Farm workers: Take our jobs, please!

[babsbunny]

http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/07/news/economy/farm_worker_jobs/index.htm?hpt=T2

By Aaron Smith, staff writerJuly 10, 2010: 1:14 PM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Facing growing anti-immigrant rhetoric, the United Farm Workers union is challenging Americans to take their labor-intensive, low-paying farm jobs.

As communities nationwide grapple with tenacious unemployment, migrant workers are often accused of stealing jobs from Americans. The union believes this accusation is without basis, and intends to demonstrate this with a newly-launched campaign called "Take Our Jobs."

[CrownPrinceBandar]

1. Maybe if these jobs weren't so "low-paying"...

some Americans would take them. It's the wages, stupid. (to paraphrase Clinton)

[elleng]

4. More than that, maybe?

Locations (moving), along with physical difficulty? Won't be an easy sell, imo.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

5. Those as well, I agree........

But, IMHO, it all comes down to the money.

[maryf]

2. glad to see this is still getting press...

thanks...

[90-percent]

3. It's not the wages

John McCain said that even if American workers earned $50 (original $25 was mistaken. thanks RFO!) an hour picking lettuce, they would not do it.

I wonder if this "experiment" has ever been tried anywhere in the USA in the last ten years?

-90% Jimmy

:sarcasm:

[HockeyMom]

6. Add heat also in South Florida

Imagine spending hours and hours picking tomatoes with heat indexes over 100 degrees?

[Rage for Order]

8. What's to imagine?

People who live in those areas are used to it. I see people putting roofs on houses, asphalt on roads, washing dishes and cooking in hot kitchens in restaurants, doing landscaping, etc in temperatures of 100+ degrees all the time. White, brown, black...all colors, shapes, and sizes of people. And yes, lots of them, are US citizens.

[HockeyMom]

9. I cannot get used to it

I don't work in an air conditioned office. I work in the schools and have to be outside with the kids in the playground, on the basketball court, back and forth to lunch, getting them on and off buses, etc. One day the actual temperature on that court was 120 degrees. The PE coach got the kids off it and made them do stretching excerises under a canopy. Those who work in the fields don't have shade, or can stop to do something else.

The longer I am here, the less I tolerate the heat. Now, anything over 80 degress makes me break out in a heat hives.

I suppose not EVERYBODY who lives in these climates gets ued to it.

[Rage for Order]

7. Actually, he said $50 per hour

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/04/05/50-an-hour-to-pick-lettuce-you-bet/

But your point is still valid