Farmers tie labor woes [View All]

[d_r]

Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press

ATLANTA — Migrant farmworkers are bypassing Georgia because of the state’s tough new immigration enforcement law, creating a severe labor shortage among fruit and vegetable growers here and potentially putting hundreds of millions of dollars in crops in jeopardy, agricultural industry leaders said last week.

Meanwhile, the state’s Republican labor and agricultural commissioners are discussing issuing a joint statement in the coming days about what they intend to do about the labor shortage, a Labor Department spokesman confirmed.

Hall said it’s possible state officials could hold job fairs to steer some of Georgia’s unemployed workers to these farm jobs, which pay $12.50 an hour on average. The state’s unemployment rate is now at 9.9 percent.

Farmers, however, say they often have little luck recruiting Georgia residents to work in their fields because it is temporary, hot and physically demanding. To recruit more workers, some farmers are offering signing bonuses, Hall said.

Read more: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/may/31/farmers-tie-labor-woes/?local

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Wait a minute. You mean US citizens aren't willing to do the work that migrant farm workers do? And rich farmers are losing money? And they are going to lose crops? Why didn't somebody predict this? <- that's sarcasm, right there.