This article is about the new immigration law in Alabama. It is one of the toughest in the country. The overview follows
The law allows police to detain people indefinitely if they are suspected of being in the country illegally and requires schools to check the status of new students when they enroll. Those elements make it perhaps the toughest law in nation.
"The law targets employers by forbidding drivers from stopping along a road to hire temporary workers. It also bars businesses from taking tax deductions for wages paid to illegal workers and makes it a crime for an illegal immigrant to solicit work. A federal judge has temporarily blocked those sections of the law so she can study them more.
Right now the fall out is that " legal americans" are not rushing to take over these back breaking jobs. Farmers are not finding enough field hands to harvest crops. People are not flocking to be roofers or rough in construction workers. It is hard work and does not come with benefits. "
John has found this to be true, even in this economy with so many out of work people it is hard to get someone to want the labor jobs. He recently posted signs at various places looking for a farm hand, being a rural area this wouldn't seem like a big deal, anyway he was paying $12.00 an hour and you would supply your own chain saw as he wanted some trees cleared in the fields that he is having converted to switch grass. It was going to be about 2 weeks worth the work. He did not get one inquiry. He finally did get a young guy who was unemployed, but he was referred to John by someone. We wanted some things done around the house. The big one is putting a roof on the atrium. We had someone come out and give us an estimate and said he would be available in about 2 weeks. He never showed up and never returned John's three phone calls. John is doing the work himself with the help of a young strong guy to help him. This is a physical job, for those of you who remember the atrium the roof was all glass. These panes of glass are 8 or 10 feet long and very heavy. They were able to remove the panes without breaking any. They are now roughing it in. We are lucky, since John has done so much home remodeling from back in his college days and his engineering background he is able to really oversee the work and because he couldn't really find anyone willing to work, help with it. The young guy who is helping is between jobs, likes physical work and is very strong, but he is not able to really "think through a problem" So John has to pretty much be hands on. The point is that even with high unemployment there is a lack of workers to do labor unless it is for $20.00-$40.00 an hour, now you can argue that it is worth that kind of money, probably true, but then you have to be willing to pay for it all the way down the line and down the line is at the grocery store, any tangible items and so forth. May I say that most women have been accepting these kinds of wages and lower for generations, even when the economy is strong. So what do you all think? would you take $12.00 an hour if you were unemployed or if you needed to supplement your regular job or would you find it degrading and not worthy of you? If I could find a 40 hour a week regular job for $12.00 an hour that included health insurance I would be thrilled. I wouldn't have anything left over at the end of the day, but I don't know, so what the heck.
As farmers Rebecca and Tom could not afford to be full time farmers if not for the fact that they did not have to purchase land, as they are using the family farm. The members work a few hours a season and that helps with labor. They have two interns as well. They offer the interns a small salary a week, free housing and all the produce they can eat. They in turn learn about organic farming. They work 10 hours a day in temperatures that range in the upper 30's or 40's in early spring and late fall to 100 degree temperatures in the summer. I would not want to do it and I am grateful there are people who do. They could not afford to pay workers $20.00 an hour to harvest crops and that is true of most small farms. That is part of the problem, so many family farms are being developed for homes and also sold to agrifarms which use pesticides other unhealthy growing systems.
I don't think we have the right to exploit migrant workers or any worker for that matter, but our style of living, as well as our entitlement belief has gotten out of hand.
OK the floor is open for comments.
3 comments:
This issue is complicated and I am glad a judge is studying the overall effects of the bill. Illegals cost this country a lot of money in gov't assistance. They also are willing workers. A compromise should be reached that would allow those who want to work to beome documented workers who can eventually become U.S. citizens. This might eliminate exploitation. Poverty is a tough thing to grasp. I tip my hat to people who are willing to work for minimum wage. They are the salt of the earth.
I agree with Honor Louis. If someone has been in this country and is working and has not broken the law then we need to have some program that allows them to be documented, contributing their share of taxes. They may not be eligible for social security or maybe they can pay into that too. This is not a black and white issue by any means. Living in a state that does not feel the burden of undocumented workers might influence the way I look at the issue. The current minimum wage really is not sufficient. I think 1 in 8 children are currently living in poverty. Human trafficking is a sad bi-product of poverty and greed.
I agree with both Honor and Margaret that if undocumented workers want to be contributing members of our society, then let's create a path toward citizenship. There's such a sense of entitlement (I think) among U.S.-born citizens ... why should the mere fact that we were born in the U.S. grant us privileges that we can't/won't share with others?
Last year, I read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, and I was appalled by how difficult it is to get by on minimum wage -- working 2-3 different jobs, dealing with unreliable, inconvenient public transportation and rising gas prices. I don't know what the answer is, but I'm willing to learn ...
Post a Comment