Immigrants To Unemployed: 'Come On, Take Our Jobs' (ONE FOR MICHAEL SAVAGE ...)

IMPO Insider ^ | June 25, 2010 | Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press Writer

[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."

[dragnet2]

To recap, your one of those very ignorant people that have posted on this thread, that believe tens of millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. are working in some tomato field. And all those millions of illegals ya see wandering around the streets of Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver and Dallas, Maimi etc., etc are simply shopping in the big cities on their days off.

Sure....

Like the moron here that thinks all the millions of illegals in LA are bussed out each morning to work in some field...

Lets pretend illegals are not operating machines, in the food industry, construction industry, hotel, restaurants, warehousing, driving trucks and forklifts, manufacturing......and on and on....

And it this image below, in downtown Dallas Texas, these 500,000 illegal aliens are not marching and making demands....They are not shoving foreign flags into your naive face.....They are simply picking tomatoes in downtown Dallas so they can feed their kids...

The 500,000 illegal aliens pictured above in Dallas Texas, were not making demands, threats and waving foreign flags, but were simply watering tomato plants downtown, while singing America the Beautiful.

[buccaneer81]

Work to fill one basket of strawberries and you'll get an idea how hard it is to do, how long it takes, and what you'll take to work that hard for that long.

My Mom picked strawberries as a high school kid during the depression. She got two cents a box, and was thrilled to even have the chance to earn any money.

[La Enchiladita]

This isn’t legit until they put it front and center on the EDD CalJobs website. So I dare them right back to do it.

http://www.caljobs.ca.gov/

[Jack Hydrazine]

Oh come all ye illegals,
productive and fecundive!
Oh come ye, oh come ye,
to Amerika!!!!

[SunkenCiv]

...farm workers are teaming up with comedian Stephen Colbert in a challenge to unemployed Americans...

"unemployed" and "Stephen Colbert" do belong in the same sentence though...

[Mrs. Don-o]

Yes. All the harvest jobs. And most of the other jobs: pulling brush, cultivating, irrigating, even pruning. (I didn't say "robotized," you still need people to handle the tools. But most of the decisions and most of the power --- formerly muscular effort --- can be programmed into them.)

Expensive tools & machines. So it all depends on when the price of labor prices labor right out of the job. But the machines were basically developed 40 years ago.

[alexandria]

It is a job opprotunity all right FOR THEM!

Farm workers are ready to train citizens and legal residents who wish to replace them in the field, we will use our knowledge and staff to help connect the unemployed with farm employers.

They are going to 'train' us poor white folk how to pick strawberries. Isn't that sweet? Wonder how much gov funding was handed to them to have them help us like that? I wonder if access to these employers is available without going thru their training course.

[No Socialist]

to dragnet2: Moron, stupid, ignorant, your name calling is still not persuasive....sorry. You attack and name call for one comment I made about one side of the illegal immigrant debate. I’m sure you can agree there are a lot of sides to any story.

I stand by my position that illegal immigrants are NOT taking away jobs from skilled and desirable workers.

1. I ran a manufacturing business for many years. We had all white boys working there and the main problem was that most applicants were so poorly skilled and so poor in math that we had to spend a lot of time teaching them basic skills and math they should have learned in high school.

2. Now I run a construction company. The caliber of white born and bred applicants in the construction industry is pitiful to say the least. We pay very well and have several labor employees making $45,000 -$50,000 per year. The only employees I’ve had to fire the last 5 years have been true blooded Americans who were high on prescription drugs, drunk or just too lazy and unreliable to show up for work. Oh yeah...add the people with suspended driver’s licenses due to too many tickets or dui’s to the list and the ones that never passed the drug test to begin with.

Illegal immigrants from Mexico aren’t the only foreigners taking jobs from Americans. Add the jobs in manufacturing, computers, etc.... going overseas and it’s a much bigger problem. Those are actually skilled, well paying jobs.

The biggest problem in the industries you cite is the work ethic of the people in those fields and their qualifications. I posted a job on Craig’s list recently and had 75 responses. Only 1 passed the phone interview and he failed to show up for the in person interview and didn’t bother to call to cancel. This job had a salary range of $40,000 to $50,000 and not one skilled or qualified applicant. Are you really telling me that there are all these highly qualified Americans looking for construction jobs????

A guest worker program would at the very least have alot of illegals come out of the woodwork and register. At least they’d be on the books and paying payroll taxes.

It’s really despicable for people to make blanket statements about Mexicans. I have a Mexican employee who has worked for us for 12 years (don’t worry he’s a citizen) and he not only sends money back to his mother and siblings in Mexico but he financially supports is cheating ex-wife and her 4 children from a born and bred American loser who never paid child support.

It’s really ‘stupid’ for people to assume that all mexicans are illegal. Get a grip.

I don’t see the point in trying to have an intelligent discussion with you anymore. I don’t support illegal immigration, but I don’t blame them for all the problems in this country right now either. That’s my final comment.

[dragnet2]

There is something to be said for someone who is willing to leave their family and work in lousy jobs to be able to support alot of extended family.

You ignore the fact that they make 25 times more money, by ignoring our laws and sovereignty while receiving freebies such as health-care, while choking off our hospitals and health-care at the expense of tax payers.

You praise them?

You consider this honorable?

Spit*

I stand by my position that illegal immigrants are NOT taking away jobs from skilled and desirable workers.

You're FOS.

Cooks, HVAC installers, constructions, food industry, forklift operators, warehouseman, truck drivers, landscaping, hotel industry, manufacturing, machine operators.....

These are not desirable workers?

These jobs don't keep the wheels moving?....

Ya think everyone out here is a senior software engineer?

A surgeon?

A physicist?

I run a construction company. The caliber of white born and bred applicants in the construction industry is pitiful to say the least. We pay very well and have several labor employees making $45,000 -$50,000 per year.

Say no more.....

You're not kidding anyone.

Many of today's contractors hire tens of thousands of low wage illegal aliens....

We know why.

We're paying all the bills for your low wage labor.

Illegal aliens have killed the construction industry wages.

This is no secret.

Calling Americans lazy and stupid is a well worn tactic by unscrupulous employers, in an effort to justify hiring illegal low wage labor....

Complain legitimate Americans are lazy, no good drug users and bad people, to justify hiring low wage illegals.

I suspect, based on your own comments regarding young Americans being lazy trash, that you like so many other unscrupulous employers, hire illegal aliens for higher profit gain, regardless of consequences.

It’s really ‘stupid’ for people to assume that all mexicans are illegal.

I never suggested or implied that. You did.

Now you're pulling out the race card.....What a surprise!

I kinda figured that was coming.

Profits regardless of consequences, will eventually leave America dead on the floor!

[dragnet2]

I run a construction company. The caliber of white born and bred applicants in the construction industry is pitiful to say the least.

I'd like to put you in a room with about 5 former construction workers that watched their once good wages and benefits over the past 20 years get completely decimated by millions of low wage illegal aliens....

[Vigilanteman]

What the proponents of illegal immigration don’t tell you is that an illegal immigrant may not be the one to take your job, statistically speaking he or she won’t, but what they will do is drive your wage down.

I have a master's degree in economics, labor economics was my specialty.

A very common hint given to companies seeking to locate to low labor cost areas is to look for places with military bases and large immigrant populations. It doesn't matter if military spouses and immigrants are even qualified to do the job-- their mere presence in the labor force will hold down the wages for all jobs across the board.

[fightinJAG]

Yep!

The unemployed have demonstrated their willingness to work. Let’s give the “permanent underclass” the chance to show they’re willing to work, too.

[fightinJAG]

There are two issues facing our nation--high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce--that many Americans believe are related.

Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat - at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) - comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers.

Agriculture in the United States is dependent on an immigrant workforce. Three-quarters of all crop workers working in American agriculture were born outside the United States. According to government statistics, since the late 1990s, at least 50% of the crop workers have not been authorized to work legally in the United States.

The answer to this, to the extent that it accurately presents the problem, is not allowing illegal immigration and undocumented workers. We have a process for employers to bring in temporary, NON-IMMIGRANT agricultural workers --

Employment Law Guide: Work Authorization for Non-U.S. Citizens: Temporary Agricultural Workers (H-2A Visas)

If this process doesn't work, fix it. But don't claim the nation will starve unless ILLEGAL immigrants pick our crops.

[fightinJAG]

A guest worker program would make it alot easier to separate the people here who are working and the people just mooching off the system and dealing.

I posted this link to the Temporary Agricultural Workers Visa guide upthread.

[TheLurkerX]

Exactly. A lot of roofing, construction, landscaping and contract jobs have been taken over by illegals, who are exploited by the owner/operators. My brother was working for a roofer in Atlanta, and one of his Mexicans fell and hurt his back. He told him to go back to Mexico, and he wouldn’t even take him to the hospital.

While I was there, a lot of contractors and construction bosses were coming to regret using them for cheap labor, because a lot of the legal ones were starting their own businesses, hiring all the help away, and taking the business for themselves.

[LouD]

More than a few of those “little spoiled bastards” are slogging up mountains in Afghanistan right now.

[Lancey Howard]

Imagine how surprised Colbert would be when this backfires.

I can't even imagine how surprised I would be.

[Old Student]

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

You sure didn’t ask my kids. Or me, for that matter, and I’m no longer a kid.

[Old Student]

“Ya ever seen a vegetable field in Los Angeles?”

Once upon a time, yes. More outside of LA. Orange county was orange groves and strawberry fields. I left there, forever, in 1973. It was already turning into an outhouse.

[Old Student]

“We seem to have reverted to medieval thinking, replacing increases in productivity with cheap serf / neo-slave labor, creating an uber rich elite and massive serf population.”

Look up “latifundia” and their effect on the Romans.