Thread: Jobs Illegals won`t do

Worker lack leads to swan song
Andrew Silva, Staff Writer
Article Launched:12/09/2006 12:00:00 AM PST




http://www.sbsun.com/ci_4809430
ONTARIO - Under a warm fall sun, about a dozen farm workers pulled long plastic sheets from the ground and shoveled green and red Roma tomatoes into the furrows.
The last crop to be overseen by 65-year-old Richard Miller was to be plowed under because of low prices.

"Farming is fun. It's fun when you're making money. It's fun when you're not making money," said Miller, a gregarious, stocky fellow with a well-groomed shock of white hair and a white beard.

The market is paying $4 for a 25-pound box of his tomatoes. His cost to produce them: $6 a box.

After 3 & 1/2 decades working for a company founded by a Japanese-American family after their release from a World War II internment camp, Miller is calling it quits.

Farmers have always wrestled with the vagaries of weather and fickle markets.

But there's a new problem facing American farmers that's forcing them to leave big parts of crops rotting on the ground.

Not enough farm workers.

Miller's strawberry crop on 130 leased acres in south Ontario earlier this year should have been a strong moneymaker. Instead, his company, Murai Farms, lost money.

"I was always behind," he said. "You try to pick strawberries
three times a week. If you get down to two times a week or one time a week, it's ripe. And if the weather hits you, you have to throw it away."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., cited Miller in a speech in the Senate this week as she pushed a bill that would allow guest workers in the country.

"Over and over again, I have heard that growers need an immediate fix. They do not know what to plant in the upcoming spring season because they do not know whether they will have the workers necessary to harvest the crops," a transcript of Feinstein's speech stated.

Farming in the Inland Empire is an increasingly rare enterprise as development relentlessly gobbles up open land.

Most of the men and women working for Miller have been with him for years, but getting enough people to harvest a crop has been difficult.

"Berries are a very expensive crop to grow," he said, adding that the cost is $12,000 an acre. "It can make you a lot of money. Without labor, you can lose a lot of money in a big hurry."

While the contentious debate over illegal immigration may play a role in the labor shortage, a bigger factor appears to be plain old capitalism.

Construction work can easily pay double or triple the minimum wage earned by farm workers. Even service jobs that also pay minimum wage can be more desirable because they don't have the backbreaking demands of picking crops and don't require moving around.

"Obviously, workers are motivated by the desire to make money," said Armando Navarro, ethnic-studies professor at UC Riverside. "There's a demand for labor in other sectors."

Farmers agree, but there's little room to raise wages when prices are determined by the buyers, not the farmers.

Some pear growers faced a serious shortage of workers and did raise wages in Lake County earlier this year, said Jack King of the California Farm Bureau Federation in Sacramento.

The higher wages still didn't draw enough workers, he said.

"When the market is soft and you're not making a profit, you're limited to how much you can raise wages," he said.

Some farmers are switching to crops that allow more mechanized harvesting, he said, which could mean a permanent shift of some crops to other countries.

The public and politicians have to realize that an entire industry depends on the foreign workers who are the very focus of the immigration battle, both Navarro and King said.

For the upbeat Miller, the worsening labor problem on top of everything else was enough to get him to heed his wife's pleas that he retire to his home in Yorba Linda.

He recalled the all-nighters to keep crops from freezing, the hot weather in the fields, the cold weather, and the Santa Ana winds that could beat up a strawberry crop and make it worthless.

"It's a good life to have, and I wouldn't change anything I've done," he said. "It just gets a whole lot harder now."

Contact writer Andrew Silva at (909) 386-3889 or via e-mail at andrew.silva@sbsun.com.

Hummm,,,,
I guess that they can no longer say, "we do jobs Americans won`t do!"


And the Hyenas in washinton think that with the "guest worker program"
their going to go staight to the farms.

The media better cut the sympathetic favortism and tell poor helpless creature to get their ass to the field. Has`nt it been said that that`s what they came here for in the first place?

What did we do before illegal immigrants got here? Starve? Let me tell you something, I had a field job myself when I was in high school. It was hard work, but we had a lot of fun, stayed out of trouble, and at the time, we felt like we were rich. It is terrible that there is such a stigma on doing this kind of work, because there is no shame in it and is a good experience. I got paid to be outside all day and work in peace and quiet. It's not a bad gig, if you can get it, especially for younger people.

1. Sucks he can't hire enough workers to harvest the crop, but he said he could make a profit in a hurry. Perhaps, since this is a competitive market, he should start raising his wages or offering other side benefits to keep his workers.

This story is remanecent of the 60's mid-west when Farmers sons and daughters began going to college and/or getting factory jobs in the cities. That led to a shortage of harvesters that could be considered 'low wage' because they were members of the family.

2. Maybe our Agriculture system needs overhauled? Maybe? no not really we already have subsidies that protect farmers as well Strawberries are a premium crop which means he makes way more money than milk, wheat or corn from it.

3. Perhaps he needs to look closer for a solution. I remember a high school back in Kansas that needed a cross-country track. Turns out there was an Apple Orchard that needed apples picked. The coach and orchard farmer made a deal, the students would pick the Apples and the Orchard would carve out a Cross Country course for them to practice and compete on.

He could advertise to local High Schools and try and get some workers that way.

Creative solutions are what we need, not more illegal aliens or giving amnesty to those already here.

The illegals have found that it is more profitable to grow their own marijuana, and making meth in the labs. Along with social program money with their numerous illiterate kids who join gangs, and free meals in the schools, why work in the fields.

Dragon5 Wrote:

He could advertise to local High Schools and try and get some workers that way.

Kids are lazy these days and if an actvist seen a kid working in the field they`d probably say it was "inhumane".

Dragon5 Wrote:

Strawberries are a premium crop which means he makes way more money than milk, wheat or corn from it.

Not nessissarily true. Strawberries or any crop for that matter is "seasonal", milk is sold year around. I was raised on a dairy farm.

The high school band kids in this town picked a wineries grapes and the owner gave the band a large donation. It was a creative solution that was a win win for the school and the winery.