Around 75% of immigrant farm workers in Bakersfield, California, ditched their shifts after Trump ramped up his threats by removing protections against ICE raids in “sensitive areas,” including schools and workplaces.
Mmm, can’t wait to pay $15 for produce. Fucking idiot Americans voting against their own interests.
Let me start to say that I’m on our side (probably), but are you implying that you want those workers to be underpaid and have no worker rights so your produce price stays low?
This has always been a complex dynamic.
For example, is it wrong for me to buy Tuna tinned in South East Asia? The people working there have few rights and are paid a pittance for their work. That said, it’s a highly sought after job because the other jobs available in the area are far worse.
Really we’re talking about labor arbitrage. Whether or not the labor actually happens locally or in a foreign jurisdiction, laborers residing in a poorer jurisdiction are selling their labor to people in a wealthier one.
I think the answer to whether or not it’s “ok” is firstly a personal one, (maybe I’m ok with it while others aren’t), but also dependent on the degree of difference.
It might be ok to buy tinned Tuna from a company that invests in foreign communities and pays employees a living wage with good terms, but probably not ok to buy tinned Tuna from a company that chains employees to machines for 16 hours a day before allowing them to return to their cage-box.
What I’m saying is, I’m ok with foreign workers being paid less provided that it’s not exploitative, which is subjective.
Didn’t some morons vote for trump literally because of the egg prices?
Anyone I know who voted for trump for “economic reasons” are people I know to have the weakest grasp on what economic factors determine the price of eggs.
Let the farms try to hire us citizens for this work. No one will take jobs that pay dollars per hour with no benefits. Let the farms raise salaries and charge Americans triple for produce. Let Americans bitch… Then watch Trump and GOP blame the liberals for it.
Then watch Trump and GOP blame the liberals for it.
… and more than half of Americans will agree with that conclusion.
This also highlight how many companies are taking advantage of these people in a modern form of slavery…
In Canada too, we just gussie it up as the “temporary foreign workers” program, and bring immigrants over here for a while to do shit jobs we white people don’t want to do, like work in Tim Hortons or drive for Uber, and leave them trying to afford housing and cost of living, and many just come here and move into shelters, or live in extremely large family settings, which makes locals hate them more because of the housing crisis.
I think immigration needs huge reform in Canada, and that the pathways to citizenship through massive tuition fees bumping out citizens from higher education and using diploma mill “colleges” need to be closed, but the temporary worker program is just slightly polished up slavery and nothing more. If we’re going to offer immigration it should be to skilled people who can work in their field here and can afford to live here, and not just dangling scraps in front of vulnerable people because it’s somewhat better than living in an underdeveloped country’s slums so they can be our slaves, while we all fight over housing and resent each other. At least the migrant agricultural worker program doesn’t hide the fact it is farm labour and temporary.
fuck that. we shouldn’t only be open to one class of immigrant. I don’t pretend to have answers but I know that this idea further a class hierarchy and as such is crap.
I think it should be until housing and services can keep pace with the huge influx of immigrants we got in the last two years. It’s one thing to have a subspecialist physician apply to move here, that’s very needed all the time, but also they’re not going to live off of the social welfare net because they’ll make liveable salaries and be able to buy a home.
“they” are humans who have a far worse life somewhere else just because of the birth lottery. who are you to say they don’t deserve the life you get to have based on pure luck?
But people who are citizens here are living in tents. We have encampments all over my city. We have to take care of people who live here first. And we’re not. Sadly the government let housing and infrastructure lag far behind the capacity needed to take care of everyone who is already here. We can’t take more people when we don’t have space for the ones who are here.
Good. Agriculture shouldn’t be built on the backs of almost slavery
If a sudden increase in prices is what it takes to fully automate agriculture logistics and infrastructure, then it is welcome
Advocacy group America’s Voice believes that U.S. rural and agricultural regions will likely be the hardest hit by Trump’s immigration policies, which threaten mass detention and deportation of millions.
Border Patrol agents in unmarked vehicles have allegedly been carrying out racially profiled raids in California’s agricultural center after stalking immigrants outside stores, CalMatters reports.
Estimates suggest that between 400,000-800,000 people are farmworkers in California, which is responsible for about 13% percent of the country’s agricultural production value that is worth more than $25 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The USDA estimated that between 2020-2022 about 32% of crop farmworkers were U.S. born, 7% were immigrants who had obtained citizenship, 19% were authorized immigrants, mostly permanent residents or green-card holders and the remaining 42% were unauthorized to work. The majority of these workers have Latino backgrounds.
The AV report noted how anti-immigrant crackdowns in the past decade have led to devastating impacts for farms, such as crop rot, across several states, including Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
"The unmarked cars, the racial profiling, abusive harassment, and wide dragnets are likely just the tip of the spear of the incoming administration and the signs are unmistakable: there are ‘enemy invaders’ within threatening everything ‘real Americans’ hold dear, and the federal government will be interested in critical oversight in how local officials deal with the ‘enemy.’
It warns, "The tone and culture they set will be just as important as the policies they begin to implement. As individual law enforcement and vigilantes feel empowered to take drastic action with little concern for consequences or oversight, our situation could get out of hand quickly and mass family separations will likely begin again. And, as we saw, the impacts will be felt by families, communities, businesses – and, frankly, all of us.
