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.
Demand a border fence! Build it NOW!! Beef up the border patrol and close our borders!
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Courtesy of a pro-amnesty group, no less!!
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Take a look at their hidden agenda: http://www.mexica-movement.org
“Why should a farmer pay $15 to do work that a chimpanzee can do”
Because without the person doing the work there wouldn’t be any income for the farmer and therefore nothing to pay to anybody?
The idea of people working 16 hours a day, sleeping in bunks and getting paid in animal crackers because “chimpanzees” could do their jobs. It doesn’t sound like America and it certainly doesn’t sound like capitalism, it’s more like what you’d expect to see in Cuba or North Korea.
I agree with you about the employment benefit stuff, pay people in cash and let them save or spend their own money on insurance if that’s what they wish. Makes more sense than the Government mandating all kinds of insurance be bought and then paying people less in wages to make up the difference.
Yeah, this is another attempt from the MSM to make America feel guilty for speaking up. Damned Democracy!
Yes you are correct it has been done for a long time without illegal immigrants. About 10 years ago I took part in the harvest run as a LEGAL alien with a temporary guest worker visa better known as the J2 Visa. For 10 months the crew I was with, who were 90% legal aliens and 10% Americans, harvested crops all over the wheat belt. All of the wheat harvesting crews I met had foreigners legally working for them, there wasn’t one illegal or person from south of the border among them.
When the harvest was over all of us went home happy to have had the experience albeit poorly paid but since room and board was included and it was certainly not out of financial necessity we came to the US we were not too bothered. It can fairly be said that we didn’t do it for the pay really just for the experience as we all had to return home to our families and farms as farming is the background the majority of the men and women who come over to do this come from anyway.
I would love to return to Kansas and do another harvest for my old employer but sadly now I have too many other committments and it now looks like I won’t be able to do it anyway if I wished to. Without cheap and legal farm labour then food prices are going to have to rise to pay for the required calibre of home born labour needed to produce it. From what I saw when I was there, the calibre of home born labour available in that part of the country leaves a lot to be desired.
I know half a dozen people who would take time off from work just to run these for two or three weeks at a time if the wages were somewhat decent.
TFB, Bush.
>>Raise it to $10.00/hr and Americans would line up for $4800/month.<<
That implies a 120-hour workweek!!!
(120 hr per wk X $10 per hr = $1200 per wk = $800 per month)
There it is in just two sentences -- the law has interfered with the natural operation of the market place, Econ 101, if you will. In 1973 and again in 1975, I was one of those HS/College kids from the Plains taking the grand adventure of working on a custom harvest crew. It is a learning experience in a very unique world of work that more young people should experience had our Washington masters not been looking out for the serfs.
Pound sand - I'll pay the extra.
Your opinion of the "calibre" of our mid western labor is not important to me.
Also, the way in which you spell suggests a European or only a brief acquaintances with education.
Wait, are we pro-business or pro-labor? What is it this week?
Is “Alan Bjerga”, the author of this piece, writing this because he is an expert in how farms operate ... or is this just another example of agenda-driven drive-by media FUD?
“I hate break it you but American’s know how to harvest wheat.”
And I suspect Americans can pay a bit more than $1800 a month for someone to operate a $300,000 piece of equipment!
$1800 a month and room and board is free? What am I missing?
Jeez, my neighbor down the road, married ten years and SAHM, just had her husband flake out and leave her and the kids.
She has a communications degree, granted a long lapse in work history and is being offered jobs at 10 dollars an hour.
What am I missing here?
Your math in the exchange quoted below is waaaay off. $10/hr is about... $1600/month (assuming 40-hour weeks). $4800/month would mean that they’re working 120-hour weeks. I DON’T THINK SO!
The Mexican workers discussed in the article were making MORE than your recommended ‘fair’ wage!
I heard a welfare queen not long ago brag that she wouldn’t even think of a job for less than $25/hr, since she got the equivalent of $20/hr in cash and benefits.
I don’t think $10-20/hr is slave wages. What the businesses are trying to avoid are all the ‘fringe’ payments - insurance, SS/FICA, etc. - that are supposedly the LAW in this country. This could be handled 2 ways:
(1) require that ALL workers, including ‘illegals,’ be paid in accordance with the law; or (2) Change the law to let Americans work as independent contractors again. You’re not doing unskilled workers any favors by pricing them out of the market.
[quoted:]
““Yes, these are jobs Americans won’t do. Raise it to $10.00/hr and Americans would line up for $4800/month.” ...
“You contradict yourself. There is a difference between, “pay Americans won’t accept” and “jobs Americans won’t do”....Too many Wal-Marts, fast food chains and retail stores that pay twice that for unskilled labor. Only a fool or an illegal would work for that little when there are much better options.... “Slave labor ONLY need apply!”... Bingo! You nailed that.”
FR proved its worth today on this thread, lots of great anecdotes and comments about how the business really works.
I can smell the media bias in the article (just another “how can we live without illegals” stories), but as a high-tech work-in-the-city guy, I don’t know how harvests are done, etc.
Thanks to all you great American farmers for keeping the rest us fed.
The post is good. Just gotta wonder what the heck they,ve been doing for the last 75 years. Oh! they’ve moved to the construction industry, and mexican food. Go figure!
Your post #78 belongs on a granite tablet.
With a smile and a little tear in my eye, I say you're most welcome. We appreciate you for appreciating us.
“I don’t think $10-20/hr is slave wages.”
I don’t think it is either. The fact is that many employers simply refuse to pay a competitive wage and as a result cannot get people to work for them. They then cry to the government. I’ve seen a woman from a California landscaping company recently say she starts her help at $7 an hour. I knew a guy in MS who started his landscaping help at $7 as well.....8 years ago...in MS.
For that money, a legal worker could get employment in much better working conditions. The fact is, these employers want what has become termed “slave labor”. Jobs taken by illegals at pay generally far less than the market demands by hiring legals. “Jobs Americans won’t do” is just another way of saying “jobs whose pay is far below market value”.
Exactly so. Illegals do the unskilled labor. Picking tree fruit, asparagus, etc. Local, citizens do the more skilled labor as in using machinery to harvest wheat, barley, peas, corn.
Don’t agree. I repeat, $10-20/hr is a GOOD wage for what these jobs call on a person to do. They are certainly not worth any more than that. Some jobs may offer $7/hr, but isn’t that the minimum wage?
You say these are jobs whose pay is BELOW market value. I disagree. These jobs’ market value is, by definition, what is being paid. The employers are the ones who define the market value, they are trying to tell us that we’ve priced unskilled LEGAL labor out of the market, by over-regulating the private sector - AND by paying people NOT to work (ie welfare). I think these types of laws need to be changed - and apply to ALL workers in the US.
BTW, I used to work for $8/hr, did housecleaning, helped install toilets, whatever I could get, and this was in California in the 90s. It’s hard to think that’s all I was worth at the time... but there it is.
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