Local farmers fret over rising cost of wages
By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer | ∞
Mexican national Sixtos Onofre, 38, pulls wire along a Temecula vineyard row Wednesday afternoon.
DAVID CARLSON Staff Photographer
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A growing labor shortage in California's agricultural industry has local farmers bracing for a tough ---- and expensive ---- winter harvest, farm industry officials and local growers said Wednesday.
Several factors are fueling the problem, they said, including: increased border enforcement that is reducing the number of illegal immigrants entering the county; growing competition from other industries, such as construction and hospitality; and the lack of a guest-worker program to allow undocumented immigrants to work legally.
Temecula Valley grape growers, who recently completed their harvest, have already felt the pinch, a grower in that area said this week.
"It is getting much tighter than in other years," said Mike Rennie, the owner of Leonesse Cellars winery and a vineyard in the Temecula Valley.
"We're having to pay people a couple of dollars more an hour," he said, adding that labor costs represent at least 50 percent of the cost of producing grapes.
He added that as a result, he and other growers will be forced to try to pass those increased costs on to consumers.
San Diego County Farm Bureau executive director Eric Larson said the winter harvest will soon begin for two of the biggest crops in North County ---- avocados and strawberries.
"That's when we are really going to find out what the situation is for North County," Larson said Wednesday.
Local citrus growers stand to be hit particularly hard should the labor shortage expand, he added. The citrus industry is already reeling from low commodity prices and water costs, Larson said.
"If citrus growers have to get into a bidding war for labor, they will not hire people," he said. "They will let their crops grow and it would push them to an early decision on whether to remain in business or not."
Fallbrook avocado grower Charley Wolk said Wednesday that the prospect of a bidding war for laborers has him weighing whether to start harvesting earlier than usual this year.
"I may make the decision to pick larger fruits earlier this year," said Wolk, who owns Beijoca Farm Management in Fallbrook and is chairman for Hass Avocado Board. "We are in that analysis mode now."
Another avocado grower in Fallbrook and Valley Center said this week that the labor shortage is already here for avocado growers ---- and it stands to get worse.
"We're seeing it now," said Bob Vice, who is also past president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. "By the middle of January, the labor shortages will be obvious to avocado growers, especially because that's when all sizes of the fruit will be picked and when much of the harvesting will be done."
A man who manages about 450 acres of vineyards in Temecula said Wednesday that if farm worker wages continue to go up, "pretty soon we won't be able to afford to farm grapes."
Temecula-based Stage Ranch Farm Management vineyard manager Billy Bower, who also works for Leonesse Cellars, said wages for farm workers have increased by about $2 an hour in the last year and now stand at about $8 an hour.
He said that until last year, local growers used to be able to drive by a local day-laborer hiring spot on Butterfield Stage Road and hire farm workers for about $50 for a nine-hour day of work.
"Now things have cracked down so much that you're forced to hire legals and no one will work for minimum wage," he said.
San Diego County Farm Bureau executive director Larson said that with increased enforcement along the border, many of the workers who would typically migrate back and forth from Mexico each year are being forced to remain year-round in the United States. Unable to return to their country once the harvest season is over, many of those workers have taken year-round jobs in other industries, such as construction or hotels, he added. And once they get full-time jobs, he said, few of those workers return to working in the fields.
"That's why the industry is pressing so hard for a guest-worker program," Larson said.
Like Larson, the California Farm Bureau Federation is also appealing to the federal government to authorize a guest-worker program.
Those appeals have intensified as Congress prepares to vote next week on a bill that boosts immigration enforcement but does not include a guest-worker provision. A policy being pushed by President Bush, however, calls for both increased enforcement of immigration laws, as well a guest-worker program.
In an interview with California Farm Bureau Federation publication AgAlert this week, the bureau's National Affairs Manager Jack King stressed the need for such a program and called for a defeat of the bill now before Congress.
"It is very important to us that we ... develop a viable ongoing guest-worker program," King said. "That is where we need the help of our members, to let Congress know what is at stake."
Immigration reform advocate and local farm industry executive Luawanna Hallstrom told the North County Times this week that the San Diego County farm industry is like a "sitting duck" when it comes to increased enforcement of immigration laws.
"Statistics have shown that 70 to 80 percent of ag laborers (here) are illegal or are fraudulently documented," said Hallstrom, who runs a vegetable farm in Oceanside and is on a committee pushing the government to ease restrictions on migrant workers.
"If we get enforcement only, employer sanctions and document inspections, they may find the 70 to 80 percent easily."
Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Arizona, is a leading proponent of a guest-worker provision.
"Enforcement alone will not work," he said, noting that border crossings continue to rise despite a tenfold increase in resources along the border. "(The current bill) also does not address the millions of people already here and living in the shadows."
Reached by phone Wednesday, Vartan Djihanian, district director for state Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, said that Morrow does not support the idea of a guest-worker program until all existing immigration laws are enforced.
Leonesse Cellars' Rennie said that while many people say that immigrant farm workers come to the United States and take away American jobs, that is simply not true.
"American workers are not willing to work these types of jobs for this type of pay," Rennie said. "Most young people (in this country) have never even held a shovel ---- Americans would not eat if they depended on other Americans to do farm labor."
But not everyone is unhappy with the shortage of agricultural workers.
On Wednesday, Mexican national Sixtas Onofre, 38, was working with another laborer in a Temecula vineyard, stringing wire to support grape vines.
Until seven months ago, he was earning $7 an hour. Now, he earns about $9 an hour, he said. Onofre said that he regularly sends money home to his wife and three children in the state of Michoacan, Mexico.
Now, "there's a little more to send home," he said.
Staff writer Lorrell Fleming and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426, or wbennett@nctimes.com.
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ex-Republican wrote on Dec 8, 2005 4:59 AM:Farmworker wages have been subsidized by free medical care and other services provided by the state and nonprofit organizations. Farmers refuse to pay a living wage, then muse why no one wants to work for them. Farmers oppress their workers, not providing clean water or toilets. Farmworkers are exposed to dangerous pesticides. It is a crying shame that Cesar Chavez did not finish the good work that he started.
Mike wrote on Dec 8, 2005 12:53 PM:With the crying over not having enough poorly paid Mexicans to abuse, it's a wonder that we don't reinstitute slavery, now that would be inexpensive! Pay a living wage and get your workers legally. Sad we work under an illegal system. Let's control the borders and provide for legal temporary laborers.
Mary wrote on Dec 8, 2005 3:36 PM:Last week I heard a representative from an organization called Insitute for Immigration Studies on C-span state that more land is being farmed in California because of the availablity of cheap labor. Perhaps increased competition from more Farmers is changing the ecomonics as well. Home developers are able to keep their land off the market longer by having their carrying costs for the land subsidized by farm revenue. This contributes to the high cost of houseing in California. In this day and age crops picked by machines not people. Would the cotton gin have been invented if Lincoln had not freed the slaves?
Tina wrote on Dec 8, 2005 4:19 PM:Oh My where are the flood of illegal immigrants now!! I am sure when the price of produce goes up all of you who insist on complaining about the illegals, you will think twice about it. To x-republican you contradict yourself on one hand you are stating that the farmworkers get spiffs they don't deserve and then you call Cesar Chavez a failure. You also blame the farmers for under paying people. You stated one true fact that I agree with Farmworkers are oppressed, they are not provided with clean or sanitary working conditions, but thank God they get free medical care I think if anyone needs it it is them. As far as Cesar Chavez not finishing the work, You could say the same about Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The African Americans are still oppressed, and racism is still alive all well. Rascism is a problem that will never go away the work to right that wrong will never be done. I say stop the oppression of all peoples. Peace
Patrick wrote on Dec 8, 2005 10:39 PM:When oh when we will learn that Free Trade and Open Borders are terrible ideas except for the well off or well connected. It does nothing but hurt most others by offering the allure of cheaper goods. Farmers are victimized by an economic system that forces them to compete against other countries to deliver the cheapest possible good. It is only by grossly underpaying individuals from countries worse off can they make a go at it. Now we are stuck in a system that forces the importation of people that have no other real options for employment and spreading the true cost on state and local governments to pick up. It is a load of bull to say they are doing the work that Americans do not want to do. They are doing the work that Americans would have done, had they been paid a fair wage and afforded their legal rights. Of course, had they done that, they (the farm owners) would have been run out of business by cheaper Chinese, Mexican or wherever else grown crops. Free Trade has put us in this position. Had tarrifs been left in place, farm wages could have risen high enough to attract sufficient workers or spur mechanization. But when we as a nation insist on forcing a 15-20 dollar an hour economy to compete against a 15-20 cents an hour economy, it's only natural there will be problems. Both open borders and free trade (Globalization) are losers for most people. Most people would be inclined to work in a variety jobs, if they were properly compensated and treated with dignity. Most people would not be inclined to leave their families to travel thousands of miles, risking their lives and health for a promise of a *marginally* better existance. Globalization prevents this from occuring and only enriches the lucky few that control the factors of production, the purse strings or the government. The rest of us get the shaft.
Roger wrote on Dec 9, 2005 1:22 PM:Perhaps Pat Buchanan, conservatives, racists and rednecks will foot my grocery bill after prices of produce goes up, once farmers start paying high wages to American workers...or I may refuse to buy American products that become expensive and along with other Americans drive the US farmers into bankruptcy just like we did to the "American employees only" Delta and Northwest Airlines.
Californian wrote on Dec 10, 2005 9:56 AM:Gee whiz.... imagaine that. A farmer is complaining that he is being "forced" to hire "legal" workers. Poor baby. Good, go out of business and rot you plantaion owning overseer.
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