Thread: Will California farmers have enough workers

Friday, April 27, 2007
Will California farmers have enough workers for the summer harvest?
JULIANA BARBASSA - The Associated Press

Cherries are starting to blush red in California's warm southern reaches, but farmers are eyeing the first big summer crop with concern, unsure if they'll have enough hands for the harvest.

In recent years, growers in America's most bountiful farmland have watched tighter border enforcement and competition from the booming construction industry threaten their labor supply.

The building bubble has burst, but will laborers come back to lower-paying, backbreaking jobs in the fields? Growers are doubtful.

"We're hoping they'll show up," said Bruce Fry, whose Bing cherries near Lodi are starting to turn from straw yellow to the first pale shades of red.

His family has worked the land since 1855, and seasonal workers have always returned for the harvest in mid-May after the long growing period when they're not needed. Fry believes he might attract enough workers, but the number of people who come by looking for jobs is dwindling. "We're taking a leap of faith," he said.

California harvests about half the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables -- a massive undertaking that requires about 225,000 workers year-round -- double that during the peak summer season. More than half are immigrants who cross the Mexican border illegally and travel from field to field picking some 400 different crops that each ripen at different times.

Last year, that seasonal migration was marked by spot worker shortages, and some fruit was left to rot in the fields.

President Bush's plan to secure the border relies on raising the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents from about 12,000 to 18,000 by the end of 2008, which would further limit the number of immigrant workers who can reach the farm jobs waiting for them.

The labor pool has been further diminished by the exploding Central Valley real estate market of recent years. Former farm fields have sprouted subdivisions, and tiny rural hamlets have transformed into sprawling suburbs.

But the demand for new homes cooled following a boom in foreclosures in the state's rural heartland brought on partly by the collapse of mortgage lending to homeowners with weak credit. That fueled speculation that former field hands would gravitate back to the farm.

But Wenceslau Covarubias, who doubled his salary to $15 when he left the fields three years ago to help build homes, isn't going back.

"You can't go backward in life," he said. "In construction, I can learn more, I can keep going up."

He traded his aging Honda for a new Ford Explorer, learned to lay cement for home foundations and do detailed tilework. These are skills he's proud of.

Although the construction slowdown is sinking in -- work has been stop and go for a month in Shaver Lake, a town in the Sierra Nevada foothills where he's been working -- Covarubias said he'll hold out for that kind of work.

"I'm sure some people will go back to (agriculture), but I think that'll be the exception, not the rule," said Phil Martin, a University of California, Davis labor economist.

Farmers realize they can't match the wages and stability that led immigrants to take 60 percent of the 1 million construction jobs created during the 2004-2006 building boom, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by the Pew Hispanic Center.

"You get used to a certain lifestyle, a certain pay scale, and it's difficult to go back," said Henry Vega, of Ventura County, a labor contractor who grows 65 acres of strawberries and avocados and manages another 1,000 acres. "You're hot and dirty in the fields."

So far this year, there's been no measurable national shortage of farmworkers, said Phil Martin, a University of California, Davis labor economist. But growers working winter crops like strawberries said they're already feeling the pinch.

One of Vega's strawberry plots, normally harvested by 240 workers, is being picked by 160. That shortfall is forcing him to harvest more slowly. This means picking berries that are too ripe to be sold fresh. The fruit can be canned or juiced -- but both are less profitable options.

"I've been in this business for 25 years, and it's getting worse every year," he said. "We're just up against a real tough situation. There's a lot of production and just not enough workers."

Aware of the relentless demand for workers in California's fields, farmers like Vega are keeping one eye on their crops and one on Capitol Hill, where in the next few months President Bush and Congress will discuss immigration proposals that could hinder or help their plight.

A group of 25 California farmers -- fruit and vegetable growers, nursery owners, dairymen -- went to Washington last week to lobby for immigration reform that would allow them to bring temporary workers from Mexico legally.

Many of California's crops, such as Vega's strawberries and Fry's cherries, are labor intensive and have to be hand-harvested. The future of the industry depends on having a reliable source of workers, said Jack King, charged with national affairs for the California Farm Bureau.

"The problem's not going away," he said. "We need to think of some long-term solutions."
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D6.

http://www.heraldextra.com/index.php?op ... ur+vote%21

The Central Valley certainly needs the help. Perhaps they should bring back the old Bracero Program by which the Mexicans came into the U.S. and worked the crops and then were sent back to Mexico to await the next years work. This worked well for many years in the past.

It'll weaken part of Myth #1. Looks like they won't do that work either. Hmmm... I wonder if sufficient pay might help. Oh, I forgot, that won't work 'cuz Americans would want those jobs. A real dilemma alright.

Originally Posted by pjr40

Perhaps they should bring back the old Bracero Program by which the Mexicans came into the U.S. and worked the crops and then were sent back to Mexico to await the next years work. This worked well for many years in the past.

That's a great idea - could I be one of the bus drivers taking them back? Oh, wait - I probably have to be bilingual - OH WELL, guess I'll stay at my current job!

Originally Posted by had_enuf

Friday, April 27, 2007
Will California farmers have enough workers for the summer harvest?
JULIANA BARBASSA - The Associated Press

Cherries are starting to blush red in California's warm southern reaches, but farmers are eyeing the first big summer crop with concern, unsure if they'll have enough hands for the harvest.

His family has worked the land since 1855, and seasonal workers have always returned for the harvest in mid-May after the long growing period when they're not needed. Fry believes he might attract enough workers, but the number of people who come by looking for jobs is dwindling. "We're taking a leap of faith," he said.

Last year, that seasonal migration was marked by spot worker shortages, and some fruit was left to rot in the fields.

President Bush's plan to secure the border relies on raising the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents from about 12,000 to 18,000 by the end of 2008, which would further limit the number of immigrant workers who can reach the farm jobs waiting for them.

But Wenceslau Covarubias, who doubled his salary to $15 when he left the fields three years ago to help build homes, isn't going back.

"You can't go backward in life," he said. "In construction, I can learn more, I can keep going up."He traded his aging Honda for a new Ford Explorer, learned to lay cement for home foundations and do detailed tilework. These are skills he's proud of.
"I'm sure some people will go back to (agriculture), but I think that'll be the exception, not the rule," said Phil Martin, a University of California, Davis labor economist.

Farmers realize they can't match the wages and stability that led immigrants to take 60 percent of the 1 million construction jobs created during the 2004-2006 building boom, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by the Pew Hispanic Center.

"You get used to a certain lifestyle, a certain pay scale, and it's difficult to go back," said Henry Vega, of Ventura County, a labor contractor who grows 65 acres of strawberries and avocados and manages another 1,000 acres. "You're hot and dirty in the fields."


One of Vega's strawberry plots, normally harvested by 240 workers, is being picked by 160. That shortfall is forcing him to harvest more slowly. This means picking berries that are too ripe to be sold fresh. The fruit can be canned or juiced -- but both are less profitable options.

"I've been in this business for 25 years, and it's getting worse every year," he said. "We're just up against a real tough situation. There's a lot of production and just not enough workers."
" http://www.heraldextra.com/index.php?op ... ur+vote%21

That is the problem. They do not want to do the farm work. Instead, they go into the inner cities and take jobs from Americans. That is way they have to go. I am sure Corvarubais does not have legal papers where ever he is working.
Finally, there are jobs illegals will not do.

"You can't go backward in life,"

Why not everyone seems to think it is ok for Americans to go backward. Doesn't bother you to come here and take our jobs drive down our wages!! Have you noticed its always about them in our country!

Why aren't we using mechanical harvesters yet?

A group of 25 California farmers -- fruit and vegetable growers, nursery owners, dairymen -- went to Washington last week to lobby for immigration reform that would allow them to bring temporary workers from Mexico legally.

We already have a program for bringing temporary workers in from Mexico legally. Oh, but you farmers already know that.

Agricultural employers can hire seasonal or temporary non-citizen agricultural workers under the H-2A Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The H-2A program is governed by the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(a). It is designed to assure employers an adequate labor force while, at the same time, protecting the jobs and wages of U.S. workers.

http://www.sfws.auburn.edu/extension/Pu ... NR1246.htm

Here's why the farmers don't like the H-2A program:

THE H-2A PROGRAM

The H-2A program provides significant legal protections for foreign farmworkers. Many of these safeguards are similar to those that existed under the widely discredited bracero program, which operated from 1942 until it was discontinued amid human rights abuses in 1964. Unfortunately, far too many of the protections — as in the bracero program — exist only on paper.

Federal law and DOL regulations contain several provisions that are meant to protect H-2A workers from exploitation as well as to ensure that U.S. workers are shielded from the potential adverse impacts, such as the downward pressure on wages, associated with the hiring of temporary foreign workers.

H-2A workers must be paid wages that are the highest of: (a) the local labor market's "prevailing wage" for a particular crop, as determined by the DOL and state agencies; (b) the state or federal minimum wage; or (c) the "adverse effect wage rate."

H-2A workers also are legally entitled to:

Receive at least three-fourths of the total hours promised in the contract, which states the period of employment promised. (This is called the "three-quarters guarantee.")

Receive free housing in good condition for the period of the contract.

Receive workers' compensation benefits for medical costs and payment for lost time from work and for any permanent injury.

Be reimbursed for the cost of travel from the worker's home to the job as soon as the worker finishes 50 percent of the contract period. The expenses include the cost of an airline or bus ticket and food during the trip. If the guestworker stays on the job until the end of the contract the employer must pay transportation home.

Be protected by the same health and safety regulations as other workers.

Be eligible for federally funded legal services for matters related to their employment as H-2A workers.

To protect U.S. workers in competition with H-2A workers, employers must abide by what is known as the "fifty percent rule." This rule specifies that an H-2A employer must hire any qualified U.S. worker who applies for a job prior to the beginning of the second half of the season for which foreign workers are hired.

http://www.splcenter.org/legal/guestreport/guest2.jsp

Obviously the H-2A program doesn't fit in with the farmers desired profit margin. Just like everyone else in industry, they want the American tax payer to subsidize their labor force.