SALINAS CALIFORNIANNovember 24, 2006
Growers expect worker shortage Salinas Valley growers predict this year's winter harvest in Yuma, Ariz., will be marred by another severe worker shortage. Last year's winter harvest in Yuma also saw a starkly reduced labor pool, attributable in part to the federal government's increased presence of Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border. John D'Arrigo, president of Salinas-based D'Arrigo Bros. Co., said that he's never seen such strict border enforcement and that it's making it nearly impossible to get enough workers for his fields. "It's causing me to have less workers through my entire organization," D'Arrigo said. His winter crop includes leaf lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and fennel, among others, and covers 12,000 acres and requires a work force of 1,500 field workers to harvest. By next month, when the harvest kicks into high gear, the severity of the worker shortage should be more clear, Salinas-area growers say. D'Arrigo said he'll be growing there until mid-March, and if more workers aren't available in the next week, he'll be forced to disk fields and leave produce behind. When the company returns to Salinas next year, he said, he's not expecting any labor shortage in the valley because local harvest crews aren't very transitory, with many now residing in the county year-round. But unlike Salinas, which is separated from Mexico by more than 430 miles, Yuma is just 20 miles from the border. And the Border Patrol has doubled the number of agents assigned to the Yuma sector to 551, and an additional 200 are on the way. The buildup is having an effect, the Border Patrol reports, with arrests for the 2006 fiscal year ending Sept. 30 having declined 14 percent to 118,549 from 138,438 the year before. "As we gain more operational control, they (smugglers) are seeking other routes," Border Patrol agent Maranda Weber said.
Fewer workers, less moneyThe inevitable effect of such strict enforcement, D'Arrigo said, is a slump in sales, reduced purchases of farming equipment, fewer shipments of produce and less money flowing into the local economy. "In the past, there were a lot of undocumented doing this work but now there is so much border enforcement," said Glafira Sanchez, a lettuce crew foreman for Valley Pride, a vegetable harvester in Yuma. What's needed, D'Arrigo said, is comprehensive immigration reform providing a guest-worker program and a steady supply of documented immigrants who can work in produce, as well as stepped up enforcement along the border to curb illegal entry into the United States. Earlier this year, the Senate passed comprehensive immigration changes, legislation that included a provision known as AgJobs, which would have created a new temporary-resident status for seasonal farm workers and given long-term far workers a chance to apply for permanent residence. During negotiations in Congress this year, Yuma farmers offered to test a scaled-down version that would have allowed Mexican workers to commute daily across the border with temporary work visas. Conservative Republicans in the House, however, refused to consider the comprehensive immigration changes, angering growers who tend to vote Republican.
'Very concerned' over laborBasil Mills, president of Mills Family Farms in Salinas, said as his company finishes its move to Yuma over the next 10 days, he, too, is worried about a limited labor supply and is not sure how his company will cope with the shortage. Mills grows leafy lettuces and iceberg in Yuma. "We are very concerned about this," Mills said. C.R. Waters, president of the Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association, said it will take 30,000 seasonal workers to harvest the sea of winter vegetables grown in Yuma County, where the fruit and vegetable crop was valued at $745 million in 2004. The area produces 90 percent of the winter vegetables consumed in the United States and Canada and 98 percent of the iceberg lettuce, according to the Arizona office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Andrew Cumming, president of Metz Fresh in King City, which grows spinach and spring mix in Yuma, said he needs about 20 to 30 workers to cover the winter harvest and is concerned he won't be able to find even that. "The lack of immigration policy is an issue," Cumming said.
Other jobs lure workersGrowers and farm advocates say the shortages, even with thousands of legal Mexican laborers, have become more severe as stricter immigration enforcement, tighter border security and increased competition from construction and other industries have shrunk the pool of seasonal workers. For years, these workers have served as the backbone of the labor force in Yuma. Many farm workers, however, have been drawn by steady jobs at housing developments and construction sites sprouting up around Yuma that pay better. The reduction in the labor force means Salinas growers in Yuma must compete for fewer workers and run the risk of losing money. "If I'm not packing it, I'm not selling it," D'Arrigo said.
|