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 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 (around 40 Celsius). 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.
*****
There are two issues facing our nation--high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce--that many Americans believe are related.
Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat - at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) - comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers.
Agriculture in the United States is dependent on an immigrant workforce. Three-quarters of all crop workers working in American agriculture were born outside the United States. According to government statistics, since the late 1990s, at least 50% of the crop workers have not been authorized to work legally in the United States.
We are a nation in denial about our food supply. As a result the UFW has initiated the "Take Our Jobs" campaign.
Farm workers are ready to train citizens and legal residents who wish to replace them in the field, we will use our knowledge and staff to help connect the unemployed with farm employers. Just fill out the form HERE and continue on to the request for job application.
