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Farmers Say They Need More Field Workers

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 December 2005, 00:00 CST

By The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.

Dec. 6--A farm owners' group says winter crops will rot in the fields if farmers cannot legally import laborers or get new federal laws that give legal status to undocumented workers who agree to work in the fields for several years.

Farmers in the border regions of Arizona and California could find a shortfall of as many as 50,000 workers as the winter vegetable harvest begins, said Tim Chelling, vice president of Western Growers, which represents farmers in those two states.

The estimate is based on anecdotal evidence rather than a formal study, Chelling said.

UC Davis labor economist Phil Martin said growers are feeling a labor pinch because they are putting more land into cultivation -- a 10 percent increase in Imperial County this year -- and because they depend on labor brokers to supply a "just-in-time" temporary force of pickers who would prefer year-round employment.

The California Labor & Workforce Development Agency is skeptical of the labor shortage claims.

"We have only heard anecdotal evidence ... And I don't know if we can even call it evidence," said agency spokeswoman Jehan Flagg. The agency typically enforces wage and labor laws throughout the state. "They're (the workers) going somewhere; we just don't know where," said David Aquino, Sun World International Inc.'s vice president of human relations.

Sun World International, one of the nation's leading fruit and vegetable growers, with headquarters in Coachella and Bakersfield, has had a revolving door for skilled workers whom it trains to be mechanics and truck drivers. Before long they leave for higher paying jobs, usually in construction, Aquino said.

Sun World's $7 hourly wage can't compete with construction firms and casinos that offer up to $15 an hour, Aquino said. Jose Garcia, 37, decided to leave the vineyards and orange orchards of Bakersfield for a better paying job more than 15 years ago. He found better pay and medical benefits in construction. As a carpenter, he earns $19 per hour.

"Both jobs are hard labor, but working in the fields is more tiring," Garcia said during his lunch break in Palm Desert, where he's working on a commercial building off Dinah Shore Drive.

Federal employment projections suggest that growth in jobs that require the least amount of training and education will outpace growth in farm jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Where agriculture is expected to add 35,000 new jobs and have 335,000 job openings between 2002 and 2012, the BLS projects food preparation and retail sales industries will together add 2.8 million new jobs and have 10.3 million openings in the same period.

Luawanna Hallstrom, the manager of the San Diego-based Harry Singh and Sons, said that without the guest worker program to allow Mexican labor in legally, the nation's agriculture industry is doomed.

"There's no legal mechanism to get labor," she said.

Hallstrom said her tomato farm on a former military base lost $2.5 million in revenue in 2001 due to stepped-up enforcement. In the middle of harvest, Homeland Security officials discovered three-fourths of her workforce was undocumented.

Hallstrom, who co-chairs the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform and chairs the labor committees for Western Growers and the California Farm Bureau, said border security shouldn't be lessened, but a guest worker program is simultaneously necessary.

Growers should improve pay and benefits to keep workers, said Marc Grossman, spokesman for the United Farm Workers of America

Grossman said growers have long pressed for guest worker programs by claiming labor shortages.

By Sharon McNary, Kimberly Pierceall and Sandra Baltazar-Martinez

INLAND FARM LABOR*:

--6,200 farm workers

--$6.75 California minimum hourly wage

--$8.45 Median farm worker hourly wage

--$13.50 Median hourly wage for all Inland workers

--38 percent of U.S. farm workers are foreign-born

--90 percent of California farm workers are foreign-born

*Riverside and San Bernardino counties

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; U.S. Department of Labor.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.

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Source: The Press-Enterprise

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