Posted on 05/18/2006 9:58:40 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Cyndi Smallwood is looking for a few strong men for her landscaping company. Guys with no fear of a hot sun, who can shovel dirt all day long. She'll pay as much as $34 an hour.
She can't find them.
Maybe potential employees don't know about her tiny Riverside firm. Maybe the problem is Southern California's solid economy and low unemployment rate. Or maybe manual labor is something that many Americans couldn't dream of doing.
"I'm baffled why more people do not apply," Smallwood says.
President Bush is not. In his speech to the nation Monday night, he referred to "jobs Americans are not doing," echoing a point he has been making for years. To fill these spurned jobs and keep the economy humming, Bush says, the U.S. needs a guest worker program.
Otherwise, the logic goes, fruit will rot in the fields, offices will overflow with trash and lawns and parks will revert to desert.
Countering that view, opponents of a guest worker program say that Americans would find the jobs more enticing if there wasn't foreign competition to swell the labor pool and push wages down.
Smallwood is ambivalent on immigration reform, saying demands for immediate citizenship by those who entered the country illegally are offensive. But without a guest worker program, she says, her company probably will not survive.
"To get workers, you have to steal them from other companies," the 54-year-old entrepreneur says.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
If she made me that offer in Georgia, I'd be on it, and I'm a computer geek!
Union laborers around here approach that wage if you consider their benefit package.
She wants the entire border closed ALL down. She said "if they pay decent wage, Americans will take most of those jobs. There are many Americans all over this country, who are signaling to this Gov't saying "don't give us the crap about you will not be able to run your business and it's going to be inflationary."
Maxine continues.."Close that border..give us the jobs..and deal with the people that are here already.".
She said "close it all down"..we have enough here already, no more guest workers.
I am sick to my stomach that Maxine Waters speaks for me today..sick!
And NO, I will NEVER vote for a Democrat!!!
So was my Grandpa. He worked until he was 80. But if my nieces and nephews are any indication, I believe it. One of my nephews became a cop because all he has to do is sit on his butt in a car and drive around. It's a very small town, not like cops in the big city. Next to zero crime rate. He didn't even have to go through the academy. He's 23 and the laziest person I know. He's not alone. There are many out there like him.
She can't find them.
The reason being that they're all busy picking lettuce for Senator McCain at $50.00 per hour ;-)
I'm sure parts of the country are different. I have been a construction employer here in the Minneapolis area for about 25 years. On our prevailing wage jobs the pay for a shoveler is about $31.00 per hour IIRC. Each year I take on fewer projects because I can't find people that will work. I have lowered the standards but you can only dig so far into the gene pools garbage can. I remember when I used to get excellent summer help from the college kids. Good work ethic, willing to learn etc.
I don't know about this ladies story but on some level I can see what she means. It ain't pretty out there if you need physical workers.
I'm sure parts of the country are different. I have been a construction employer here in the Minneapolis area for about 25 years. On our prevailing wage jobs the pay for a shoveler is about $31.00 per hour IIRC. Each year I take on fewer projects because I can't find people that will work. I have lowered the standards but you can only dig so far into the gene pools garbage can. I remember when I used to get excellent summer help from the college kids. Good work ethic, willing to learn etc.
I don't know about this ladies story but on some level I can see what she means. It ain't pretty out there if you need physical workers.
I shoveled dirt for less than $13.00 an hour for years. Right alongside illegals and I showed 'em up every day.
Sorry I had to brag.
At her company. Get going.
I DON'T believe her. I know of several people (myself, a woman) included who would shovel dirt for $34 an hour. I've done it for less.
My husband would be glad to have his $12.00 an hour (of course this is in Georgia, not the high rent capital of the country, California) back, but China got that plant.
This is so much hooey. I know plenty of Americans that do heavy duty manual labor.
LaLa paper printng LaLa stuff to be swallowed whole by LaLa readers who can read English.
Come on back and fill us in!
I don't get Ms. Ingraham on the radio here in flyover country.
Having spent time in Los Angeles, I suspect the story is...BOGUS.
Surely there are at least high-schoolers and starving college students
that would at least take part-time work of this sort.
My Grandfather did the Landscaping and gardening for the Mansions in Westchester County, New York - (back when they had mansions with huge grounds and it wasn't that developed as it is now). He built up quite a reputation for himself and was never without work. At that time they didn't have electric mowers - he had arms like steel bands- of course he was Italian and of course loved the land and growing things. He worked for hours outside and never complained.
If they paid everyone $34 per hour for every project they did, they'd have people lining up for miles to apply for those jobs. But this is only a temporary job and most of their regular employees are not eligible.
I suspect that the author of the article was given the same information but chose to omit it.
Laura's program is rerun on WABC and some of it is also live. 5pm PST
I think that 34/hr stuff is suspect. I'm an IT guy, but for that much money, I'd shovel dirt.
It is could be part time and on call.
It can be similar for concrete wheelers when it is part time casual, weather dependent, canceled the night before or at 6:30 am, you need a vehicle and steel toed boots and bring your lunch and water, etc. etc. This does not work well for guys with families, car payments and mortgages. It is a challenge for small companies that compete with the under the table competition.
Acting is a dirty job.
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