If all Illegal Immigrants are gone...who will work in the farms in summer for min. wages?

Question

Summer heat (103 F) Work all day in the sun for min. wages ($7 per hour)....any takers? I think its far less the that....

Answer 1

Good point, nobody wants that job. Americans would want more pay and shorter hours with air-conditioned break rooms. The price of produce would skyrocket and we would end up worse off than the illegal immigrants are now. Just relax and let the aliens pick the fruit. Most of them aren't a threat to anyone.

Answer 2

Those jobs were getting done before 12 million illegal immigrants were here and before the amnesty of 1986. If those 12 million illegals were gone, OMG the crop owners might actually have to pay a decent wage to citizens and legal employees. What makes people think that those crop owners are passing the savings onto the consumers anyway? Newsflash, they're not. I was born and raised in the Napa Valley. I grew up with the many of the children of vineyard owners. Those children all drove Range Rovers, BMW's, and Mercedes Benz. They can afford to share the wealth and raise the wages. Their pockets get fatter while illegal immigrants pick their crops for half the pay. We need to put an end to this.

Answer 3

I think that logic tells us they must be. The immigration issue is interesting because we find supporters and detractors of the president's bill on either side of the aisle. I'm typically labeled a liberal, but I want some rather strict immigration regulations. I think that jobs are lost and the ones that aren't lost have had a drop in wages because of the fact that we have so many immigrants willing to do the job for less. We hear that these are jobs Americans won't perform, but the truth is that we won't perform them for the paltry wages paid to illegal immigrants. With regard to skilled labor, I don't know if the same is true, that is skilled alien workers are working for less than skilled American counterparts. I believe that is the reason that many back such legislation, to keep labor costs low. Does anyone else find it interesting to see Robert Byrd and Birch Bayh voting with the majority of republicans on this issue, and Trent Lott and Ted Kennedy voting together in favor of the president's plan?

Answer 4

To answer your question, those jobs will be quickly mechanized. Necessity is, after-all, the mother of invention and invention is the specialty of the United States and Americans.

I come from a farm family. Back in the 1960's we grew almost 700 acres of tomatoes for H.J. Heinz. FLOC came in an organized the migrant workers and they went on "strike." It happened the next year too.

The third years the farmers formed a co-op, planted a variety of tomato that ripened all at the same time, and purchased mechanical pickers. Instead of 150 migrants we only needed 5 or 10. No more FLOC. No more migrants.

They actually came back to the area each year for the next 4 or 5 years looking for work. The Catholic church had to feed thousands of them and give them gas money to get out of town.

Answer 5

We have 12 - 20 million illegal immigrants in the US and the farmers still can't seem to find anyone to pick the crops. Has that ever occurred to anyone besides myself?

Illegal immigrants are just like US workers they will take the first opportunity to get out of the field and into a better paying job, the construction companies and the factories employ more illegal immigrants than farmers.

The farmers are always going to have a hard time finding labor because it is hot, hard work for a low low wage.

Answer 6

What minimum wages? Adults average almost twice that.

We did apply and were turned down for being citizens.

They are now getting wise and investing in automatic technology to put an end to farm workers once and for all.

Answer 7

I did that kind of a job when I was younger. The people are there to do the job. Now I work in a factory where it gets to be over 100% degrees and get paid just over min. wage. There used to be illegals there but ICE came in and they are gone. Those jobs were filled with citizens the next day.

Answer 8

No one works for minimum wage now. Strawberry pickers, for example, get about $14 per hour on a basket by basket basis if they know what they are doing.

When employers pay poverty wages, taxpayers end up subsidizing their employees. The farmers should pay a living wage. Frankly, since I consider domestic agriculture to be a security issue, I'd go for increasing the farm subsidy to pay for that. We'd get it back in less strained schools and social services, in any event, in my opinion.

Answer 9

One of the biggest lies perpetuated by big business and liberal politicians is the completely false statement that “no Americans are willing to do” certain dirty or difficult jobs. The inaccuracy of this statement was recently displayed in Colorado, where the IRS staged one of their rare raids for illegal aliens against a major corporate employer–and hundreds of unemployed Americans lined up outside the plant for a chance to get back the jobs that the illegals had stolen from them in the first place.

Next time you see a pack of Mexicans working on some job site, don’t just think about how many jobs they’re taking away from American workers. It goes much deeper than that. Think about how many young boys had to go into the Army or Marines because they knew they had no chance to get a job in their home town.

Answer 10

Good Lord, I hadn't thought about that! Just a second here; we'd better forget all about the fact that 20 million people have committed a federal offense by sneaking into our country, and many are enjoying free healthcare, free education in their own language (not American/English), police, fire, civil servants...

But WHAT ABOUT THE FRUIT?! We MUST ALLOW the criminals to STAY, because they've got us over a barrel, here!

I mean, come on... That's a silly argument, when you compare the *real* dollars that so-called "cheap" fruit cost.