Immigrant farm workers' challenge: Take our jobs

[Jagermeister]

By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jun 24, 5:42 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO – In a tongue-in-cheek call for immigration reform, farm workers are teaming up with comedian Stephen Colbert to challenge unemployed Americans: Come on, take our jobs.

Farm workers are tired of being blamed by politicians and anti-immigrant activists for taking work that should go to Americans and dragging down the economy, said Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers of America.

So the group is encouraging the unemployed — and any Washington pundits or anti-immigrant activists who want to join them — to apply for the some of thousands of agricultural jobs being posted with state agencies as harvest season begins.

All applicants need to do is fill out an online form under the banner "I want to be a farm worker" at http://www.takeourjobs.org, and experienced field hands will train them and connect them to farms.

According to the Labor Department, three out of four farm workers were born abroad, and more than half are illegal immigrants.

Proponents of tougher immigration laws have argued that farmers have become used to cheap labor and don't want to raise wages enough to draw in other workers.

Those who have done the job have some words of advice for applicants: First, dress appropriately.

During summer, when the harvest of fruits and vegetables is in full swing in California's Central Valley, temperatures hover in the triple digits. Heat exhaustion is one of the reasons farm labor consistently makes the Bureau of Labor Statistics' top ten list of the nation's most dangerous jobs.

Second, expect long days. Growers have a small window to pick fruit before it is overripe.

And don't count on a big paycheck. Farm workers are excluded from federal overtime provisions, and small farms don't even have to pay the minimum wage. Fifteen states don't require farm labor to be covered by workers compensation laws.

Any takers?

"The reality is farmworkers who are here today aren't taking any American jobs away. They work in often unbearable situations," Rodriguez said. "I don't think there will be many takers, but the offer is being made. Let's see what happens."

To highlight how unlikely the prospect of Americans lining up to pick strawberries or grapes, Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" plans to feature the "Take Our Jobs" campaign on July 8.

The campaign is being played for jokes, but the need to secure the right to work for immigrants who are here is serious business, said Michael Rubio, supervisor in Kern County, one of the biggest ag producing counties in the nation.

"Our county, our economy, rely heavily on the work of immigrant and unauthorized workers," he said. "I would encourage all our national leaders to come visit Kern County and to spend one day, or even half a day, in the shoes of these farm workers."

Hopefully, the message will go down easier with some laughs, said Manuel Cunha, president of the California grower association Nisei Farmers League, who was not a part of the campaign.

"If you don't add some humor to this, it's enough to get you drinking, and I don't mean Pepsi," Cunha said, dismissing the idea that Americans would take up the farm workers' offer.

California's agriculture industry launched a similar campaign in 1998, hoping to recruit welfare recipients and unemployed workers to work on farms, he said. Three people showed up.

"Give us a legal, qualified work force. Right now, farmers don't know from day to day if they're going to get hammered by ICE," he said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "What happens to my labor pool?"

His organization supports AgJobs, a bill currently in the Senate which would allow those who have worked in U.S. agriculture for at least 150 days in the previous two years to get legal status.

The bill has been proposed in various forms since the late 1990s, with backing from the United Farm Workers of America and other farming groups, but has never passed.

[Jagermeister]

What a bunch of fuckin horse shit!

[Jagermeister]

His organization supports AgJobs, a bill currently in the Senate which would allow those who have worked in U.S. agriculture for at least 150 days in the previous two years to get legal status.

Can you imagine the influx of Mexicans this will cause. Come on in. All you have to do is pick grapes or dig patato's for 150 days and you are in.

Jesus what a dumb fucking idea.

[Catfish]

It's never been a question of people not willing to do these kinds of jobs, so that these people have to. It's more a problem of these cheap-assed companies being able to get away with paying less than minimum wage for the work. Fuck that! No one should be expected to work for less than minimum wage. These cheap assed farmers get what they deserve if all the wets walk!

[PETE'S BROTHER]

then you are gonna end up payin' $5/orange

[Nickdfresh]

It's never been a question of people not willing to do these kinds of jobs, so that these people have to. It's more a problem of these cheap-assed companies being able to get away with paying less than minimum wage for the work. Fuck that! No one should be expected to work for less than minimum wage. These cheap assed farmers get what they deserve if all the wets walk!

Careful CattyBioach, you're sounding like a liberal...

[Nitro Express]

I used to work on my uncle's farm in the summer. We were the cheap labor. LOL! It would be good for the lazy kids we have now. Up at the crack of dawn, eat a big breakfast, grab your frozen jug of water out of the freezer and off you go slopping pigs, feeding cows, shoveling shit, bucking hay bails, moving irrigation pipe. Spare time was spent finding indian arrow heads and shooting guns at the wash.

[ELVIS]

Careful CattyBioach, you're sounding like a liberal...

You're an idiot...

Liberals like you want to raise minimum wage to around $10 which would encourage even more farmers and other small business to break the law...

[bueno bob]

People work too hard for minimum wage. I myself make way above that and work far too little for it. It's not fair and it's another gross symptom of the problems of wealth balance in this country.

[Unchainme]

There's plenty of unemployed college kids that would probably be more than willing to take those jobs, trust me.

Bottomline when it comes to the illegal immigrants, is that the companies that employ them need to be punished, and punished severely.

[Nickdfresh]

You're an idiot...

Liberals like you want to raise minimum wage to around $10 which would encourage even more farmers and other small business to break the law...

But then you'd make ten bucks an hour in a state that apparently shits all over its health care workers. :)

But don't worry Elvira, "minimum wage" and other worker protections laws re. overtime don't apply to farmers...

[Nickdfresh]

There's plenty of unemployed college kids that would probably be more than willing to take those jobs, trust me.

Bottomline when it comes to the illegal immigrants, is that the companies that employ them need to be punished, and punished severely.

Doubt it. Most college kids would wilt in the summer sun while doing actual manual labor...

[BigBadBrian]

Doubt it. Most college kids would wilt in the summer sun while doing actual manual labor...

No they wouldn't.

That is, though, a common misconception among certain people that want to open the doors to illegals.

[BigBadBrian]

I used to work on my uncle's farm in the summer. We were the cheap labor. LOL! It would be good for the lazy kids we have now. Up at the crack of dawn, eat a big breakfast, grab your frozen jug of water out of the freezer and off you go slopping pigs, feeding cows, shoveling shit, bucking hay bails, moving irrigation pipe. Spare time was spent finding indian arrow heads and shooting guns at the wash.

Exactly.

Well said.

[BigBadBrian]

Up at the crack of dawn, eat a big breakfast, grab your frozen jug of water out of the freezer and off you go slopping pigs, feeding cows, shoveling shit, bucking hay bails, moving irrigation pipe

Don't forget detasseling corn....

[Unchainme]

Doubt it. Most college kids would wilt in the summer sun while doing actual manual labor...

What's the pay and hours, of this hypothetical gig?

I did manual labor a few summers a go (helped bale hay), and would be willing to do it again if no one else was hiring, so long as I wasn't having to work from 6 am to 9 pm for 3 cents an hour.

[Nitro Express]

I used to build log homes. The job was operating a eight pound sledge hammer driving foot long galvanized spikes every two feet in every log. They use screws now because wimps can't handle a sledge and break the handles missing the nail head. I drove them all day long for three months. We would quit at 5:00p, eat BBQ and spend the rest of the evening fly fishing the Henry's Fork. That's how I spent many summers growing up. I stocked bricklayers too. Unless you've done some hard physical work in your live you don't know what work is. At least by the end of the day you can see what you have done. It's rewarding. I have spent too many days in an office wondering what in the hell I was doing there and what we were accomplishing at all. LOL!

[ELVIS]

people work too hard for minimum wage.

lmao!

[bueno bob]

lmao!

Brilliant rebuttal, fuck-for-brains. When you're doing maximum work for minimum wage, talk to me again, until then you're uneducated so kindly shut the fuck up. :)

[VanHalener]

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[ELVIS]

Brilliant rebuttal, fuck-for-brains. When you're doing maximum work for minimum wage, talk to me again, until then you're uneducated so kindly shut the fuck up. :)

Bullshit!

In high school I started cleaning construction sites for the whopping sum of $3.35 an hour. From there I started stocking bricks and blocks and moved on to making mortar for less that $5 per hour. During that time I went to school for A/C and refrigeration and worked in that field but I wanted to lay bricks instead, so I gradually learned masonry on the job. By the time I finished nursing school I was making $8 per hour laying bricks in 1989...

I enjoyed every minute of it and never once did I think I was working too hard for too little money...

I was happy to have a job that I liked!


:elvis:

[bueno bob]

Bullshit!

In high school I started cleaning construction sites for the whopping sum of $3.35 an hour. From there I started stocking bricks and blocks and moved on to making mortar for less that $5 per hour. During that time I went to school for A/C and refrigeration and worked in that field but I wanted to lay bricks instead, so I gradually learned masonry on the job. By the time I finished nursing school I was making $8 per hour laying bricks in 1989...

I enjoyed every minute of it and never once did I think I was working too hard for too little money...

I was happy to have a job that I liked!


:elvis:

Yeah, and in all that, you NEVER ONCE stopped and thought of some CEO making a hundred million a year for playing golf - NOT because he "worked for it" and was educated for it but because he was BORN into a position where those doors were open to him - and thought it was slightly unbalanced?

I can understand and appreciate the fact that you enjoyed your job, and maybe even THOUGHT you were being paid a fair amount for it (newsflash - YOU WEREN'T).

But if the notion that other people in the world who were no better than you weren't even doing half the amount of work that you were were - and were getting paid HUNDREDS of times over what you were making didn't occur to you even once, you're either not human or your story is complete bullshit and you'll NEVER convince me that you're too self-righteous and proud to have thought otherwise.

Give me a break, seriously. Maybe a five year old would swallow that as some kind of abject morality lesson in working hard and taking pride in it, but we're all a bit above that simplicity.

Maybe going back to backbreaking minimum wage work would wake you up to that reality. God knows it did for ME last year and it was a real nice reminder.

Don't sit there and blow sunshine up my ass about how people should be "satisfied" with less.

[Jagermeister]

Bullshit!

In high school I started cleaning construction sites for the whopping sum of $3.35 an hour. From there I started stocking bricks and blocks and moved on to making mortar for less that $5 per hour. During that time I went to school for A/C and refrigeration and worked in that field but I wanted to lay bricks instead, so I gradually learned masonry on the job. By the time I finished nursing school I was making $8 per hour laying bricks in 1989...

I enjoyed every minute of it and never once did I think I was working too hard for too little money...

I was happy to have a job that I liked!


:elvis:


I also busted my ass when I was a kid. I use to bust tires after school and on the weekends. It didn't take me long to decide I didn't like hard, dirty ,thankless work. I think most smart people realize that shit sucks and decide to better themselves through education so they don't have to work like that anymore.

[ELVIS]

I think most smart people realize that shit sucks and decide to better themselves through education so they don't have to work like that anymore.

Exactly, but where's the incentive if minimum wage is say, $15 per hour ??

And if minimum wage is set at say $10 per hour, why not $15, why not $20 or more ??

We all know money grows on trees, and any given employer no matter how large or small has unlimited funds to pay as many employers as he can sign up...

Riiight...


:biggrin:

[ELVIS]

And hey Bigheadbobby, name me a successful CEO who was "BORN into" his position...

[jhale667]

And hey Bigheadbobby, name me a successful CEO who was "BORN into" his position...

Your hero the former President fell into a few gigs (besides the Presidency) due to family connections - certainly not via his stellar educational or corporate track record...

Remember he was CEO of a oil company, and owned a ball club, I believe (?) - and ran them both into the ground...before he did the same thing to the country.

[ELVIS]

Oh, Bush ran the country into the ground ??

[ELVIS]

And I said SUCCESSFUL CEO, jayforgayname...

[Blaze]

I also busted my ass when I was a kid. I use to bust tires after school and on the weekends. It didn't take me long to decide I didn't like hard, dirty ,thankless work. I think most smart people realize that shit sucks and decide to better themselves through education so they don't have to work like that anymore.

This is illogical and unsustainable.

Everyone is a servant. It is the obligation to society that the one being served cares well for the servants under their stewardship.

Menial tasks must be done. It is a disservice to society to not provide the means of thankfulness of a job well done to a steward. When a steward cheats a servant out of well being they are cheating society.

Jobs maybe hard and dirty, but an honest days work for a well governed steward is a thankfulness toward a society.

[ELVIS]

I say this baboon lipped emmer effer that never had a real job is running the country into the ground...

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20100627/i/ra1420928533.jpg?x=400&y=280&q=85&sig=cj71PWB0a4HgaCzJMnHHJA--


:elvis:

[chefcraig]

And...name me a successful CEO who was "BORN into" his position...

Bill France Jr., Edsel Ford, Frank Perdue, Jim Perdue, Michael Pappas (son of Ted Pappas of Keyes Realty), Marshall Chess...

[ELVIS]

I think he's an android...

[Jagermeister]

This is illogical and unsustainable.

Everyone is a servant. It is the obligation to society that the one being served cares well for the servants under their stewardship.

Menial tasks must be done. It is a disservice to society to not provide the means of thankfulness of a job well done to a steward. When a steward cheats a servant out of well being they are cheating society.

Jobs maybe hard and dirty, but an honest days work for a well governed steward is a thankfulness toward a society.


Why don't you go spend 10 hours digging a ditch when it's 100 degrees outside and then come back and say that.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

manchurian android

[jhale667]

I say


Remember, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT what YOU say... :lol:

[Blaze]

Exodus 23:12
Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work

Exodus 35:35
He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work

Deuteronomy 24:19
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow,

Leviticus 19:35 (The Message)
"Don't cheat when measuring length, weight, or quantity.

Leviticus 25:14(The Message)
"If you sell or buy property from one of your countrymen, don't cheat him.

Matthew 20:1-16
{the example of how stewards are to be generous}

Luke 10:7
Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

Acts 4:33-35
With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

Acts 20:35
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak,

Romans 13:7
Give everyone what you owe him:

I Corinthians 9:7-11
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn't the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest

Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart,

1 Thessalonians 4:11
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,

1 Timothy 5:18
For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."

James 5:4
Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.

[jhale667]

Why don't you go spend 10 hours digging a ditch when it's 100 degrees outside and then come back and say that.

So out of curiosity, where did you supposedly "better your education" that let you graduate still writing like a 3rd grader? :umm:

[ELVIS]

Remember, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT what YOU say... :lol:

You sure seem effected by it...

[Blaze]

Why don't you go spend 10 hours digging a ditch when it's 100 degrees outside and then come back and say that.
I have.
Construction was one of my passions. Hours spent on molding the earth is pleasant compared to hours in a steel construction yard.

If you have worked for corrupt stewards and did not speak up for those that came behind you and suffered. They are upon your hands.

Your guilt is not my sin.

[jhale667]

You sure seem effected by it...

No, your affecting a pompous racist bitch attitude (more like revealing the one you'd hidden for a bit) has had no effect on me - other than the realizing you're an asshole part. There was that.


Eat it, loser! :baaa:

[Jagermeister]

So out of curiosity, where did you supposedly "better your education" that let you graduate still writing like a 3rd grader? :umm:

Oh whatever.:deadhorse:

[Jagermeister]

I have.
Construction was one of my passions. Hours spent on molding the earth is pleasant compared to hours in a steel construction yard.

If you have worked for corrupt stewards and did not speak up for those that came behind you and suffered. They are upon your hands.

Your guilt is not my sin.

Ok u win. I don't have the patience to argue otherwise.

[bueno bob]

We could also add Brian Roberts to the list of successful CEOs born into their position. While holding a stranglehold over the cable industry, he basically inherited his position from his Dad Ralph and all he bothered to get was his B.S. from Wharton - and even that was just for appearances. Not like he WASN'T going to have it all on a silver platter because of who his father was, regardless.

And you wanna tell ME that it's "right" that he pulls down $160,000,000.00 over a five year span while most of his employees struggle to keep their lights on, a lot of them working 50 hours a week? Or more?

Yeah, Elvis. You can spin that one for me when you finish masturbating to online pictures of Thom Robb, hmm?

Snotnosed prick.

[Nitro Express]

I think what people are trying to explain in this thread is you need a work ethic. Sure there are the connected few who will get through the system based on their connections. George W. Bush being a fine example. Life isn't fair. The baseline is work and the nitrous is know how. Without work, nothing gets done. Without brains, you work hard going no where.

We hear the term education used a lot but I think we have missed the whole point. We've made "to be educated" almost a religion and we worship it. The thing is, you can look good on paper but produce shit. I think the end product should be what we are judged by and not credentials. If you truly are educated then you should produce something good in the end. Too many educated people produce shit.

[Diamondjimi]

I say this baboon lipped emmer effer that never had a real job is running the country into the ground...

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20100627/i/ra1420928533.jpg?x=400&y=280&q=85&sig=cj71PWB0a4HgaCzJMnHHJA--


:elvis:

How Christian of you... :rolleyes:

[Nitro Express]

I don't think everyone should go to college. Some people would be better off learning a trade. Some would be better off starting a business right out of high school. I think college should be reserved for three types of people: 1) The anal type A people who get straight A's all the time, 2) The geniouses who just are naturally smart who don't get the best grades because they are bored in the system, 3) The rich kids, because in reality, you can't get rid of them. LOL!

College should be where other smart people can meet and brainstorm and it provides the equipment, labs, and instructors. I think we have lost vision of what it should be by expecting everyone to go and cluttering the place up with stupid degrees and people who shouldn't be there.

[Nitro Express]

Why don't you go spend 10 hours digging a ditch when it's 100 degrees outside and then come back and say that.

I'm putting in a new irrigation system. Send him over! :biggrin:

[Blaze]

I'm putting in a new irrigation system. Send him over! :biggrin:
Resist temptation resist temptation...
awe just do it......just a bit of word.

Can the workers run naked under the sprinklers on the hot and balmy nights?
:biggrin:
I amuse myself!

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Can the workers run naked under the sprinklers on the hot and balmy nights?
!

just balmy nights, no combination of the two.

[Blaze]

just balmy nights, no combination of the two.

You can't have cool and balmy night?

[PETE'S BROTHER]

balm·y (bäm)
adj. balm·i·er, balm·i·est
1. Having the quality or fragrance of balm; soothing.
2. Mild and pleasant: a balmy breeze.
3. Chiefly British Slang Eccentric in behavior

[Jagermeister]

Hey 3 describes Blaze.

[Blaze]

that does not say anything about temperature.
Hot and cold can be pleasant....
I feel this is one of those things I will just have to accept like the
Granted and Grant it, nuance.
I do think one can have a cool balmy night. Balmy is something in the air, not temperature.

I also think you should Grant it not granted. :wow: However, for the sake of society, I will conform.


Now, about running naked under the sprinklers on a hot night, which also happens to be an electric and delightful night. .....

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Hey 3 describes Blaze.

:baaa:

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Now, about running naked under the sprinklers on a hot night, which also happens to be a electric and delightful night. .....

with a soothing scent.....

[Blaze]

with a soothing scent.....

Such as the scent of smoke from a roaring bonfire would be on a cool {balmy} night when running through sprinklers. :tongue0011:

[PETE'S BROTHER]

or a big fat joint

[PETE'S BROTHER]

I don't think everyone should go to college. Some people would be better off learning a trade. Some would be better off starting a business right out of high school. I think college should be reserved for three types of people: 1) The anal type A people who get straight A's all the time, 2) The geniouses who just are naturally smart who don't get the best grades because they are bored in the system, 3) The rich kids, because in reality, you can't get rid of them. LOL!

College should be where other smart people can meet and brainstorm and it provides the equipment, labs, and instructors. I think we have lost vision of what it should be by expecting everyone to go and cluttering the place up with stupid degrees and people who shouldn't be there.

The value of a college degree is a middle-class article of faith. But exclusive new research suggests it may be far less than previously thought.

http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/109946/college-big-investment-paltry-return?mod=edu-continuing_education