Alan, there really is something wrong with this picture. I looked up Broetje Orchards last night....it is a Huge operation, and seems to treat their helpers very well. Permanently has 850-900 employees, and in the peak season, seems to hire about 1300....
So WHERE are all the ILLEGALS that are supposed to be doing all the work in America? We know they are here, but where, and what are they doing to provide a living for themselves?
Visit the Tri-City Herald
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On the phone, off the job
This story was published Monday, October 30th, 2006
tri-cityherald.com
By Anna King, Herald staff writer
Farmworkers packing cell phones are finding they have unprecedented power in a harvest with too few workers available to pick too many apples.
The worker shortage has given farmworkers new clout to demand higher wages, which have jumped 10 to 25 percent over last year. If a farmer balks, workers flip out their cells and call around to find out where they can pull down a bigger paycheck.
That's left farmers scrambling for workers, and many orchards are barely getting picked while some have been left to rot.
Washington apple growers typically hire more than 37,000 workers at the peak of harvest in October. But Kirk Mayer, chairman of the Washington Growers Clearing House, said that work force is down 20 to 40 percent this year.
And the workers who remain are being picky.
Pay for harvesting apples isn't a simple thing. But workers know they can make more picking fruit from shorter, trellised trees than from larger trees that require ladders. And they know some varieties require greater care in sorting and handling, which can reduce their pay unless they're paid a premium.
Some farmers say they have lost crews in the middle of a work day, after their workers made a few calls and found a better deal.
Mayer said farmworkers have always had an extensive word-of-mouth network, but with cell phones "it's improved that communication and made it a quicker response than in the past. For the employer it makes for a very stressful harvest, he never knows if his crew is going to be there the next day."
Jon Warling, an Othello-based crew boss, said he's lost more workers than ever this year.
He said last week he had a 20-person crew who were bruising many of the apples, meaning the fruit would bring less money at the packing house.
"Instead of improving the quality of their work they just quit," he said. "They had another job lined up before they quit. They were on the cell phone and they walked off."
Warling said in the last two weeks he's had about 40 people leave his crew of about 175 workers, even though he's paying more than last year. He said he's paying anywhere from $1 to $3 more per bin, depending on variety.
Warling said he's been bombarded by calls from farmers who need workers, but he can't help them.
Even the largest orchards are feeling the pinch. At Broetje Orchards near Prescott, fewer workers have shown up to pick the more than 5,000 acres, even though pay has been bumped up. Orchard manager Joe Shelton said Broetje is paying about $20 a bin for Grannie Smith apples, up from $18.50 last year.
Small growers are really hurting.
On a recent morning, Juvencio Garcia walked through an orchard he manages near Benton City. He's cared for these trees all summer, only to have to leave the fruit to rot on the ground.
"This year I called the people," he said. "I know a lot of people, but no one can come to help."
He said in the past he's been able to round up a crew by calling a few families he knows, but this year many stayed in Mexico and others have taken full-time jobs in town. And there have not been any workers driving around looking for jobs either, he said.
At Agtoprof Farms on the south side of Badger Mountain, pickers are filling about 200,000 bins of apples a day.
The 1,000-acre orchard is a swirl of activity, with tractors pulling tons of apples out from the orchards and empty bins arriving on trucks every few minutes. But farm manager Jose Robles would like to see it even busier.
Usually the farm can employ 1,000 people, but Robles said lately he's been lucky to find more than 200 pickers.
"We've struggled all year, since the beginning of the year," he said. "People come, but people leave."
Many workers have left after just a day or two when they found out another farm might be paying more. Robles said he can't blame workers, but it's hard to keep up.
"Everyone has the right to do better," he said. "Everyone has the right to earn an extra dollar."
Some farmers have even hired recruiters to look for workers .
"We paid someone in the afternoons and evenings to look for help in Pasco," said Manuel Garcia. "But we didn't get one worker."
Garcia said usually the orchard he runs north of Pasco employs about 85 people during apple harvest, but it has only about 50 this year.
He said he didn't think he'd finish harvesting the 135 acres this year, but earlier this week some workers finished their jobs in Valley orchards and came to help.
Garcia said he worries about next year's harvest. Most people who stay year-round in the United States are looking for better jobs after just a few seasons of farm work, he said.
And seasonal workers are no longer willing to risk sneaking across the border with the current battle in the U.S. over illegal immigration.
"The guys that make a difference are seasonal workers," he said. "This year is really good proof that agriculture is nothing without help. We can't do anything without these guys." |
