Opinion: Treat Your Employees Well
September 1, 2007 Nearly every conversation I have with a grower these days eventually gets around to labor. It makes sense in an industry so critically reliant on illegal immigrants. Most of you growers are understandably uneasy about the situation, and I certainly can’t blame you. At the time this column is being written, the situation looks very bleak indeed.
First, this past June the U.S. Senate failed to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill, a bill that so many agricultural groups fought so hard to pass. Then in August, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would work with the Social Security Administration to crack down on illegal immigration. Growers and other employers with workers whose Social Security numbers don’t match their names will have 60 days from the time of notification to either reconcile the situation or dismiss the employee. Considering that the Agriculture Coalition of Immigration Reform says at least 70% of farm workers are illegal — and California growers tell me that in the Golden State they think that figure’s closer to 90% — and it appears a crisis looms.
So it was no surprise then, while talking to growers on a recent trip through the Great Northwest, that heads would shake when the conversations turned to labor. Until my last stop, that is, up in central Washington. I was bumping along in the pickup of a big grower through one of his apple orchards when the topic came up. “No,” he said firmly, “I’m not worried a bit.”
His reasoning? Obviously, most illegal immigrants come from Mexico and points south. They come because they can make a lot more money. Until that changes, they will keep coming, he said. “You really think a fence is going to keep a hard-working man from trying to make a better life for his family?”
But surely the labor shortages will worsen if legislation such as AgJobs isn’t passed, I argued. Surprisingly, he didn’t argue the point. He said the shortages won’t affect him because he makes sure to treat his workers well. He pays good money, provides medical benefits, etc.
Beware The Bear
The grower’s position reminded me of the old joke about the two guys who are camping, and a huge, vicious bear comes bellowing into their campsite. One guy gets up and starts to run away, before he is stopped momentarily by his buddy. “You can’t outrun a bear,” his buddy says. “The bear? I don’t have to outrun the bear,” the guy replies. “I just have to outrun you.”
I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom. Maybe the highly unlikely has occurred and some good news has arrived by the time this column is printed. Despite some bitter opposition, AgJobs has a lot going for it. It enjoys bipartisan support in the form of its top proponents, Senator Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, and Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat. Any legislation that attracts such strange bedfellows as the California Grape & Tree Fruit League, the Washington Growers Clearing House Association, and the United Farm Workers has got to at least stand a chance. I hope you too support AgJobs, as our industry’s future rests on such legislation. Foreign workers are going to continue to harvest the fruit, but that doesn’t mean it has to be grown here.
In the meantime, though, you’d better be good to your employees. Otherwise, you may end up being one unhappy camper.
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