Posted on 07/04/2007 2:28:33 AM PDT by MrPiper
I think this says it all. This is snipped from an article relating to the worker shortage in wheat fields. It should say: Americans refuse to be slave labor!
"Work starts once the morning dew has dried and continues for 16 hours until night moisture makes the wheat too wet. A harvester must be able to work continually while making quick repairs to keep a $300,000 combine in motion.
For that, a worker bunks with crewmates in a mobile trailer for free while seeing the U.S. heartland on net pay of about $1,800 per month. The high-quality, low-cost labor ``keeps costs down and keeps the producer profitable, which keeps the U.S. competitive in the world market.
This is cotton picking crazy.
Seems like these arguments were the same ones the South used to justify slavery.
I’m just sayin...
I was just thinking the same thing.
‘piece work’
It’s referred to as a ‘seasonal employee’ around here-therefore circumventing any Fed mandates/rules/OSHA.... My wife is employed at a family owned nursery. Trees, shrubs, sod, flowers, mulch, gravel, landscaping and such. 30 minute unpaid lunch for 10-12 hour day, 7 days a week....period. Exposure to chemicals, use of heavy equipment, no potable water, no emergency eyewash station,.... etc. No health, workmans comp, sick/vacation, or overtime benefits. All this for a hourly rate below minimum wage because it’s a ‘seasonal position.’ She gets 3 unpaid weeks off in Janurary.
It is these positions Americans will not do. Thank goodness for LEGAL immigrants. Many posters on FR should consider these facts when they are buying a tree or a flat of begonias.
Ps. We are 2’nd generation born here Americans. And yes, my grandparents came over here on the boats LEGALLY and became citizens.
Speech over :-)
bttt
The article states they are working on net pay of about $1,800 a month (net pay, mind you). That is equivalent to annual net of $21,600; the hourly equivalent of $10.38 in a standard 2080 hour work year. Dawn-to-dusk or dew-to-dew is more than a 8-hour work day but then the wheat harvesting season is less than a year. Annualize the numbers and unless something is missing from the article or I missed something (always an option) they are making the $10 equivalent.
how was the wheat raised before the hordes of illegals invaded???
“That may lower crop yields, raise food prices and force some growers out of business, they say.”
O.K. with me.
Now lets get out and ENFORCE the existing lawsod immigration and SEAL the Mexican border, and we’ll find we don’t need a “comprehensive immigration bill”!
My spelling is getting worse!
The slavery argument is nonsense.
Just go back to the 40’s and 50’s.
Tenant farmers, share croppers, migrant farmers,underpaid mine workers were the norm.
They owed the landlord or ‘company’ more money than they made.
They were captive and Americans.
These farm workers send most of their money back to Mexico where it goes a long way.
They can walk off the job any time they want and seek other employment. Or go back home where they could make $50/mo.
Farming is a sunrise ( actually you start before sunrise) to sunset job.
That’s the way it is.
Defeat of INVADER AMNESTY has NO effect on these workers. There is NO fence... no enforcement... and to quote an 80’s band... “Same as it ever was”!
LLS
It takes some serious mechanical smarts to service today’s combines.Look under the shields on the new John Deere machines,looks like a job for an aircraft mechanic.Add a GPS system,motion sensors on all drive shafts and a computer to monitor everything-it’s quite a complex machine.
Now there you go gettin’ me to dream of Nirvana again!
LLS
I was reading that in around 1970 the cost of labor for picking fruits began getting out of control. It became a very high paying seasonal job because there simply wasn't many people available for that kind of a work schedule or in the rural areas. Supply and demand. So as the costs were getting so high companies began working on robotic ways to harvest.
Then the government turned a blind eye or legally brought in millions of third world migrant workers. And the cost per hour of labor fell by like 5-10 times. So the big companies stopped working on robotic systems, because they couldn't compete with those low costs.
Total, complete, truck load size of BS alert on that story.
The wheat harvest is something hasn’t been done by Mexicans traditionally.
And I’m guessing that the farmers don’t let uneducated Mexicans make repairs to $300,000 combines.
Every farmer works 16 hours a day during harvest here in the midwest; I know I used to do it.
I’m guessing the reporter’s work hours are a bit shorter.
And we don’t have Mexicans involved with our harvest here.
Just another "poor immigrant" piece about how America will go down the tube without them.
We harvested our entire wheat crop in May without a single illegal alien, but facts do get in the way of a good 'bash the farmer' thread. Funny how most are leary of the media until the article fits an agenda that they want to further.
The traveling wheat harvest business has been going on for a long time.Started around WW2 when the first reliable self propelled combines were built.
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