Colbert Calls For Either More Visas For Farmworkers Or Develop Vegetables That Pick Themselves

[kpete]

Today, Colbert testified before the House Judiciary subcommittee on his experience as an entertainer-turned migrant-worker. As part of his testimony, Colbert called for more visas for farmworkers

This brief experience gave me some small understanding of why so few Americans are clamoring to begin an exciting career as seasonal migrant field worker. So what’s the answer? I’m a free market guy. Normally I would leave this to the invisible hand of the market, but the invisible hand of the market has already moved over 84,000 acres of production and over 22,000 farm jobs over to Mexico and shut down over a million acres of U.S. farm land due to lack of available labor because apparently even the invisible hand doesn’t want to pick beans. <...>

Maybe we could give more visas to the immigrants, who — let’s face it — will probably be doing these jobs anyway. And this improved legal status might allow legal immigrants recourse if they’re abused. And it justs stands to reason to me if your coworker can’t be exploited, then you’re less likely to be exploited yourself. And that itself might improve pay and working conditions on these farms and eventually Americans may consider taking these jobs again.

Or maybe that’s crazy. Maybe the easier answer is just to have scientists develop vegetables that pick themselves.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/24/colbert-immigration-ufw/

[Traveling_Home]

1. Was he sworn in?

Did he testify under oath to tell the truth?

[Qutzupalotl]

22. Yes

I don't know that first-hand. I saw a clip from Fox (on Colbert) where Steve Doocey said he would be.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. If a Vegetable could pick itself...Could a vegan eat it?

I hope we never find out.

But, Damnnnnnn, Colbert should be declared a national treasure.

[blondeatlast]

3. I watched it--he was brilliant. Never broke character but he

made his opinion (which I share) pointedly and without offense.

His talk about "beans being on the ground" made a gentle point about the backbreaking, painful labor involved in picking them--while eliciting chuckles.

He's genius--possibly one of the best somedians ever--topical without being offensive and quick and smart as a whip.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Yeah, the problem is there aren't enough visas. Not the horrific working conditions.

I mean, hey, as long as there are desperately poor people willing to be exploited by farm owners, who are we to stop it?

Colbert Fail. :thumbsdown:


"Women get touched on the bottom all the time or taken advantage of, " says Maria Reyes, a former farmworker in California's Central Valley. "It happens so much it's kind of normal." Reyes was sexually harassed and assaulted by her boss for years. When she eventually reported it to the ranch owners, they did nothing. "I told the owners of the ranch everything, but unfortunately, they don't pay attention to a farmworker woman. No one cares what happens to you; you just come and go like a piece of trash. "

http://www.hcn.org/issues/368/17649

[stray cat]

16. The problem is also cheap food products - we need to make the food products expensive enough to pay

good wages

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. "This is America," Colbert continued.....

"This is America," Colbert continued. "I don't want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, then sliced by a Guatemalan and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian."



:spray: :spray: :rofl: :rofl:

Fucking brilliant!

[Hello_Kitty]

6. "Ha ha ha, I'm a clueless white limousine liberal!"

Isn't it great how we have "those people" to perform our menial tasks? Lets make fun of them and while we're at it, take swipes at poor Americans too!

[blondeatlast]

10. Somehow, I don't think UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, who partnered with him on "Take Our Jobs,"

thinks Colbert was mocking the people represented by the UFW--or those who would like to be represented by them.

Awaiting your reply.

[Hello_Kitty]

15. UFW appears to be a worthless co-opted union.

How have they improved working conditions on farms? And what did this stunt on the Colbert show accomplish?

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. Sometimes satire is lost on certain people.

If your comment was intended to insinuate that I am making fun of "those people", I didn't say what I posted above, Stephen Colbert did and he did it in character with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.

But you knew that, didn't you?

[blondeatlast]

12. She does, I can assure you. nt

[Hello_Kitty]

17. The satire worked on its intended audience: Smug Anglo liberals.

When this stunt was first announced many of my affluent liberal friends thought the funniest part was how welfare recipients don't show up to take the farm jobs. Because hur hur poor Americans are so fucking lazy hur hur unlike the Mexicans with their innate work ethic.

This isn't doing a think to offend the teabaggers. It's pitting poor Americans against poor immigrants and it sucks. And the fact that after all this Colbert's conclusion is that more visas are needed and not that abuse and exploitation on farms needs to be stopped right the fuck now only serves to underscore my point. We need a new Harvest of Shame, not poverty tourism played for yuks.

[Qutzupalotl]

23. He's also addressing the abuse issue

"And this improved legal status might allow legal immigrants recourse if they’re abused. And it just stands to reason to me if your coworker can’t be exploited, then you’re less likely to be exploited yourself."

[Hello_Kitty]

26. Visas will definitely help but mistreatment of workers is entrenched in this industry

Colbert seems to be missing that point. And if you look at everything he said he seems to be a lot more concerned about the ability of the farms to get workers than he is about the conditions they labor under.

[A HERETIC I AM]

37. Ah, fuck it. Deleted.

Spent about 45 minutes putting together that post and then realized it is pointless.


Anyone wants to see what I wrote, just PM me.

[Hello_Kitty]

41. You spent 45 minutes

Concocting an argument for why pitting working class Americans against working class immigrants the way that UFW and Colbert are doing is a good thing.

Too bad you deleted it. I'm sure it was awesome.

[A HERETIC I AM]

42. It was awesome.

Truly. Epic, even. But it wasn't "an argument for why pitting working class Americans against working class immigrants the way that UFW and Colbert are doing is a good thing."

It was a response to your absurd post. But alas, discretion is the better part of valor.

But as I said, it was pointless. The reason it was pointless is stated in my post #11.

Some people just don't get satire.

Have a pleasant evening.

[Hello_Kitty]

44. Satire works best when it attacks the powerful.

Tell me, what powerful people and/or institutions are Colbert and the UFW mocking with this "Take Our Jobs" effort?

[A HERETIC I AM]

49. You can't POSSIBLY be that obtuse.

Really. I just don't believe you can't understand what it is they are trying to say.

See Blondeatlast's post # 24;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9193658&mesg_id=9194300

You are either being intentionally belligerent, you haven't read the thread on which you have so profusely posted or you are simply being dense.

Now which one is it?

[Hello_Kitty]

50. So unemployed Americans are powerful? Is that what you're arguing?

More powerful than, say, the wealthy farm owners who mistreat their workers?

Edit: An insightful observation by MellowDem on this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9193658&mesg_id=9196122

[TZ]

27. You should run for congress

Your total and utter lack of understanding of humor and satire as politcal commentary qualifies you!

[Hello_Kitty]

29. I don't give a shit what you think of my sense of humor.

I honestly don't. Colbert's hipster audience may think this stunt is the height of comedy but it's going to go over like a lead balloon with American voters.

[frylock]

30. nobody gives a shit what you think. period.

you know where you can jam your "hipster" smack.

[Hello_Kitty]

36. It doesn't matter what I think. You don't get it.

If Colbert and the UFW wanted to expose the working conditions on American farms they could have done that without slagging off American workers. The main message people are going to take away from this is that a rich comedian thinks Americans are too lazy to do farm work, not the need for immigration reform or to improve working conditions.

[Occulus]

39. Wow- maybe you really DON'T know satire when you see it

"The main message people are going to take away from this is that a rich comedian thinks Americans are too lazy to do farm work, not the need for immigration reform or to improve working conditions."

The only message I'm getting from you is that American workers are too dumb to 'get' good satire. Good luck selling that one.

[Hello_Kitty]

53. Good luck rehabilitating this Colbert disaster.

Effective satire attacks powerful people and institutions. Colbert's stunt failed on both counts.

[Occulus]

55. Quote": "My Grandfather Did Not Travel 4,000 Miles Of Atlantic Ocean To See An America....

...overrun by immigrants."

No, that's actually pretty decent and to the point.

Effective, too.

[golddigger]

9. That was hilarious.

:rofl:

[customerserviceguy]

7. There's a third option

Develop machines that can harvest crops. Most could be partially solar powered, to boot, since most harvesting is done in daylight hours.

Using cheap illegal immigration pushes off the day when such machines can be feasible.

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. There are a lot of crops that machines can not harvest, no matter what the design.

Strawberries and Oranges (and all citrus, for that matter) are but two examples. There are a lot of items in your local produce section that are mechanically harvested but there are also a lot that simply can not be done without a pair of human hands.

[customerserviceguy]

19. So far, you're right

But eventually, it will happen. Today's mechanized farm is as unimaginable for a farmer of a century ago, as the farm of a century from now would be to us today.

Can you really see human stoop labor being used on farms forever? Sure, in backyard gardens it will happen, but those are the same sort of hobby that owning a horse is today. A hundred years ago, that horse was 99% likely to be purely a necessary work animal.

[sakabatou]

20. Actually, they're developing a machine for oranges now

[A HERETIC I AM]

35. And what machine is that?

Within 150 miles of where I am sitting right now, there are thousands of square miles of orange, lime, lemon and grapefruit groves. I recently worked for an industrial supply company and delivered goods and supplies to several dozen of these operations in Charlotte, Lee, Hendry, Polk, Glades, Highlands, Hardee, Orange and Seminole counties, among others. I have had many conversations with grove managers and operators about this very issue because I find it fascinating. Oranges are overwhelmingly harvested by hand by mostly migrant workers. And just in case you aren't aware, many varieties of orange trees have thorns which make them particularly nasty to have to reach in and grab fruit off of.

If you have ever eaten a Walnut or an Almond, it was most likely grown in California. Those nuts are harvested using machines that grip the trunk of the tree and shake it so that the nuts fall to the ground. I asked several grove managers here in South Central Florida why this same device isn't used in harvesting oranges. The answer is that orange trees can not survive such treatment for very long. They die if shakers are used (and they have been used in Florida in the past). There have been other machines that use mechanical arms or "fingers" if you like, that reach into the trees and attempt to pull or scrape the fruit off the tree. These also caused too much damage to the tree to be economically viable, because these machines stripped off too many leaves along with the fruit.

An orange tree can have a productive life that can span a couple of decades but it takes up to 5 years or more from seedling to the first year a tree can be productive. You can't use methods that destroy trees when it takes 5 years to get a new one producing.

I would be very interested to see this new machine and I would also like to see how well it would be received by the industry. Building a machine that can get all the oranges off of a tree quickly has never been a problem. The problem is getting that tree to produce the same amount of oranges next year after such a machine has been used on it.

And for the record, no, I am not a Horticulturalist or an expert on Citrus grove management nor have I ever picked more than 5 or 6 oranges at a single time. I just ask questions of people who know the answers. If I am wrong I'll enjoy being corrected.

[sakabatou]

38. The one I saw, at least on TV...

which had a cup and pincers that grabbed and twisted the fruit off the limb.

[XemaSab]

43. Thank you for this post

Even here in California we have HUGE numbers of immigrants working in the nut orchards of the north valley.

But fruit trees are indeed a special case in agriculture.

[A HERETIC I AM]

45. One of the big reasons shakers can't be used on Citrus

(so I've been told) has to do with their root structure and the fact that they are planted in sandy soil (here in Florida, anyway). They thrive in sandy soil, that's why Fla. has so much citrus in the first place.

But yes, I agree. Citrus is apparently a very special case. Very susceptible to disease and damage.

[XemaSab]

46. I would imagine that apples and stonefruit would also be susceptible to bruising

I'm not aware of citrus being grown in particularly sandy soils here. Citrus seems to be grown in slight upland areas where it doesn't freeze in the winter.

[tridim]

8. Or raise the ground to waist-level. Whatever works.

[zippy890]

14. he brought attention to this important matter

kudos to Stephen

[valerief]

18. K&R!

:kick:

[Nikki Stone1]

21. It's a funny line, but there are many Americans out of work and they should

be given the opportunity to work in these positions if they wish.

[blondeatlast]

24. They were; and a whole SIXTEEN people did:

http://www.ufw.org/toj_play/TOJNEW_12_JAL.html

[Hello_Kitty]

28. Because Americans are such lazy fucking slobs, amirite?

Again, blondeatlast, with these stellar talking points I just can't understand why Dems are about to get their asses handed to them in Arizona this November. :sarcasm: Turns out that telling your working class base they suck and to fuck off isn't a winning strategy.

[Nikki Stone1]

31. Not many people check out the United Farm Workers website

There are many Californians out of work, so I imagine a larger campaign would attract more people. My guess is that the corporate farms don't want Americans because they would have to be treated as Federal Law demands. Migrant workers are far easier to abuse.

[blondeatlast]

32. Exactly. nt

[dave29]

25. They were given the opportunity. Colbert was one of 16

to take them up on it.

[Nikki Stone1]

34. If the corporate farms were serious about hiring Americans, they'd advertise

They don't. They LIKE migrant workers because they can abuse them.

[Hello_Kitty]

48. Yep.

And they don't even have to do their own PR because oblivious limousine liberals (and wannabes) are so willing to do it for them.

[treestar]

33. Now comedians testify before the Judiciary committee?

Funny, but :wtf:

[MellowDem]

40. Colbert's satire here is on the wrong side...

His intended strike just happens to line up with conservative business practices everywhere. The solution isn't more work visas for God's sake, when we have the unemployment numbers we have. The solution is to regulate the food industry better, raise the prices on food, and make working conditions (and pay) better for farm workers so Americans will do those jobs, not legally (or illegally) exploiting desperate migrant workers. On this point, Colbert looks like a total dumbass and clueless, which is sad, because all of his other satire is usually so on point.

[Hello_Kitty]

47. + Eleventybillion

Tone-deaf, elitist, and utterly clueless.

[onpatrol98]

51. + a million

[haele]

52. Here's the problem - I remember working summers in

orchards and farms where you'd get paid with a pail of whatever it was you were picking if you picked 5 or six pails (usually around 20-40lbs of produce) for the farmer. And it usually took an entire day for us to pick enough pails to get paid - that was "the kids" work. The pails we brought in went to the stand at the side of the road by the big house.

But on those same farms, the real work, the large amounts baskets and boxes of of fruit and veggies that went to the trucks for processing plants, was done by migrant workers of all races; White, Black, Latino, Japanese /Chinese/ Filipino - some with their families, worked in the areas where the majority of the produce were and usually lived out of a truck or a station wagon for the couple of weeks that the produce was at it's peak for transportation to market. Each of the experianced farm workers would be required to average around 500-700 lbs of perfectly harvested produce in their baskets or trays every day to keep up with what would be expected to remain employed.

Farm work is f'ing hard - long hours, hazardous conditions, some experience required to recognize what was ready to pick - and market forces themselves force the pay to be minimal at best so that the farm could make enough money to stay viable.

Ask someone who's parent or grandparent was a sharecropper before LBJ's war on poverty - or someone who remembers Cesar Chavez and the UFW activities just to improve the conditions of sharecroppers and migrant workers.
Sharecropping and Migrant Farming was part of the same culture of seasonal work as the General Handyman was, and it's not a "Career" as we now understand careers to be.

When I was young, living in Santa Maria in the 60's, there used to be seasonal farm workers who could make a living - raise kids, buy a house, own a car - running the migrant circuits in Southern California as well as picking up general yard, construction or repair work during the off seasons. I went to elementary school with several children who's parents worked that circuit; they lived with the grandparents who stayed in town and worked check-out at local stores.

But one can't make a living being a general handyman or farm worker, just as they can't make a living working a grocery store anymore.
Spending a few weeks farming someone else's land, then moving on to the next farm north, is not a job that most Americans would strive for - and culturally, no matter hard off we are, no matter how long we've been out of work, I know of very, very few Americans nowadays who would be willing to pack up and head out to the boonies for just a few weeks work basically working and camping out with no guarantee that there would be work available to them after that job is over.

The problem is not only the culture of the farm system, which has re-developed some serious abuses that can be redressed as more people shine spotlights and enforce regulations on the system, but the culture of the applicant.

I watched Colbert's skit; it appeared the time with the workers was not meant to bring up all the issues with migrant workers, but to put a human face on the workforce that harvests our food.

As long as we as a country insist on cheap food, the farms are not going to pay enough for the amount of work they demand from the hands. So more visas added to enforced workplace regulations might be the best we can expect at this point in time.

Unless we can find people willing to work years off their bodies for rigorous, monitored twelve hour day,7 days a week, at exempt (no OT) hourly minimum wage with room and board, we're not going to be getting a lot of unemployed Americans taking those field-hand jobs.

And even if we manage to get better hours and wages for the same back-breaking work, we'll need more people to do the same work that needs to be done.

So at this point in time, more visas for experienced field hands is still part of a legitimate answer to help the plight of immigrant field workers.

Haele

[Hello_Kitty]

54. So they should be paid what they are worth.

NOT less than minimum wage. NOT under ungodly conditions where female workers likely to be raped.

[haele]

61. I agree with that, but what needs to be focused on is VISIBILITY of the work -

which will lead to better wages and better regulation of the fields.
Women don't risk rape in all farms on the migrant circuit, workers aren't treated like slaves in all farms on the migrant circuit. The local organic farms and smaller farms tend to treat their workers much better than the Corporate Farms because of the tendancy for regulators to visit far more often. Regulation and Visibility are Key to ensuring that all workers are treated well.

Physical laborers are "under the radar" of most people, other than a few advocates and a few older people who respect physical labor, we as a culture have effectively reduced it to "Brown People's Work".

The problem that the UFW has rightly understood is that work that requires physical labor is frankly not respected. "Take our Jobs, please", and Slow Food Farming are great programs, and I'm glad the USDA is encouraging them.

If you're concerned about welfare of the farm workers, you bring the work "home" to Americans. And if it takes a popular comedian to show how hard they work in the fields, how the elderly and "weak" are working hours a day, and how arrogantly lazy most Americans are in comparison, that's a good thing.

Y'know, a lot of the issue is the "We all have to take the tests to go to College" attitude of the past 20 years. In most countries, kids are encouraged to spend their summers on the farms and "interning" with mechanics or on construction sites. Trade School is "not an option" for most children to strive for.
Parents with the ability to have summers off remember the "sucky summers" where they worked hard on with a local farmer or doing a summer job and for about the past 20 years, don't encourage their kids to do the same. The schools have let American students down by not continuing with Home Ec. and Shop for Middle School students, where they learn what it takes to get their food for them.

It's just easier for most of us "middle class types" and the corporate/bureaucratic system to have our kids hang out at malls and measure their success by tests at school than try to interact with them and help them grow. Showing them that putting a greater value on taking the easy way out and having "leisure time" rather than learning to deal with all the tools available is the problem.


Haele

[Hello_Kitty]

62. "...and how arrogantly lazy most Americans are in comparison..."

Rejecting below-subsistence wages (in the U.S. economy), unsafe conditions, and a high risk of sexual assuault = laziness? Really? If you're going to advocate for better treatment of migrant workers, it would help not to disparage the workers whose conditions you aspire for them to have. Either you want the "American Dream" for immigrants or you don't.

[haele]

63. It is laziness. If hard work was valued, it would be paid more. But in our culture, we pay people

more for sitting on their ass and pushing buttons, to mouth the pretty words, and to look good.
Lazy Americans? yes. We are lazy as a society, despite the few people who have the notion to actually stand to the side, observe, and attempt to make life better for everyone rather than just a few.
As De Tocqueville said " In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own. "
I'm not talking about you personally, or me personally, or any other individual but of we as a society -
So we as a society are currently in the grips of the following rather Dickensian opinions:
A person is as "clean" or as virtuous as the environment which they work and the house they live in. (Very Calvinist.BTW) Dirty work is for dirty people. Clean work is for clean people.
- A management or leadership position indicates the person is a superior human being, better than the people they are leading or managing.
- A person who goes to college is smarter and more "valuable" than the person who doesn't. The person who gets a PhD is smarter and more valuable than the person who only gets a bachelor's degree. If a person can afford a degree, they are better than the person who has to take out loans or work their way to a degree.
-Hard Work is for Intellectually Lazy People. People who work hard don't deserve the benefits of a civilized society, because they aren't smart enough or skilled enough to rise from the dirty job they obviously chose.

-And the most critical issue - your status in American Society is based on the money you are worth. Not how well you do your job, or how happy you are in life, or how much you can help people, but how much money you have and how many toys you can buy.

So. In today's shallow, lazy, stereotype-driven Calvinist Oligarchy of a country, farm work is now for migrant Brown People or stupid redneck Americans. Who are, of course, dirty, and don't deserve the same amount of respect and pay that a clerk in a warehouse or a licensed truck driver deserves,because "those people had to pay money to go to school and learn to do their job". And this society actually encourages ignoring the powerless.

Be angry at the corporate masters, not at people who recognize that this is what is going on but don't have the same tactics you have to bring this out in the open.
Outrage is personal, and not everyone shouts from the rooftops to try and get change going. Change comes from recognizing every part of the problem and coming up with solutions that are workable...
(This is a gentle way of saying, yelling at me for stating the truth of the system as it is now is not the best way to fix the problem)

So, we know people are being abused in the workplace on the farm circuit. They're getting abused because not only their labor, but their "position in society" is devalued.
How to fix it-
1) ease their work by enforcing the laws on farm work that are already on the books. Enforce "hours of work", pay, breaks, and working standards. This will require more federal and state regulators.

2) For now, add more visas and regulate/enforce the guest worker/visa programs to stabilize hours and wages across the board. Allow the current undocumented workforce access to the additional visas. Acknowledge that food prices for fruits and veggies will go up, or set up a tax structure that encourage the corporations to pull back some of their obscene profits that are being made on the backs of the workforce. (and you and I both know which of the two is most likely to happen)

3) Bring visibility to the hard work. "These are people, too - intelligent, with families, with ethics"... Bring back the idea of the "virtue" of experience and skill, rather than just the virtue of climbing to the top of the heap.

4) Break the mindset that College is the only outcome from school our children should strive for. Bring back Home Economics, community service, and Shop classes at the Jr. High School/Middle School level, before the kids get too jaded to learn that there's a whole world outside of their world.
Along this thought - expand ROP and apprenticeship programs in High School. Not everyone is suited for college, so it makes sense to build skilled trades as a viable alternative.

and finally -
5) Re-write the tax code to even out the wage discrepancy between ownership and the workforce. Try to figure out how to re-structure investment vehicles to actually benefit a business and shareholders rather than just some remote group of owner of an investment firm. S-Corporations and Holding LLCs are predatory beasts that need no skill but the ability to bullshit to make profits for their owners as they leave the businesses they buy out into carcasses.

But again, this means we have to give up our worship of Money and Leisure as virtues.

Haele

[Hello_Kitty]

65. I totally see what you're saying.

o. In today's shallow, lazy, stereotype-driven Calvinist Oligarchy of a country, farm work is now for migrant Brown People or stupid redneck Americans. Who are, of course, dirty, and don't deserve the same amount of respect and pay that a clerk in a warehouse or a licensed truck driver deserves,because "those people had to pay money to go to school and learn to do their job". And this society actually encourages ignoring the powerless.

Be angry at the corporate masters, not at people who recognize that this is what is going on but don't have the same tactics you have to bring this out in the open.
Outrage is personal, and not everyone shouts from the rooftops to try and get change going. Change comes from recognizing every part of the problem and coming up with solutions that are workable...
(This is a gentle way of saying, yelling at me for stating the truth of the system as it is now is not the best way to fix the problem)

But Stephen Colbert and Arturo Rodriguez of UFW don't appear to be wanting to confront that system. Instead, it looks like they want to perpetuate it.

[PeaceNikki]

57. The hearing wasn't about jobs, it was about Immigration, Citizenship and Border Security

[Hello_Kitty]

60. Um, what??

Did we watch different testimony?

[malaise]

56. Colbert was great

Whenever the pigs at Fux squeal you know they've been hit. Their anti-immigrant propaganda has been destroyed yet again.

[JonLP24]

58. Here is a link

to the AgJobs bill that he is pushing for.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-1038

[Nikia]

59. Sometimes more farm worker visas would make sense as long as farms follow the rules

Such as advertising the position at least on the state employment website. They must be willing to hire those Americans too.
I live in Wisconsin where the farming season is relatively short. I understand that they might need more workers for a short time than they are able to hire from among local people. On the otherhand, when my husband had the misfortune to be in jail, over a dozen unemployed inmates with work release privleges (if they could get a job) applied to a local seasonal vegtable processor who use migrant immigrant labor. The inmates had a variety of educational and work experiences and were serving a variety of sentences for minor non violent crimes. None of them were hired.

[Canuckistanian]

64. I LOLed at this line

"For one thing, when you're picking beans, you have to spend all day bending over. It turns out--and I did not know this--most soil is at ground level."

[dkf]

66. Or more desperate unemployed Americans.