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 ...
In other words, these illegals WILL be competing for jobs that Americans
will do.
To my knowledge, none of these workers have done as you describe. Such people would be extremely visible out here. I do know of a large family dairy and livestock operation that employs legal husband and wife teams. Usually, the women work in lighter areas of the operation. The kids spend the summers at home with relatives. None of them have stayed, AFAIK. Again, this is a sparsely populated area that is 99.8% white, maybe 3/4 of the people here are generational residents who are intricately intermarried and interrelated. Everyone knows everyone’s business. This legal green card worker program has been extant for over 20 years, here.
There is a large Hmong population in the nearest city of ~50k. A few have farms, but they are not organic, are strictly family operations and are known to be resellers of produce from other areas, along with their own.
There is a Hmong underclass and Hmong gang problems. There are also many Hmong lawyers and medical personnel. They are entrepreneurial and tend to stick to their own, rather than work for others (even the criminal elements). I have never heard of an Asian farm worker who isn’t working within their own extended family. Also, I have known some local Americans who married Thai wives 50 years ago, but moved away, as the wives preferred suburban life in places with more Thais. One man lamented to us that his Thai wife was insufficiently entrepreneurial. In his opinion, the Vietnamese women were the go-getters.
They are extremely successful and have run their business for nearly 30 years. These are educated people who work very hard, follow the rules and will continue to do so. They are admired and well-liked by everyone.
If you hire foreigners that makes you my enemy. Screw them. The save a few pennies when they could hire local. Don’t buy their BS.
You have illustrated your ignorance....... there is no local. To hire local means there are local people that will work.
That may well be experience with local, privileged, millennial slackers; but certainly not all American students. Especially as an offer to spend a summer in CA.
If they’re willing to fly them in from Mexico, they ought to be willing to fly them in from NJ, NY or wherever.
Clearly the issue is one of marketing, since there are programs where young college grads happily go work on organic farms elsewhere in the country for simple room and board.
Sounds like a perfect opportunity for robotic engineers, and when we don’t need the labor any longer, build the fence and say. “Adios” to our neighbors to the south.
Fixed. In a nation of 300 million we can find ag workers. So can the BS.
A lot of slavery going around.
Aren’t there tens of millions unemployed and getting welfare? Maybe they should consider working. I realize that working is degrading and beneath them. However, there are opportunities out there.
With all due respect this is your personal experience and will be a disaster on a large scale with the US farming business.
DO NOT IGNORE that history shows us that guest workers put down roots. Not all of course but you really think Mexican guest workers will return home when you tell them they are legally bound too? Not when there is a huge Mexican community here to melt into and migrate to nicer ___cash only___no tax paying____ non-farming jobs in construction, hotels etc etc etc.
NOT WHEN we have a huge welfare state that provides incentives to pop out anchor babies (new US citizens)
Your “temporary guest workers” will be lawless like the illegal aliens we are stuck with now.... OK they will be slightly more law abiding and some will return back to Mexico when their labor contract is up. Doing this for a few seasons while they learn how to stay here for good w mamacita and their US born children
A head of organic lettuce retails for $3.54. Ref link.
Let's say all things being equal someone can pick 300 heads per hour. Let's say you pay them minimum wage of $8.00/hr. So per head picking costs: 8/300 = 3 cents/head. But you can't get anyone to do it for $8.00/hr. So you import Mexicans and all the social problems that go with it. But maybe you could get locals to pick for double min wage, say $16.00 hour. Now the per head labor costs SKYROCKET to a whopping 6 cents per head. The retail price SHOOT UPS fro $3.54 to $3.57 per head! OMG! the world is ending. Import more Mexicans I paid 3 cents more per head!!!!
Yep, lose-lose all around.
That's possible, but not very likely. The green card is a legal permanent resident visa, which allows them to live permanently in the US. But there are some from Mexico and other nations who have a green card but use it on a temp basis. In some cases, it is easier to get the green card than it is to get a temp worker visa. Certainly, having a green card allows the worker to bypass yearly renewal of a temp visa.
The green card also allows them to enter the naturalization process whereby they become citizens. But not all green card holders become naturalized because they have to pay hefty fees, hire lawyers, and pass the test.
More likely your clients are using the H2A temporary ag worker visa which is seasonal, and requires the employer to provide housing.
For some farmers, the H2A works very well, but for most, it is a bureaucratic nightmare and the ag industry wants it reformed as part of comprehensive reform. There is an unlimited quota on H2A, but there are not very many H2A visas being utilized.
The other common temp/seasonal visa is the H2B Non-Ag worker visa which is used by the hospitality and lawn care industry.
Immigration reform would also create a third temp worker visa but it would be for a longer period such as 3 years.
Quite possible I used the wrong term for the program.
Thanks for the specifics—I don’t believe we need any of them.
I buy regular red leaf lettuce for $1.38/head. This lasts about a week-10 days for 2 people. Iceberg fluctuates more and is recently $1.68/head. It lasts longer. we use it for sandwiches. And I use Green Bags to prolong produce life.
I don’t know the pay scale for vegetable picking. I remember when lettuce was 1/2 the price it is today. Sometimes I grow my own.
From what people tell me, the pay is not what keeps Americans from doing the work. It is the nature of the work: repetitive, sweaty and boring. American workers want more autonomy.
With all due respect, I am told (anecdotal) that life in Mexico for many of these workers is suitable for them. They do not like our winters and they do not want to live in an American city.
The point is there are no locals to hire for this work and this is not all stoop labor. It is greenhouse labor for starting plants and transplanting, planting out,driving tractors to plow, harvesting,washing and sorting and packaging.
The owners work alongside the hired workers doing exactly the same labor. It is a labor-intensive business that lasts from January to November. They would prefer to hire Americans and save the annual trip to Mexico, the paperwork and all the ancillary hassle.
After hearing the same story over time from several different farmers in varying operations, I tend to believe it is not BS.
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