Posted on 10/02/2007 5:12:49 AM PDT by decimon
BATATAIS, Brazil — As dawn cracks over seemingly endless fields of sugarcane, a ragged army of men and women sharpen their machetes to harvest the raw material for Brazil's "white gold."
With machinelike precision, the cane cutters gather five 8-feet tall stalks in the crook of one arm, bend over and cut them down with three swift machete whacks — a process they will repeat over and over again for as long as 12-hours a day.
"By the end of the day your entire body hurts so much you think you are going to die" says cane cutter Raimundo Gomes da Silva. "But it is all we know how to do, so we will continue doing the same thing, day after day, until we drop dead."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Oh, I thought this was about poor immigrants doing jobs Americans won’t.
It’s what the elitist Dems want for all Americans, work until you die, vote, produce more worker bees. Be sure to deposit the honey (taxes) in the Dem coffers on your way out..
Non-immigrants doing jobs Americans won't. If these workers manage to organize then the cost of ethanol will soar and the Brazilian model will lose its allure.
Mechanisation. There you go, problem solved.
If the machines exist. And if they run on ethanol. ;-)
Mechanization is addressed at the end of the article:
“But Jank also noted that machines are taking over the harvests. Currently, about 40 percent of Brazil’s sugarcane is harvested by machine, but that should rise to 70 percent by 2010 and 100 percent by 2015, he said. And even though UNICA says it is committed to retraining the workers as machine operators and truck drivers, many cutters will be out of work.
“Unemployment among cane cutters is inevitable,” he said. “It is a problem we, the government and trade unions will have to deal with.”
They are represented by a union, however they are being paid better wages than they can make elsewhere, and there are plenty of workers willing to take their places. If they attempt to strike, they would just be replaced.
It is not a job that requires highly skilled or highly trained workers.
The article makes a big deal about how little they are earning in US dollars, but they are also obviously being paid much better than the average unskilled laborer their, and the article doesn't provide any information on the cost of living there.
Not only do they exist, they run on vegetable oil.
Can run or do run on vegetable oil? Diesel engines?
Yeah, diesels. Just like every other tractor and farm implement. I just thought it was funny that some people apparently think they run on gasoline, or ethanol.
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