Thread: Ag needs guest workers

Lock and load people: More Ag Jobs propaganda greasing the skids:

Ag needs guest workers
By BOB PERKINS

Agriculture in Monterey County is extremely labor-intensive. We've largely escaped the labor shortages that hurt farmers in other counties and other states, but we are still at risk.

Salinas Valley growers say a falloff in sales this year has masked a worker shortage. If we had a boom year in farming, there wouldn't be enough workers.

Our intense demand for farm labor helps insulate us somewhat. Most of the workers here are year-round residents, instead of seasonal or migratory workers.

Our county's agriculture, and our nation's food supply and rural economy, are at risk because we haven't been able to come to grips with immigration reform. Emotions run high over the issue and over charges that undocumented workers are a drain on our economy and are taking jobs from our citizens.

There's one economic anecdote that tells a story. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that home mortgages extended to illegal immigrants have a default rate that, at 0.5 percent, is half the default rate for prime mortgages and miniscule compared to the 9.3 percent of defaults on subprime mortgages. Of course, The Journal notes, that could change if a government crackdown throws a lot of immigrants out of work.

That complaint, about illegal aliens taking "our" jobs, isn't rooted in economics or in the current U. S. economy. You won't hear moms and dads urging their kids to drop out of school to take up careers like these. In fact, if you listen to the immigrant workers themselves, you'll hear parents pushing their kids to get an education and have a better life than the parents did.

Unless we return to the desperate times of the Great Depression, parents will continue to expect their kids to rise to greater prosperity and success. For immigrants, including a lot of our ancestors, that's why they came here - for opportunity.

A tight labor market illustrates our prosperity and our need for guest workers. Right now, 34 states have unemployment rates under 5 percent. Eighteen states have unemployment under 4 percent, which economists believe is the minimum "natural" rate of people just changing jobs. Only two states are over 6 percent unemployed. There is plenty of opportunity for all of us.

We weren't supposed to be facing this immigration crisis. Twenty years ago, immigration reform provided a path to legalization for undocumented farm workers but also promised an effective guest-worker program. The government failed to deliver a guest-worker system that would serve agriculture. The resulting labor vacuum began to fill with workers who came here outside the law.

Without a guest-worker system, we risk creating the same cycle again.

We've had a guest-worker program for decades. It just hasn't worked.

"The current temporary agricultural worker program has become too antiquated and too cumbersome to be used effectively by producers," a White House spokesman said recently, in a refreshing burst of pragmatism.

Now, while Congress remains mired in the conflicts of immigration reform, the Bush Administration is taking a realistic approach to overhauling the existing H2A guest worker system and make it truly workable.

Our county's $3.5 billion farm economy depends on a stable work force. We need an immigration solution that supplies guest workers.

BOB PERKINS is executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau. His column runs once a month.
http://thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 50325/1046

I think a TEMPORARY guest workers program is fine, just make sure they are temporary for seasons. Summer season and winter season and not a path to citizenship that will call for new workers every season.

Originally Posted by dyehard39

I think a TEMPORARY guest workers program is fine, just make sure they are temporary for seasons. Summer season and winter season and not a path to citizenship that will call for new workers every season.

We already have a program like that, I believe it's called H-2A, which allows for unlimited TEMP ag workers. Farmers don't like this one because they have to pay them a MINIMUM wage.

There are somewhere between 20 and 35 million ILLEGALS in the U.S. This allows for PLENTY of ag workers. The problem is, the ILLEGALS don't want AG jobs.......they want better paying jobs.

This is just bullcrap.

Re:

We've had a guest-worker program for decades. It just hasn't worked.

Of course, so many of those touting the deficiencies of the existing system probably haven't taken the time to use it either.... (in fact, we have more than just 1 guest worker program; H2-a is the one most geared toward agricultural work, but by no means, is the only one...)

I suggest that because H2-A requires the employer to:
a). pay min. wage
b). ensure housing facilities, etc
c). file applications/paperwork with the Fed. Gov't

...employers want slaves - not workers.

You would think the advocacy groups would be for H-2A, since it protects ag workers. Their silence is deafening.

Originally Posted by miguelina

You would think the advocacy groups would be for H-2A, since it protects ag workers. Their silence is deafening.

That is a good point. Does anyone know why the illegal advocates don't push the issue of the already existing farm labor visas? With the protections from exploitation they afford the workers, you'd think they'd be in favor of them. Why the silence?