Thread: Illegals: Here To Do The Work That Americans Are Unwilling

It's going to take people up in arms to get rid of this funk.... I am so sick of hearing all of the Bull Caca these people and politicians frequently use while pandering for votes...

I say we do an even trade... will take some of the illegals if the dont take any benifits and cannot ever get citizenship and only work in the vegitable patches

If Mexico will take all of our goony goo goo politicians that seem to be retarded. Youd think they would listen to the people in a so called democracy... oh wait, my bad... this is no longer a Democracy but a socialist state for everyone but it's citizens

I don't think you guys are analyzing the isssue very well. We don't need a return to the old America where non-immigrants did those menial jobs. What we need is to find improved ways of accomplishing those tasks--so that they are more profitable and can provide a decent living. Or, in some cases to admit American culture has been going down the wrong trail.

1. We really don't absolutely need more and more fast-food joints and convenience stores. If people planned ahead they would eat better and we wouldn't have that huge industry with its low paid ranks of illegals.

2. Agriculture is in need of revamping and technical and organizational innovation. Europe, Japan and Australia have been pushing ahead here; the US is going backwards, ever since the Carter Admin.

3. Hotel Services are a little trickier; but I bet if those were subcontracted to some enterprising Americans it could be win-win for both sides. They would figure out a way to get it done fast if there was profit to be had and the hoteliers would reduce their payroll.

4. We still need skilled people to make exportable products. The US rose to first place because we had the technology to make things that primitive, agrarian societies wanting to modernize, just could not produce. But since they can also make those things now, we have to go on to the next level. Computerization did that for us in the last twenty years. What's next? I don't know. Bioscience? Alternative energy? Environmental reclamation? Anti-terrorism? If it was hard to stay ahead of Japan and Germany in autos and electronics it's going to be a lot harder to stay ahead of India and China.

5. The US educational system needs to turn out more people who can help the US regain leadership in exportable products and services--and fewer fuzzy-minded indivuduals who occupy some obscure role in a
globalist corporation or peddle goofball "services" domestically.

Captianronwrote

1. We really don't absolutely need more and more fast-food joints and convenience stores. If people planned ahead they would eat better and we wouldn't have that huge industry with its low paid ranks of illegals.

An upside
Americans would be healthier and obesity would not be at epidemic proportions.

Yep but at a huge cost. Short video of them doing those jobs. Any one stay in a hotel? http://www.breitbart.tv:80/?p=7714

I don't stay in hotels/motels unless I just must. After a few weeks of travelling with me for work, my husband decided it would be so much easier to buy a travel trailer.

We always took our own bedding, pillows/cover, etc., our own coffee pot and cups, cans of Lysol, no walking on the carpet, etc.

Even though I took my own bedclothes, I have turned down the covers and realized from the wrinkles in the sheets that someone had slept in that bed, and they hadn't changed the sheets. Think about that, folks!!!

Also, we checked in early once and our room wasn't cleaned yet, I watched the maid and had to tell her she was supposed to change the mattress pad. She said they didn't change it everyday - hmmmmmmmmm?

These were regular family type motels, - not sleazey ones - or not supposed to be.

Originally Posted by Captainron

3. Hotel Services are a little trickier; but I bet if those were subcontracted to some enterprising Americans it could be win-win for both sides. They would figure out a way to get it done fast if there was profit to be had and the hoteliers would reduce their payroll.

I've worked in the resort hotel industry for several years so I have some first hand knowledge about immigration as it pertains to that industry:

Housekeeping departments are invariably chocked full of both legal and illegal immigrants. The illegal immigrants predominantly come from central America and they have no desire to become Americans and/or learn to speak English. The legal immigrants primarily come from South America, The Caribbean, and eastern European countries like Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, etc... Almost all of these legal immigrants dream about becoming American citizens someday, they love everything this country stands for, and they often take classes to become more proficient in English. Many employers would rather just hire illegals than have their HR departments recruit legal immigrants only to have these employees' visas eventually expire and be forced to go back home. Maybe if legal immigrants could renew their visas without having to go back home in order to do it, hotel employers wouldn't be so apt to hire illegals.

Well we could also place requirements on immigration. Like all other countries in the world do. In most countries, you can move there and take a job only if you are highly qualified and no one else in that country is available for that job. There is a reason for that. It burns out the resources of countries meant for citizens.

Don't allow every uneducated, non English speaking, and in many cases criminal refugees into this country. If they can't contribute something, don't accept them. Make English a requirement. I bet they will learn quickly.

Maybe this would help assimilation of immigrants. Certain Immigrants bring with them customs, like sex with minors, hatred of women, and dangerous religious fanaticism. They also don't think anything is wrong with murder.

I think there needs to be a 10 year hold on all but selective immigration. Let us get some Scientists, Doctors, Inventors, etc.

By then we could have a handle on the problem.[/i][/u]

Originally Posted by nntrixie

I have turned down the covers and realized from the wrinkles in the sheets that someone had slept in that bed, and they hadn't changed the sheets. Think about that, folks!!!

Also, we checked in early once and our room wasn't cleaned yet, I watched the maid and had to tell her she was supposed to change the mattress pad. She said they didn't change it everyday - hmmmmmmmmm?

These were regular family type motels, - not sleazey ones - or not supposed to be.

EWWW! Reading that just gave me shivers all up and down my back! With all the "bedbug stories" going around lately, you would think that someone would "catch on" and hire someone who has good cleaniness and health habits, AND NOT ILLEGALS WHO, IMO, CAN'T DISTINGUISH BETWEEN CLEAN AND DIRTY.

Blueberry farms turn to mechanical harvesters
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Enlarge By Robert F. Bukaty, AP

Walter Degreenia drives a tractor equipped with a mechanical blueberry harvester as his wife, Gail, sorts through berries as they are drop from a conveyor belt into a crate in Union, Maine.





Digg del.icio.us Newsvine Reddit Facebook What's this? By Clarke Canfield, Associated Press
WASHINGTON, Maine — The swishing of handheld blueberry rakes wielded by dozens of field workers is being replaced by the rumble of tractors across Maine's wild blueberry fields as growers turn to mechanical harvesters to pick the lucrative crop.
A decade ago, about 20% of Maine's 60,000 acres of blueberry fields were harvested by mechanical means. Today, it's about 80% as growers discover that it's cheaper to replace hand pickers with more efficient machinery.

Here on a gently sloping hill off a remote dirt road, two John Deeres move slowly through a field, mechanical contraptions hanging off one side raking the fruit off low-lying bushes. Walter Degreenia drives one of the tractors as his wife, Gail, stands on a back platform sorting through the berries as they are carried on a conveyor belt and dropped into crates.

"On a good day, I can harvest 10,000 pounds with one machine," Degreenia says.

That's about 10 times what a typical person can harvest in a day with a handheld rake, swiping it through the bushes over and over for hours on end.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Maine | Blueberry | Walter Degreenia
Maine's wild blueberry industry, which dates back to the 1840s, counted on hand-pickers to get the crop for more than a century — long after growers of other major crops turned to tractors and sophisticated harvesters.

But with the yearly harvest averaging about 70 million pounds a year — up from under 20 million pounds before the 1980s — wild blueberry growers have had a hard time finding enough people to pick all those berries.

Wild blueberries grow naturally in Maine and eastern Canada. They're different from cultivated berries, which are larger and grow on high bushes.

About 40 to 50% of cultivated blueberries are hand-picked but the mechanization trend is happening in the dozen states where they're grown, as well, said Frank Bragg, chief executive officer of the Michigan Blueberry Growers Association.

In the old days, Maine's blueberries were harvested by local residents, including school kids and Indians from Maine and eastern Canada.

These days, growers turn mainly to migrant workers from Mexico and central American countries to fill the void. But with labor in tight supply, growers have also been turning to mechanical harvesters.

"Right now, you can't even get migrant workers if you want them, so that's what's driving this," said David Yarborough, a blueberry specialist and horticulture professor at the University of Maine.

Maine growers like mechanical harvesters because they don't have to manage hard-to-find workers and deal with government paperwork. The machines also result in lower production costs — adding to the bottom line.

The early models often destroyed plants and had low yields compared to hand-pickers. But the newer models are efficient with high yields.

And as the machines have improved, the state's blueberry growers have flattened and removed rocks from thousands of acres of fields to make them suitable for mechanical harvesters.

Nat Lindquist, vice president of operations for Jasper Wyman & Son in Milbridge, said half of his company's 7,000 acres are harvested mechanically. Some blueberry growers, he said, don't use hand-rakers at all any more.

"Over the years, the manufacturers have added more bells and whistles that have improved the quality and are picking most of the fruit," Lindquist said. "Prior to the improvements, they left a lot of the fruit on the ground."

Degreenia's two tractors plod along at less than 1 mph as they make their way around the field, harvesting two to three acres a day on average. In a nearby field, Haitian workers bend over the bushes with their rakes, scooping up the berries the old-fashioned way.

Degreenia has raked berries or worked as a crew leader since he was barely a teenager. With mechanical harvesters, the work is less tedious, easier on his back and more profitable.

"This is great compared to what we used to do," he said.

At the end of the day, the berries from this field are taken by truck to Coastal Blueberry Service Co., a distribution center in the nearby town of Union. From there, they'll go to Ellsworth, where they'll be frozen.

Less than 1% of the state's harvest is sold fresh. The rest will make its way to consumers in muffin mixes, yogurts, juices, cereals, preserves and other products.

Paul Sweetland, who manages Coastal Blueberry Service, said the rise of mechanical harvesters is perhaps the biggest change the industry has ever experienced.

Harvesting blueberries costs roughly 16 to 17 cents a pound by hand and about 10 cents a pound with a mechanical harvester, he said. When prices fall, the savings can mean the difference between a profit and a loss.

"This is tremendous change," Sweetland said. "This is the future."

Besides the tractor-mounted harvesters, growers are also turning to portable, self-propelled walk-behind harvesters — similar to walk-behind lawn mowers.

Zane Emerson, who sells them through his Maine Blueberry Equipment Co. in Columbia Falls, said more than 50 of the machines are now in use.

"I predict the day," he said, "when all of the blueberry fields will be mechanic

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... aine_N.htm