Never got the chance to mention this, but I spent the last week in August working with a bunch of hispanic gentlemen during the bartlett pear harvest in Hood River. It's nice to get out in the fresh air just below Mt. Hood for that last week of freedom before heading back to school for 9 months. I do have some general comments about what has lately become an annual tradition:
1) Harvesting fruit is not an easy job. I wasn't even picking the fruit, I was just driving a tractor throught the rows of trees...moving or hauling away bins of pears (see picture). Would I want to do this job full-time? No way.
2) The pay isn't very good. Now, I was working for my father-in-law, so I was getting "other-than-usual" perks. However, the hourly rate I was getting from him was only 40% of the hourly rate I make as a teacher. Plus, I came back with bruises, scrapes, lumps, and a sun-burn (95 degree days, 10 hours a day in the sun). Now the guys who were picking the fruit...they made less than I did, and they were working much harder. Hauling a 30 lb. bag of fruit up and down ladders for 10 hours is no easy task. Now compared to last year, these guys were slow pickers. The best of them made about $9-$10 an hour.
3) For me, communication was nearly impossible. Luckily, I'm used to working with 9th graders who don't understand normal english either (some of my students think "LOL" and "IMHO" can be used in essays). I was the only white guy, and only the other tractor driver spoke passable english. Basic hand signals was the mode of communication. In fact, my father-in-law mentioned to me that a couple neighbors drove by and asked him, "Who's the white guy working for you?" Funny stuff.
Commentary:There's a reason (or 10) why "American's won't do this job". It's sucks, and the pay isn't good. There are good things about it (fresh Mt. Hood air). For the pickers, my father-in-law provides FREE HOUSING (including electricity, water, garbage, maintenance). But they don't get insurance (pity, huh?). Even talking to him, he's assumes that a majority of the workers he has are not legal residents. Sure, they have all the right paperwork and documents, or he wouldn't hire them. But he can't do anything if he sees something suspicious.
Recently, he told me he's been having a hard time finding workers. There just aren't any, which he attributes to the tighter security on the border. It's a situation that has put me on the fence. If there aren't enough workers, "market forces" suggest that 1) There just isn't a labor pool, or 2) The wages are not high enough to attract workers, or 3) Something else?
My theory is this: There is a shortage in the labor pool because migrant workers (legal or not) are leaving the agriculture industry becuse it doesn't pay as well (or have working conditions as good as) the construction or service industries. I think that when the housing boom levels off (as we've heard it is) or dies off, the demand for these workers will decrease. Migrant workers will return to where the demand is (ag jobs). According to census numbers, the hispanic population is higher than it has ever been in the United States (and it's growing). Why aren't there enough fruit pickers, then? If the fruit harvest is a job that "American's won't do", doesn't that mean that the problem is not that "white people" won't do that job, it's that once people (White or black or brown or whatever) are here and are prosperous or educated enough, the job of harvesting fruit is really "beneath" their education or standard of living levels.
The biggest problem with my theory (which I'm sure is not an original one), is that there is too much COMMON SENSE involved in it. Either the AG Industry must change to reflect a changing economy, or the economy must change. I'm guessing both will have to change to some degree, if either will survive.
~Diesel
