WIS TV 10 (Columbia, SC)

April 12, 2006

Edgefield County farm depends on migrant workers

(Edgefield) - One company is hiring migrant workers the right way. It's a workforce businesses say we can not afford to lose.

Sergio Tamayo first came to America illegally, "Very difficult to find a job. Can't go nowhere, scared to do something wrong, be sent back to Mexico."

He's now one of more than 200 Mexican natives working at an Edgefield County Peach farm for 10 months out of the year.

The temporary job is legal, part of a government program Chalmer Carr's company qualified for, "We don't have a workforce in this country trained to do and willing to do these jobs, so they provide a vital service."

Carr says he's tried to hire Americans to pick the trees in the past. The track record includes 27 people in the last eight years; only two who stayed more than a day.

Carr says many companies hire illegal help because they can't afford to do what he does. By law he must pay workers above minimum wage along with housing and transportation to and from Mexico. Together it averages out to about $11 an hour.

Carr praises the migrant workers, "We've really benefitted quality-wise, production-wise from having the same workers come back year after year. It means a lot to us. It means they appreciate what we're doing for them, but we also appreciate what they're doing for us."

He says the company has an 85 percent return rate. This is Tamayo's seventh year working hard in South Carolina to have a better life back home.

Sergio says, "I try to save as much as I can to take back to Mexico. Right now I start building my house and help my family up there."

And the group also contributes to the community. Carr says Ridge Springs always looks forward to their coming, "They buy their groceries in this community. They feed themselves; they clothe themselves in this community. So you've got a lot of businesses in the rural areas that depend on the workers to be here."