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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (187778)	11/26/2006 8:56:17 PM
From: neolib	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794074

In this case we are talking about the "Hispanic Farm Labor"....but if it is so much of the work force that is coming in from Mexico, where are they? Are all of the Millions of people just coming in to sponge off the existing American workers...? Or did the Congress become duped again.... What work are these people doing, and how much are they being paid...???? and where are they located???? I'd guess the bulk of both legal and illegal Hispanic workers are in Ag, so they are in Ag areas, such as I live in. All you need to do is visit such a community to see them in profusion, particularly young women pushing baby strollers down residential streets. Independent of the parents' legal status, the babies are US citizens. It is hard to get current statistics, but my local town is most likely 35%+ Hispanic now, with the school system at 50%+. Up from near zero 25 years ago. Some nearby Ag communities which are mechanized commodity crop based have towns with essentially no Hispanics, and almost none in their schools. The crops which depend on substantial hand labor (fruits) are the ones providing the employment. While it is true that some of them are scamming the social service situation here, the bulk of them seem to be hard workers. This is just my observation. There are certainly issues with drugs & crime, but I think that is partly due to the fact that historically the workers were single males (or married with spouses in Mexico). Tens years ago, migrant labor was the norm here. Now they are families that are permanent residents. Since the border crackdowns, I've seen California farmers admit that about 50% of their labor had been illegal. I'd say that was about the same for Oregon. Now that things are tighter, one interesting change is that many of the Ag growers are working much harder to keep a smaller crew, but provide fulltime, employment. So I actually think that is a great positive, which is happening largely as the result of freemarket motives: farmers are concerned about happy workers. I like that much better than unionization squabbles. The combination of fulltime employment & resident spouses is a better social fabric IMO. It of course also means that they are here to stay, and birthrates will continue to shift the social dynamics of the area. Regarding what they get paid, around here it usually in the $8+ range for Ag workers, a little above Oregon minimum wage. Most work is hourly pay, but some things like harvest have been traditionally piecework, hence the prices you saw of $18/bin or so. A bin is about 900+ pounds of apples. Picking and hauling 40lbs down a 10 foot ladder all day gets to one's legs. I had one picker who could do 15 bins/day. The average is a good deal less. If you every tried it, you would sure as heck feel like you earned every cent. I have a small farm, not much above hobby status, and I employ a couple of guys that have worked for me for some years. I only provide about 3 months of work, so I go out of my way to schedule it during times when they are unemployed from there other jobs. As an example, I start pruning in the early winter rather than the more traditional late winter/early spring. I also pay $10-12/hour which helps as well. So far, I have not had any trouble. They are also legal BTW, so I don't have any hassles there either.