Thread: Tight labor supply squeezes agriculture at peak of harvest

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Posted on Tue, Sep. 13, 2005



Tight labor supply squeezes agriculture at peak of harvest

JULIANA BARBASSA
Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. - Raisin grower Richard Garabedian knows the gamble: the longer his grapes stay on the vine, the sweeter the raisins - but the higher the chance they'll get caught by the rains that can ruin a year's worth of work.

But this season, the stakes are higher. The raisin harvest is peaking, but agriculture's primary work force - unauthorized immigrants - is scarce, likely drained by a booming construction industry and tighter enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border, prompting renewed calls for a guest worker program.

"We just don't have enough people, and it's a perishable crop," Garabedian said, worried not just for himself, but for an industry emerging from a glut that forced growers to rip out nearly 100,000 acres of grapevines over the last five years.

Last year, Jerald Rebensdorf, president of the Fresno Cooperative Raisin Growers, had 110 people picking his 600 acres. This year, he's making do with 51.

Raisin-making remains one of the nation's most labor-intensive harvests. About 40,000 workers are needed to hand-pick the grapes over six weeks, then dry them in the sun.

This year, growers expect to harvest at least 240,000 tons of raisins. It takes about five pounds of grapes to make one pound of raisins - and all those berries have to be off the vines before Sept. 20, or crop insurers won't cover any losses caused by rain.

In a year like this one, in which cool rains lasted long into the spring, farmers are squeezing the usually tight harvest into even fewer weeks.

But raisin farmers aren't the only ones scrambling for workers. Farmers growing a majority of the nation's vegetables and fruits need a reliable supply of laborers willing to work for the prevailing wage of $7 to $8 per hour to stay competitive in the global market.

For the last couple of years, growers said they've felt the labor pool tightening as workers leave low-wage, seasonal jobs for better-paying, year-round city jobs.

Construction jobs, starting at $10 an hour, are a big draw, especially in fast-growing inland areas such as the Central Valley, the state's farm belt, experts said.

Meanwhile, a beefed-up border patrol has made more arrests along the Mexican border, making it harder for illegal immigrants to reach jobs awaiting them in California fields.

The number of people caught crossing the border by the U.S. Border Patrol increased from 905,065 in 2003 to 1,077,598 in the first eight months of this year, said Luis Gonzalez, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol.

About 53 percent of the farm workers in the country were here illegally in 2001, according to the latest numbers from the National Agricultural Workers Survey. Growers estimate that number is higher in California - and readily acknowledge their dependence on these workers.

"It's next to impossible, with all the phony papers, to check," Garabedian said.

Garabedian and other growers have supported different versions of guest worker programs that would guarantee a steady supply of workers at harvest time, but some farm labor experts question assertions that there is a farm labor shortage.

"I still haven't seen the effects associated with a real shortage - rising wages for workers and rising prices for consumers," said Philip Martin, an agriculture economist with the University of California, Davis.

Martin and others said farmers might be exaggerating the situation to push for the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2005, a measure known as AgJobs, which would allow illegal immigrants working in the fields to become legal residents and eventually citizens.

This outcry is yet another example of the industry wanting "an oversupply of vulnerable workers so that they can keep wages low and avoid unionization," said Bruce Goldstein, executive director of the Farmworker Justice Fund.

But his organization also supported the AgJobs bill - a measure that has brought together organizations as different as the National Council of Agricultural Employers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the United Farm Workers.

unauthorized immigrants

Now there's a new redundant term to overstate the obvious.

"We just don't have enough people, and it's a perishable crop," Garabedian said, worried not just for himself, but for an industry emerging from a glut that forced growers to rip out nearly 100,000 acres of grapevines over the last five years.

Rubbish. What your trying to say is that you don't have enough slaves that you can exploit. There's millions of unemployed American citizens who would love to have a job. Suck it up and pay a fair wage.

Meanwhile, a beefed-up border patrol has made more arrests along the Mexican border, making it harder for illegal immigrants to reach jobs awaiting them in California fields.

Jobs that they are prohibited by federal law to work in.

The number of people caught crossing the border by the U.S. Border Patrol increased from 905,065 in 2003 to 1,077,598 in the first eight months of this year, said Luis Gonzalez, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol.

No thanks to that rotten bastard Jorge Bush opening up the flood gates and giving the middle finger to the American worker.

"It's next to impossible, with all the phony papers, to check," Garabedian said.

Bull. The federal government has a workplace verification pilot program that verifies SS numbers and it's available in all 50 states. Of course the only kicker is that it's only voluntary (thank Ted Kennedy for that crap) instead of mandatory so these traitorous businesses can just choose not to use the program and they know that their good hearted folk in the White House won't punish them one bit.

"I still haven't seen the effects associated with a real shortage - rising wages for workers and rising prices for consumers," said Philip Martin, an agriculture economist with the University of California, Davis.

Finally someone says it. This so called labor shortage is rubbish.

Martin and others said farmers might be exaggerating the situation to push for the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2005, a measure known as AgJobs, which would allow illegal immigrants working in the fields to become legal residents and eventually citizens.

This outcry is yet another example of the industry wanting "an oversupply of vulnerable workers so that they can keep wages low and avoid unionization," said Bruce Goldstein, executive director of the Farmworker Justice Fund.

But his organization also supported the AgJobs bill - a measure that has brought together organizations as different as the National Council of Agricultural Employers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the United Farm Workers.

That bill is nothing short of a walking disaster.