Thread: Farmworker Advocacy Group Says Agricultural Business Depends

Farmworker Advocacy Group Says Agricultural Business Depends on Undocumented Labor
By Elizabeth Llorente
Published February 11, 2011

Farmworker advocacy group says congressional hearings on workplace immigration enforcement must take into consideration that some industries, such as agriculture, depend on a significant number of undocumented employees.

A national farmworker advocacy group says that the growing push in Congress for policies that will pressure employers to make sure their employees are not undocumented does nothing to help the agricultural business, which depends on a sizeable unauthorized workforce.

“The status quo for farmworkers and agricultural businesses is untenable and must be reformed,â€

"Don't they have crabs in Mexico?"

They have opportunities for documented labor through H2B visas. However, they have to pay them a minimum wage and provide health care and housing - which they don't want to do.

We need to stop all farm subsidies and demand E-verify. Big farm has far too much money to pay slick lobbyists.

[quote]"The lack of immigration status," the group said, "contributes to the significant problems in agricultural workplaces and communities: low wages, poor working conditions, pesticide poisoning, and substandard housing.â€

Alright, so they "need" undocumented labor. So what happens if these undocumented become legal citizens? They then demand higher wages, demand more education, and move out of those low wage labor jobs. Especially when we look at the welfare state that rather pay people more then agricultural jobs pay to stay at home and pop out more kids.

So are they really supporting amnesty for these illegals? Or supporting modern day slave labor? Call it as you see it.

I read it as "we depend on modern day slavery to keep costs low".

AG business has been saying they can't survive without slaves for over 160 years. Knock it off.

The farmers in Washington state will do everything in their power to shelter and keep the illegals there since they use illegals every year to pull in the fruit crops there. They use huge numbers of illegals in the Yakima area where the fruit growers use an army of illegals to pick the fruit.