CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

This forum is for discussions on the noteworthy events, people, places, and circumstances of both the past and the present (note: pop culture etc... is on the back porch).
User avatar
Vonz90
Posts: 4731
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2008 4:05 pm

CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by Vonz90 »

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2017/05/ ... -shortage/

Up your salary, you will find workers. If you cannot do so profitably, then your business model is flawed. This is what everyone else in the country has to deal with, you can too.
User avatar
Weetabix
Posts: 6106
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2008 11:04 pm

Re: CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by Weetabix »

Well, if I can get $15/hr for either doing back breaking work in the sun or for sitting behind a counter collecting people's money at a convenience store, I might not do the ag work either.

Part of the problem seems to be that the State of CA raised minimum wage, so the labor market is distorted.

Part of the problem is that the farmers decided to hitch their wagon to illegal immigrant labor, figuring the supply would never dry up.

Maybe if CA would get over this minimum wage silliness, and if there were some accommodation for migrant worker visas, where they were monitored and went back at the end of their visa, things could work out.
Note to self: start reading sig lines. They're actually quite amusing. :D
User avatar
randy
Posts: 8334
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:33 pm
Location: EM79VQ

Re: CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by randy »

...the commodities we produce are being produced in other countries a lot cheaper than they’re produced here.
I haven't studied the facts in detail, but I got a sneaking hunch those crops are being produced a lot cheaper in other states that don't have California legislature and governor dictating magic unicorn style economic labor and tax policies.
...even before I read MHI, my response to seeing a poster for the stars of the latest Twilight movies was "I see 2 targets and a collaborator".
User avatar
Jered
Posts: 7859
Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:30 am

Re: CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by Jered »

There's a visa for temporary farm workers. It's called the H2A.

Methinks that this farmer was too dependent on illegal immigrant labor and doesn't want to go about things properly.
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
User avatar
Kommander
Posts: 3761
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:13 am

Re: CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by Kommander »

While the CA regulations are silly it sounds like these guys have a fundamentally​ flawed business model. On one hand they are complaining that the new minimum wage is going to cost them, and then they complain that not enough people are coming to work for them so they have to raise wages on their own. You can't blame both of these issues for you problem. It's one of the other, and they are coming across, at least in the article, as economically illiterate asshats.
BDK
Posts: 1698
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2014 11:14 pm

Re: CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by BDK »

They are also going to be in a distorted market because many of the poor do not "have" to work.
User avatar
Odahi
Posts: 700
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:21 am

Re: CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by Odahi »

“If we can’t change the way we’re doing business, we’re at risk,” said Brad Goehring, a fourth-generation wine grape grower in Lodi.
It seems his problem has become obvious, even to him. Kinda sucks when the third-world peons you've been relying on (exploiting) for four generations finally get smart, and get educated. I suggest they look to France, which has been dong the wine grapes thing for a while. Or Germany. California seems enamored with the European model in so many other things, send Governor Moonbeam over there to do some fact-finding. Maybe they'll even get lucky and he'll decide to stay. My sympathy for California wine grape growers can be measured in nano-give-a-shits.
Birds gotta swim, fish gotta fly, assholes gotta ass, until the day they die.

"Common sense" is an oxymoron.
User avatar
evan price
Posts: 1912
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:24 am

Re: CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by evan price »

Perhaps some of those well-educated young folks can get jobs as copy editors, because based on that article, there aren't any editors at THAT paper. Sentence structure, punctuation, weird abuse...it had it all.
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc

http://ohioccwforums.org/
Ohioans for Concealed Carry:THE source for Ohio CCW information and discussion!
User avatar
MiddleAgedKen
Posts: 2871
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:11 pm
Location: Flyover Country

Re: CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by MiddleAgedKen »

evan price wrote:Perhaps some of those well-educated young folks can get jobs as copy editors, because based on that article, there aren't any editors at THAT paper. Sentence structure, punctuation, weird abuse...it had it all.
I'm not sure some of these papers even have a copy desk any more. It doesn't sell soap or help you be first with the story. :roll:
Shop at Traitor Joe's: Just 10% to the Big Guy gets you the whole store and everything in it!
TabascoKid
Posts: 278
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:31 pm
Location: DFW

Re: CA farmers not paying market rate for labor

Post by TabascoKid »

Jered wrote:There's a visa for temporary farm workers. It's called the H2A.

Methinks that this farmer was too dependent on illegal immigrant labor and doesn't want to go about things properly.
There have been stories in the MSM recently that tell about farmers who are trying H2A and finding violent, sometimes criminal, opposition from the local community. H2A makes the farmer responsible for housing. One farmer built dorms for his visa holders against the wishes if the townsfolk and saw them burnt down before they were finished.
Post Reply