landscaping in the booming Central Valley communities where they once picked a cornucopia of crops.

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.

[NavySEAL F-16]

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.

[devolve]