Posted on 06/11/2006 3:16:25 PM PDT by bjcintennessee
DAYTON, Tenn. — Hearty applause arose from within the two-story house as white vans rolled up the gravel driveway to pick up a group of Mexican workers to return them to Mexico.
"If God is willing, we will all come back next year," 27-yearold Francisco Ocañas said last week, speaking in Spanish.
Mr. Ocañas was among the group of 29 men who spent six weeks harvesting fruit at a local farm under a guest worker program.
For Mr. Ocañas, the 32-hour bus ride back to the Mexican town of Nuevo Leon is familiar. He first came to work in Tennessee six years ago. Mr. Ocañas and about a dozen other men from this group are expected to return to other states, including Kentucky and Wisconsin, this fall to work on farms and in horticulture.
Ray and Emily Tidwell, who own Tidwell’s Berry Farm in Dayton, Tenn., where the men worked this spring, said they hire Mexican guest workers because of the difficulty of recruiting local workers.
"We’ve got three American workers. They have been with us for 25 years, and we’ve not hired another white picker since," Mr. Tidwell said.
The more than 300-acre family farm, established in 1983, sells strawberries, peaches and blueberries to local residents and some area wholesalers. Mr. Tidwell said he has advertised for fruit-picking positions in local newspapers for more than two decades, yet only a handful of area residents inquire about the jobs each year.
"We’ve tried some before, and they last for an hour or two and they’re gone," he said. "Without the Latinos, we would be out of business."
This year, the farm had three local job applicants, all of whom failed to show up for an interview, Mr. Tidwell said. Some local Hispanic workers are also unreliable for the seasonal work as many have found year-round work at local factories, he said.
Though Hispanics have been part of the work force since the late 1980s, Mr. Tidwell said the Mexican guest workers have become essential to the harvesting crew.
Mrs. Tidwell said she cannot imagine her farm without the worker program.
"Especially in agriculture, the Latin workers are the backbone of the system," she said.
Occasionally, she said, customers will ask, "Who picked these strawberries?" When they find out Mexicans picked the berries, they won’t buy them, she said.
"I just attribute that stuff to ignorance, and I wonder what they eat," Mrs. Tidwell said. "I’m hard-pressed to think of a food crop, other than maybe the grain crop in the Midwest, that don’t have Latino labor involved in them."
But Tom Murray, coordinator of the East Tennessee Chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, said guest-worker programs encourage foreign workers to overstay their visa and take jobs from Americans.
"They are bringing people up here and paying them substandard wages," he said. "They are unable to find U.S. workers at slave wages and foul working conditions. Americans want to be treated like Americans and they want to receive proper wages."
While Congress debates what measures should be taken to address illegal immigration in the United States, immigrants have ways to work in the United States legally. Advocates for a guest-workers program said there is intense demand for workers under the current program that brings foreign workers to the United States legally.
Meanwhile, an estimated 11 million people are in the country illegally, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C.
HELP WANTED There are two categories for temporary, low-skilled and agriculture workers, according to the U.S. Consulate General in Mexico. H-2A visas are issued to foreign workers who qualify to work in agriculture in the United States, while H-2B visas are issued to workers hired in other industries ranging from landscaping and construction to hotel services, a consular official said. Megan Larson-Koné , director of the H-2 program for the U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico, said the majority of temporary workers hired for labor in the United States under the H-2 category are from Mexico. So far this year, the consular office has received 70,963 applications for both H-2A and H-2B visas, she said.
The majority of guest workers return to their country of origin at the completion of their contract, said Ms. Larson-Koné , who interviews workers seeking approval for a visa. Those who overstay their visa no longer qualify for a future visa, she said.
"The people that I see at the window are good men and women who are trying to find a way to support their family," she said. "They are going up to work because they want to support their families, but they have strong ties back in Mexico and want to be with their family."
The Tidwells said they contract for foreign workers through Del-Al Associates, a San Antoniobased recruiting agency that helps an estimated 12,000 workers each year in Latin America navigate the visa application process. Jeff Warner, who connects H-2 workers in Mexico with companies throughout the United States, including the Tidwells’ farm, said employers have difficulty finding local workers because the work is seasonal or short term.
"Almost every employer would rather hire U.S. workers, but they can’t because they can’t get anyone to work," he said. "They pay a lot more money to get the guest workers, but every employer we have tells us the same story," he said.
The H-2 program is not affected by the millions of people who are in the country illegally because the two groups don’t pursue the same jobs, Mr. Warner said.
"An illegal doesn’t want a job that lasts for seven months if he can get a job that is full time," he said.
The Tidwells said hiring foreign workers is more expensive as they provide housing, travel expenses for the workers, and pay labor fees that can amount to about $15,000 per labor contract each year, excluding wages and home repairs. To qualify for the program, the Tidwells each year acquire a labor certificate as proof of the scarcity of local workers and certification that housing meets regulations. Employers pay $100 per contract and an additional $10 per worker for the labor certification.
Guest workers also pay about $200 to the U.S. Consulate for an application and other fees, $81 to the job agency and about $40 to the person filling out paperwork for them.
In 2005, 249 employers in Tennessee applied for a labor certification for H-2A and H-2B visas, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Some employers participating last year included nursery employers in Grundy and Franklin counties and tobacco growers in East Tennessee, including Washington County.
WORKDAYS On average, workers get paid depending on the amount of fruit they pick at the farm.
Mr. Ocañas earned an average of 34 cents per quart of strawberries collected, or about $800 per week, an ample sum in most Mexican villages, where a laborer can take home an average of $60 per week.
The money he earns stooped over the black soil of Rhea County will pay for a home he has built in Mexico, he said.
"In Mexico, the need is great but the money is scarce," he said.
On most days, workers spend up to nine hours in the fields beneath the sun’s rays. Workers run back and forth from the strawberry patch to a gray school bus parked along the path, where they swap eight full green boxes of berries for empty boxes. The boxes full of strawberries then are packaged into a white box by one worker, who endures the heat of working inside the bus.
"There are a couple workers who are the fastest and earn up to $1,000 when the harvest is full," Mr. Ocañas said.
After a full day’s work the men walk to housing across the highway from the farm. A blue building houses 11 men, who share two large bedrooms. Two trailer homes shelter the rest of the workers. Within the "casa grande," as the blue house is called, the men split into two groups to cook. The rest of the evening is spent in a communal space, either while seated on green and brown couches watching television, or playing pool and eating dinner in a space with light blue and brown walls. On Saturday afternoons, the men board a yellow bus to go shopping for groceries.
Not all of the workers return home when the picking season ends.
Cipriano Lopez, a 32-year-old Mexico native, said he worked for the Tidwells under a guestworker program for four years before deciding to breach his contract and stay in America.
It has been more than two years since he last saw his 13-year-old daughter and other relatives who still live in Mexico. The Rhea County resident said he is waiting for Congress to pass an immigration bill that would allow him to become a legal permanent resident.
"I liked the country, and I wanted to stay here." he said, speaking in Spanish.
Cleveland, Tenn., resident Rafael Castillo, who is originally from Guatemala, said he worked for seven years planting trees in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama under an H-2B visa. Four years ago, he violated his temporary work contract because he said the work was too dangerous and he had been misled.
"The employer promised that we would be able to get residency in the United States if we worked with him for seven years," he said, speaking in Spanish. "When we came back for the eighth year, we found out he had been lying. The majority of us did not return."
Now he works for a Bradley County factory using an expired Social Security card issued while he held a work visa.
Victor Manuel Alcazar Garza, who has traveled to Tennessee to work for the Tidwells for the past six years, said he is grateful for the work here.
"People have to migrate in order to find better opportunities. We don’t come here with intentions of bringing drugs or terrorism," the 35-year-old said, speaking in Spanish. "We simply come here to work."
E-mail Karina Gonzalez at kgonzalez@timesfreepress.com TEMPORARY WORK VISAS About 120,000 foreign agriculture and other lowskilled workers travel to the United States each year to work here temporarily under the following visa classifications: H-2A : classification for people coming to the United States to work in agricultural or seasonal jobs H-2B : classification for workers coming to the United States to work in nonagricultural jobs such as landscaping and construction H-2R : classification for returning workers, those who had been issued a worker visa in the past three years VISAS IN MEXICO About 75 percent of about 120,000 temporary work visa applications nationwide for agriculture and other lowskilled work, or H-2 visas, were processed in Mexico from October 2005 to May 2006. Source: U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico VISAS IN GUATEMALA 87 H-2A visas issued in 2005 to Guatemalan workers 3,681 H-2B visas issued in 2005 to Guatemalan workers Source: Embassy of the United States in Guatemala
Nine hour days @ 34 cents per quart of strawberries, and some are making $800/week? Sounds like really hard work, but it's hard to believe that no locals could be found to do this work.
("If God is willing, we will all come back next year," 27-yearold Francisco Ocañas said last week, speaking in Spanish)
If God is willing, the minuteman wall will stop you.
For starters, there won't be anymore strawberries in this house Mr Tidwell.
........................... .................................. ...........................duh
My wife and I go pick our own strawberries at a local berry farm.
(For starters, there won't be anymore strawberries in this house Mr Tidwell.)
My Mom and Dad have 4 acres and a large garden on it. My brother, myself and our families help work it and mom does all the canning. All three households are fed off of it. The Mr. Tidwells of the world are crooks and they know it.
Perhaps it would, if he were coming here illegally. Since he's working here on a legal visa, there's no reason that he would need to sneak across the border.
Illegals are not guest workers, they are criminals.
"Nine hour days @ 34 cents per quart of strawberries, and some are making $800/week? Sounds like really hard work, but it's hard to believe that no locals could be found to do this work."
Yeah but the locals would want 36 cents per quart.
(Since he's working here on a legal visa, there's no reason that he would need to sneak across the border.)
If it's legal, I have no problem.
I have no problem with a guest worker program for this kind of work.
That said, I would rather have strawberries (or most govt subsidized crops) grown in Mexico or wherever and shipped here though.
Terrific. All we want to do is make sure all of them return.
Me neither as long as it's being done under a controlled (by us) guest worker program. Those who violate the terms of their entry visas, on the other hand, should be deported immediately.
Nothing at all wrong with guest workers from foreign countries, as long as they come here LEGALLY and RETURN HOME when their time is up.
"But Tom Murray, coordinator of the East Tennessee Chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, said guest-worker programs encourage foreign workers to overstay their visa and take jobs from Americans. "
My first thought is that the if people are against illegal immigrations then having people like Tom Murry and racist groups like the Council of Conservative citizens is not a great person to be quoted in an newspaper article.(Barf)
http://www.cofcc.org/citizensinformer/www-issues/CI_2006-1.pdf
Yep, and they fail to mention who pays the medical bills and the ADC bills for these "temporary" workers and the new girlfriends and wives and families they have here in the good ol' generous USA.
I would guess that many come, few go home.
Cleveland, Tenn., resident Rafael Castillo, who is originally from Guatemala, said he worked for seven years planting trees in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama under an H-2B visa. Four years ago, he violated his temporary work contract because he said the work was too dangerous and he had been misled.
"The employer promised that we would be able to get residency in the United States if we worked with him for seven years," he said, speaking in Spanish. "When we came back for the eighth year, we found out he had been lying. The majority of us did not return."
Now he works for a Bradley County factory using an expired Social Security card issued while he held a work visa.
Exactly. Yet when you look at what it cost the farmers to bring these workers in and house them, it's hard to see how that could be more cost effective than paying locals more.
I guess we were about 10 - 12 years old.
We worked when we wanted to for how many hours we wanted to
We were paid 5 cents a basket (think they were pints)
I guess if we worked hard for 4 - 5 hours (or until we got tired and were full of free strawberries we ate) we earned about $5.00, which was not bad "mad money" for back then, when average hourly rate was about $1.00/hr.
Yes its hard work, but I bet if they paid a little more, they might get others who would be willing to work?
As an aside, checked the present value of 5 cents (using CPI Index) from 1955 (approx time I was picking berries) and it works out to 36.5 cents today.
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