Drought of workers cultivates worries

[demosincebirth]

I think many will be surprise by what the real situation is.






By Barbara Grady, BUSINESS WRITER





Pedro Rivera, a native of Mexico, picks mint on a farm in Half Moon Bay. (Mathew Sumner/staff)

ROWS OF ALMOND AND FRUIT TREES stretch as far as the eye can see in Manteca, interrupted only by vast yards of dairy cows and grasslands. This is farm country, one town in the great Central Valley, which supplies more than half the nation's fruits and vegetables and virtually all its almonds, walnuts and raisins.
Under the rainy skies of April, few workers can be seen in these orchards or in the dairy farms' alfalfa fields.

But come August and September, several hundred workers will be needed in Manteca alone to harvest the fruit and nuts growing so lusciously here. The questionon farmers' minds is: Will there be enough workers?

"It's getting harder to find workers. Three-quarters of the guys go into construction," says Jim Van Laar, an almond grower in Manteca.

"Farming absolutely depends on seasonal workers," said Dave Phippen, part owner of another Manteca almond tree farm stretching across 600 acres.


snip



http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_3743885

[okieinpain]

1. pay folks for the work, and the rest of use should get use to a

1.50 candy bar.

[Selatius]

2. Are American citizens so damn lazy they won't be farmers anymore?

Is that what it is?

Or are certain people saying that as a way to justify paying below minimum wage? Instead of paying an actual living wage?

I'm not just talking about agriculture. I'm talking about everything in general this issue affects from car washes to restaurants and construction and more.

[demosincebirth]

3. I was under the impression that

farm workers, as whole, were on the low rung of the pay scale. I know $15 hr is more the exception that the rule, but even at that wage no Americans are willing to work in the fields. Whats wrong with us?

[Selatius]

8. It seems I have a big issue with capitalism then.

You've got Exxon-Mobil's chief executive retiring with a 400,000,000 retirement package, yet we don't bother to pay farmers to grow the very food we need to live? If that is not the definition of insanity, I don't know what is.

[demosincebirth]

21. Absolutely.

[Cleita]

4. I suppose once working class Americans make a lifetime of

sacrifices to send their kids to college to become professionals, they become really proud to see their kids go into the fields to pick crops for minimum wage.

:sarcasm:

America has a tradition of bring in immigrants to do unskilled labor, offering them a better life to pass on to their children. This is why they do it.

The solution is to raise the immigration quotas so that these workers are legally here, meaning they can benefit from our labor laws and join unions.

[Selatius]

5. Fat chance with the labor unions at the current rate

Try going out to states in the South or Texas or New Mexico where many of these farms are.

Except for blue states, most farming country is in red "right to work" states that suppress union activity.

[Cleita]

16. If they can organize like they have been organizing the protests

these last weeks, my money says they will organize the unions once they are no longer fearful of being jailed and deported.

[expatriot]

7. There is a 4.7% unemploymernt rate.

That is the percent of the workforce actively looking for a job. That is historically very low. That number includes EVERYONE looking for a job, fifty year old retail managers in Massachusetts, etc.

People have sucky jobs, like say Wal-Mart. Their job sucks but they have a job. They need better jobs, I am not saying that the economy is great just because of the low unemployment rate but they are tied down at a job or two or three.

[Selatius]

13. Actually, real unemployment could be closer to 10 percent.

The BLS often doesn't count unemployed workers who have become discouraged and have stopped searching for a new job in the time being, and they often don't count workers who have run out of unemployment insurance. You'd pretty much have to double the face value figure the BLS gives you. It would be closer to 9.8%.

I have a hunch that if we counted our unemployed in the same manner that the Europeans count their unemployed, our unemployment numbers would resemble Germany's and France's.

[area51]

18. Actually, by govt. statistics, it's more like at least 12% unemployment.

Here's an interesting pdf interview w/an economist.

[rman]

9. A seasonal worker does not a farmer make

It's the farmers who pay the seasonal workers so poorly that picking fruits isn't worth the effort.

[demosincebirth]

20. Did you read the whole article?

Some farmers, according to the article, pay up to $15 an hour, and still cannot get enough help.
What does that say about some of the U.S. unemployed?

[expatriot]

11. a farmer is someone who works the land he owns.

a farmworker is someone who works on a farm he does not own and a farmowner is someone who owns a farm but has others work it.

very few "farmers" these days since even traditional "farmer" operations (i.e. corn, hogs, etc.) have become corporate operations.

[Warpy]

6. If you PAY them, they will come

Fucking assholes always want something for nothing, don't they?

[expatriot]

10. I wonder how many of these farmers whose profits depend on migrant workers

most of them being undocumented workers, get caught up in the xenophobic anti-mexican rhetoric.

[rman]

12. I wonder how many farms these days are family owned,

versus corporate owned.
The most recent figures i can find are from 1997.

[Selatius]

14. Well, in 1997, how much farmland was corporate owned in those day?

Chances are, they bought up even more farmland in the time since then.

[rman]

15. Not that much

http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/census97/atlas97/index.htm#FRMBTYPORG

14% of farmland owned by corporations, versus 60% family owned

But the situation probably hasn't improved since.

[Kansas Wyatt]

17. What, builders like cheap illegal labor also?

Now hold on there! Seasonal farm workers was suppose to be the reason why so many illegals were needed, so there would be a labor supply for the farms.

Now, the farmers are telling us that they don't have the help, because the illegals have moved up to take "construction" jobs. I did not realize that the United States had a shortage of construction workers, since construction obviously must be dirty hard work that Americans won't do. And to think those lazy American construction workers claim they only want fair wages and conditions, while illegals gladly take over their work. Heck, there was only a shortage of construction workers after all, and American construction workers are only soft and lazy.:sarcasm:

When is some damn elected representative going to stand up and speak the truth, and tell Corporate America to go fuck itself?

Illegal workers are being used to under cut and oppress wages and conditions for ALL Working Americans in ALL blue collar jobs and trades, and it was never about needing cheap farm help.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. I like the way you think Wyatt!

:hi: