Growers say fruit's ready, but workers are scarce

Seattle Times ^ | 8-30-06 | Joe Mullin

[brytlea]

Thank you.
susie

[zek157]

Have you ever seen someone PICK fruit? Tough to modernize.

An old friend used to pick fruit in Chelan for beer money in the summer. even 1/2 drunkin the late 70's he made $6-7 an hr.

[Night Hides Not]

It's American liberals who think these workers really need their help, even if they have to spend half their money trying to recruit them into the program and convince them to take it.

I'm looking forward to the day that the California/Napa Valley liberals start to issue the same complaint as this apple grower. They're so "high and mighty" now, but just wait until they start having to pay a buck or more per bottle of wine.

I'm just tired of employers knowingly employing illegal workers.

[SJackson]

I recall posting a few articles about legal migrant workers a few months ago. Several had worked here illegally in the past. As I recall they were being paid in the $9 to $12 range, which they described as being about double their wages as illegals. Transportation was employer paid, rather than worker paid to a coyote. As was housing. As I noted earlier, I'd like to see medical and liability insurance required. And the workers come back to the same job year after year. Obviously hiring an illegals is much cheaper.

[fantom]

Right. The feds will never put a limit on imported fruit , so farmers face the same problem that other businesses do. I am not willing to help foot the bill for illegals so i can get cheap apples. It's VOODOO economics.

[kellynla]

"It's not the growers ... they're getting hammered by low-priced imported fruit."

say you...

I was in the produce business 40 years ago.

I LIVE in CA where these crops are grown...behind my house!
and we shop!
farmer's markets, chains & mom & pop groceries!
nobody is gonna tell me that growers are getting "hammered" not when we are paying the prices we're paying almost three dollars a pound for tomatoes and like I said a buck and half a pound for apples & peaches...
if they're only paying ten bucks an hour for pickers then the only people who are getting "hammered" is the public!

[colorado tanker]

That's one of the myths in this debate. There aren't a fraction of the visas and quotas available to permit an average Mexican peasant to come here legally to do farm work. It's nearly impossible to do.

[r9etb]

Why should we tolerate a portion of the economy, a growing portion, which operates outside of labor, tax, and immigration laws? Sould we tolerate other criminal enterprises on the same basis?

I never said we should. I was simply pointing out the economic constraints under which the growers operate. The real issue is the cost of legal workers, which is too high for some of these growers to bear.

It's not a phenomenon isolated to agriculture: those "Made in China" labels at Wal-Mart are part of the same issue.

The H2 visa program provides for legal migrant workers. Yes, at greater cost.

Sure. But he guy in this article is saying that "at greater cost" is simply more than he can bear. The prices he gets for his fruit aren't high enough to support the additional cost .... so he'll probably go out of business.

[RFT1]

As I said before, farmers/businessmen such as the one mentioned in the article do not deserve to be in business if they need ILLEGAL labor.

[goldfinch]

Or the farmers could go back to having 8 kids to have some free labor on hand to do the chores.

There is some truth to that. I thinned apples in Chelan, WA for two summers back in the 60s. At that time, you rarely saw an migrant farm worker during thinning or propping seasons. Thinning and propping were done during the summer, almost exclusively by the orchard owners, their families, and local high school and college students home for the summer. Of course, that was when the baby boomers were kids and families with 3-5 kids were very common...so between the farm kids and the townies, there was a fairly large labor force.

Migrant workers were used in the fall to harvest the apples because the kids were back in school by the time the apples were ripe. Even then, if an early frost was forecast, schools would close to allow the crop to be harvested. And most kids supplemented their incomes by picking apples on the weekends for a few weeks in the fall.

Contrary to what some might assume, thinning apples is not backbreaking work. It is a fairly pleasant job if you like to be outdoors. There is no lifting involved, except in moving the ladder around the tree. You are always in the shade. You don't even have to 'hurl' the rejected apples to the ground. Just drop them and gravity will take care of getting them to the ground. Obviously, the author of this article is clueless about physical labor, or he would know that you never waste energy like he wastes words. Picking apples is harder work because the apples are heavy, but it is still a far cry from being one of the worst jobs in history.

I am concerned with the plight of the small farmer...having grown up as one. I am not sure what can be done...but I think going organic might be a partial solution.

And a reminder...the vast majority of farm subsidies go to the big corporate farmer...not to the family farm owners...

[SJackson]

That's one of the myths in this debate. There aren't a fraction of the visas and quotas available to permit an average Mexican peasant to come here legally to do farm work. It's nearly impossible to do.

It's my understanding there's no limitation on the number of H2 visas at all, so quotas aren't an issue.

Travel for the Mexican peasant, not a problem for since transportation is provided by the employer. Might be a financial problem for the employer.

Yes, it involves planning. But agriculture pursuits require long range planning. That's not a particular impediment.

Other impedimants, imo important ones, are payment of prevailing US wage rates and certification that sufficient American workers are unavailable at the prevailing rate.

[brytlea]

And if illegal workers were not amply available, the growers would be demanding a change in that. In addition, if there really was no fruit/veggies to be had or if it costs more than the public was willing to pay, the public would demand it be changed. Of course, both things presuppose we shut of the spigot of illegal aliens.
susie

[CONSERVE]

12 to 20 million illegals and none to pick the fruit?
jobs even illegals wont do.

[SJackson]

I never said we should. I was simply pointing out the economic constraints under which the growers operate. The real issue is the cost of legal workers, which is too high for some of these growers to bear...It's not a phenomenon isolated to agriculture: those "Made in China" labels at Wal-Mart are part of the same issue...Sure. But he guy in this article is saying that "at greater cost" is simply more than he can bear. The prices he gets for his fruit aren't high enough to support the additional cost .... so he'll probably go out of business.

It's a broken system which needs to be fixed. Won't happen overnight, so growers, and restaurants and builders, will have some time to adjust, but could some go out of business, sure. Operating outside the law isn't a legitimate alternative though. Trade/tarriffs is a different issue, but plenty of business' and workers have suffered financial loss as a result of "Made in China" labels.

[Gone GF]

I'm sure there's lots of Americans who want those jobs. They obviously aren't looking in the right places.

[RFT1]

Are laws against ILLEGAL DRUGS also barriers? Why bother getting morphine from a Doctor and phramacy when an "independent" retailer can sell you heroin for 1/4 the price no questions asked?

The economic only "conservatives" who see nothing more than dollar signs have turned me off the GOP.

[goldfinch]

There's a severe lawyer shortage in this country.

LOL. That is one of the funniest things I have ever read on this website. Sorry if I missed the point of your post, but I broke out laughing after the first line and every time I tried to regain my focus and read the rest of your post, I started laughing all over again. A shortage of lawyers. :) My sides hurt.

[colorado tanker]

That's just not reality. If people could come here legally, of course they would.

Making enough visas available is the same thing as a guest worker program. Make them available to people already in the U.S. and you'll be attacked for giving "amnesty."

[Tspud1]

Robert Mugabe is looking for farmers in Zimbabwe

[Tspud1]

What about the lost taxes not paid by the illegals and farmers on payroll