Author Topic: Yes, Build the Wall, But Realize That We'll Still Need Seasonal Agricultural Workers  (Read 2056 times)

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Offline SirLinksALot

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SOURCE: PJ MEDIA

URL: https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/02/20/build-the-wall-but-realize-that-well-still-need-seasonal-agricultural-workers/

by Mark Ellis





It was 1967. The local music store had an ink-blue Mosrite Ventures solid body electric guitar, and I wanted it badly. Cost: $500. My family was not poor, but neither could they drop five bills on one of four children. My first guitar was a $29.99 Stella acoustic from Sears. There was only one way to get the guitar of my dreams: a summer job.

Complication: I had long hair, and even in the psychedelic sixties, few legitimate employers wanted that at their front counters or even their back rooms. All the head shop jobs were taken. We lived in Napa, California, and lucky for me a local farm was hiring plum pickers at $15 per 4X4 foot crate. I talked my buddy Dennis—another unemployable long-hair—into applying for the job with me. We were hired on the spot.

I am a border hawk. I am on record as supporting the most stringent of President Trump’s immigration proposals. In my opinion, the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli Act (aka the Reagan Amnesty) was the biggest mistake in President Reagan’s otherwise magnificent presidency. I believe that securing the border is a ballgame issue.

However, based on my short stint as a plum picker, I know that we’re going to need some kind of seasonal agricultural work permit legislation to get the crops picked. Illegal aliens are doing most of this work now. Unless we want to pay five dollars for a head of lettuce to support $20 per hour jobs with bennies to work the fields, Americans will not do this work, and even then…

The day began with a forklift dropping off a crate at the end of a row of plum trees in a vast orchard. We were not picking these plums off the trees. Since they were destined to be processed as prunes, not grocery produce, we were picking them up off the ground. The tree-shaker had been around before dawn, and there were scores, sometimes hundreds, of fallen plums under every tree.

Since it was piecework, there was nothing to be gained by milking the clock. Dennis and I got busy. The morning hours went OK, as it was still relatively cool. We were healthy teens with a lot of energy. If we could do three crates before lunch, we would split $45; if we could equal that effort after lunch, we’d each take home $45 a day. By that equation, I’d have that Mosrite in about 10 days, at which time I intended to unceremoniously quit by not showing up.

Since we had no vehicle and the farm was on the road to Calistoga, we had to bring a lunch. A couple of times my mother drove out in our Buick Invicta wagon and brought us hamburgers, but mostly it was brought-along sandwiches (whose mayonnaise congealed in the plastic bags) and maybe a bag of Fritos. After the first day, the idea of snacking on a plum or two was unthinkable. Water was provided by a free-standing hose spigot in the field.

Bottom line, we never got those three crates after lunch. The California sun became oppressive on summer afternoons, and trees denuded of their fruit provided little shade. We lagged, lollygagged, bitched, and considered walking off the job, always picking, but at a much slower rate. By three p.m., heat prostration, if not full-on sunstroke, was a real possibility. We were sick to our stomachs, and the sight of another tree-load of warm, syrupy plums was enough to make us hurl.

The forklift came, took our full crate, and then brought another empty one. The farm boss had made clear that if we left a crate unfilled on any given day, we needn’t bother to show up for work the next day. We worked hard to fill two crates after lunch.

On about the fifth day, I noticed that our coworkers, all Hispanic, were doing things differently. By the time Dennis and I got dropped off by my mother at 8:30 a.m., they’d been on the job for hours, taking advantage of first daylight, and they rarely stuck around after two p.m. Whole families picked as a team, including young children, and they’d repeatedly blow past us in the adjoining rows, filling crates at top speed.

After a day in the orchard, my head hurt, like a delayed effect sun-fever, and the thought of going back out in the morning troubled my sleep.

Long story short, I got the guitar, but not because I stuck it out. After a week picking plums, Dennis and I had had enough, and went back to what seemed like a more productive summertime endeavor: smoking pot and chasing chicks at downtown Napa’s Fuller Park.

I’d saved a little under $200 from my time as an agricultural worker, and my parents, with what I reckon was a combination of pity and admiration for my attempt, made up the difference. Today that guitar is worth over four grand; I wish I’d kept it.

That was fifty years ago. For all our technological and mechanical advancement, the job of harvesting the products of our nation’s vast agricultural acreage hasn’t changed much since.

Yes, build the wall, enact Kate’s Law, rescind DACA, and crack down on illegal immigration. But we’re going to have to figure out a program that allows people to do a job that this American would never do again, unless I was starving.

geronl

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If an industry can't find employees it might be because the pay level is too low. Importing cheap labor is not the answer.

Offline mirraflake

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If an industry can't find employees it might be because the pay level is too low. Importing cheap labor is not the answer.

My neighbor has 6 Christmas Tree farms  Pay 15-18 per hour 60 hour work weeks trimming trees. Cannot find any gringos wanting to do the work-huge amount  of bees, ticks, snakes and poison Ivy + 90+ degree weather.

Few years back hired a seasonal Mexican crew and they show up to work on time and get it done.

And Yes I am for a 60 foot tall border wall with extreme vetting but it is not as simple as you describe.

Americans no longer want to do manual labor It 's looked down upon by younger generation.

I won't even begin to talk about the drywall industry. We are waiting on a company to finish a project at our office..They can't find workers-Americans just do not want to do that type of work.

@geronl
« Last Edit: February 23, 2017, 09:13:05 pm by mirraflake »

Offline Cripplecreek

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If an industry can't find employees it might be because the pay level is too low. Importing cheap labor is not the answer.

The farmers I used to work for are paying $12 to $15 per hour these days and still can't get local kids to lower themselves to do the work.

geronl

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Americans no longer want to do manual labor It 's looked down upon by younger generation.


But I generalized too much.

Offline mirraflake

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The farmers I used to work for are paying $12 to $15 per hour these days and still can't get local kids to lower themselves to do the work.

See my comment above

@Cripplecreek

Offline Cripplecreek

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But I generalized too much.

Picking rocks was brutal backbreaking work but we laughed a lot and made it fun.

Online Elderberry

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Turn off the food stamps spigot. When they get hungry enough, maybe they'll work then.

Or will they just get arrested to be fed?

Offline anubias

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Turn off the food stamps spigot. When they get hungry enough, maybe they'll work then.

Or will they just get arrested to be fed?

They'll sell drugs and do home invasions.  These people are not going to do back-breaking work all day out in the sun.

Online Elderberry

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My neighbor has 6 Christmas Tree farms  Pay 15-18 per hour 60 hour work weeks trimming trees. Cannot find any gringos wanting to do the work-huge amount  of bees, ticks, snakes and

Americans no longer want to do manual labor It 's looked down upon by younger generation.

I won't even begin to talk about the drywall industry. We are waiting on a company to finish a project at our office..They can't find workers-Americans just do not want to do that type of work.


I hung and taped sheetrock after high school and even alternated semesters of college with work.  Hot, dirty work, but it paid pretty good.(Early 70's)
« Last Edit: February 23, 2017, 09:56:53 pm by Elderberry »

Offline mirraflake

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I hung and taped sheetrock after high school and even alternated semesters of college with work.  Hot, dirty work, but it paid pretty good.(Early 70's)

A 75 year old  guy and his son did our house some years back. The 75 year old one day carried in 40-50 sheets himself-yes you heard that right. He was ripped like a world class bodybuilder-not an ounce of fat.

@Elderberry

Offline Sanguine

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Out in my neck of the woods, much of the work is mechanized now.  Very few workers needed.  I'd like to see a good evaluation of the need and the options.  I don't think we know what we need to know.

Offline roamer_1

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My neighbor has 6 Christmas Tree farms  Pay 15-18 per hour 60 hour work weeks trimming trees. Cannot find any gringos wanting to do the work-huge amount  of bees, ticks, snakes and poison Ivy + 90+ degree weather.

Bullsh*t.

Quote
Americans no longer want to do manual labor It 's looked down upon by younger generation.

I won't even begin to talk about the drywall industry. We are waiting on a company to finish a project at our office..They can't find workers-Americans just do not want to do that type of work.

Bullsh*t sommore.

There ain't nothing but gringos and injuns up here, and some how we get by without the Mexicans. I played the Christmas tree game, stem to stern, and worked construction my whole life. Funny how where the Mexicans ain't, work still gets done just fine.

It ain't a American thing. It's a 'where you are' thing.

Offline mirraflake

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Bullsh*t.

Bullsh*t sommore.

There ain't nothing but gringos and injuns up here, and some how we get by without the Mexicans. I played the Christmas tree game, stem to stern, and worked construction my whole life. Funny how where the Mexicans ain't, work still gets done just fine.

It ain't a American thing. It's a 'where you are' thing.
Guess what it is no longer 1950 gramps.  You talk with any modern farmer and they will tell you the same thing.

BTW my neighbor harvest probably 100k trees per year maybe more. His trees go to 25 states or so. This is no small fry operation.

@roamer_1
« Last Edit: February 23, 2017, 10:13:40 pm by mirraflake »

Offline mirraflake

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The farmers I used to work for are paying $12 to $15 per hour these days and still can't get local kids to lower themselves to do the work.

@roamer_1   says you are also full of shite @Cripplecreek LOL.  He does not believe you nor I.

Online Elderberry

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I worked almost exclusively 3 story apartment buildings where the code called for 5/8" sheetrock. Each 10ft  bundle weighted 184# and a sheet weighed 92#. It was so stiff that in bathrooms I was able to hang up to a full sheet myself, on the ceiling. I'd position it and hold it up with my head as I began nailing it.

Offline roamer_1

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You are clueless old man. Guess what it is no longer 1950.  You talk with any modern farmer and they will tell you the same thing.


Sorry @mirraflake , but you're stone dead wrong. Half my friends are ranchers and farmers. I worked ag and construction my whole life, and eventually had my own businesses. I have HIRED hundreds of people in the landscaping, lawn maintenance, painting, production painting, stick-framing, and siding fields.. I have jammed road crews and hay crews and roundups. Mexicans are incidental. While I have hired and worked with a few, just like any other race, mostly it has been white, and still is.

Offline roamer_1

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I worked almost exclusively 3 story apartment buildings where the code called for 5/8" sheetrock. Each 10ft  bundle weighted 184# and a sheet weighed 92#. It was so stiff that in bathrooms I was able to hang up to a full sheet myself, on the ceiling. I'd position it and hold it up with my head as I began nailing it.

I'd hate to think of all the tons of sheetrock I have hauled up off the truck into jobsites... And I have done PLENTY of 5/8 lids in my life.

Online IsailedawayfromFR

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The farmers I used to work for are paying $12 to $15 per hour these days and still can't get local kids to lower themselves to do the work.
Then those kids really need to face real hunger for awhile.  That just might do the trick as apparently their parents did not teach them properly.
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington

Offline Cripplecreek

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Then those kids really need to face real hunger for awhile.  That just might do the trick as apparently their parents did not teach them properly.

My nephew has the work ethic but no ambition for anything more than a career at Little Ceasars. He's learned to weld and went to work in fast food.

Online bigheadfred

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If my dad had a billfold when I was growing up it was a very carefully kept secret. You want this/that? Get a job.

I started in the fields picking fresh peas. And I've picked up tons of potatoes by hand.

Working in a cabinet shop I still pack a lot of 4' x 8' sheets and cut them into little pieces on a table saw. The best help someone can give me when I am doing that is to get the hell out of my way.
She asked me name my foe then. I said the need within some men to fight and kill their brothers without thought of Love or God. Ken Hensley

Offline Suppressed

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I think most people missed this line of @roamer_1 's post:
It ain't a American thing. It's a 'where you are' thing.

Evidently, he's located where the young gringos aren't smart enough to figure out they can get by without working those jobs.  :laugh:
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geronl

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My nephew has the work ethic but no ambition for anything more than a career at Little Ceasars. He's learned to weld and went to work in fast food.

Many are comfy. Or remarkably complacent. or they've been conditioned not to connect dreams and their own effort to make them come true. As if it is someone else's job to make things better.  They can have big dreams but it never seems to occur to them to even attempt to work toward them. (Unless they are incredibly unrealistic  :shrug:)

I would not broadly paint the whole generation that way, though. That would be an epic mistake. 18.3% of the Army, 18.6% of the Navy and 36.9% of Marines are between 18 and 21.

Sure, I know a lot of teens that can't be pulled away from their phones or x-boxes. I wouldn't use it as evidence of anything. A lot of 18 year olds are just trying to get their first part time jobs, like my niece, who is also signing up for a 2-year college a day before her first interview. *shrug*, we live longer, in a more prosperous society and we can't really compare it to a hardtack life where marrying off your 14 year-old daughter was a kindness to her and relief of a burden on the family.


Offline verga

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If you are hungry enough (mentally or physically) you will work at what ever you can find and then work on finding something better.
I have done construction, security, debt collection, whatever I could find to keep food on the table and a roof over the head, heck one summer I spent assembling Gas grills for Home Depot.
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Offline Cripplecreek

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Many are comfy. Or remarkably complacent. or they've been conditioned not to connect dreams and their own effort to make them come true. As if it is someone else's job to make things better.  They can have big dreams but it never seems to occur to them to even attempt to work toward them. (Unless they are incredibly unrealistic  :shrug:)

I would not broadly paint the whole generation that way, though. That would be an epic mistake. 18.3% of the Army, 18.6% of the Navy and 36.9% of Marines are between 18 and 21.

Sure, I know a lot of teens that can't be pulled away from their phones or x-boxes. I wouldn't use it as evidence of anything. A lot of 18 year olds are just trying to get their first part time jobs, like my niece, who is also signing up for a 2-year college a day before her first interview. *shrug*, we live longer, in a more prosperous society and we can't really compare it to a hardtack life where marrying off your 14 year-old daughter was a kindness to her and relief of a burden on the family.

I've got another nephew I think has made the right choice in ditching his mother's dream of him being a doctor to run a UPS store that he's now buying.