Black Farmworkers Say They Lost Jobs to Foreigners Who Were Paid More

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/us/black-farmworkers-mississippi-lawsuit.html

(snip)

Black families with deep connections to the Delta have historically been the ones to perform fieldwork. That began to change about a decade ago, when the first of dozens of young, white workers flew in from South Africa on special guest worker visas. Mr. Strong and his co-workers trained the men, who by last year were being lured across the globe with wages of more than $11 an hour, compared with the $7.25 an hour that Mr. Strong and other Black local workers were paid.

(snip)

From the wheat farms in the Midwest to the citrus groves in California’s Central Valley, growers have increasingly turned to foreign workers as aging farmworkers exit the fields and low-skilled workers opt for jobs in construction, hospitality and warehouses, which offer higher pay, year-round work and, sometimes, benefits.

(snip)

In the Mississippi Delta, a region of high unemployment and entrenched poverty, the labor mobility that is widening the pool of fieldworkers is having a devastating effect on local workers who are often ill-equipped to compete with the new hires, frequently younger and willing to work longer hours.

(snip)

In Mississippi, where the legacy of slavery and racism has long pervaded work in the cotton fields, a federal lawsuit filed by Mr. Strong and five other displaced Black farmworkers claims that the new foreign workers were illegally paid at higher rates than local Black workers, who it said had for years been subjected to racial slurs and other demeaning treatment from a white supervisor.

[yellowdogintexas]

1. my brother in law has used legal Mexican workers for years

through a Federal program which has some fairly stiff requirements. From the first year he used them he told us they were the best workers he has ever had. Farmers have a lot of hoops to jump through to get them there.

One of these requirements is to offer work in the local area at the same rate of pay. He gets very few applicants and often the ones who do hire on do not stay very long. Either they do not show up every day, or show up hung over, or come in late and are generally not dependable. Some of them have not done farmwork and when they find out how physically demanding it is just do not return. It could even be that they do not want to work with Mexicans but I do not know that, just suspect it because I know the area well.

The Mexican workers work hard, do extra things voluntarily (like change oil on the trucks, offer to tile my sister's backsplash, mow the lawn, etc. ) and wire money home every week to their families. It has worked out well. One of them returned every year for several years and may still be doing so.

Like most farmers in the area, he has a tobacco crop. Tobacco farming is hard work and very little of it is mechanized. Locals do not want to do it.

I do not know about any other programs but he and my cousin (they share cost on getting the workers there and the men work on both farms depending on need) have been very happy with the outcome.

[MineralMan]

3. Nope. You're incorrect, and badly incorrect.

You may be in the wrong place.

I remember the Bracero program in California. It was an ugly, ugly thing.

[MineralMan]

5. Educating you is not my job, frankly.

Google it.

[UpInArms]

7. Welcome to DU, mysticmauna

[leftstreet]

8. +1

You're absolutely right

[marble falls]

10. The library has tons of information,