Thread: Orchards, dairies rely on immigrant workers, Labor-intensive

Orchards, dairies rely on immigrant workers
Labor-intensive farms can’t find citizens to do the work at any price

Patricia R. McCoy
Capital Press
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

HOMEDALE - Idaho dairymen depend heavily on foreign laborers, most of them Hispanics and a number of them quite possibly illegal immigrants.

That statement came from Jack Davis, president of United Dairymen of Idaho, during a luncheon Sept. 5 at Homedale's new Basque Center for some 50 legislators and agri-businessmen participating in an agricultural tour of Treasure Valley.

"So many dairies out there would be broke the next day if federal agents came in on them and took their workers away," he said. "Cows wouldn't be milked or fed, and calves would be uncared for. We didn't get into this situation overnight, but where we are today is where we are.

"These people are hard workers. They're reliable and do their jobs very well. Many are doing work we can't get non-Hispanics to do," Davis told state lawmakers. "We need them, and we need your help to keep them."

Davis said he and several others were planning to join with Hispanic organizations to seek a program that will allow illegal aliens to properly register and remain in the United States.

"We realize this will be an uphill battle, but these people are doing the dirty work in America. They have a great story to tell, and we want to tell it," Davis said. "We don't hire them because they're cheap. They earn up to $17 an hour. They're the only labor available to us. Granted, some are illegal, but nobody else will do the work. We haven't had a U.S. citizen apply for work on our dairies for 15 years."

Labor is also an important issue for local fruitmen, legislators learned at Symms Fruit Ranch later that afternoon.

Rod Troxel, executive director of the Marsing Labor Association, said he expected to start receiving "no match" letters from the Social Security Administration by Oct. 1.

Such letters would inform him of social security numbers provided by his employees that didn't match federal records, he said. A court ruling temporarily suspended the program while attorneys work out if such efforts would unduly discriminate against people, or do serious economic harm to the businesses that employ them.

"Despite the court case, we've been advised by national farm labor organizations that we'd better have our ducks in a row," Troxel said. "All our farmers want a legal work force they can depend on. The Department of Homeland Security apparently believes the 900,000 unemployed people in the nation can take over jobs held by illegal aliens. Growers need twice that many people in California alone."

The "no match" letters would give employers 30 days to notify a worker that there's a problem with his documents, after which he would have 90 days to resolve the problem. After that, he could no longer be employed, Troxel said.

Some 150 to 180 southwest Idaho farmers draw on the Marsing Labor Association for seasonal help, he said. Marsing Labor Association was established in 1948. Prior to that time, farmers drew on German prisoners of war and relocated Japanese-Americans. The association built and manages migrant housing projects, and runs a payroll and personnel service.

"We have 90 people working in the shed, and another 150 out in the orchards. All have documents. Whether all those documents are legitimate or not, how does anyone know?" Dar Symms said.

Labor issues were only one of many presented to some 50 state lawmakers during a three-day agricultural tour of Treasure Valley sponsored by the agribusiness committee of the Nampa and Caldwell Chambers of Commerce.

Stops on the three-day tour included a mint still, Swan Falls Dam, a biodiesel plant, two feedlots, a discussion of water issues and related litigation, a seed plant, drip irrigation, a fruit packing plant, a dairy, pesticide-posting issues, genetically modified sugar beets, the Simplot Co. potato processing plant, and the University of Idaho's Food Technology Center in Caldwell.

Staff writer Pat McCoy is based in Boise. E-mail: pmccoy@capitalpress.com.

http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?S ... M=37806.87

They should be grateful THEY haven't been prosecuted as they should be. Start enforcing the law and prosecuting these employers we'd see some big changes in how they operate real fast!

"We realize this will be an uphill battle, but these people are doing the dirty work in America. They have a great story to tell, and we want to tell it," Davis said. "We don't hire them because they're cheap. They earn up to $17 an hour. They're the only labor available to us. Granted, some are illegal, but nobody else will do the work. We haven't had a U.S. citizen apply for work on our dairies for 15 years."

I'd bet if you actually advertised jobs paying $17 you'd get applicants. Another suggestion would be to put welfare recipients without physical impairments onto buses and get them working again...No work, no welfare! Minimum security prison inmates would also be good candidates for "learn & earn" programs which would teach a trade and shorten prison terms, saving taxpayers money and giving short-time offenders a second chance to be productive members of society.

Finding farm workers won't be an issue as population centers are turned into third world ghettos by the illegals and Americans flee to the surrounding countryside to escape the poverty and crime!

This is a load of crap, I don't believe it for a second they have lost Sen. Craig to bathroom antic's and personnel gradification and now they are whinning looking for support for cheap labor and diversity from some other advocates in Idaho and they are not going to get it!!!



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