The new grapes of wrath (Migrant fieldworkers being displaced by mechanization)

The San Diego Union Tribune ^ | 1/23/2004 | Diane Lindquist

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

PARLIER - For the past century, raisins in California's Central Valley have been harvested in exactly the same way; a monthlong frenzy of hand picking that required more workers than almost any other crop.

Last season, many raisin growers turned to machines to do the work. Although they had long held out, they are now joining growers nationwide in embracing mechanization to fend off global competition.

But the switch to mechanical harvesting is taking a heavy toll on the Mexican migrants who fill most of the state's lowest-paying farm jobs. With machines picking more crops, the need for field hands is falling sharply. Where 50 men once were needed to harvest a field of raisins, five now suffice.

"I've been going all over the valley looking for work, but there isn't any. If I'm lucky, I get one or two days a week," said Fidel Rosales Rodriguez, who last spring paid smugglers $1,200 to sneak him in from Mexico into California.

Even legal fieldworkers say they have never experienced such a tough year. There were more migrants, they complain, and jobs were all but impossible to find.

Mechanization portends big problems for a region strained in the past two decades by the arrival of impoverished rural Mexicans. They are widely estimated to be coming to the United States at a rate of more than a half million a year, with a quarter to a third of them entering California.

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

Long article.

[Dane]

Oh my a quandry for you super duper and your ilk on FR, the machines are taking over the jobs Americans can do.

Time to deport the machines.

[Tax-chick]

But the switch to mechanical harvesting is taking a heavy toll on the Mexican migrants who fill most of the state's lowest-paying farm jobs.

Well, good.

[drt1]

Hmmm.. Sounds like the 'International Association of Illegal Aliens Trade Union' needs to file a work grievance. Or better, Mexico can file a protest at the UN for depriving their Illegals of a job in the US. Something about irony in this I think.

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

Hmmm...mocking, personal attacks, stalking, racebait...

Yep,Dane is online.

[weegee]

Machines are taking that jobs that no Americano wants. Now what will the illegal immigrants do?

This is a crisis that DEMANDS attention.

Why not just push for improved jobs in Mexico and an end to corruption in government there?

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

-ping-

[Perfesser]

I don't believe I have ever seen a raisan bush.

[Dane]

Hmmm...mocking, personal attacks, stalking, racebait...

Yep,Dane is online

Huh, talk about ad hominems, I noticed you weren't overjoyed that machines were taking over the jobs Americans could do and I made my comment.

Your reply #1, "Long article".

[weegee]

"I've been going all over the valley looking for work, but there isn't any. If I'm lucky, I get one or two days a week," said Fidel Rosales Rodriguez, who last spring paid smugglers $1,200 to sneak him in from Mexico into California.

Maybe he should get a job as a coyote. Looks like it pays well.

[weegee]

mmmmmm raisins.....

[Ginifer]

"For example, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 spawned unintended consequences that contributed to the economic and social stress felt today. The legislation legalized 3 million undocumented immigrants, a third of them under a special agricultural provision. But it failed to halt illegal entries. Instead, it quickened the flow."

We must start enforcing the laws and quit making exceptions by writing new laws to allow more illegal immigration.

[rellimpank]

--ah yes, those machines--they've been displacing agricultural help since Cyrus invented the reaper--

I'll be surprised if no one complains that "they're destroying the family farm"--

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

Uh yeah, I was informing people it was a long article.

Keep bumping the thread.

[Dane]

Uh yeah, I was informing people it was a long article.

Keep bumping the thread

No problem, let people see your alls quandry, about which is worse, migrant labor or machines.

Things must be tough for you control freaks, that you can't control how a farmer decides to pick his crops for maximum profit.

[gubamyster]

ping

[datura]

Nice tag line.

[FITZ]

There own country doesn't want them for the same reason. Inefficient fast breeding labor. Now we're stuck with providing welfare programs for them and the millions more to come.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
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