Thread: Wis - Immigrants an increasingly important labor force

Immigrants an increasingly important labor force in Wisconsin dairy
By Georgia Pabst of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Feb. 24, 2009


Close Immigrants - primarily Mexicans - have become a major source of labor on Wisconsin's dairy farms, according to a new report that studied the issue for the first time.

More than 40% of all hired dairy employees are immigrants, who play an increasingly important role in the industry, according to "Changing Hands: Hired Labor on Wisconsin Dairy Farms." These new workers are also changing the demographics of rural communities and presenting opportunities and challenges for the industry, said the report, which was prepared by principal researcher Jill Harrison, an assistant professor in the department of rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Most people I talk to are very surprised that Latinos are quickly becoming the majority of the work force on dairy farms," Harrison said.

Researchers held focus groups with dairy farmers, surveyed 83 farm owners and 370 of their employees, and followed up with more in-depth interviews, she said.

They found that dairy farmers here began hiring immigrant workers around 2000. Of course, immigrants have been coming to the Midwest to pick vegetables and other seasonal crops since the 1930s and working in meatpacking and food processing plants throughout the 20th century, she said. The study estimates that in 2007 at least 12,551 people were hired to work on Wisconsin dairy farms and at least 5,315 were immigrants. The study cites various reasons for the changes, including:

• Farmers are increasing production to increase income, and larger herds mean more workers are needed to keep the three-times-a day milking schedule.

• Tighter budgets may drive more farm families to work off the farm to stabilize the family income and/or for health insurance.

• Farm families are shrinking, and spouses and farm children often go off the farm to build careers.

Other reasons include the increasing average age of farmers.

Farmers said they were having more difficult times finding U.S.-born workers, while increased immigration has meant foreign-born workers willing to work on dairy farms.

The study found that the average immigrant worker is 29.5 years old and has been at his or her current farm for 2.8 years. Most are male, and 63% reported they were married. Many are settling into the rural communities and raising families.

Reliable workers
Roger Kukowski, of Kowski Farms Inc. in Osceola, said he could not find dependable local workers for all three shifts at his 350-cow farm, and he wound up milking cows at 4 a.m. and then at 8 p.m. "I'd sleep a couple of hours and I was always on pins and needles because people were constantly quitting or not showing up," he said.

His health started to suffer from the erratic eating and sleeping schedule, he said.

That was around 2002. Then he started hiring immigrants.

"Hiring Hispanics was the best decision I ever made," he said. "I don't worry about them not showing up. I had to send one home once because he was trying to milk while throwing up."

The new stable work force has allowed his farm to grow and given him some life balance, he said. "I went on my first vacation ever in 2006."

Kukowski and others discussed Harrison's study and other concerns about a viable and sustainable labor force last week at a conference in Madison attended by about 100 dairy farmers, academics, nonprofit organizations, local officials and others.

One main speaker was Craig Regelbrugge, co-chairman of the agriculture coalition for immigration reform in Washington, D.C.

He's also vice president of government relations with the American Nursery and Landscape Association and was raised in Elm Grove.

He said he found the study fascinating. "It seems that if the question in Wisconsin is 'Got milk?' the answer is not without immigrant labor," he said.

But he said the entire country faces the agricultural labor issue because an estimated 75% of the 1.6 million hired farm workers are foreign born and lack documents.

The new relationship between immigrant labor and dairy farmers is fraught with economic and legal vulnerabilities, said Enrique Figueroa, who heads a Working Group on Latino Immigrants in Rural Wisconsin.

While many would like to see comprehensive immigration reform, Regelbrugge and others at the Madison conference said farmers and growers need legislation to allow undocumented immigrants, particularly on dairy farms, to work here legally.

Although many say that immigrant workers are competing for American jobs, there's a flipside to the story, he said.

Economists have concluded that each farm worker sustains three jobs in the off-farm economy, such as equipment, fertilizer, processing and all the products and services that farms require. "If Wisconsin dairy is killed for lack of labor and moves to Ontario, all those jobs go to Ontario."


http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/40201192.html

These empoyers don't understand the real cost of hiring illegals.

Originally Posted by ELE

These empoyers don't understand the real cost of hiring illegals.

Sure they do but they also know those costs will be paid be US!

Oh, yeah, I really want to buy milk that was handled and processed by an illegal. That's not a health risk at all.

The study found that the average immigrant worker is 29.5 years old and has been at his or her current farm for 2.8 years. Most are male, and 63% reported they were married. Many are settling into the rural communities and raising families.

I wonder if this farmer pays employment taxes for his workers, and if he provides them with healthcare benefits? I can only believe that he pays cheap wages, no benefits and lets the "Government" pay for the medical, housing and education of his illegal employees and their families.

"Hiring Hispanics was the best decision I ever made," he said. "I don't worry about them not showing up. I had to send one home once because he was trying to milk while throwing up."

I doubt this farmer even considers the possibility that his workers may carry any number of communicable diseases because the country that they came from does't innoculate. The chicken plants in several locations across the country have had hundreds of workers that have tested poistive for TB but they were cheap and reliable.

The bright spot in all of this is that the farmer was able to go on vacation...