California Peach Farmer: Americans Won't Reliably do the Work

The National Ledger ^ | 06-07-06 | Debra Saunders

[Coastal]

"Everybody has an opinion, although most people think food comes from Safeway," muses Ken Hajek. A dentist three days a week, Hajek offers me his opinion as a peach grower the other four days. We are talking as he stands near his white pickup on 25 acres in Lodi, where he grows peaches in an orchard tucked behind a house and a yard full of cars.

Hajek had contacted me because he objected to my call for the Bush administration to get tougher on those who knowingly employ illegal immigrants.

[dalereed]

With 25 acres he isn't a farmer, he's a back yard gardner!

[b4its2late]

Great ideas. I like it.

[AZBear]

I remember growing up, That friends of mine used to go to Hawaii for the summer to work on pineapple farms and they were American citizens. It was a good way to work for money for college.

[sheana]

I worked many long hot hours in the potato/onion sheds here, that is until the illegals started taking them over and I refused to work with them.

[Red Badger]

In truth, he'll just automate.

There's the solution to immigration! Automatic lettuce picker/packer machines. And any other crop that needs harvesting in huge quantities. As a kid in Mississippi i saw fields full of cotten picker people rapidly replaced by machine pickers in just one decade............

[Red Badger]

I refused to work with them.

Why?........

[Wolfie]

California Peach Farmer: Americans Won't Reliably do the Work...at the price I'm willing to pay.

[Thom Pain]

End Welfare program = large & willing labor force.

[jpl]

"Everybody has an opinion, although most people think food comes from Safeway," muses Ken Hajek.

It's kind of hard to take a guy seriously when he throws out such a generic, ridiculous insult.

[GrandEagle]

There is no such thing as a bad job
I don't know about that. I watched a show on TLC or Discovery, I think it was "The Worlds Dirties Jobs" of something like that. He has come up with some pretty bad jobs. Maybe what you meant was that there is no such thing as a dishonorable job.

[A CA Guy]

There could be legal Mexicans who want to pick who can come here and go home.
There is no issue here.

A friend just had his grove picked a couple weeks ago and there were workers available. No issue IMO.

[DTogo]

Ditto!

[azhenfud]

He needs to modernize and try mechanization.

Chain saws.

[Digger]

Hajek and Goehring tell me they want to follow the law, but they also need laws that ensure them access to cheap immigrant labor. Americans simply won't reliably do the work, they say.

Here's the rub. Americans will do the work for decent wages that a family can live on. End of story.

[Parmy]

I agree.

[Coastal]

Yep. The China reference po's me as well.

[tigtog]

Agree. But my point is we really don't know the total cost of Mr. Hajeks peaches since we haven't amortized the cost of illiterate, uninsured immigrants to the price of the peach. Maybe we should ask Mr. Hajek how much free medicine is being dispensed at his local hospital? Cheaper to import peaches rather than peach pickers. This is true for half of California's agriculture. Add the cost to provide cheap water to desert farms to the tab and the real cost of vegetables might shock you.

[conservativewasp]

25 acres of "peaches" sounds like a farm to me, ok maybe an orchard.

[Obadiah]

And that's the vicious cycle that these businesses have started and are now invested in. Many of these jobs paid decent wages and there was no issue. Then, as businesses started to cut corners and hire illegals, the cost of labor dropped precipitously. While this discouraged native job seekers from seeking local employment, these businesses nonetheless increased profits significantly.

Now, however, these guys are being called on the carpet for their illegal hirings and are using the excuse that no one wants these jobs the jobs they themselves devalued!

There is no such thing as a free lunch. These businesses want sky-high profits through employing dirt-cheap labor. By destroying the labor market for their activity, they now lament the fact that they are forced to clean up the economic mess they made!

[Red Badger]

Yes, that's what I intended. I watch that show, too. Some are really messy, but good honest jobs. I don't think they mention what those jobs pay for their work, but some must be very well paid. I have cleaned toilets and restrooms that would be on the EPA's Superfund Clean-up site list if they were around today. I have tarred roofs and slung hash. I have done many nasty things, but never complained of the work or pay. It was always within my right to seek better employment or pay as I so chose...............