SANTA ROSA (California) PRESS-DEMOCRAT

September 9, 2006

Day laborers stand idle

Disconnect blamed on poor communication from growers, refusal of jobless to accept low wages

By TIM TESCONI
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Even as pears rot this week in Lake County orchards, Latino workers wait for day jobs at labor centers around the North Coast.

 

The disconnect is blamed on a breakdown in communication and the refusal of some laborers to work in agriculture, which generally pays less than jobs in construction or landscaping.

"Outside of one rancher in Hopland we have not heard from any ranchers in Lake County about needing help with the pear harvest," said Nathan Acuna, community organizer with the Healdsburg Day Labor Center.

The farmworker labor shortage plaguing California is focusing on Lake County, where one-third of the region's pear crop was left to rot this year. Growers said they couldn't get enough workers early in the season when the pears needed to be picked and shipped to market.

Tighter security along the border with Mexico and better-paying jobs in other industries have reduced the farm labor work force throughout California, according to agriculture and labor leaders.

But even as farmers report a shrinking farm labor pool Latino workers wait for jobs at centers in Healdsburg, Graton and St. Helena.

What's going on?

Acuna and other coordinators at day labor centers said if they had been contacted they might have been able to provide some harvest help in Lake County. The coordinators hope to get the word out that they have laborers ready to work, depending on the pay and the job. The base pay is $12 an hour for workers at the centers.

"Before workers accept a job they want to know what they will be paid," said Acuna. "These men desire to work and will do almost anything but there are limits."

This week, said Acuna, 20 to 30 Latino workers were waiting for work at the Healdsburg center, located on Grove Street. In Graton, 60 to 65 workers lined up for jobs. In St. Helena, 28 to 30 workers were at the labor center seeking employment.

"On a good day we send 12 to 15 guys out on jobs; on a bad day it's zero," said Acuna. "On Thursday, four workers went out."

Acuna and Nora Salina Garcia, director of the nonprofit Work Connection in St. Helena, say any worker wanting a job will get one later this month picking wine grapes in Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties.

"It's slow now but next week all the people waiting here now will be working in the grape harvest, which will go until the first week in November," said Garcia. She said many of Napa Valley's large vineyard management companies have contacted her for workers in the busy weeks ahead.

Duff Bevill, chairman of the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, said the cool weather has put the brakes on grape maturity and slowed the harvest. He estimates only 1 percent to 2 percent of Sonoma County's estimated 200,000-ton grape crop has been picked.

"We just need some weather in the mid-80s and low 90s and we'll be knee-deep in grapes," Bevill said Friday. He said it may be the third week in September before the harvest gets hectic.

Acuna said he's not sure how many workers in Sonoma County would have made the trip to Lake County to help with the pear harvest.

He said if the pay were competitive with other jobs he believes some workers would have picked pears.

Acuna said workers carefully weigh their options. Many are waiting for more lucrative jobs in Sonoma County when the wine grape harvest moves into high gear.

It's no wonder that workers wait for grapes, he said. A really fast worker can make $300 a day and more picking wine grapes, earning more than $30 an hour. Even an average worker can make $150 a day picking grapes. Workers are paid for each crate or bucket picked, or by the ton, for harvesting grapes.

"Grapes are the best harvest job in California," said Acuna.

Acuna said 97 percent of the workers at the Healdsburg center will take jobs in agriculture. But at the Graton Day Labor Center most workers wait for higher-paying hourly jobs in construction.

Davin Cardenas, work coordinator at the Graton Day Labor Center, said 40 percent to 50 percent of the 60 workers at the center would refuse to take jobs picking wine grapes, apples or pears.

"Because of their skills they definitely want to work in construction," Cardenas said.