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."
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.
Thanks Chi-town Chief!
Savage Ping.
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).
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.
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.
screw the farmers.
“I couldn’t get a teenager to wash my car for twenty bucks. Last week.”
Try Craigslist.
My kids would do it for $10.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ping!
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. :)
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.
“Embarrassment” is the kindest descriptive term.
dragnet2, you sound like a first class jerk.
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..
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.
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.
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