Migrant labor is plentiful in West Michigan
Migrant labor is plentiful in West Michigan
by Chris Killian | Press News Service
Monday August 18, 2008, 7:06 AM
Press News Service Photo
Francisco Mixtega-Jara, left, of Mexico, waits in line to weigh the pails of blueberries he picked at Leduc's Blueberries in Paw Paw.
SOUTH HAVEN -- In recent years, Mike DeGrandchamp struggled to find enough hands to pick the blueberries that make their way onto customers' breakfast cereals and fruit plates.
But not this year.
Migrant workers who might have hoped to work construction and landscaping jobs that have dried up as a result of the sour economy are flocking to harvesting jobs, state officials said.
"There is definitely a more robust supply of workers than in past years," said DeGrandchamp, a partner in DeGrandchamp Farms, which operates a 130-acre blueberry farm near South Haven.
"There is a more than adequate supply."
In recent years, because there were not enough laborers, the farm used machines more than usual to harvest the fruit.
But DeGrandchamp said blueberry farmers who sell on the fresh market want to be hand-picked because the fruit can fetch a higher price.
This year, the farm employs nearly 150 workers in picking and processing, which is "more than enough," he said.
In 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, blueberries were the No. 1 fruit in the state in terms of value of harvest.
Blueberries brought in $139 million, said Mark Longstroth, Michigan State University Extension District Horticulture and Marketing Agent for Southwest Michigan.
Statewide, there are about 15,000 migrant workers picking fruit this year, said Rick Olivarez, state monitor advocate with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
"That's the highest number we've seen in years," he said.
Resurgence started last year
Longstroth said the state began to see an increase in the number of farm laborers last year, with some of them driving to several farms asking for work, something that "hasn't happened in at least a half-dozen years."
Couple the rise in migrant workers with those who come back annually and "this year, there's an abundance again," he said.
Officials with Olivarez's agency travel annually to Texas to lobby workers to come to Michigan for the harvest season, which runs from April to October.
The trips have been "very helpful" in persuading workers to come to the state, which offers myriad social services to migrant farm laborers and their families, including medical, dental and educational services. Michigan could become one of the top five destination states in the country for migrant farm labor, Olivarez said.
Growers rely on migrants
The state also tries to find local residents to work in the harvest, Olivarez said, but "even if we do, they don't last that long.
"The crops wouldn't be picked if it weren't for migrant farm labor," he said.
Still, challenges remain.
Olivarez was told by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials the government agency -- which enforces federal immigration laws -- would focus on finding undocumented workers in three industries this year: agriculture, hotels and landscaping.
Two years ago, a federal immigration crackdown may have kept many workers away, and growers reported shortages of pickers.
Chantal Leduc, of Leduc Blueberries, hopes their workers are not targeted.
"They're like family to us," she said. "We need their skilled labor."
Her farm employs 150 to 170 migrants, most of whom come to the farm year after year.
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