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This editorial by Senior Western Editor David Eddy appeared in the June 2006 issue of Western Fruit Grower.
It's Not That Simple
ONE thing about the immigration imbroglio that gets me is the people who say that it's really not that difficult to solve. I was reminded of that today (mid-May) in reading an op-ed piece by a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Debra J. Saunders, who wrote: "Want to discourage more people from coming to America so they can work here illegally? Squeeze employers."
She goes on to cite an example from our own industry as to how easy this is: "Zirkle Fruit, a Washington-based apple-packing company, recently agreed to a settlement that will require it to compensate legal workers around $1.3 million for the wages they would have earned in a marketplace not depressed by illegal immigrants."
If only it were that simple. The growers I talk to say that the notion of "legal workers," presumably currently unemployed, flocking to their orchards and vineyards looking for jobs freed up when all the illegal workers are rounded up is ludicrous. Heck, most of them say they can't even find newer illegal employees - not that they know for a fact that they're illegal, you understand - who come near to matching the skills of their long-time employees.
$5-A-Pound Apples
The only way growers - or anyone else who employs people who entered the country illegally - are going to get employees who will take on such a heavy workload is to pay them more. A lot more. This is particularly true for agriculture, where the work is not just hard, but often hot and dirty. But how in the world can growers hope to meet those increased payroll costs? As it is, you're having a tough enough time trying to keep from passing on the skyrocketing cost of diesel fuel.
The only way you'll be able to bring in a crop with all those added costs is to raise prices. I can't see any other way. However, I have yet to see one of the people clamoring for the government to go after employers thinking this out to its logical extent. I'm not going to hold my breath, because I don't really expect to see them expounding on the joys of paying $5 a pound for apples. Two Buck Chuck? Try Five Buck Chuck.
What Do You Think?
Part of the reason I guess I find this interesting is that in talking with you growers, I find some who are extremely nervous about the prospect of losing good employees, while others are all for kicking out the illegal workers. It's really not surprising, in a way. When you read news accounts of the immigration debate, you read things like conservatives want the borders shut down. OK, so far, so good. But then you read that employers, or business people, are on the other side of the debate.
Curious, isn't it? I mean, most employers I know are politically conservative. I had no idea that the two terms had become mutually exclusive.
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