http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/farmworker_union_says_take_our_jobs/8071/
New campaign has local farmers, officials talking about illegal immigration
By Shaunacy Ferro
07/15/2010
Looking for a job? With the state's unemployment rate at 12.4
percent, so are many Californians. But according to the United Farm
Workers of America, they aren't turning to agriculture.
The group's latest campaign, Take Our Jobs, aims to show just that.
By offering jobs in agriculture, normally staffed by undocumented
workers, to legal residents and citizens, the United Farm Workers
hope to show that most illegal immigrants are not, as some argue,
taking jobs from Americans.
According to Marc Grossman, a spokesperson for the United Farm
Workers, out of 6,000 people who responded to the campaign, only
three have been placed in agriculture jobs.
"A lot of people have very unrealistic expectations," he said.
"Undocumented farm workers take jobs American workers don't want,
under conditions American workers won't tolerate." Farm workers often
work in extreme conditions for long periods of time, usually for
around minimum wage. Though estimates vary, the majority are undocumented.
Rob Roy, president of the Ventura County Agricultural Association,
said falsified documents present another obstacle for farmers looking
to hire legal workers.
"Fifty-five to 60 percent of people who work in the U.S. agriculture
industry, while they appear to have legal documents, are not legal
workers," Roy said. "With the continued enforcement of [current
immigration laws], farmers are going to see their workers taken away
without any way to replace those workers."
Alicia Flores, director of Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional in
Oxnard, a nonprofit group serving the Hispanic community, said the
waiting period for immigrants already here to receive legal status is
around 18 years.
"That creates a problem for the residents. They don't have a
[driver's] license, they don't have insurance, they don't have Social
Security," she said.
Without immigration reform for those workers, some say Americans
would find their eating habits drastically altered.
"Just imagine Ventura County without the thousands of people who
harvest the crops we have here," said Lauro Barajas, director of
United Farm Workers in the Oxnard region. "It is a job that feeds us,
that gives us food on our table, so it's important that these workers
get attention."
For United Farm Workers, immigration reform means the AgJOBS Act, a
bill which would reform the current guest worker program and provide
a way for undocumented agricultural workers to earn legal status.
"There's no industry where there's a greater penetration of
undocumented workers than in agriculture, and there's no industry
where U.S. workers are less likely to go," said Democratic
Congressman Howard Berman of California's 28th district in the San
Fernando Valley, the bill's sponsor.
"We can bring in our fruits and lettuce and vegetables from Mexico or
Central America or Europe, but do the American people want to be
dependent on other countries for their entire food supply?" he asked.
Many California workers migrate to Arizona in the winter, during the
vegetable harvests, but that may change with strict enforcement of
Senate Bill 1070. "The Arizona bill is a great example of how
unrealistic some people's approach is [to immigration reform]." Grossman said.
Grossman said that with racial profiling, even people like Arizona
native Cesar Chavez would be targeted. "His family helped build the
Old West, but he would be suspect because of how he looked and how he dressed."
But for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which
supports the Arizona law, the AgJOBS act provides amnesty for those
who have broken the law and will not stop the flow of illegal
immigrants into the agricultural sector. According to FAIR spokesman
Ira Mehlman, the reason no one will take jobs in agriculture is
because, with access to illegal workers, the industry has not
provided the incentives necessary to bring in American workers.
"Agriculture is not the only job in America that is a difficult
manual labor job, and other industries seem to do OK," Mehlman said.
Though food could become more expensive if agricultural wages
increased, Mehlman said that with the burden illegal immigrants place
on the economy, Americans are already paying more. "You might be
saving a few cents at the supermarket, but as taxpayers you might be
more than making up for it in social cost," he said.
Farmers, however, do not usually have the luxury of determining their
own prices. They deal with competition from places like Mexico, where
the cost of labor is cheaper. With perishable goods, they have to
sell their products no matter what the market is like.
"Our costs are basically a fixed price, so when the markets are
flooded, we still have to pick our fruit," explained one Oxnard
strawberry farmer. "It's not something that can just sit on the vine
day after day."
But despite controversy over illegal workers, here in Ventura County,
Barajas said local farm workers he spoke to did not feel their jobs
were threatened by the United Farm Workers' campaign.
"They know how the job is. They know [U.S. citizens] are not willing
to take it."
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1 comments:
I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. All of us ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated, but this is not the case.
I know the proponents of this law say that the majority approves of this law, but the majority is not always right. Would women or non-whites have the vote if we listen to the majority of the day, would the non-whites have equal rights (and equal access to churches, housing, restaurants, hotels, retail stores, schools, colleges and yes water fountains) if we listen to the majority of the day? We all know the answer, a resounding, NO!
As for the undocumented workers, as was attributed to Ronald Reagan “It’s the Economy, Stupid”. When the economy is good you say let’s all celebrate “Cinco de Mayo, my brothers” but when the economy is down “it’s all your fault, you damn immigrant”. This too will pass, the real problem is the narcos, arms and people smugglers and that’s what the focus should be on.
Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics and do what is right, not what is just popular with the majority. Some men comprehend discrimination by never have experiencing it in their lives, but the majority will only understand after it happens to them.
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