Thread: Ag Jobs Alert! "Laborers Are Petrified"

Another illegal immigrant onion picker sob story:

"Laborers Are Petrified"
Posted by Seth Doane
Seth Doane is a CBS News correspondent based in New York.
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(CBS) Standing in the middle of a field of three and a half million onions that were ready to be harvested weeks ago is a stark example of the challenges farmers face in the United States.

Cathy and Jim Zappala’s farm has been the target of immigration authorities twice in the last six months. Illegal immigrant workers have been removed and in some cases, reportedly, deported. Now many other workers are too scared to return to work. "The other laborers are petrified," Cathy says. "Because they won’t even come near us right now… they are scared to death – and they will keep a super, super low-profile wherever they go," she continues.

The Zappalas are faced with the reality that they may well not have enough temporary workers to get their crop harvested this year. It could put them out of business.

The Zappala's prize "Empire Sweet Onions" are picked and packaged by hand. Machine harvesting them can bruise them and cut the price they can get for the onions. After several tough years of flooding and bad weather, they're worried that their farm - in the family since 1927 - may not be able to stay in business.

Cathy Zappala said to me that she hoped that telling her story would shine a light on their situation. They're desperate to find a viable workforce and do not want to hire illegal workers. However, Cathy and her husband Jim say that it is tough to find Americans who are willing to do this kind of work. "We’re not looking for a workforce that we’re giving legal amnesty to or citizenship to," Jim Zappala says. "We’re looking for a viable workforce that is allowed to work in agriculture… that can’t be that difficult to produce – it can’t be."

Allowing us to videotape at her farm puts the Zappala's in the spotlight. "We're really putting our necks on the line, here", Cathy wrote to me in an email. The Zappala's hope the story will give a voice to the farmers who lobbying for a guest-worker program or an alternative that will let their business stay afloat.

This story came together after I had been reading about the bumper apple harvest in New York State this year. Farmers have been lucky to get great weather for apple growing and some three billion apples need to be picked in just a ten-week long harvest. I thought it was interesting that we think of the "pick your own" apple harvest as the quintessential American fall tradition... but that it is 8,000 temporary workers that step in to do the "real" work - after the "pick your own" crowd goes home.

I set out to find an apple grower who would let me come on their farm and would talk about the troubles they farmers face in trying to find enough labor to pick the crops. Most every grower I reached on the telephone said they wouldn't speak though most admitted there were problems trying to find enough workers.

Mike Biltonen at Stone Ridge Orchard was willing to be candid about the challenges growers face. This harvest, Biltonen's orchard is in good shape. He has been able to find enough temporary workers to pick the apples. He makes every effort (like the Zappala's) to make sure his workforce is legal. Biltonen takes the social secruity numbers of workers and fills out paperwork which he submits to the government. Both growers we interviewed told us that legally they can't question the documents provided by workers as long as they appear valid.

"We pride ourselves on hiring as much local labor as we can," Biltonen says. "But pretty much our local businesses are already overwhelmed trying to find help – that there is not a ready pool of people to pull from."

But with a Federal crackdown on those employing illegal immigrants and with many temporary workers being forced to leave the U-S, Biltonen sees uncertainty ahead, "I don’t have to look too far down the road to sense that threat… every year it gets a little bit more difficult to get the labor that we need – to get the quality of labor we need."




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Comments
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Boo hoo. Lawbreakers are petrified of getting caught. Hmm. Businesses fear losing profits by hiring legal workers. Does anybody really think that this country cannot survive unless we open the floodgates to illegal immigrants? The only thing which compares to what is happening to us right now is when the Mongol hordes swept through Asia, overwhelming every local culture along the way. I felt like throwing a brick through the ATM screen at my local bank today, which DEMANDED that I press one for English to withdraw money from my account. This whole argument sounds like Southerners before the Civil War saying they just couldn''t survive without slavery. Poor onion farmers... can''t survive without people who work for practically nothing, can''t speak our language, don''t have health care, and are crippling our hard won tax-subsidized social services system. Boo hoo.
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Posted by ZykraCosmos at 10:56 PM : Oct 10, 2007
+ report abuse
Instead of Illegal Immigrants, why not have the homeless work to get off the streets and make a living for themselves. Instead of handouts, help out. This would be a win-win situation, no more illegal''s working and the homeless get a job.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/10/10 ... 5491.shtml

CRY ME A RIVER. LET THEM GO OUT OF BUSINESS. THEY BUILT THEIR BUSINESS ON ILLEGAL LABOR AND NOW THEY DONT KNOW HOW TO STAY IN BUSINESS HONESTLY. LET THEM FAIL....THEY DESERVE IT.

The Zappalas are faced with the reality that they may well not have enough temporary workers to get their crop harvested this year. It could put them out of business.

Oh What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

Cathy Zappala said to me that she hoped that telling her story would shine a light on their situation.

Damn sure does.

You've been hireing a lot of illegal aliens. You reap what you sow.

Dixie

Maybe they should use prisoners like Colorado and Idaho do.

That's OK.......I'm not buying their onions anyway. I quit a couple years ago. Five or six skinny onions for .99 is ridiculous.

These people will get no sympathy from me.

If they need help with their crops, they have plenty of options which will bring them plenty of American workers.

Let them put out "Help Wanted" bulletins through schools, 4-H Clubs, churches, youth clubs/organizations, etc. There are plenty of teens seeking employment......try putting them to work for a change. I'd be willing to bet that through those same avenues, they'd find plenty of adults in need of employment willing to sign on also.

Lots of college kids need work also.

Don't overlook the Unemployment Office, social service agencies, and the Veteran's Job Service. Lots and lots of folks to be found there needing employment.....folks who probably find themselves in that situation because the door has been slammed in their faces in favor of hiring illegals.


That's just a short list. There's a whole legal workforce out there, "living in the shadows", and waiting for a job op to come along. All these farmers need to do is quit whining and wailing about their illegals, be a little creative and they'll have all the legal help they need.

If there is a shortage if illegal laborers for farmers, why are so many illegals standing on corners and at Home Depot, jumping in front of drivers, looking for work????

[quote="moosetracks"]If there is a shortage if illegal laborers for farmers, why are so many illegals standing on corners and at Home Depot, jumping in front of drivers, looking for work????[/quote








LOL.........I think all of those might be aspiring to become personal injury claimants.

Again LIES LIES LIES.

There are plenty of Americans that will do this work. All of you have listed plenty.

Azwreath-I liked your suggestions. What about promoting it as fundraisers? Boyscouts, Church Groups or other groups could work the farm for a day and raise the money for their charity. I think this would be a great idea. I know when I was in a youth group in church, we did not work on a farm, but we did do other manual type work to raise money.

Also Azwreath, picking up on something else you said-they need to advertise to these groups. How much advertising do these groups do? Or do they just rely on illegals wandering up looking for work?

As I am sure others on this board have, both me and my dad worked on farms at different points in our lives-He as a child/teen and me in summers during college. Farms survived before with just Americans working on them and they will survive now without illegals.