Posted on 02/03/2006 7:42:50 PM PST by blam
US crops left to rot as Mexicans leave the fields for better-paid jobs
Low pay, harsh conditions and security checks force immigrant workers into other sectors
Dan Glaister in Calexico
Saturday February 4, 2006
The Guardian (UK)
Standing in the early morning darkness just 50 metres inside the United States, Roberto Camacho is doing his best to ward off the cold. Dressed in a black bomber jacket with a baseball cap pulled low over his brow, he shuffles from foot to foot as he waits for a lift to work.
After 15 years working in the fields of California for American farmers, Mr Camacho has found a new life: two months ago he started working at the Golden Acorn Casino.
"It pays better," he says. "In the fields you work all hours, it's cold and hard and you don't get more than $7 [about £4] an hour. With this job I have regular hours, I know when I'm going to work and I know what I'm going to earn." Mr Camacho is not unique. Agricultural labourers, almost exclusively Latinos and at least two-thirds of them undocumented, are moving into more stable, less harsh employment.
The migration from agriculture is taking its toll on one of the largest industries in the US - and particularly on California's $32bn a year sector. Faced with an exodus of labour to the construction industry as well as to the leisure and retail sectors, farmers are struggling to get their crops in. Ten percent of the cauliflower and broccoli harvest has been left to rot this year, and some estimates put the likely loss of the winter harvest as high as 50%.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
but .. but .. but..
they take the jobs no one else will,,
you know the drill. ;-)
cut them cards!
double or nothing
don't forget to tip the
bartender, waitress and dealer .;-)
Doing jobs Americans won't do. Right.
Mechanize as much as possible and send them back.
Didn't you hear? Vicente Fox said that even black people don't want to be card dealers.
had we not had access to migrant farm workers at low wages all these years, someone would have invested in automated harvesting equipment. but the low wage distorts what would otherwise be the technology evolution that leads to automation. the same is true in other fields - if US IT and financial services companies didn't have access to $15K a year tech and customer support jockeys in India, they would be investing in automated natural language call center technologies instead.
Perhaps it's time to dispense with the illegal alien issue for the moment and consider leveling treason charges against our elected government officials? They don't seem to want a fence, then how about a guillotine on the Capitol steps?
You said it before I could. You're dead on.
Slavery allowed the South to fall behind also.
see post #6, that's exactly what would have happened if natural labor market forces had been allowed to mature. but US businesses have an addiction to cheap labor, its the quick buck for them, and they will seek it out in any way they can - guest worker programs, a loose border, offshoring, you name it. businesses don't want to invest in automation if they don't have to, they just want to make money.
bingo.
Rotting cauliflower and broccoli? Well I'm not a huge consumer of either, but I really don't want to pay more for produce because all of it isn't being harvested. I agree with President Bush and the guy in the article that says we need a guest worker program. If Americans wont pick the produce, bring in people who will and let the deadbeats who don't want to earn a paycheck starve.
we can land a robotic rover on mars, and control it from the earth, you think we can't make a machine that can pick broccoli?
get rid of the artificial labor market and its wages, and someone will invest to do just that.
"had we not had access to migrant farm workers at low wages all these years, someone would have invested in automated harvesting equipment. but the low wage distorts what would otherwise be the technology evolution "
It's people like you that ruin the party here at FR.
Ok, I'll re-educate you. Cheap labor kills unions. Unions are 100% evil. Business owners are always benevolent and good. Americans out of work or underemployed is a good thing. It forces them to excel.
Forget that other stuff would you?
I know.
I see alot of freepers cheering when united airlines workers lose their pensions, then after coming out of bankruptcy, the top execs set aside 100+ million dollars for themselves, and no one says a word.
our party needs to get an economic message, fast.
When they graduate to better jobs I guess we're out of luck, and all U.S. crops and fruits will forevermore rot. And we'll all have learned to throw a boomerang.
Leni
Oh My G-d! What will we do?
Without tomatos to put in our stew.
Tell me now how did we survive,
without illegals to keep the economy alive?
We need these slaves to gather crops
what will we do if it all stops?
Can't build a gate, no fence, no wall
for the love of money our nation will fall.
They will adapt if there are no cheap alternatives. There will be shortages and higher prices in those crops that are difficult to harvest by machine. I would also expect lesser
quality in those items bruised or damaged by mechanical harvesting.
The unemployment rate now down to something like 4.7%. No wonder nobody wants to work in the field. It's time bring in the guest worker program.
"If Americans wont pick the produce, bring in people who will and let the deadbeats who don't want to earn a paycheck starve."
You don't get it. There are other jobs that pay better and have better conditions. Even burger flipping. It's a hard job that is paid too little. And at less that $7/hr. even with that job they'll starve.
Supply and demand. There's lots of work at starvation wages. Just not enough people willing to work their arse off and still starve.
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