Washington orchards desperate for apple pickers

The Columbian ^ | Nov 9, 2011 | SHANNON DININNY

[dennisw]

There are millions of welfare recipients in this country who could work.

Offer free bus or van transportation out to the orchards and cut them off if they refuse to do an honest days labor

[concerned about politics]

The state charges $22/hr per prisoner,

Why? The tax payers are already supporting these people. Charging tax payers - twice - for their labor is a scam!

[DuncanWaring]

How is that very different than paying illegals?

For one thing, the money stays in this country.

[SeeSharp]

The problem is the Mexicans aren’t coming anymore so the growers need to find a way to lure other workers.

[papertyger]

So hiring illegals at slave labor wages is okay with you as long as you don't have to pay the market price for an apple?

No, but that's the result of that dirty little secret shared by many businesses and government: what make these businesses untenable is the increased costs incurred by complying with government regulation.

[runninglips]

The Washington state minimum wage is $8.67, and will be $9.04 come the New year.

[Glenn]

I'll do it for $45/hour and benefits.

[Oatka]

There are millions of welfare recipients in this country who could work. There's also a dozen or so OWS protesters who obviously aren't working. Send them all to Washington to pick apples.

"Ain't agonna work." Years back I talked with a small manufacturer who signed up to get some subsidized "people on welfare" to work in his shop. To a man, they were resentful that they had to work and sabotaged his equipment every chance they could. Cost him thousands to repair his gear.

[papertyger]

The problem is the Mexicans aren’t coming anymore so the growers need to find a way to lure other workers.

They should try "money."

[Publius Valerius]

They invented machinery to pick the cotton....as they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention."

Well, my friend, a fortune awaits you.

Of course, picking fruit is not like picking cotton. Harvesting fruit at its proper ripeness--especially apples, where you have to be careful not to pick the next year's apple--can be a challenge for people, let alone machines.

[dennisw]

That’s ridiculous. Might take some training and orientation but you can get welfare people out there picking crops. What do you think their ancestors were doing? It was agricultural work. Matter of fact their brains are suited for simple work and not much better.

Get them free transportation out to the bean fields and orchards and tell them get busy or your bennies get cut off

[PapaBear3625]

If they want lawsuits, make them responsible for the legal fees if they lose.

The biggest tort reform would make the plaintiff AND plaintiff's attorney responsible for legal fees if they file a frivolous case.

[concerned about politics]

I have to conclude you don't have much real world experience in farm labor or any labor with these silly suggestions you're making. You are as far from reality as the OWS

No, I'm just not socialized. I believe everyone should earn their own keep, and every person responsible for running their own business. If these farmers have to use illegals (a crime) to run their business, they're no better than the illegals they hire.

If they want good work, they have to pay what the workers will accept. If they're not willing to do that, then they'll have to settle for less - like welfare recipients, for example.
If they can't handle it, maybe they shouldn't be in the apple business.

[Publius Valerius]

So hiring illegals at slave labor wages is okay with you as long as you don't have to pay the market price for an apple?

I pay the market price. It isn't my fault that the government has interfered with the market and set wages above that which the market will bear.

[papertyger]

...and cut them off if they refuse to do an honest days labor

Only if you can figure out a way to remove their right to vote!

I guaran-damn-tee you there's more of them than of those willing to cut them off; particularly when those not willing to cut them off are insulated from the burden of paying for such largesse!

[papertyger]

It isn't my fault that the government has interfered with the market and set wages above that which the market will bear.

Then whose is it?

[stuartcr]

So realistically, who will pay to move and set them up out there? What will happen to those that say they got hurt on the job or those that just don’t work? It would a highly visible task and I just can’t see any state govt sanctioning something that could end up leaving them with a bunch of people from out of state, homeless and hungry.

[heartwood]

The $22/hr covers security and transport - extra costs to the state. I forget what the prisoners get.

[org.whodat]

They can, but then if this becomes know, they lose a lot of their whine ability. 14 different federal programs for these type of workers, but then this would require these corporate farms to work and pay on the record.

[stuartcr]

I don’t think those members of mankind that were homeless and hungry throughout history, really got along fine, do you?