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Immigrants To Unemployed: 'Come On, Take Our Jobs' (ONE FOR MICHAEL SAVAGE ...)
IMPO Insider ^ | June 25, 2010 | Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press Writer

Posted on 06/25/2010 10:13:56 AM PDT by Chi-townChief

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In a tongue-in-cheek call for immigration reform, farm workers are teaming up with comedian Stephen Colbert in a challenge to unemployed Americans: Come on, take our jobs.

Farm workers are tired of being blamed by politicians and anti-immigrant activists for taking work that should go to Americans and dragging down the economy, said Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers of America.

So the group is encouraging the unemployed — and any Washington pundits who want to join them — to apply for the some of thousands of agricultural jobs being posted with state agencies as harvest season begins.

All applicants need to do is fill out an online form under the banner "I want to be a farm worker" at www.takeourjobs.org, and experienced field hands will train them and connect them to farms.

Three out of four farm workers in the U.S. were born abroad, and more than half are illegal immigrants, according to the Labor Department.

Proponents of tougher immigration laws have argued that farmers have become used to cheap labor. The problem with the UFW's proposition, they argue, is that growers don't want to raise wages and improve working conditions enough to attract Americans.

In either case, those who have done the job have some words of advice for applicants.

First, dress appropriately. During summer, when the harvest of fruits and vegetables is in full swing in California's Central Valley, temperatures hover in the triple digits. Heat exhaustion is one of the reasons farm labor consistently makes the Bureau of Labor Statistics' top ten list of the nation's most dangerous jobs.

Second, expect long days. Growers have a small window to pick fruit before it is overripe; work starts before dawn and goes on for 12 or more hours.

And don't count on a big paycheck. Farm workers are excluded from federal overtime provisions, and small farms don't even have to pay the minimum wage. Fifteen states don't require farm labor to be covered by workers compensation laws.

Any takers?

"The reality is farmworkers who are here today aren't taking any American jobs away. They work in often unbearable situations," Rodriguez said. "I don't think there will be many takers, but the offer is being made. Let's see what happens."

To highlight just how unlikely the prospect of Americans lining up to pick strawberries or grapes is, Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" plans to feature the "Take Our Jobs" campaign on July 8. Requests to Comedy Central and Colbert for comment on the nature of the collaboration weren't immediately answered.

Another way of tackling the issue is to strengthen immigration enforcement, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports strict immigration laws.

It's an idea that might not end up on Comedy Central, but reducing the pool of farm workers would force growers to improve working conditions and raise wages.

"They're daring the American people to get by without farm workers," he said. "What I'm saying is, 'Let's take them up on that and call their bluff.'"

The campaign is being played for jokes, but the need to secure the right to work for immigrants who are here is serious business, said Michael Rubio, supervisor in Kern County, one of the biggest ag producing counties in the nation.

"Our county, our economy, rely heavily on the work of immigrant and unauthorized workers," he said. "I would encourage all our national leaders to come visit Kern County and to spend one day, or even half a day, in the shoes of these farm workers."

Hopefully, the message will go down easier with some laughs, said Manuel Cunha, president of the California grower association Nisei Farmers League, who was not a part of the campaign.

"If you don't add some humor to this, it's enough to get you drinking, and I don't mean Pepsi," Cunha said, dismissing the idea that Americans would take up the farm workers' offer.

California's agriculture industry launched a similar campaign in 1998, hoping to recruit welfare recipients and unemployed workers to work on farms, he said. Three people showed up.

"Give us a legal, qualified work force. Right now, farmers don't know from day to day if they're going to get hammered by ICE," he said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "What happens to my labor pool?"

His organization supports AgJobs, a bill currently in the Senate which would allow those who have worked in U.S. agriculture for at least 150 days in the previous two years to get legal status.

The bill has been proposed in various forms since the late 1990s, with backing from the United Farm Workers of America and other farming groups, but has never passed.

Politicians' and advocates' perspectives on the matter might change if they were to take up the farm workers' offer, said Rubio from Bakersfield.

"The view and the temperature is much different from a row in a field than from inside an air conditioned office," he said. "Is it a challenge? Most certainly, yes. Come on down."


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aliens; illegals; immigration; jobs; sanfransicko
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To: No Socialist
Careful there, dragnet2, you sound alot like a liberal who just resorts to name calling and foul language

I always get foul around naive and or stupid people...One can only take so much ignorance and stupidity before firing up the stupid cannon and taking some shots.

141 posted on 06/25/2010 1:59:51 PM PDT by dragnet2
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To: Chi-townChief; 09Patriot; abigail2; Avoiding_Sulla; BellStar; b4its2late; Blue Turtle; ...

Thanks Chi-town Chief!

Savage Ping.


142 posted on 06/25/2010 2:16:26 PM PDT by dynachrome (Barack Hussein Obama yunikku khinaaziir!)
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To: Chi-townChief
Confusion abounds. Title unclear.

It's not legal immigrants (on work visas, etc.) that are the problem but illegal immigrants.

Minimum wage is another confused and convoluted economic train wreck causing this kind of problem. The DumbocRATS and RINOS never took Econ 101 which simply teaches that forced demand (wage floors) reduce supply (jobs and products).

143 posted on 06/25/2010 2:26:37 PM PDT by Jim W N
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To: Mr. K

I’ve been saying this for a long time. Let guest workers legally come over under their real identities, with documentation, and after a couple of years in the guest worker program, if they keep their noses clean and play by the rules, give them a expedited path to citizenship. Anybody else gets deported or gets severely dealt with at the border.


144 posted on 06/25/2010 2:30:26 PM PDT by TheLurkerX (If you want renewable energy, I'm sure the founding fathers are spinning in their graves.)
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To: w1andsodidwe

We used to pick peaches or watermelons to make extra cash. We usually got paid by the bushel, or similar, so the harder you worked, the more money you made. It wasn’t that bad in the shade of the groves, when you had a couple of friends with you. Watermelons suck. And I remember helping on the farm when I was a kid. I hated potatoes and okra. Especially okra.


145 posted on 06/25/2010 2:32:37 PM PDT by TheLurkerX (If you want renewable energy, I'm sure the founding fathers are spinning in their graves.)
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To: Chi-townChief

screw the farmers.


146 posted on 06/25/2010 2:38:44 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Hitler Was Their Fate and their Fate Could Not Be Stayed. Von Braustitch.)
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To: MaxMax

“I couldn’t get a teenager to wash my car for twenty bucks. Last week.”

Try Craigslist.

My kids would do it for $10.


147 posted on 06/25/2010 2:39:45 PM PDT by Persevero (It's going to be a long summer.)
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To: w1andsodidwe

I was allergic to the corn silk, though I eat corn all the time, so I walked beans instead, which is a better job anyway.


148 posted on 06/25/2010 3:02:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Don't care if he was born in a manger on July 4th! A "Natural Born" citizen requires two US parents!)
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To: ecomcon

We all have seen hispanic racism. I noticed a Burger King in Oakland, CA went from all black employees to 100% hispanic and 0% black in just a few years. Blacks has been run out of large parts of California yet nobody seems to care. Including blacks who still vote dim.


149 posted on 06/25/2010 3:03:03 PM PDT by lodi90
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To: RipSawyer

It is really crazy. I just don’t get it. Many of the kids we hire want a big payday without much work and they expect to have every thing their parents have starting out.

In the past 5 years, I have seen two of my employees quit and file for bankruptcy on 5,000 debt or so because they wanted to travel or spend and inordinate time just to hang out with friends on UI payments.

We try and counsel these kids, but the gotta have it now ‘tude is extreme and unyielding.


150 posted on 06/25/2010 3:14:17 PM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: Chi-townChief
During summer, when the harvest of fruits and vegetables is in full swing in California's Central Valley, temperatures hover in the triple digits. Heat exhaustion is one of the reasons farm labor consistently makes the Bureau of Labor Statistics' top ten list of the nation's most dangerous jobs.

Second, expect long days. Growers have a small window to pick fruit before it is overripe; work starts before dawn and goes on for 12 or more hours.

Replace all of those farm workers with unemployed black people and count the microseconds until the words "SLAVERY" and "EXPLOITATION" hit the headlines.

I guess it's not bad if you don't do it to the wrong group of people.

151 posted on 06/25/2010 3:19:22 PM PDT by HKMk23 (Boy! LOOK at that! Them figs'll be ripe sooner'n ya think. [Matt. 24:32])
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To: bigfootbob

They have that attitude because they grew up being allowed to do very much as they please. I went straight from high school to the Navy because I was actually looking for an EASIER life! After boot camp it was easier too, much easier.


152 posted on 06/25/2010 3:54:32 PM PDT by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a leftist is like trying to catch sunshine in a fish net at midnight.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I was allergic to the corn silk, though I eat corn all the time, so I walked beans instead, which is a better job anyway.

Did beans too. Always had a rash from the pollen when I came in out of the corn or bean field, but luckily a bath or a swim in the pond took it away mostly.

153 posted on 06/25/2010 4:14:34 PM PDT by w1andsodidwe (How can you tell when the President is lying? When his lips move, of course.)
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To: 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; 4ourprogeny; 7.62 x 51mm; ..

Ping!


154 posted on 06/25/2010 4:25:08 PM PDT by HiJinx ("Looks like we're a'gonna have to read to 'em from the Good Book, Pa.")
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To: All
It's anecdotal but I recall driving out of a little farm community where I lived for a couple of years near Woodland, California. The last business was a Mom-and-Pop store next to housing which was decidedly Hispanic. Men hanging around, some drinking.

As I drove past miles and milies of farmland on the way to Woodland I saw numerous farm workers, mostly women.

I'll take one of those beer-tasting jobs. :)

155 posted on 06/25/2010 4:40:21 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: GeronL
So illegals are ONLY doing farm work??
How big a lie is that?

About as big as the "they get paid less than min wage." See following from http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/FarmLabo/FarmLabo-05-20-2010.pdf

Agricultural service operations provided 260,000 workers for the Nation's farms and ranches during the week of April 11-17, 2010. Agricultural service workers in California numbered 100,000 this April, up 2 percent from last year.
The average wages received by agricultural service workers in California and Florida were $10.90 and $10.80 per hour, respectively. Comparable wages in April 2009 were $10.85 per hour in California and $10.30 per hour in Florida.

Now, we ALL know that there are way more questionable 'workers' than this, in CA at least. Hell, as far as I am concerned I am in the 'minority' class, being a white American and all.

156 posted on 06/25/2010 4:43:59 PM PDT by alexandria ("If this be treason, make the most of it!" Patrick Henry)
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To: bigfootbob; dragnet2

“Embarrassment” is the kindest descriptive term.

dragnet2, you sound like a first class jerk.


157 posted on 06/25/2010 4:46:05 PM PDT by Miztiki
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To: RipSawyer

So true. My grandson-in-law, the Marine I mentioned, has his career mapped to a tee. Career military, retire at 38, become a policeman or firefighter. The military provides an awesome opportunity many of today’s youth would want but are scornful of the military due to popular culture and illiterate parents. This is why I think homeschoolers make my best employees, the homeschooler has a better understanding of what succumbing to the trends of popular culture brings forth..


158 posted on 06/25/2010 4:51:30 PM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: thecodont

I’ve been around farms most of my life (Oregon). We now have only about 20% of the field crops we used to have ( requiring to be hand picked).. Most fields have so many workers show up that their lucky to have a couple days of work(short days at that, because the fruit plants will accept only a limited amount of crops per day). The times of long days and weeks of work have been gone for a long time.( in the good old days of hard work and long hours, all the work was done by white workers). I don’t know about the work conditions in California , but in Oregon field workers are treated well and make decent money.


159 posted on 06/25/2010 4:53:27 PM PDT by omegadawn (qualified)
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To: Chi-townChief

When conservatives get back into power, we need to make it a felony punishable by at least 5 years in a federal prison to employ an illegal alien. Just hold the line on amnesty till then and this would solve the problem of illegals in less than 6 months. You`d get a stampede back across the border of suddenly unemployed illegals, or a flood of traitorous employers going to trial.


160 posted on 06/25/2010 4:58:22 PM PDT by nomad
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