Published: September 22, 2006
The following is an excerpt from the article published in the New York Times:
Mr. Ivicevich, a 69-year-old family farmer, is not given to displays of emotion. But he paused for a moment, overwhelmed, as he stood among trees sagging with pears that oozed when he squeezed them. His nighttime sleep, in his cottage among his 122 acres of orchards, is disrupted by the thud of dropping fruit and the cracking of branches.
For decades, Mr. Ivicevich said, migrant pickers would knock on his door asking for work climbing his picking ladders. Then about five years ago they stopped knocking, and he turned to a labor contractor to muster harvest crews. This year, elated, he called the contractor in early August. Pears must be picked green and quickly packed and chilled, or they go soft in shipping.
"Then I called and I called and I called," Mr. Ivicevich said.
The picking crew, which he needed on Aug. 12, arrived two weeks late and 15 workers short. He lost about 1.8 million pounds of pears.
His neighbor, Mr. Winant, standing in his drooping orchard with his hands sunk in his jeans pockets, said he would rather bulldoze the pear trees than start preparing them for a new season.
"It's like a death, like a son died," said Mr. Winant, 45, who cares for the small orchard himself during the winter. "You work all year and then see your work go to ground. I want to pull them out because of the agony. It's just too hard to take."
Make certain you thank your conservative republicans and the anti-immigrant movement for the loss of more small farmers and the rising cost of fruit. Welcome to a season without enough farm workers.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 18
Flip side....those farmers begin offering FAIR WAGES, we don't need your illegals now DO WE?
you say you can thank the republican and the anti-immigration movement? So what has changed in the last couple of months? The border is still wide open, we still have an agricultural guest worker program, still at least 12 million illegals here don't think anyone has started deportation. So what has changed?
One does not have to look far to find examples from Ag Industry officials who are stating they NEED MORE WORKERS, because many of those who came to work the fields are quickly HEADING TO GREENER FIELDS....IE, construction as one example, where they can earn far more money than is being offered in the fields. Most bodies being allowed to cross the border is NOT THE ANSWER, real wages are. As I have said, the Ag Industry being allowed to skirt our laws by bringing in cheap labor (illegally and legally), because it's only acting as a gateway of invasion.
The article was written by one of the most reputable media outlets IN THIS COUNTRY.
You still argue your point in the face of such facts? LOL....Good Luck.
The other FACT is that the republicans and their conservative ties to anti-immigrant political leaders are the ROOT CAUSE OF THIS PROBLEM.
They make no secret of it - you make no secret of it - and I'm not arguing a moot point.
"If Ford can get by with hiring illegals in their plants to build vehicles at a cheaper wage and no benefits would you put it pasted them? "
First off: The fact that Ford CAN'T GET BY paying union wages should tell you something.
Secondly: When you see farmworkers in the field earning a "living wage" as you call it - let me know. Many times the illegal workers earn less than minimum wage - period.
THEN, when you see the wages go up and food prices triple at the market - we'll see just how gung-ho you are about this situation.
The point is this: The farmers depend on seasonal labor - regardless of how you want to scream that they aren't picking because they are in construction - LOL....the farmworkers come and go from MX - the majority are illegal and accustomed to walking over and hooking up with a crew leader.
That didn't happen this year - obviously.
Ahhhhh.....okay....we (ICE/govt./anti-immigrant legislators) are deporting 1000 a WEEK.....we are building a fence....we are creating anti-immigrant legislation....
THAT'S WHY THEY DID NOT COME.
"We" have been busy this past month....Ask Porgie what all has been done - he'll be happy to gloat. -----> Not an insult - just plain truth.
You see - Sherry - they are like us - they are good & evil, clean & dirty, motivated & lazy, educated & uneducated, religious & morally absent; THEY are US - human, different color, different language - different home country - HUMAN.
We can no more stack them in a pile than we can stack ourselves. BUT some would have you believe otherwise.
Please, please - go to a local church and meet some immigrants - many speak English - ask them to talk to you - keep an open mind. Do this one little experiment and let me know just how different they are.
I don't negate the issues, here. I see them - just like you do. I know people are frustrated. I know it's hard to imagine and scary and it makes you angry.
Just keep the door open. Pick and choose carefully among the facts. There are several out there. They are not to blame as much as many would have you believe. Really, truly, honestly. Ask specific questions of those you trust.
I realize I'm not one of those people but find someone who stands apart - rational and not to the right or left of this issue. Form solid opinions based on fact not on your feelings. Please.
Want, desire and an open market society are three things not easy to quell, quash or tame.
I live in Texas I know many immigrants, legally and non- legal and let me tell you the legal don't like the non-legal, now is that racism. Same culture, same language, same everything, but they are starting to resent those that came here illegally. We have plenty of immigrants here, my neighbors, people I employ (legally). You can't put me in your bigot box. These are my friends, neighobors and people that I am in contract with everyday however it doesn't mean I have to like the fact that some are here illegally. I don't have to like the fact that most that I know are being paid under the table, or that with this untraceable income they are qualifing for social programs that many americans are unable to get.
I hope the lament is heard soon. We can't afford much more of this. There is a chain tied to this type of worker. (Sherry, this in part, addresses a couple of your points, but I'm working on an article that will go more in depth.) The farmer, in general, is not a wealthly landowner any more. The 80's saw the death of that along with many, many smaller family farms. The remainder often turned to migratory workers in order to keep costs down. It was a matter of survival then. Now, in a different light, it still is. Our demand for cheap goods and services, especially the FOOD we eat, requires that the farmer keep HIS costs as low as possible for his own survival. He has to make a living. But he also has to provide the cheapest possible product. The trucking company that hauls those goods to market must also keep it's costs down in order to survive. This is espcially difficult with unstable fuel costs. The grocery store the trucks deliver to has to mark that product up in order to pay it's margins, but only so much because we, as American's scream bloody murder when our prices rise too much. All of those costs are passed along to us, the consumer. And we are already economically stretched. How much more can we really afford to pay for the food we rely on for survival?
A living wage for these workers would be wonderful. But we have to remember that we're going to pay for them, one way or the other. Each and every one of us.
When we do, our cost of living will rise. Which will make the living wage rate rise. As it rises, so will our cost of living, which will again, in turn drive up the living wage, in a never ending cycle.
For the same reason that unions are failing in big industry, the market can no longer bear the rising costs of employment. Wages are inflated to match an inflated economy, health care costs skyrocket, liability insurance is through the roof... It's a huge issue, one that cannot be addressed in a simple comment.
But the bottom line is, everyone wants a living wage for workers. It's just that no one wants to pay for it. Last of all, the over burdened and struggling middle class.