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  1. #1
    Senior Member zeezil's Avatar
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    Farmers fear labor shortage threatens harvest

    Farmers fear labor shortage threatens harvest

    By Jay Gallagher
    Albany Bureau Chief

    ALBANY -- With the harvest season beginning, farmers around the state say crackdowns on immigrants are causing a widespread labor shortage that threatens this year's harvest of some fruits and vegetables.

    "Some farmers are flat-out short of hands," said Pete Gregg, a spokesman for the state Farm Bureau. "They're worried about leaving fruits on the trees and vegetables on the ground."

    And there are lots of fruit and vegetables to be picked. New York expects this year to produce 3 billion apples — second only to Washington state. It also ranks among the top producing states for cabbage, corn, cherries, peaches, strawberries and blueberries, among other crops.

    But most of them have to be picked by hand. "Without that labor force, we're out of business," Gregg said.

    Gregg blamed a crackdown on illegal immigrants across the western part of the state over the last couple of years for diminishing the labor supply.

    "They've gotten aggressive in the last couple of years," he said, speaking of immigration officials. "We hire workers who to our knowledge are here legally. Then a raid occurs and we find out paperwork has been forged ... Enforcement raids are becoming common."

    A spokesman for one of the federal agencies charged with enforcing the immigration law, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, said he was unaware of any recent raids.

    "I don't know what these folks are talking about," ICE spokesman Mike Gilhooly said. "We encounter ag workers and we arrest them if they are illegally here."

    But he said no raids have been conducted and workers are arrested and deported usually only after they have been arrested for another reason by local or state police and can't speak English.

    Gilhooly said 2,755 people in the country illegally had been deported from upstate (everything north and west of Westchester and Rockland counties) from last Oct. 1 to this Aug. 1. For the federal fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30, the figure was 2,917.

    Two farmers contacted for this story said they didn't want to be quoted for fear of retribution by ICE. Gilhooly said that shouldn't be a concern.

    "We don't retaliate against people who talk to the press," he said.

    Cornell University Professor Max Pfeffer, who studies agriculture and other rural issues, said more aggressive enforcement of immigration laws, both along the Mexican border and within the state, has diminished the number of immigrant workers in New York, who typically number between 15,000 and 30,000 during the harvest season.

    "There's a real cause for concern here," he said. "Clearly there is the need for these farm workers, and there are fewer of them arriving ... There is no clear alternative to these workers."

    Gregg said the jobs pay relatively well, from $9 to $20 an hour, depending on how skilled a picker is. But he said the temporary nature of the work (two months or so) and the physical demands make the jobs undesirable to most natives.

    Pfeffer said the solution is a more formal way to recruit and transport workers from Latin America to New York -- both to assure the farmers of adequate labor and the workers a safe trip paid for by their employers.

    One federal program, known as H2A, has been helpful in doing that, Gregg and Pfeffer agreed. But it is done on a relatively small scale. Last year 276 New York employers and just under 4,000 workers participated.

    Farmers complained earlier this year that the state Labor Department was gumming up the works in that program by requiring farmers to first consider Puerto Rican workers before those from other parts of Latin America could be hired. But the state reversed its policy and has been helpful since farmers protested, Gregg said.

    The problem could be solved if a bill were passed by Congress to overhaul the country's immigration policy, but that's unlikely to happen any time soon, said Rep. John R. Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, Schuyler County, because of a deadlock in what should happen to illegal immigrants already here.

    Kuhl, a member of House Agriculture Committee, said he favors as a temporary solution a measure that would make it easier for farm workers to get into the country.

    "We need some sort of a system that will allow people to come in on a temporary basis, for maybe up to three years," he said.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Gogo's Avatar
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    Hogwash. I live in AG country. IF they pay the wages they say they are they can get American workers without a problem:

    Gregg said the jobs pay relatively well, from $9 to $20 an hour, depending on how skilled a picker is. But he said the temporary nature of the work (two months or so) and the physical demands make the jobs undesirable to most natives.
    What they want is cheaper labor than what they are saying and no liability of they get hurt and lay it on the American taxpayer's back. I even had a lady who owns an apple orchard in our area say that very thing.

    Hogwash
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    Senior Member vmonkey56's Avatar
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    WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HELP THEY HAD; LEFT THEM TO BECOME ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIENS?

    WHAT A SYSTEM WE HAVE? COME TO FARM AND WALK OFF THE FARM?

    I BET THEY DO LEAVE THE FARM; WHO STARTED THIS PROGRAM OF HIRING IMMIGRANTS ANYHOW?
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  4. #4
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    These farmers should introduce a huge push for the pick-your-own. It works out to be a great day for the family.
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  5. #5
    Senior Member SOSADFORUS's Avatar
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    20 to 30 million illegals here already and they don't have a work force...well ask yourself where are they?....they just want a never ending source every year, when the job is done they just take off all across America to find another job (an Americans job)and never return to the AG's job again.....we are on to you now, your former AG workers are destroying our culture and towns from sea to shinning sea.

    NO MORE!!!
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  6. #6
    Senior Member uniteasone's Avatar
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    It is because of these AG businesses we are in this GREAT BIG MESS NOW
    "When you have knowledge,you have a responsibility to do better"_ Paula Johnson

    "I did then what I knew to do. When I knew better,I did better"_ Maya Angelou

  7. #7
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    "Some farmers are flat-out short of hands," said Pete Gregg, a spokesman for the state Farm Bureau. "They're worried about leaving fruits on the trees and vegetables on the ground."
    There is no need to worry. JUST PAY AMERICANS DECENT WAGES TO WORK ON YOUR FARMS.

    THERE IS AN OVER ABUNDANCE OF AMERICANS WHO WANT TO WORK!

    QUIT WHINING FOR MORE ILLEGAL ALIENS AND TEMPORARY WORKER PROGRAMS AND HIRE SOME HARD WORKING AMERICANS!
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  8. #8
    Senior Member redpony353's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by butterbean
    "Some farmers are flat-out short of hands," said Pete Gregg, a spokesman for the state Farm Bureau. "They're worried about leaving fruits on the trees and vegetables on the ground."
    There is no need to worry. JUST PAY AMERICANS DECENT WAGES TO WORK ON YOUR FARMS.

    THERE IS AN OVER ABUNDANCE OF AMERICANS WHO WANT TO WORK!

    QUIT WHINING FOR MORE ILLEGAL ALIENS AND TEMPORARY WORKER PROGRAMS AND HIRE SOME HARD WORKING AMERICANS!
    OH BUT WAIT. ON TOP OF HAVING TO PAY HIGHER WAGES AND OVERTIME, THERE ARE THOSE PESKY SAFETY LAWS TO PROTECT WORKERS. AND THEN THERE IS THAT AWFUL WORK COMP. NOT TO MENTION IF SOMEONE GETS INJURED THE EMPLOYER CANT JUST DUMP THEM. LEGAL WORKERS? YOU MEAN THE KIND THAT CAN ASSERT THEIR RIGHTS? LET THE VEGGIES ROT OR HIRE AMERICANS.
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  9. #9
    Senior Member miguelina's Avatar
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    One federal program, known as H2A, has been helpful in doing that, Gregg and Pfeffer agreed. But it is done on a relatively small scale. Last year 276 New York employers and just under 4,000 workers participated.
    H2A would work, but then the FARMS must support their workforce, not the taxpayers and that's why ag farms don't want to use it. Tough cookies, give them a choice: Let the crops rot or sign up for H2A!
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  10. #10
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    What did farmers do years ago? They're so spoiled with the cheap labor they don't know what to do. Pay a decent wage and American workers will show up. Orrrrr put some prisoners out there in the fields and let them help pay back their debt to society.
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