Responding To Obama Administration’s H-2A Proposals

In response to the Obama Administration’s H-2A proposals, a letter from David Fulton of masLabor focuses on the importance of labor to the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry, and the importance of the fruit and vegetable industry to the nation’s well being.

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In the letter, Fulton emphasizes the need for balanced H-2A provisions, which means first examining institutionalized prejudices. “Every U.S. stakeholder loses if the economics don’t work for the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry and other labor intensive agriculture in the new global economy,” he writes. “The hope would be that Congress will deal with AgJobs or comprehensive immigration reform including AgJob type provisions for a viable agricultural guestworker program.”

 

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Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

We need to begin steering away from immigrant labor. Especially with unemployment as high as it is in the U.S.. We need to start looking into creating a positive work environment for Americans. Establish tax reduction incentives for farmers who hire Americans and create some form of labor pool clearing house where a worker is registered and when a farmer needs his crops harvested he contacts the house with how many, where, and when. The house contacts the people and they go to work and then move on from there. Also offer some tax free incentives for the worker and I think we can get this going. Put Americans back to work.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

Let’s start with a few facts;
1.Most fresh fruit @ vegetable crops in the U.S. are seasonable and have a short harvest window.
2.Most of the harvest labor is migrant from Mexico.
3.Most of them are illegal.
4.Most of them do not want to become citizens, they just want to earn some money and go back to Mexico.
5.The notion that we should use the U.S. unemployed sounds good, but it comes from people that know nothing about growing and harvesting these crops and know nothing about the American labor force. I grow apples. Fifty years ago I placed an ad for workers in two city newspapers with a combined metropolitan population of over 500,000. From one ad I got zero responses. From the other I got two. One of them said no thanks when I explained the job, the other worked two days and quit.
6.These jobs are hard physical work, sometimes under rather unpleasant conditions; hot, cold, wet, etc. Those of us that have been doing this all our lives know this and accept it, as do the migrants.
7.We need a system these workers can get easily and quickly, that identifies them and allows them to pass back an forth as they are needed. They know where the work is. They will find it and get the job done.
Forget about the H2A program. It is useless. It is too slow and too much red tape. Put together by bureaucratic no nothings.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

Dear Southern Tier,Yes we do need to employ more Americans but not in the Federal Government. And the Old Sodbuster is correct, American labour won’t hack it. And tax deductions sound great but in order to benefit from a tax deduction you first must make a profit. If you are making so much profit you need tax deductions what is your problem. And that’s some real contemporary thinking for an Old Sodbuster. you get my vote.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

I agree with Old Sodbuster, the Latino labor force is the only one who will work. We have commercial vineyards; Americans won’t work picking grapes or pruning. The work is seasonal,of short duration, and the other crops in our area; tomatoes and tobacco need to be harvested at the same time, thus cutting the number of laborers available. Several years ago, we purchased a used mechanical harvester, and I do 90 percent of the winter pruning myself and my husband helps.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

Yes you are correct SodBuster and Grapette. I have seen many time unemployed Americans who want and need a job but show tp work but leave by mid day when they see how agricultural work is. I have said many times thank God for the illegals for without them who would pick our food?

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

I do not condone employing illegals from any country. We need to find away to make it possible for them to come to America to work legally. And the employer will need to provide room and board and be willing to handle any medical expenses thru insurance that will correct their ailment and get them back home. The term would be for 6 Months per visit and then not elligable again for another 6 mo. This will require a lot more indepth legal contract but we need to get started.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

The bottom line is if you put an ad in the paper and no one showed up, they were essentially telling you that they were not willing to work for the pitifully low wages being offered. You can’t complain that “Americans won’t do the work” if you are not willing to put your money where your mouth is. For years plenty of Americans were willing to work in construction jobs, but when contractors figured out they could hire illegals for less than half the price guess what happened? American workers used to getting fair wages said no way and illegals took over construction jobs with the contractors pocketing the difference. It all comes down to supply and demand, so if you want American workers then offer them a decent wage and they will come.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

Just a note: I don’t know if Hal is in agriculture or not…. but in answer to his comment about paying a fair wage. We pay our workers $8 to $10 an hour, which is above the minimum wage. We still cannot get “Americans” to work. When we used to pay workers by the box of grapes picked, many workers made over $100 per day. That is more than I made when I was employed at a public job! As to the comment by another person, we cannot pay health insurance, room and board, etc for workers, we make little enough profit now, and in bad (drought, too much rain, disease,etc) year, we go “in the hole”!! Plus our type of work is seasonal, there is no way economically, to do that.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

We need to begin steering away from immigrant labor. Especially with unemployment as high as it is in the U.S.. We need to start looking into creating a positive work environment for Americans. Establish tax reduction incentives for farmers who hire Americans and create some form of labor pool clearing house where a worker is registered and when a farmer needs his crops harvested he contacts the house with how many, where, and when. The house contacts the people and they go to work and then move on from there. Also offer some tax free incentives for the worker and I think we can get this going. Put Americans back to work.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

Let’s start with a few facts;
1.Most fresh fruit @ vegetable crops in the U.S. are seasonable and have a short harvest window.
2.Most of the harvest labor is migrant from Mexico.
3.Most of them are illegal.
4.Most of them do not want to become citizens, they just want to earn some money and go back to Mexico.
5.The notion that we should use the U.S. unemployed sounds good, but it comes from people that know nothing about growing and harvesting these crops and know nothing about the American labor force. I grow apples. Fifty years ago I placed an ad for workers in two city newspapers with a combined metropolitan population of over 500,000. From one ad I got zero responses. From the other I got two. One of them said no thanks when I explained the job, the other worked two days and quit.
6.These jobs are hard physical work, sometimes under rather unpleasant conditions; hot, cold, wet, etc. Those of us that have been doing this all our lives know this and accept it, as do the migrants.
7.We need a system these workers can get easily and quickly, that identifies them and allows them to pass back an forth as they are needed. They know where the work is. They will find it and get the job done.
Forget about the H2A program. It is useless. It is too slow and too much red tape. Put together by bureaucratic no nothings.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

Dear Southern Tier,Yes we do need to employ more Americans but not in the Federal Government. And the Old Sodbuster is correct, American labour won’t hack it. And tax deductions sound great but in order to benefit from a tax deduction you first must make a profit. If you are making so much profit you need tax deductions what is your problem. And that’s some real contemporary thinking for an Old Sodbuster. you get my vote.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

I agree with Old Sodbuster, the Latino labor force is the only one who will work. We have commercial vineyards; Americans won’t work picking grapes or pruning. The work is seasonal,of short duration, and the other crops in our area; tomatoes and tobacco need to be harvested at the same time, thus cutting the number of laborers available. Several years ago, we purchased a used mechanical harvester, and I do 90 percent of the winter pruning myself and my husband helps.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

Yes you are correct SodBuster and Grapette. I have seen many time unemployed Americans who want and need a job but show tp work but leave by mid day when they see how agricultural work is. I have said many times thank God for the illegals for without them who would pick our food?

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

I do not condone employing illegals from any country. We need to find away to make it possible for them to come to America to work legally. And the employer will need to provide room and board and be willing to handle any medical expenses thru insurance that will correct their ailment and get them back home. The term would be for 6 Months per visit and then not elligable again for another 6 mo. This will require a lot more indepth legal contract but we need to get started.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

The bottom line is if you put an ad in the paper and no one showed up, they were essentially telling you that they were not willing to work for the pitifully low wages being offered. You can’t complain that “Americans won’t do the work” if you are not willing to put your money where your mouth is. For years plenty of Americans were willing to work in construction jobs, but when contractors figured out they could hire illegals for less than half the price guess what happened? American workers used to getting fair wages said no way and illegals took over construction jobs with the contractors pocketing the difference. It all comes down to supply and demand, so if you want American workers then offer them a decent wage and they will come.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

Just a note: I don’t know if Hal is in agriculture or not…. but in answer to his comment about paying a fair wage. We pay our workers $8 to $10 an hour, which is above the minimum wage. We still cannot get “Americans” to work. When we used to pay workers by the box of grapes picked, many workers made over $100 per day. That is more than I made when I was employed at a public job! As to the comment by another person, we cannot pay health insurance, room and board, etc for workers, we make little enough profit now, and in bad (drought, too much rain, disease,etc) year, we go “in the hole”!! Plus our type of work is seasonal, there is no way economically, to do that.

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