How this garlic farm went from a labor shortage to over 150 people on its applicant waitlist

[TemplarKormac]

bear513

You should have read your own article: Throwing money at the problem hasn’t solved anything yet, because it isn’t drawing in workers from other industries.

“The one constant is that no matter how much we pay, domestic workers are not applying for these jobs,” Resnick said. “Raising wages only serves to cannibalize from the existing workforce; it does nothing to add new laborers to the pool.”



Americans are not flocking to the farms. Sorry!

And just a question...

What is "the existing workforce" comprised of? Surely not illegal immigrants. Hiring them is well... illegal. So what are you left with?

AMERICANS.

Holy crap.

This isn't rocket science.

 

[Clintonista]

bear513

You should have read your own article: Throwing money at the problem hasn’t solved anything yet, because it isn’t drawing in workers from other industries.

“The one constant is that no matter how much we pay, domestic workers are not applying for these jobs,” Resnick said. “Raising wages only serves to cannibalize from the existing workforce; it does nothing to add new laborers to the pool.”



Americans are not flocking to the farms. Sorry!

And just a question...

What is "the existing workforce" comprised of? Surely not illegal immigrants. Hiring them is well... illegal. So what are you left with?

AMERICANS.

Holy crap.

This isn't rocket science.

What part of "it does nothing to add new laborers to the pool" do you not understand, Mr. Goddard?

It seems like the point flew a mile above your head.

 

[JBond]

I live in Bakersfield, the workers move with the Crop. Each crop has it's own time table.

Which is why Americans won't do those jobs.

They would if we stopped paying them not to.

Here is a better idea. Let's train Americans to do highly skilled, highly paid jobs and let Third Worlders do Third World work.

The American economy is not suffering because of some Mexicans picking garlic. It is suffering because we have severely shortchanged our own people's future.

I expect an elitist view from you. Not all Americans are capable of highly skilled work. The very thought makes no sense. FYI.... we provide a free public education at tax payers expense. What each individual chooses to do with it, is up to them.

Not much one can do with the shit education they are getting.

That's up to you. If your community is providing a shit education to your kids, do something about it. Stop whining to me about your local problems.

 

[TemplarKormac]

bear513

You should have read your own article: Throwing money at the problem hasn’t solved anything yet, because it isn’t drawing in workers from other industries.

“The one constant is that no matter how much we pay, domestic workers are not applying for these jobs,” Resnick said. “Raising wages only serves to cannibalize from the existing workforce; it does nothing to add new laborers to the pool.”



Americans are not flocking to the farms. Sorry!

And just a question...

What is "the existing workforce" comprised of? Surely not illegal immigrants. Hiring them is well... illegal. So what are you left with?

AMERICANS.

Holy crap.

This isn't rocket science.

What part of "it does nothing to add new laborers to the pool" do you not understand, Mr. Goddard?

What part of "it has the potential to create new jobs" do you not understand, Mr. Herman?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Here is the reason Americans don't do the farm jobs: They have to move around a lot.

How real is the
 farm labor shortage?

When Jesus Lamas Sr. arrived early one morning to start his workers on some late June apple thinning, only half of his 30-person crew was there to greet him.

The rest didn’t show, probably because they switched to a neighboring orchard to harvest cherries and make more money.

“If employers are just stealing workers from each other, then that’s a pretty good definition of a labor shortage,” said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League, a Yakima firm that represents growers on labor issues.

I live in Bakersfield, the workers move with the Crop. Each crop has it's own time table.

Which is why Americans won't do those jobs.

They would if we stopped paying them not to.

Here is a better idea. Let's train Americans to do highly skilled, highly paid jobs and let Third Worlders do Third World work.

The American economy is not suffering because of some Mexicans picking garlic. It is suffering because we have severely shortchanged our own people's future.

Well you can't make a bricklayer into a scientist. You can't make a lawyer a star baseball pitcher. Different people are inclined to do different things. Most people can't be a doctor, lawyer or engineer no matter how hard they tried. And even if they could make it to those professions, they would never be any good at it.

I used to teach music at a music store years ago. Whenever I got a new student that was obsessed with sports, I knew there was no way I would turn them into a musician. Oh, they tried like hell. I could tell how hard they practiced by how untuned their strings were, but sports people just don't have the ability to be successful at playing an instrument.

 

[Clintonista]

Here is the reason Americans don't do the farm jobs: They have to move around a lot.

How real is the
 farm labor shortage?

I live in Bakersfield, the workers move with the Crop. Each crop has it's own time table.

Which is why Americans won't do those jobs.

They would if we stopped paying them not to.

Here is a better idea. Let's train Americans to do highly skilled, highly paid jobs and let Third Worlders do Third World work.

The American economy is not suffering because of some Mexicans picking garlic. It is suffering because we have severely shortchanged our own people's future.

Well you can't make a bricklayer into a scientist.

You can make a bricklayer's son into a scientist. We used to be a nation of farmers. Now we are not because we don't need the whole nation farming. We need only a very small percentage. Obviously we retooled our education system somewhere along the way so that the grandchildren of farmers became auto assembly line workers.

Somewhere further along the way, we should have retooled again.

 

[Brain357]

$15? Nobody can afford to pay that!

Some businesses models can, others can't. That is why the government needs to stay out wages. Supply and demand works if you don't import a bunch of non citizens that will work for dirt.

A global economy makes it far more complicated than that.

I agree that a global economy is a complicated thing. I also know bringing in no-skill workers will to work the minimum lowers wages.

For what jobs though?

The unskilled ones.

So unless we have a real huge shortage of unskilled workers wages really won't be affected.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I live in Bakersfield, the workers move with the Crop. Each crop has it's own time table.

Which is why Americans won't do those jobs.

They would if we stopped paying them not to.

Here is a better idea. Let's train Americans to do highly skilled, highly paid jobs and let Third Worlders do Third World work.

The American economy is not suffering because of some Mexicans picking garlic. It is suffering because we have severely shortchanged our own people's future.

Well you can't make a bricklayer into a scientist.

You can make a bricklayer's son into a scientist. We used to be a nation of farmers. Now we are not because we don't need the whole nation farming. We need only a very small percentage. Obviously we retooled our education system somewhere along the way so that the grandchildren of farmers became auto assembly line workers.

Somewhere further along the way, we should have retooled again.

Your comparison is not the same. Farmers and auto workers are both physical labor jobs. Blue collar workers often do different kinds of jobs all the time, but that doesn't mean they can get into the office of a business and be a vice president.

I like to listen to talk radio everyday. I'm amazed at how many of them (by their own admission) couldn't replace a flapper valve in a toilet. It's just not in them and lets's face it, with the internet and YouTube that has everything to learn, they still can't figure out how to change a tire on their car. They hire people to do all those things for them.

 

[Clintonista]

The Silicon Valley is over run with Indian and Chinese engineers.

Yes, there is a huge technically skilled labor shortage in the American workforce. Huge.

One would have to argue that either the Indians and Chinese are genetically superior to us, or we have screwed up our educational system and not taught our kids the necessary skills to succeed in the future.

I believe it is Option B.

 

[TemplarKormac]

You can make a bricklayer's son into a scientist.

How? Through hormone therapy? If a person does not have the capability/ability/wherewithal to become a scientist, and you try to make him a scientist, the whole of science suffers for his lack of skill. If you employ him in a field he is proficient at, say bricklaying in this case, the whole of the field is enriched by his wealth of knowledge and skill.

 

[francoHFW]

I understand the difference. Either way I don't see doom. But the right has claimed $15 would doom jobs.

$15 would prevent many unskilled workers from ever getting a job.
It would cost other low-skilled workers the jobs they already have.

Says greedy idiot billionaire brainwashers and their dupes...

No, says the Corps already investing machines to replace workers.

Link, dupe? Funny how Oz and NZ do fine with $19 and $15 min wages...

Look it up yourself "dupe" you're an idiot. Google is your friend.

You got nothing but BS propaganda.

 

[Clintonista]

I expect an elitist view from you. Not all Americans are capable of highly skilled work.

Especially when they are cheated out of a decent education.

Why are you cheating them out of a decent education? Shame on you.

Also, there is nothing wrong with locking up violent criminals.

As I read this forum, I can see that a great percentage of Americans have been cheated out of a decent education. I don't think this forum is an accurate representation of American demographics, but it is close enough that I fear a supermajority of Americans have been so cheated.

The poor quality of the American educational system has allowed horrible people like Trump and Obama and Bush to pull the wool completely over their supporters' eyes. I sometimes fear our leaders have purposely made them that stupid.

 

[TemplarKormac]

we have screwed up our educational system and not taught our kids the necessary skills to succeed in the future.

When kids in America are raised with a sense of entitlement, it isn't the education system that failed, it's the parenting. Wanting immediate success is entitlement, and having an understanding that you have to work for your success is the education.

 

[Clintonista]

If your hopes and aspirations for America rest on garlic picking jobs, our country is well and truly fucked.

This is such a backward looking, self-defeating vision that I really am scared of the poorly educated and ignorant group mindset behind this world view.

 

[TemplarKormac]

As I read this forum, I can see that a great percentage of Americans have been cheated out of a decent education. I don't think this forum is an accurate representation of American demographics, but it is close enough that I fear a supermajority of Americans have been so cheated.

This analysis is kind of arrogant and condescending, don't you think?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

we have screwed up our educational system and not taught our kids the necessary skills to succeed in the future.

When kids in America are raised with a sense of entitlement, it isn't the education system that failed, it's the parenting. Wanting immediate success is entitlement, and having an understanding that you have to work for your success is the education.

Your comment reminds me of some neighbors I had a few years ago. The kid bought a portable basketball hoop, and before you know it, the entire neighborhood of kids were next door.

There had to be anywhere between 8 to 20 kids here at times. They started playing after school and didn't stop until I yelled at them or called the cops. They played well past dark. The question I asked myself is where are these kids parent(s)? Why are they not home doing homework or at the very least, be getting ready for school the next day?

With the exception of rainy days, this went on seven days a week. Sure, I played basketball too as a kid, but my ass had to be home well before the street lights came on, and I was only two or three doors down. These kids next door came from blocks away.

 

[TemplarKormac]

If your hopes and aspirations for America rest on garlic picking jobs, our country is well and truly fucked.

No, that's not what I said. But it has to start somewhere.

You can't give a human spermatozoa a college education, but you can cultivate it into life (though the gestation process of course), and that life can take that path if given the proper guidance.

 

[TemplarKormac]

I think he has me on ignore now... or I completely dismantled his argument. One or the other.

 

[TemplarKormac]

we have screwed up our educational system and not taught our kids the necessary skills to succeed in the future.

When kids in America are raised with a sense of entitlement, it isn't the education system that failed, it's the parenting. Wanting immediate success is entitlement, and having an understanding that you have to work for your success is the education.

Your comment reminds me of some neighbors I had a few years ago. The kid bought a portable basketball hoop, and before you know it, the entire neighborhood of kids were next door.

There had to be anywhere between 8 to 20 kids here at times. They started playing after school and didn't stop until I yelled at them or called the cops. They played well past dark. The question I asked myself is where are these kids parent(s)? Why are they not home doing homework or at the very least, be getting ready for school the next day?

With the exception of rainy days, this went on seven days a week. Sure, I played basketball too as a kid, but my ass had to be home well before the street lights came on, and I was only two or three doors down. These kids next door came from blocks away.

It's harder to say that their lack of parenting came from parents who had a lack of parenting of their own. It seems the quality of which seems to degrade over generations. A generational degradation of parental influence, so to speak.

 

[Weatherman2020]

To keep crops from rotting in the field, farmers say they need Trump to let in more temporary workers

To keep crops from rotting in the field, farmers say they need Trump to let in more temporary workers

Time for work requirements to get a welfare check.

I am fine with you being required to work before you get your welfare check.

Only one party opposes it.

Which party is trying to take away your welfare check?

You leftards have been pissed for the last 160 years Republicans have been taking away your darkies who picked your cotton. The OP is an age old story.