Thread: CA- Farmworkers leaving the Valley in search of jobs

Farmworkers leaving the Valley in search of jobs By Vanessa Colón / The Fresno Bee 09/01/08 21:25:24
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Drought and economic desperation are driving farmworkers in small towns across the Valley to pull up decades-old roots and look for work elsewhere.

Some are trying to commute more than two hours to the Salinas Valley. But others are going all the way to Alaska, Washington and North Carolina.

While traveling from one job to another is a fact of life for migrant farmworkers, those in the Valley typically have been able to find enough work nearby to establish permanent homes.
That's not so easy anymore, said farmworker Guadalupe Alvarez. She has lived in Mendota for more than 30 years and never thought she would leave the dusty, rural town dubbed the Cantaloupe Center of the World.

For now she is packing melons. But she knows she is unlikely to find other work as usual when the melon season is over. By late September, she plans to move to North Carolina, where she has relatives.

"You feel bad about it because you've been here so long," Alvarez, 48, said in Spanish. "Now we are going somewhere else to suffer."

Several factors have contributed to the lack of work. Dry weather, water-pumping cutbacks and the closure of processing plants have led to fewer farmworker jobs as growers abandon fields. And the housing bust has flooded farms with new workers.

It's impossible to know exactly how many people are leaving, but the evidence of their departure is clear.

The Mendota Food Center, a grocery store in the heart of the town, looks nearly empty, although it's usually busy with shoppers this time of year, said Mayor Robert Silva. Nearby in the city of Firebaugh, a string of mom-and-pop stores closed this summer. And there are lots of empty apartments.

School enrollment in Firebaugh has been declining by dozens of students each year in the past three years. St. Joseph's School, a parochial school for preschool to eighth grade, closed in July.

Mendota and Firebaugh officials believe that hundreds of people have left this year from each of their towns. Mendota has about 8,000 people, and Firebaugh has about 7,000.

"There's less people in the area," Silva said. "They are moving up north to Washington to pick apples. Normally they'd be here working in the tomatoes, corn and bell pepper crops. Normally they would stay here until autumn."

So far, farmworkers are not returning to their home countries in large numbers.

Among 1.2 million Mexican nationals living in eight Central Valley counties served by the Mexican Consulate in Fresno, 28 families notified consular officials that they were moving back to Mexico this year, said Deputy Consul Selene Barceló.

"There is an economic crisis, but not at the point they are leaving the United States in droves," Barceló said in Spanish. "They are migrating. ... They normally would have temporary or full-time work here, but it's possibly changed."

Nationwide, immigrant workers are on the move as they try to deal with the economic downturn and increased immigration enforcement. One group from the Valley -- about 200 workers -- traveled to Washington for work, then sought jobs in Canada, said Manuel Cunha Jr., president of Nisei Farmers League in Fresno.

"The west side got hit the hardest, but it's happening all over," he said.

Liz Hudson, spokeswoman for the Fresno County Farm Bureau, said jobs in agriculture are out there, but there's not a high demand for workers.

"This year there appears to be no shortage of workers with the slowdown of the housing construction and with the uncertainty of the water situation," Hudson said. "There is an ample work force. We've had no reports by farmers that there's no workers."

Meanwhile, some of the biggest employers have started to shut down.

Fordel Inc., a grower-packer and shipper of canteloupes in Mendota, is selling its facility, Mendota City Council Member Joseph Riofrio said. This year, Fordel didn't plant melons, eliminating hundreds of jobs, Riofrio said.

A Spreckels Sugar plant in Mendota is expected to close this month, displacing more than 200 people, he said.
In 2006, ConAgra slashed 230 jobs at its Helm tomato processing plant, and De Francesco & Sons, a garlic and onion processor west of Firebaugh, shed 137 jobs when it closed. Rock-Tenn, the Kerman box-folding plant, also shut its doors a year later.

And to make the most use of a limited water supply, about 230,000 acres from Mendota to Kettleman City weren't farmed this season, said Sarah Woolf, a spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District. That's double the acreage left unfarmed last year, she said.

To survive, some workers have taken temporary jobs outside the Valley this summer and hope to return in the fall.

Patricio Rios, 62, of Mendota said his son, Jacobo Rios, flew on July 28 to Seattle, then traveled to Alaska to work on a fishing boat for three months. The 24-year-old did the same thing last year and returned to Mendota.

"But we don't know if he'll come back in September or if he'll stay," Rios said. "There's no work here in fields, and he'll make less money out here. He makes about $100 a day in Alaska and works six days a week."

More Salvadoran immigrants are traveling from Mendota to Salinas for the lettuce harvest and return on the weekends, Riofrio said.

Unemployed parents also are pressuring their adult children to search for jobs hours away.

Some students drive a long way to take jobs at fast-food restaurants to help make ends meet at home, said Eliseo Gamino, the College Assistance Migrant Program director at West Hills Community College District in Firebaugh. They'll go as far as Modesto and Turlock, and they'll work odd hours, he said.

Gamino said one of his students went to Alaska this summer to keep a steady job.

"It was shocking that a student resorted to this just to keep a steady job to contribute to the household expenses and her college expenses," he said.

Lito Torres, a leader in the Salvadoran immigrant community, said he has noticed the changes. Torres typically stays all year in Mendota driving a truck loaded with produce. But he said he might migrate to Arizona for a job, because fewer crops were planted this year.

"In the past, people would come here from other places to work," he said. "Now the people from here are leaving to other places."


http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/835207-p2.html

Patricio Rios, 62, of Mendota said his son, Jacobo Rios, flew on July 28 to Seattle, then traveled to Alaska to work on a fishing boat for three months. The 24-year-old did the same thing last year and returned to Mendota.

"But we don't know if he'll come back in September or if he'll stay," Rios said. "There's no work here in fields, and he'll make less money out here. He makes about $100 a day in Alaska and works six days a week."

And what has become of the Americans who normally do these jobs?

The illegal invaders do not leave. That is why it is so important to go after the employer's and make it law to use E-Verify. We must make it so hard on them that eventually they will have no other choice but to leave. They just keep weathering the storm until things pick up. We need to make living here for them impossible. I think we can accomplish that by pressuring our politicians. When we have them scrabbling and on the run like right now we just keep hammering them wherever they go!

That's not so easy anymore, said farmworker Guadalupe Alvarez. She has lived in Mendota for more than 30 years and never thought she would leave the dusty, rural town dubbed the Cantaloupe Center of the World.
"You feel bad about it because you've been here so long," Alvarez, 48, said in Spanish.

Read the above sentences. Alvarez has been here for 30 years!!!! She can't speak English??????
Good Lord, these people assimilate??? Yeah, right.

Hate to tell you, but I don't think there's much of anything anywhere.

That's not so easy anymore, said farmworker Guadalupe Alvarez. She has lived in Mendota for more than 30 years and never thought she would leave the dusty, rural town dubbed the Cantaloupe Center of the World.

For now she is packing melons. But she knows she is unlikely to find other work as usual when the melon season is over. By late September, she plans to move to North Carolina, where she has relatives.

"You feel bad about it because you've been here so long," Alvarez, 48, said in Spanish. "Now we are going somewhere else to suffer."

30 years in this country and alvarez probably does not speak a word of English! What a disgrace!

I suspect that the "somewhere else they are going to suffer" will not be mexico or where ever they are from!

And what has become of the Americans who normally do these jobs?

If it's just a job for 3 months....they probably tried to find a year round job. Don't know about you, but I can't think of any job that you can work at for just 3months out of the year and survive.

Read the above sentences. Alvarez has been here for 30 years!!!! She can't speak English??????
Good Lord, these people assimilate??? Yeah, right.

No excuse what-so-ever.......

Originally Posted by 31scout

Read the above sentences. Alvarez has been here for 30 years!!!! She can't speak English??????
Good Lord, these people assimilate??? Yeah, right.

No they don't assimilate, it is now 500 years after Columbus and about 10 million Mexican Indians still don't speak Spanish!

"This year there appears to be no shortage of workers with the slowdown of the housing construction and with the uncertainty of the water situation," Hudson said. "There is an ample work force. We've had no reports by farmers that there's no workers."

This should squash the temp visa frenzy wanted by some legislators. We need to get these people OUT of this country, if they are here illegally. We should not to waste money supporting them.