Farmers tie labor woes

[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.

[SoapBox]

1. Really? The Sweaty, Fat and WHITE are not lining up for these "High Quality" jobs?

LOLOLOLOL

What a joke, these T.HATERs are!

They will drive the economy into the grave...and then put a stake through it's heart...to satisfy the perverts in their ilk.

Wake up America! VOTE these scumbag-economy-destroyers OUT of office.

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[Oceansaway]

3. k & r...nt

[ixion]

4. Georgia will get what it so richly deserves

that's one messed up state, right there.

[SkyDaddy7]

13. Tell me about it I live here in Georgia!

Did you know there is a bill in our Republican controlled legislature right now that says if a woman has a miscarriage it could be investigated as a "prenatal murder"! I am not making this up!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110225/ts_yblog_thelookout/georgia-lawmaker-proposes-classifying-miscarriages-as-prenatal-murder

It may be the same bill that also calls for the term "Rape Victim" in the Georgia Criminal Code to be changed to "Rape Accuser" the same would apply to domestic violence as well!

Georgia & the rest of the South now has very little Democratic Party representation in State Government so the Republicans are hell bent on getting their Christian Theocracy the Civil War stole from them! And that is not hyperbolic in the least...Christians down here especially white male Christians think like that! There is literally still much resentment left over from the Civil War!!

[gratuitous]

5. Sounds like a job for . . . prison labor!

And each day out you'll pick, you'll pick rotten peaches
You'll pick rotten peaches for the rest of your days.

[on point]

6. Supply and demand. Obviously $12.50/ hr is not enough. Raise the wage...

[w4rma]

14. Yup. Raise the wage to something competitive for the work and quit trying to find cheap labor. (nt)

[Trajan]

7. $12.50 per hour is a decent wage ....

I know many teens who would accept such a wage, even with the poor working conditions ....

I would have, as a teen ... at least for a few months ...

[jwirr]

8. And to add to you comment: And the price of food is going up. When

I was younger us teens worked the fields in Iowa for a lot less but that was a long time ago. I am not feeling sorry for this state and their farmers because they are the ones who insist we do not need these workers. Now maybe they can get their families out there to pick the stuff before it is all spoiled.

[Plucketeer]

9. Awwwwwwwwwwww......

that's SO sad :sarcasm: Now what EVER will they do? Got a hankerin' fer some peaches er peanuts? Tell them farmers you's willin' to pay what's necessary ta git um picked!

[SpiralHawk]

10. OK, TeaBaggers (R) - roll up your sleeves and get to work

This is your doing.

Fail Freaks (R).

[ixion]

11. 'xactly

They're always sayin': "They took our jobs!" Well, there are your jobs, fat whiners. Now get to work.

[w4rma]

15. And when they raise the wages for these jobs to something someone can live on

People WILL take these jobs.

[Vinee]

12. this is Georgia we're talking about here-the birth place of the chain gang.

Put the criminals to work in the fields and let them earn the right to join the rest of us in civilized society. Kill two, maybe three birds with one stone.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. Joe Arpaio? Is that you?

[Bravo Zulu]

16. Maybe,they can bring back slavery?

That would solve all their problems!

[RubyDuby in GA]

17. This is directly from a friend on facebook who lives in South GA:

From my friend Jeana:

These jobs are posted at the Dept of Labor's office...My daughter got a referral, drove out to a farm and applied for a 10.00 an hour job picking produce-when she got out there the man told her she had to pick for three days at a per pound ...price -----if she got up to a certain weight THEN he'd pay her the $10.00 an hour. She asked for minimum wage during training and he said NO. SHE SAID MOMA, I KNOW MY RIGHTS AND I HAVE A RIGHT TO BE PAID A MINIMUM WAGE-HE NEVER WOULD SAID WHAT HE WOULD PAY ME PER POUND---and I wasted my gas going out there---- she had been 8 months without a job and recently got hired at Wendy's at minimum wage..... When are we as a people going to say Enough! No-one in that industry values the work of your hands they want cheap a** labor PERIOD. People want jobs and are willing to work. Get real Georgia; People are hungry and everyone has to eat.....AND what did they think the result of that horrible bill would be? A savings? There are no such things as illegal aliens.....They are not from outer space somewhere. They are human beings worthy of respect....We all are worthy. I'm proud my daughter said, NO Thank you, and knows the value of the work of her hands.

[lonestarnot]

18. K & R

[JoeyT]

19. $12.50 an hour? Yeah, right.

No farm pays 12.50 an hour. A lot of mills down here don't start you out at $12.50 an hour, and people would sacrifice family members for a shot at those jobs. Most farms use production pay based on how much you pick. So yeah, I guess if you could pick six million peaches an hour you'd make $12.50.

This is more "Poor people deserve to be poor because they're lazy and don't want to work!" bullshit.

Rich farmers are going to lose money because they want to fuck their employees. If they were actually willing to pay $12.50 an hour they wouldn't be able to beat the potential employees off with a stick. Look how many people applied for McJobs that pay considerably less than that. (And are less pleasant, imo.)