Who will pick the crops?

By Ermina Karim

‘There are no Americans that want these ag jobs and there haven’t been for years. We haven’t had a non-Hispanic apply to work in the fields in at least 30 years. We need to have an arrangement that will work.’

Dana Merrill, president of Mesa Vineyard Management in Templeton, which manages 4,000 acres in San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Santa Barbara counties

Last July, Daren Gee, owner of DB Specialty Farms in Santa Maria, lost more than $150,000 in strawberry profits when nearly half of a 165-acre field was abandoned because he couldn’t find farm laborers.

Tight supply of agricultural workers — anecdotal estimates average a 15 to 30 percent shortage depending on the crop and time of year — means farmers are constantly competing in order to attract and retain an adequate workforce.

“The minute the paycheck starts to drop because fruit levels are lower, workers move to another area that is peaking in production,” said Gee, who employs as many as 1,370 people during the peak season.

“They want to make the maximum amount of money in the shortest time possible, which is understandable. But it’s a huge problem for us.”

The need for a consistent agricultural labor pool has farmers in San Luis Obispo County closely watching the roller-coaster debate on immigration reform. There is uniform agreement that change is necessary, and many are supportive of the AgJOBS Act that affects agricultural workers and employers. But not all are convinced that the current version will work.

Who will pick the crops?

Each year, say farmers of different crops, the challenge of finding enough workers worsens as the labor supply doesn’t grow to meet demand. Many farm workers are leaving the region in favor of jobs elsewhere in the country where the cost of living is much lower, while others are leaving for higher paid industries, explained Richard Quandt, president of Grower- Shipper Vegetable Association of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties.

In addition, uncertainty surrounding immigration reform and heightened border enforcement has limited the number of workers coming to the area.

Those who are in agriculture migrate to where the industry is busiest, so county farmers are competing with surrounding agricultural regions such as the western San Joaquin Valley and Salinas Valley.

Quandt recently surveyed his 80 vegetable-and fruit-grower memberships and found that the labor force is 15 percent to 20 percent less than what is needed.

“More and more people are leaving agriculture, and these people are not being replaced. The situation is getting worse each year,” Quandt said.

Shandon-based Ramirez Farm Labor Contractor, which provides labor crews to wineries as well as some spinach and lettuce farmers in the North County, experienced a 30 percent shortage in vineyard labor during the busy season this spring, said Alfredo Ramirez, vice president.

He noted that smaller vineyards growing grapes for higher-priced wines were less affected because they could pay better. For organic spinach customers, Ramirez was 50 percent short on help.

Overall, the company is down dramatically from a work force of 350 to 230 last year and an estimated 180 to 200 people this year, Ramirez said.

He says that the bidding war for labor is making it more difficult to meet his clients’ needs.

“Farmers are competing on jobs so if one place is paying $7.50, then another will offer $7.75 and there may still be a counter-bid,” Ramirez said. He said the average price for general labor is $7.75, but some farmers are paying above $8 an hour.

“Wages jumped between 50 cents and $1 in the last 12 months,” said Dana Merrill, president of Mesa Vineyard Management in Templeton, which manages 4,000 acres in San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Santa Barbara counties.

That scenario is true for Talley Farms in Arroyo Grande, which bumped its starting pay this year to $8.25 from $7.75. Vice president Ryan Talley anticipates that he’ll be increasing performance bonuses by about 15 percent as well.

“We spread the bonuses out throughout the busy season in order to make sure we can keep everyone,” said Talley, who noted that very few actually get the $8.25 wage. He said some harvesters make between $12 and $13 an hour.

Upping wages is not the only answer for farmers who are trying to retain workers. Some growers are extending the period they keep people on payroll — for example, from six months to eight months — in order to offer more of a full-time opportunity, said Karen Ross, president of the California Association of Wine Grape Growers.

Other farmers are modifying their planting practices, including finding jobs that can be mechanized, so that they can avoid a shortage altogether.

AgJOBS an Answer?

But the current labor situation is not sustainable, according to labor and farm advocates. With as many as 80 percent of farm labor on the Central Coast assumed to be undocumented workers, they say that answer lies in immigration reform.

Most organizations representing farming interests in the U.S. are backing the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act (AgJOBS) that is proposed as part of the immigration reform package.

“We deal with perishable products,” said Jackie Crabb, executive director of the San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau. “If you don’t have the workforce when it’s time to harvest, our farmers will lose their products. We recognize that we should not let all these people come across without border patrol, but it doesn’t work to just put the wall up either.”

AgJOBS provides a pathway to legalization for immigrant workers in agriculture and recommends changes to the existing H-2A guest-worker program that would make it more practical for agriculture.

“We need both elements of the bill,” Quandt said. “We need to legalize the current work force and then have a flexible guest worker program that can support our labor needs.”

Merrill said the existing H-2A program is cumbersome for agriculture because it requires farmers to plan long in advance for labor needs and guarantee start dates. Other hold-ups to the program’s acceptance have been the requirement of H-2A employers to provide free housing and a costly wage structure.

He hopes that under AgJOBS these restrictions will be modified to the point that agriculture will be able to benefit from accessing guest workers.

“There are no Americans that want these ag jobs and there haven’t been for years. We haven’t had a non-Hispanic apply to work in the fields in at least 30 years,” Merrill said. “We need to have an arrangement that will work.”

Political worries

However, not everyone is convinced that the immigration reform will yield a practical system.

“I believe that the deal that is on the table is fine and dandy on paper, but putting it into place is going to be very difficult, and enforcing will be harder,” Ramirez said.

Some farmers are also concerned that all of the political back-and-forth in Washington will distort the immigration package beyond recognition.

“There are so many amendments and loopholes that are part of this that we lose the effectiveness of the bill,” said Gee of DB Specialty. “I think we should scrap what we are doing and start over because we are not even close to helping the Americans, nor are we helping the Mexicans.”

While concern about what the final bill will look like is prevalent among Central Coast farmers, many still want change.

“We need a better mechanism than there is now, because there is no system,” Merrill said. “Our economy depends on these people, but we make them run the gauntlet to get in. The bottom line is that we need rules that will work for agriculture.”