In Kathy Lohr's report, she spoke to R.T. Stanley Jr., a farmer who says he can't hire locals to do the job:
Stanley says experienced workers can earn as much as $200 a day. He says he's tried to hire locals to do the job — working in the fields eight hours or more clipping, bending and lifting in the oppressive Georgia heat.
"They just don't want to do this hard work. And they'll tell you right quick," he says. "I have 'em to come out and work for two hours and they said, 'I'm not doing this. It's too hard.' "
For Stanley, finding workers is already tough enough and he says the new restrictions are likely to make it worse.
"I got my livelihood on the line," he says. "If I don't harvest these onions, I'll lose my farm."
So first of all let's be honest about that $200 a day figure, they're being paid by how much they harvest. $200 a day is basically never going to happen, it's a dream figure, no onion farmer in america is paying $200/day to pick onions.
In fact at Stanley's Farm you're going to be making a whole lot less than that, from 2013:
The plaintiffs say Stanley Farms paid them less than minimum wage over the last three years and illegally cut their wages. The plaintiffs said they also worked alongside pickers who had work permits and who were paid more money than what American workers received
“We see this repeatedly,” said plaintiff’s attorney Dawson Morton. “Farms complain that no local workers are available. But when they do hire local workers, they don’t pay them fairly and don’t offer them the same pay as their foreign workers. It’s illegal and discourages American workers from continuing in agriculture.”
The suit claims the workers were paid 40 cents for each 5-gallon bucket of onions picked, while foreign workers received more than $9 a hour. Workers also had to purchase work tools from the company, the suit says.
http://www.ajc.com/business/vidalia-onion-workers-sue-georgi...
$0.40 for a 5-gallon bucket, so to get to that $200 figure you only need to pick... 2,500 lbs of onions! Every day! Easy!
And then later in 2014:
A judge on Monday approved the agreement. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution states that Stanley Farms agreed to pay $92,500, with $82,500 going to back wages and damages and $10,000 going to attorney’s fees and costs. The company also agreed to follow specific hiring and employment practices that were outlined in the agreement.
“We’re pleased with the resolution reached, and we’re pleased that the farm is agreeing to pay U.S. and foreign workers the same amount, which we don’t believe they were doing,” said Dawson Morton, a lawyer for the workers. “That should reduce the exclusion of U.S. workers from Vidalia onion work and we hope assure equal treatment and equal pay.”
The American workers and their former co-workers filed a lawsuit last year that claimed that American farmworkers were paid less than the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour while foreign guest workers were paid between $9.11 and $9.38 an hour.
https://www.andnowuknow.com/shop-talk/stanley-farms-pay-over...
That same articles states that they now follow certain guidelines like making sure there are enough seats for workers on transportation, that the transportation is properly inspected and insured, that workers can't go into fields until at least 24 hours after application of certain chemicals and that they'll provide tools.
So what kind of farm was Stanley actually running when that article was written? Well it's obvious he was paying less than minimum wage to americans and more to illegal immigrants so that he could have an all immigrant workforce so that he could skimp on labor protections. And after doing this for years and years he settles for less than $100,000. This is the problem with american farming. If Mr. Staley had ever actually tried paying americans $200/day and had provided a safe work environment I'm sure workers would have been lined up. It's a pervasive lie that americans won't do farm work for good wages.
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