National Guard on the Mexican/US Border Stemming Flow

Good News: According to the New York Times, President Bush's idea to place National Guard troops on the Mexican/US border is working. The NYT headline? Pickers Are Few, and Growers Blame Congress. Talk about spin.

Now harvest time has passed and tons of pears have ripened to mush on their branches, while the ground of Mr. Ivicevich’s orchard reeks with rotting fruit.
He and other growers in Lake County, about 90 miles north of San Francisco, could not find enough pickers.

Stepped-up border enforcement kept many illegal Mexican migrant workers out of California this year, farmers and labor contractors said, putting new strains on the state’s shrinking seasonal farm labor force.

But it isn't just the fact that Illegal Mexicans are becoming scarce, it turns out that many of them are simply enjoying the American dream and moving out of the dirty jobs and into the better-paying, safer jobs.

For years, economists say, California farmers have been losing their pickers to less strenuous, more stable and sometimes higher-paying jobs in construction, landscaping and tourism.

“If you want another low-wage job, you can work in a hotel and not die in the heat,” said Marc Grossman, the spokesman for the United Farm Workers of America. The union calculates that up to 15 percent of California’s farm labor force leaves agriculture each year.

The first thing that comes to mind is: Pay more. But they have an answer for that.

Some economists and advocates for farm workers say the labor shortages would ease if farmers would pay more. Lake County growers said that pickers’ pay was not low — up to $150 a day — and that they had been ready to pay even more to save their crops. “I would have raised my wages,” said Steve Winant, a pear grower whose 14-acre orchard is still laden with overripe fruit. “But there weren’t any people to pay.”

I don't have any reason to believe a word these people say. Presumably they cheat on their taxes, cheat their workers of benefits and Social Security. Their record-keeping must be something to see. How do we know what they pay, why should we believe them at all? They make their profits by paying a wage only illegal Mexicans will accept, and even they are finding it unacceptable. Why aren't the feds down there right now locking these people up - the owners and operators of these farms?

The tightening of the border with Mexico, begun more than a decade ago but reinforced since May with the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops, has forced California growers to acknowledge that most of their workers are illegal Mexican migrants. The U.F.W. estimates that more than 90 percent of the state’s farm workers are illegal.

Aren't there legal avenues available to fill these positions? Yes, but gee, they have to fill out all that paperwork (how spoiled they must be after all these years of 'streamlined' Human Resource administration, welcome to the world of the law-abiding). And oh, the paperwork got even more complicated after that 9/11 nuisance. So as the magnet for thousands of illegal border-crossers, these farm operators feel put-out by increased scrutiny of undocumented criminals using phony or forged ID's - working on a military base!

“Our experience with the current H-2A program has been a nightmare,” said Luawanna Hallstrom, general manager of Harry Singh & Sons, a vine-ripe tomato grower based in Oceanside, near San Diego.

Ms. Hallstrom said her company tried to use the program in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, when security checks forced it to fire illegal migrant employees who were working in tomato fields on a military base. Her company lost $2.5 million on that 2001 crop, she said.

Over the years, occasional programs to draw American workers to the harvests have failed. “Americans do not raise their children to be farm workers,” Ms. Hallstrom said.

Do they raise their children to work at McDonalds or Wal-Mart? They don't seem to have trouble hiring. I guess not everyone can sit on the Supreme Court or fly the space shuttle.

How about a program that arranges for transportation and lodging and gives young black men a chance to work on the farms (for a reasonable wage) during the summer and get them out of the projects. I'd pay a few cents extra for a pear to see that happen. Are pears really a food product that can't stand a couple cents inflation? I don't think so, I figure pear-eaters for the Starbucks coffee type.

One downside of relying on illegal border-crossers is that someday the U.S. might get fed up and start enforcing the law. What? No backup plan?

For decades, Mr. Ivicevich said, migrant pickers would knock on his door asking for work climbing his picking ladders. Then about five years ago they stopped knocking, and he turned to a labor contractor to muster harvest crews. This year, elated, he called the contractor in early August. Pears must be picked green and quickly packed and chilled, or they go soft in shipping.

“Then I called and I called and I called,” Mr. Ivicevich said.

The picking crew, which he needed on Aug. 12, arrived two weeks late and 15 workers short. He lost about 1.8 million pounds of pears.

Time to get legit or go broke. Like I said, welcome to the real world, where employers have to post want ads and pay a competative wage. Solve your own problem or go bust. Or hey! Move your damn pear farm down to Mexico; don't let the door hit you on the way out Mr. Ivicevich.