After Trumps immigration order, anxiety grows in Floridas vegetable fields

[DonCoquixote]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/after-trump%E2%80%99s-immigration-order-anxiety-grows-in-florida%E2%80%99s-vegetable-fields/ar-AAnp0pV?li=AA4ZnC&ocid=spartandhp


I knew this shoe would drop. Now to see farmers that loved trump bitch and moan until they bring back slaver..er chain gangs.

[guillaumeb]

1. There is a simple solution for these farmers:

Offer $20 an hour and they will find plenty of workers to pick vegetables.

[bravenak]

2. They cannot afford that

[guillaumeb]

9. If any business cannot offer a living wage to its employees,

can that business be said to have a viable business plan?

If the minimum wage had been linked to inflation, it would have been at the $20 level.

[bravenak]

10. Then food prices would triple harming the poor who already dont get enough veggies.

[guillaumeb]

21. And as I pointed out:

if wages in general, and the minimum wage, had been indexed to inflation, this problem would largely disappear. The problem is not the total wealth of the country, it is the distribution of that wealth.

[bravenak]

24. If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.

We just don't live in that reality. I wish we did but we don't.

[guillaumeb]

25. No, but by conceding the wage argument, or failing to make the case to workers

that economic stagnation is due to the 1% taking far more than they should, workers will continue to argue over table scraps and the rich will continue to use economic insecurity as a tool to divide. And Trump will benefit from that argument.

[bravenak]

26. There are too many factors that would need to be involved and perfect conditions as well as

getting enough support for our side. For farmers to pay tgat much the minimum needs to go up for everybody, but since we don't control the minimum wage, we have no power.

[guillaumeb]

28. Agreed on the power component.

But for far too long, the GOP has been allowed to frame the debate, and the acceptable limits of thought. One way to win is to open that debate. And the way to do that is to make the argument in public that the country does not have a wealth problem, it has an inequality problem.

Another aspect is that as unions have weakened, wages have fallen. So Democrats must address all facets of the problem.

[bravenak]

29. They frame it because we refuse to stick together

[guillaumeb]

31. True. But the Party is not a parliamentary style party, where adherence

to the platform is required.

The GOP is far more parliamentary in nature.

[Blue_true]

18. Large companies that can afford machines to pick fruit and vegetables

would take over businesses. Farmers need workers to harvest a certain amount of fruit or vegetables per hour or those farmers don't make money. The work is called piece labor, workers that are fast can make more per hour than a minimum wage would pay them. Part of my extended family (cousins) are farmers, I witnessed the work as a boy and tried it to make pocket change (the advantage of being family, I got to try it instead of make a living from it). The work is hard and days for serious harvesters stretched from dawn to the point where they could not see what they were picking anymore.

[guillaumeb]

22. What can be picked by machine is picked by machine on factory farms.

If people cannot work enough hours to support their family, the problem is in the system.

[dhol82]

3. Bet they would be hard pressed to find American snowflakes even at $20/hr

[guillaumeb]

11. I would take that bet.

But these businesses depend on cheap labor. So is this truly a viable business model?

[DonCoquixote]

17. then you better present one

for growing food, and Soviet collective farms have already been proven to be a disaster that starved millions.

[guillaumeb]

23. One alternative is the collective model.

Like Mondragon. A viable alternative.

[Blue_true]

19. The work is piece work, fast pickers can make $15-$25 per hour.

The work is backbreaking (I tried it as a kid who had farmers in the family) and the days long, but fast harvesters can make good money if they work for honest farmers that don't try to cheat them by undercount. The system works, using strawberries as an example, a worker gets a ticket for a flat of picked strawberries. The flat is worth a known payout, the worker pocket the ticket and other tickets earned during the day. At the end of the day, the worker exchanges the tickets for cash that should equal the number of tickets times the payout per flat of strawberries.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

4. Not likely

This is Florida...many seniors. Migrant workers are desperately needed to pick citrus and other crops and for construction work. The cost of food is going to skyrocket. Trump is such a moron.

[roamer65]

5. If one will even be able to find it in a grocery store.

A lot of just may rot in the fields.

[guillaumeb]

12. But Florida voted for Trump.

SO they should expect what he promised.

[rzemanfl]

32. I really don't think that is true. It's what they say happened. n/t

[Blue_true]

20. Trump is a moron. But have you walked down

the produce sections of a market in a big city? More and more produce is from big money farming operations. In the northeast, Canada is the biggest supplier of year round tomatoes. My sense is technology will fill a void and keep food prices down, but small to large farmers will be wiped out.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. They'd last about 4 hours and then quit. Happens all the

time in the restaurant 'back of the house' business. Americans can land the jobs, but can't stand the actual work. Immigrants are dependable hard workers.

[murielm99]

7. I live in corn country.

Two of my children detassled when they were in high school. A lot of kids here do that work. That kind of work is hard and exhausting.

I can only imagine that picking fruit and vegetable crops is much worse.

[guillaumeb]

13. So Americans are unable to work hard?

Or unwilling to work for non-living wages?

[sinkingfeeling]

15. Farmer in the article says it's $15 to $20 an hour pay

for hard workers.

[guillaumeb]

16. Part of the problem is, where is the work located, and is their transportation

and other necessities in the area.

[IdiotsforPalin]

30. I'm a GM for a medium size contracting firm

Immigrants are the most reliable and hardworking employees I have. The worst, white guys who tend to be lazy and unreliable.

[Motownman78]

34. I am a former landlord

The numbers of immigrants I evicted for non-payment over 15 years is 2. For people born here, it is in the dozens.

[lostnfound]

8. Maybe silver lining down the road if working conditions improve

Migrants have been treated so badly.

[Achilleaze]

14. repube pissing on America's food chain is yuuge dumb disaster!

the repubes & their draft-dodging role-model leader Pee45 are working their asses off to cast America into a freaking russian-style famine...

[Historic NY]

27. I'm waiting for the Trumpistans to get out and pull their own weight...

time to start picking....your elites need arugula. Donlad promised you jobs so get a picking.

[phylny]

33. The Hispanic families I work with

are feeling subdued and cautious.

[Motownman78]

35. I agree

Immigrants work hard. I am a former Landlord. In the last 15 years I have only evicted 2 immigrants for non-payment. Dozens of native born americans.