Posted on 12/15/2008 10:30:08 AM PST by HollyButler
In the green folds of the Capay Valley, the scene at Full Belly Farm isn't that different from countless other California businesses with immigrant workers on their payrolls.
Everybody is hunkered down, thankful to have work – in this case, growing organic vegetables – and praying the economy improves with the coming Barack Obama administration's stimulus plans.Lori Wolf, a Modesto landscaper, added that immigration change "is just not something that can be swept under the rug again. It's very important to a lot of people, especially in California."
Jim Abram, president of the California Hotel and Lodging Association in Sacramento, said his members also are eager for bipartisan talk on immigration.
"This is really a critical, critical issue – to have a stable work force that's not always living underground," Abram said.
For now, he said, the recession has halted the hospitality industry's almost chronic search for employees. But "this country's economy, once it gets back on its feet, will not be able to function without immigrant labor," he said.
Once a promised middle class recovery is under way, Full Belly co-owner Judith Redmond said, business owners hope Obama will turn to immigration overhaul, as he also promised. It's a lightning rod issue, but they contend the problem needs to be confronted if the California and the U.S. economies are to have enough legal workers to meet long-term needs.
"It's about recognizing that we need this work force. We're not going to make this all go away," Redmond said.
She employs about 50 year-round, mostly Mexican workers and is president of the Davis-based Community Alliance with Family Farmers.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
The job model is screwed and will always require a new underclass of immigrants to come in and do the “jobs no one wants to do” for the pay offered.
The immigrants will move up to other jobs as they spend time here (after all, the illegal immigrants kids are going to college) so eventually they ARE competing for the jobs other people want. And they no longer want the farm labor jobs.
Increasing immigration is no solution to this.
Well if it drives wages down, and ends up in lower prices, then why not?
Well Wolfie, what is your job, and how much are you willing to let your wages be reduced?
No matter what you do, I guarantee that I can find an illegal who can do it in your place. So tell us, how much of a cut are you willing to take so we can all have lower prices?
Wolfie’s right: it makes economic sense.
If any of us is looking for a nice watch for X-mas, it also makes economic sense to try and buy one from a fence: you can get a nice Seiko cheap, or even a Rolex.
There are moral and legal problems with buying stolen property, but you can’t beat the prices.
I’m sorry, I thought the race to the bottom was a good thing.
I cannot believe you said that. You do not belong here.
Exactly!
Really? Pretend the UAW workers, that’ll help.
ping
More screw America for a buck patriotism.
I take it this guy is ready to pay higher wages, FICA, unemployment insurance, health insurance and so on and so forth!?! After Amnesty all those illegals will be citizens and the law will require him to cover all of that. Plus all those new citizens will have to live like citizens which means their expenses will go up so they will require higher wages as an economic reality of life.
Why do I think this guy will just look for a new crop of illegals?
Yeah, just look what all that illegal labor did for home prices for the past twenty years.
I think you are being sarcastic, since you posted that you are for border security. Rewarding illegal immigration makes the problem worse.
President-elect Obama vowed earlier this year to make immigration reform a top priority while in office, and I hope he keeps his campaign promise.
I called Cornyn's office to find out WTF was going on, and the staffer said I had it all wrong. I replied that as a senator, Obama was for the worst forms of amnesty (plus licenses for illegals -- even Hillary eventually said no to that), so I did not think it likely that Obama would propose any kind of "immigration reform" I could live with.
Davis-based Community Alliance......
Organic farm.....
Employs 50 workers......
Welcome to the left-over hippies of the 60’s and the farm commune style of living.
If you are ready to pay $4/lb for potaties- you are welcome to do so.
I know people who “only eat organic food”, and they are not the most robust people I know. They also are paying a way too big a price for everyday food.
After paying way too much for organic food—lots of these people use illegal drugs, which they them introduce into their bodies, which they only want to absorb “organic foods”.
Whoe cycle sounds like an oxymoron to me.
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