The job you won't do: Try working a season in the lettuce fields of Yuma

[Catshrink]

This was an interesting article about the work of immigrants from yesterday's Arizona Republic.

The job you won't do: Try working a season in the lettuce fields of Yuma

In the lettuce fields of Yuma, my co-workers had two immediate concerns. Was I an undercover immigration agent? And did I have some sort of sweating problem?

In 2008, I spent two months cutting lettuce for Dole, the first job in what became a yearlong project of working alongside Latino immigrants for my new book, "Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won't Do."

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On long days, our crew harvested more than 40 tons of lettuce, with each cutter responsible for more than 3,000 heads. I'd come home with a red face, swollen hands and feet, and a throbbing back that was never quite aligned correctly. By 8 o'clock, without exception, I was asleep.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaking several years ago to a group of union members in Washington, D.C., told them, "I'll offer anybody here $50 an hour if you'll go pick lettuce in Yuma this season and pick for the whole season." Amid jeers, he didn't back down, telling the audience, "You can't do it, my friends."

Most of the folks on my crew were guest workers who lived in Mexico and commuted daily to the fields. A number of them had grown up in poverty in central Mexico and moved to the border to work in the maquiladoras, or foreign-owned plants. They considered themselves lucky to be earning $8.37 an hour with Dole.

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More at link:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2010/03/14/20100314thompson14.html

[Catshrink]

1. ...

bump

[BonnieJW]

2. I grew up in Tucson

I remember my family drove to San Diego one summer for a week's vacation in June. We stopped for lunch in Yuma. The temp was 115 and when I opened the car door to get out, it felt like opening the oven door to check on baking cookies. I will never forget it and I am in awe of the pure desperation that keeps workers in those fields.

[Catshrink]

3. The article was illuminating.

He said it took 3-4 seasons to learn how to properly cut, trim, and bag a head of lettuce. Who knew? McCain was right -- no American would do that, even for $50/hr.

[Scout]

5. no one who wasn't DESPERATE would do that job ... American or not. n/t

[SOS]

13. At $50 an hour in today's contained depression

I think they would have a line of Americans a mile long to apply.

[Catshrink]

14. Even at $10 an hour.

[MattBaggins]

7. What is the temps at harvest time?

I have never gardened out west but I can't imagine trying to harvest and bag at 115 degrees. The lettuce would start cooking in the bags.

[progressoid]

4. K/R

[Ikonoklast]

6. I've done harder work for less pay.

I'm not bragging, I am stating a fact.

I have never considered any job that was honest work, no matter how grueling or menial, to be beneath me.

[Fumesucker]

9. I was working in a chrome shop in Florida in 1980..

When we would walk outside for lunch at 12:30 in the Florida summer it felt like walking into air conditioning..

Fumes of various acids and cyanide solutions.. Truly a nasty job, but I had a family to support and jobs were hard to come by then..

[Iggo]

11. Yeah, but you're not the one complaining about them "takin' our jobs."

[Edweird]

12. Same here.

[Romulox]

8. Unrec for pushing the John McCain "You can't do it, my friend." meme.

:eyes:

[Catshrink]

10. John McCain is such a vile person

but I think Vile Kyl is worse.