Thread: Navarrette: Lazy Americans fleeing from jobs at Swift plant

Ruben Navarrette was on a local PBS show tonight and said that many of the Americans who applied for the jobs at the Swift meatplacking plant who replaced the arrested illegals have left, saying that the work is too hard. He says they have constantly whined that they aren't geting paid enough, they don't like the smell and all kinds of other complaints. Of course, he says that Americans are just too lazy for any kind of hard labor work and we need the illegals to do this because Americans are just too spoiled by easy office and retail work.

But then again, he also constantly editorializes that most all Americans are just a bunch of lazy, worthless employees anyway:

From The San Diego Union-Tribune:

Those jobs Americans won't do

It's the big lie of the immigration debate: Namely, that Americans would eagerly and gladly do the jobs being done by illegal immigrants if only wages were higher.

It started out as a rebuttal to President Bush's insistence that illegal immigrants “do jobs that Americans won't do.” Anti-illegal immigrant crusaders responded that these are actually “jobs that Americans won't do . . . for the wages offered.”

There are actually people out there who like to believe that there's some magical hourly or daily wage that an employer could offer at which a slew of Americans would leave their desk jobs and line up for a chance to do some of the hardest, dirtiest and crummiest jobs our society has to offer. In many cases, there is no such wage.

Still, someone has to do these types of jobs. And when employers try to fill them with illegal immigrants, they get crossways with native-born workers who are suddenly eager to do the very jobs that they and their families have shunned for a generation.

A recently filed class-action lawsuit against Tyson Foods Inc. insists that the world's largest meat processing company has kept wages low by hiring illegal immigrants. The suit by former and current employees alleges the company violated federal racketeering law, and that wages have dropped between 10 percent and 30 percent since the company began hiring large numbers of illegal immigrants. If the claim is successful, the alleged damages could exceed $150 million.

Tyson has been in the headlines before. In 2003, the company was acquitted in federal court of charges that it conspired to run an employee recruitment initiative that resembled a smuggling operation. The government alleged that Tyson managers hired intermediaries to transport hundreds of illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border and place them in more than a dozen Tyson plants.

Meanwhile, two months ago federal immigration agents raided a number of Swift & Co. meatpacking plants and arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants, some of whom were charged with identity theft.

We're told that employers hire illegal immigrants because they're willing to work for less than American workers. But it's more complicated. The issue is also how immigrants, illegal or not, approach the very institution of work. While many native-born Americans have come to consider labor a nuisance – especially if it is low-skilled, physical labor – immigrants have tended to see work as an opportunity to get ahead in America and fulfill the promise that brought them here.

Think about your own immigrant parents or grandparents and what they were willing to do for a dollar. Then think about what you would do.

Of course, employers shouldn't knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and those who do so should be punished. But, as I've come to realize over the years, the fact that employers are hiring illegal immigrants doesn't necessarily amount to exploitation. And, from what I gather, many employers resent the accusation.

I've heard from employers who say that, when they try to hire Americans, all they get are headaches and demands and complaints and demands and attitude and more demands. Once on the job, the employers say, many of these employees don't want to work; in fact, they spend their energy trying to find creative ways not to work and still get paid. Some quit after only a few weeks on the job – but not before making the employer feel as if they're doing him a favor instead of the other way around. In some cases, even the low-skilled are demanding high salaries because they value their time as much as the high-skilled workers do.

This might include the workers at a construction firm in Denver that was recently the subject of a report by Tom Brokaw of NBC. In the segment, the owner of the firm complained that some of the American workers he hired for as much as $15 an hour would quit after only a few weeks on the job. What was the problem there? Certainly not the wages.

One employer told me that, when she hired the native-born, she got a barrage of questions: “How much does this job pay? What are the benefits? How much vacation time do I get?” But when she hired immigrants, some of whom may have been illegal, she got only one question: “How much work can you give me?” Now, which one would you rather have working for you?

I still don't condone the hiring of illegal immigrants, but I'm beginning to understand it.

Americans did these jobs for years. Why wouldn't americans do the jobs now. The problem is that the employer has been working with illegals for so long they have forgotten that american workers have always wanted unions, etc.

One employer told me that, when she hired the native-born, she got a barrage of questions: “How much does this job pay? What are the benefits? How much vacation time do I get?” But when she hired immigrants, some of whom may have been illegal, she got only one question: “How much work can you give me?” Now, which one would you rather have working for you?

I wonder which this scumbag illegal alien employer hired

So, what is actually going on with him, and our government?

American's in order to keep a job, must work for the same pay as the Chinese, no benefits, no health care...where my husband works, supposedly the company pays half each week of what we pay for health insurance, and he pays over $80 a week....that would make this insurance premium $160 a week, for two people!

Or...the globalists can see that everyone in the World is paid the same!

Everyone in the World, starting pay $15.00 per hr. How many American business' would leave then?

One employer told me that, when she hired the native-born, she got a barrage of questions: “How much does this job pay? What are the benefits? How much vacation time do I get?”

These seem like legitimate questons to me.

But when she hired immigrants, some of whom may have been illegal, she got only one question: “How much work can you give me?” Now, which one would you rather hire

I'd rather hire the one who is not the criminal alien with the possible stolen identity.

American citizens do work at Tysons. I know a lot of people that work there. Saying that all Americans are lazy and won't do these jobs is a bunch of horse pooey! I know of plenty of lazy illegals. There are lazy people in every nationality!

Let's talk about lazy. Lets take a walk down the street in my town. The citizens have their sidewalks and driveways cleaned of snow and the trash picked up in their yards. The illegals are too lazy to clean their sidewalks and driveways or pick up their trash. Their yards look like crap and most have junk vehicles sitting around. The illegals park and drive on their lawns as they are too lazy to walk a few more steps to get to their vehicles. Of course there are a few exceptions to this rule but as a long time resident here and because of a former job I had I know who's who so I know what I'm talking about.

What a biased bunch of bull! Every individual that was quoted in the article was an employer that hires or has hired criminal aliens. How can we expect to have an honest debate with those motivated by greed.

Originally Posted by Mayday

American citizens do work at Tysons. I know a lot of people that work there. Saying that all Americans are lazy and won't do these jobs is a bunch of horse pooey! I know of plenty of lazy illegals. There are lazy people in every nationality!

Let's talk about lazy. Lets take a walk down the street in my town. The citizens have their sidewalks and driveways cleaned of snow and the trash picked up in their yards. The illegals are too lazy to clean their sidewalks and driveways or pick up their trash. Their yards look like crap and most have junk vehicles sitting around. The illegals park and drive on their lawns as they are too lazy to walk a few more steps to get to their vehicles. Of course there are a few exceptions to this rule but as a long time resident here and because of a former job I had I know who's who so I know what I'm talking about.

This says it just the way it is, can't get any lazyer than that and with complete truth. They are trashing our country!!

I'm so sick of hearing about this jobs americans won't do bullcrap. We Americans only built this country from the ground up and made it the best damn country ever and your going to tell me that they don't want to do these jobs given a fair wage?

If these damn illegals were such great workers then why can't they stay in the third world cesspool they call a country and fix it? How come if they are such great workers that every country they come from is a complete s---hole and they can't wait to leave it?

I'm so sick of these commies in the media. I wish we could deport them along with their criminal friends.

Originally Posted by Cliffdid

One employer told me that, when she hired the native-born, she got a barrage of questions: “How much does this job pay? What are the benefits? How much vacation time do I get?”

These seem like legitimate questons to me.
[quote:28radxkg]But when she hired immigrants, some of whom may have been illegal, she got only one question: “How much work can you give me?” Now, which one would you rather hire

I'd rather hire the one who is not the criminal alien with the possible stolen identity.[/quote:28radxkg]

Yeah, I hear ya.
What employers want are slaves - people that are unquestioning, willing to subject themselves to substantial exploitation and abuse, and unable to do much to remedy such abuse through formal legal means.

...but Ruben is either too dumb or too naive to recognize or admit such thing.