News, Immigrant farm workers' challenge: Take our jobs.
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Would you take a job picking tomatoes in the hot Arizona sun for $90.60/hr?
Let's put to bed the idea of $4 lettuce as so much malarkey and hogwash that it is.
One of the problems with illegal workers is their willingness to accept low wages drives down wages in some industries. Agricultural work is one of them but the idea they take less than minimum wage is hogwash.
If government did their job protecting the American worker there would be several million new jobs tomorrow with wages rising to a point where workers would be attracted.
If you're out of work would you take a job picking tomatoes in the hot Arizona sun for $9.06 an hour? For nearly all probably not but it isn't the job it's the pay.
A bag of tomatoes cost $1.00 with the farm labor costs representing $0.06 of that $1.00.
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I don't know where you shop, my tomatoes are $3/pound, and I get like 1 or 2 tomatoes for that $3.
I think it's time to hit up the illegal employers for the costs of illegal immigration. Those fat cats have been getting quite rich bringing in truckloads of illegals - and look at the money they pocket by failing to provide health insurance, overtime pay, adequate wages for housing and food.
No one is going to object to the assets of these crooks being seized to compensate the taxpayers for all this.
I agree. Wal-Mart's 11 million dollar fine was pretty much a slap on the wrist, and wasn't Tyson's case dismissed???
That's crazy.
Much talk here about produce. If you really want to protest illegal hiring stop eating meat. Hormel would be a good place to start.
Washington, D.C. — The arrest of workers at meatpacking giant Swift & Co. — the largest such raid in U.S. history — shows that the government is serious about cracking down on illegal immigration, officials say.
This time, federal agents were armed with criminal charges, accusing some workers of identification theft and forgery, and disrupted not just one work site but an entire company. Arrested were 1,282 Swift workers, about 9 percent of the work force at six plants.
The Feds were asking Swift for employee records in the months leading up to the raids. Swift started interviewing employees about whether they are here legally and managed to scare off or fire 400 illegals before the Feds did a formal raid.
About 400 workers were fired or left the plants voluntarily in the fall after Swift demanded interviews of workers it suspected of being in the country illegally. Immigration officials criticized Swift for not notifying the government that the employees had left. The agency has been unable to find them.
You have to figure that during this time Swift also became pickier about who they hired. So the 400 departures probably understates how much their work force shifted toward legal workers before the raid. Also, some workers were sick, on vacation, or not working the shift when the raids happened. So many got away.
The departure of 400 illegal workers before the raid was enough to raise salaries by $1.95 per hour. Maybe the raid will force salaries up by another $1 per hour.
The United Food and Commercial Workers filed grievances over the company’s interviews, although after the workers left, the Marshalltown plant raised its starting wage from $9.55 to $11.50 in an attempt to fill the vacancies, said Jim Olesen, the union’s local president.
How about that? $1.95 an hour raise for $78.00/week resulting in a $337.74 a month to American workers who I am certain could use the money!
It is even worse in construction folks, I see it every single day and these illegal aliens ain't getting paid sub-minimum either.
Concrete finisher; hard work but an illegal earns at least $12.00/hr and up to $15.00/hr in my area. Problem is that job should bring $16.00 to $22.00/hr but it never will as long as illegals are allowed to continue to work. I visited a site this morning for a job meeting and pouring the floor slab they had over 20 workers and except for the foreman everyone appeared to be illegal.
But here we go the "you're sterotyping!" crowd. Hogwash, when they look Hispanic and don't speak a word of English you can pretty well bet they aren't here legally.
How about that? $1.95 an hour raise for $78.00/week resulting in a $337.74 a month to American workers who I am certain could use the money!
It is even worse in construction folks, I see it every single day and these illegal aliens ain't getting paid sub-minimum either.
Concrete finisher; hard work but an illegal earns at least $12.00/hr and up to $15.00/hr in my area. Problem is that job should bring $16.00 to $22.00/hr but it never will as long as illegals are allowed to continue to work. I visited a site this morning for a job meeting and pouring the floor slab they had over 20 workers and except for the foreman everyone appeared to be illegal.
But here we go the "you're sterotyping!" crowd. Hogwash, when they look Hispanic and don't speak a word of English you can pretty well bet they aren't here legally.
Even if they are here legally, that doesn't mean that they are being paid less than an American and are, therefore, taking a job from an American. I know a lot of foreigners here on work visas who are paid in cash and who do not pay taxes. They don't speak English and they hate the U.S. (I actually worked with a guy who said, "Why would I learn English?! I hate this country!) And these people are not getting paid below minimum wage--they are earning very healthy incomes, which they are not paying any taxes on; they are sending everything back to their native countries. And their employers love them b/c it's (somehow) a tax rideoff.
I'll add that the majority of those who emply foreigners are fervent conservatives who believe in a free market from which they--and the migrants/illegas--benefit. And then you have liberals defending these workers as well as "poor" laborers. Neither actually care about the realities of the situation for American workers.
No American wants to do the jobs the illegals are doing for the money they are getting paid. I bet even if the jobs paid minimum wage most unemployed Americans wouldn't want to do it. I would be hesitant.
I can tell you this-- if picking corn or peaches or cropping tobacco paid $20.00 an hour, I would NOT do it.
Been there done that, got the t-shirt, when I was a teenager. Worst jobs ever. Hard, sticky, heat suffocating labor.
How about that? $1.95 an hour raise for $78.00/week resulting in a $337.74 a month to American workers who I am certain could use the money!
It is even worse in construction folks, I see it every single day and these illegal aliens ain't getting paid sub-minimum either.
Concrete finisher; hard work but an illegal earns at least $12.00/hr and up to $15.00/hr in my area. Problem is that job should bring $16.00 to $22.00/hr but it never will as long as illegals are allowed to continue to work. I visited a site this morning for a job meeting and pouring the floor slab they had over 20 workers and except for the foreman everyone appeared to be illegal.
But here we go the "you're sterotyping!" crowd. Hogwash, when they look Hispanic and don't speak a word of English you can pretty well bet they aren't here legally.
Actually you are wrong. I worked in HR for a large health care organization. I hired laundry and janitorial folks-- partly because I could speak some spanish.
We had many folks here who were LEGAL (they wont the immigration lottery, they were the spouse of a legal working person, etc) and they spoke very little english-- if any at all.
Hell, I lived abroad and I was legally allowed to be in France-- and yet I didn't speak a word of it when I got off of the plane.
Edited: To add, as per the golf course HR person said, in my time doing that job, 98% of the people who applied for the job was hispanic. The job paid more than minimum wage (I believe starting at 8.50) complete with full state benefits, pension, etc. When we had an american apply for the job-- we hired them-- although the last one I hired was fired for stealing cleaning supplies for her own business. So there you go.
I don't know where you shop, my tomatoes are $3/pound, and I get like 1 or 2 tomatoes for that $3.
Amen!
But then again, I also buy local produce and it is significantly more expensive than buying the crap from WalMart.
It makes me giggle when people talk about how farmers can afford to pay more, etc. Farmers live hand to mouth for the most part-- they are not rolling in it.
The ones making the money are the Cargills, WalMarts, etc of the world.
[b]Would you take a job picking tomatoes in the hot Arizona sun for $90.60/hr?
I would. I don't think Arizona deserts where it's hot are where many tomotoes or fruits are grown.
If I could make more picking fruit than I do in my current job, I would definitely pick fruit. I've done it before - it's not especially hard.
The elitists believe there are jobs that shouldn't pay enough for one to live on, they believe in bringing what they believe are low class workers to replace more costly low class American workers.
All jobs should have wages determined by supply and demand and the supply of workers should not be disrupted by unlimited illegal immigration or too much legal immigration.
If someone can't find workers, they are either horrible to work for or pay too little. Be a better employer, offer better wages, provide some job benefits, and there will be no problem finding workers.
The only problem I see with the story you posted: The Wrong People Went to Jail.
Sure, deport the folks who are in the county illegally. That only makes sense.
But the OWNERS of those companies (if they did not do their due diligence) need to see jail time and big big fines in order for the situation to correct. They have profited too much for too long on the backs of underpaid labor, at great cost to our citizens.
People won't stream across our borders for jobs that don't exist. Take away the demand and the supply will stop.
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