Posted on 12/29/2014 11:48:44 PM PST by Jim Robinson
FRESNO, CALIF. — Farmers already scrambling to find workers in California — the nation's leading grower of fruits, vegetables and nuts — fear an even greater labor shortage under President Barack Obama's executive action to block some 5 million people from deportation.
Thousands of the state's farmworkers, who make up a significant portion of those who will benefit, may choose to leave the uncertainty of their seasonal jobs for steady, year-around work building homes, cooking in restaurants and cleaning hotel rooms.
"This action isn't going to bring new workers to agriculture," said Jason Resnick, vice president and general counsel of the powerful trade association Western Growers. "It's possible that because of this action, agriculture will lose workers without any mechanism to bring in new workers."
Although details of the president's immigration policy have yet to be worked out, Resnick said the agricultural workforce has been declining for a decade. Today, the association estimates there is a 15 to 20 percent shortage of farmworkers, which is driving the industry to call for substantial immigration reform from Congress, such as a sound guest worker program.
(Excerpt) Read more at fresnobee.com ...
How can there be a labor shortage? BamBam is letting everyone and their brother in. I guess these are the ones that want free hand-outs and not jobs.
Well I’m sure the Chamber of Commerce and the RINOs are going to be really upset about this. /s
I suppose groceries will be eating up the money I’m not having to pour into my gas tank....as if they aren’t bad enough already.
Unblock deportation blocks. Deport more. Get rid of POSOTUS, the deportation blocker. Problem solved.
Oh dear, will they have to pay fare wages to domestics?
(SHUDDER)
In case you stop by this late hour...
Breaking:
They found debrie from the plane... dead bodies in lifejackets seen in the water. Very sad.....
The cost of fruit will go up and may help some of us smaller farmers in our local markets.
Of course if your goal is to change the demographics and culture of our country... maybe wouldn't sound like such a good solution.
When those illegal workers are able to move up/out of low wage work, other illegals will replace them at the bottom who cannot move legally.
Essentially, this deferred adjudication leads to more illegal immigration, which we already know. But, it will not lead to labor shortages.
>> [illegals] may choose to leave the uncertainty of their seasonal jobs for steady, year-around work building homes, cooking in restaurants and cleaning hotel
That is such a kick-in-the-teeth to citizen labor.
Who has the choice? Not US citizens, but illegal aliens.
Sadly, the citizens being displaced largely vote for their demise.
It’s simple—farmers want to be exempt from the competitive wages and decent working conditions that the rest of the country’s employers provide in order to attract good workers.
We have some clients who run a small (~$1.5M)organic farm.
They have legal green card workers from Mexico. The pay for the airfare and other costs to bring these (mostly long-time) workers into the country and then send them home over the winter. They provide furnished rental houses in the area for the workers. These are all comparable to the other homes in the area. The have a chef on staff and this chef is responsible for a huge gourmet lunch every day. The owners eat with the workers. Some of the longest-term workers are considered family by the owners and vice versus.
We asked them if amnesty effected them. The answer was “No!” The workers like the arrangement. They like their homes back in Mexico. They can’t wait to return to their families over the winter. They enjoy their work and their summers here.
Interesting.
As an aside, it used to be that we had hoards of college students eager to go work someplace over the summer. That arrangement would likely also appeal to college kids, and an organic farm ought to be right up their alley, too.
*hordes*
They have legal green card workers from Mexico. The pay for the airfare and other costs to bring these (mostly long-time) workers into the country and then send them home over the winter. They provide furnished rental houses in the area for the workers. These are all comparable to the other homes in the area. The have a chef on staff and this chef is responsible for a huge gourmet lunch every day. The owners eat with the workers. Some of the longest-term workers are considered family by the owners and vice versus.
We asked them if amnesty effected them. The answer was “No!” The workers like the arrangement. They like their homes back in Mexico. They can’t wait to return to their families over the winter. They enjoy their work and their summers here.
There is nothing as permanent as a temporary guest worker. They will drop anchor babies and many will put down roots here. What? You think illegal aliens never lie to naive Americans? Huh?
You are unaware of the millions of Turkish guest workers who never left Germany to return home And dittos for other European nations.
At least have these alleged guest workers put all earnings into a trust account that they don't get one peso from until they (verified) return to Mexico. Mexicans are too dicey anyway. I would bring Thai's over. Much more likely they would go home due to not having millions of Thais (community) here to disappear into.
Perhaps they need to go to south central LA and recruit laborers
I hope they go bankrupt.
I saw a study that said the labor per head of lettuce from farm to market was 2 cents per head. We sell out our country for literally pennies.....
So one might think. The truth is vastly different.
This is a farming area colonized over 30 years by leftists and environmentalists with means. We have many small organic farms, in fact, I have read we have the largest concentration of such of anywhere in the country. We have a Waldorf School and a Waldorf-inspired High School, a very New Age charter HS and the largest organic co-operative in the country (turns close to $1B/year). Also, several grant-funded food production businesses that are spin offs of the farms and co-operative. Also a few subsidiaries of the organic co-op.
Every spring, several graduates of the New Age schools apply for work at the organic farms. They last maybe 3 weeks. They expect to choose which days they show up and for how long. Any personal reason at all is considered legitimate for not working. They all want to be bosses instead of workers. They argue with the owners and dispute everything from hours, to pay to procedures. They are such royal PITAs, that the costs of the green card workers is a bargain by comparison.
Some of the wealthier kids pay to be workers in European organic enterprises. This is sort of like a summer abroad program. They return and do not go into any sort of farming or food production at all. Mostly, they are slackers and Mom and Dad continue to support their transient enthusiasms.
Every year, one or more of these American kids decides to try their own hand at small-scale organic farming or livestock production. The opinions of the area vets and farmers range from amusement to disbelief in their practices. AFAIK, none of these have succeeded. The American kids, instead, start up companies to produce some variety of organic processed food...sodas, fermented foods, herbal extracts, et al. They usually get reams of great media and within a year or two, sell the business to the next in line and then go off to another start up of some sort. Tiny Houses are popular at the moment.
I have asked several successful producers, as well as a few who are scraping by and a few who have failed, about local workers and in every instance, I receive an hours long exposition of the subject, none of it favorable to the American kids.
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