Hiring foreign farmworkers to get tougher under new rule

[REWHBLCAIN]

New Guest-Worker Rules Seek to Increase Wages
By Julia Preston
The New York Times, February 12, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/us/12farm.html

[Jeanfromfillmore]

These are strawberry farms, which are one of the most labor intensive crops to grow. Why do they have so many strawberry crops being grown today? Answer: they are the most profitable because the labor is such a small part of the cost of marketing because our tax dollars subsidize the labor for these growers. But these growers just can't get enough of that cheep labor, now they're using young children. This is up in Oregon where they can't use the excuse that it's over 100 degrees in the sun. No, these growers are exploiting everything and anything to get that cheep labor and see the largest profits.

Berry Farms Fined For Hiring Kids As Young As 6
PORTLAND, Ore. (Associated Press) -- The U.S. Labor Department has fined three Washington state strawberry farms a total of $73,000 for employing children as young as 6 years old as pickers.
The department's Portland, Ore., office says Thursday the violations include failing to maintain proof-of-age records and pay minimum wage. A total of nine underage workers were found during a child labor investigation in June at farms in Woodland, Wash., and Ridgefield, Wash.
The department says all three employers removed the underage workers and agreed to attend wage and hour training for the next three years.

[StokeyBob]

Hiring foreign farmworkers to get tougher under new rule

They would be in dire straights trying to figure ways to make it easier. :-)

[Commander Bunny]

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...for-worker-law

Here's another tear-jerker from the North Bay area..

"Casimiro Alvarez, regional director of the United Farm Workers, estimated about 70 percent of Sonoma County’s agriculture workers are undocumented"

".Dutton, whose family farms more than 1,000 acres of vineyards in west Sonoma County, said his business uses the H-2A avenue to hire 40 to 45 farmworkers a year. The current process under the Obama administration, he said, is inefficient.

He said he must go to the U.S.-Mexican border to petition for each worker as well as advertise the position in three states to ensure potential American workers are not overlooked.

“Once the guys get visas, we have to provide transportation to get them up here, free housing; we have to guarantee they’re going to work three-quarters of the hours we offer, and if for some reason they don’t work that much, we have to pay them for the hours,” he said.

Advertise in 3 other states to make sure Americans have a chance at the work?...will they get the free transportation, housing and other perks given to a Mexican?....I highly doubt it, beside a typical rental in that area is over $1,000/month, way more than an American working for these slavers could ever dream of affording to pay.

[Twoller]

Originally Posted by Commander Bunny

....

Advertise in 3 other states to make sure Americans have a chance at the work?...will they get the free transportation, housing and other perks given to a Mexican?....I highly doubt it, beside a typical rental in that area is over $1,000/month, way more than an American working for these slavers could ever dream of affording to pay.

And for wine? As if we need more wine.