Wash. farm labor group recruits workers in Mexico
KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) — A Washington state farm labor group plans to travel to Mexico to recruit seasonal farm workers to help farmers here harvest their crops this year.
The Washington Farm Labor Association aims to recruit about 3,000 workers at the job fair Monday in the border town of Nogales, Mexico. The goal is for those workers then to be accepted into a federal guest worker program for seasonal employment.
A growing number of farmers have turned to the so-called H-2A program to bring in foreign workers, despite longstanding complaints that it's too cumbersome and expensive. Growers in the program generally must pay a higher wage and provide housing and transportation in and out of the country.
But many farmers say the U.S. crackdown on illegal immigrants has resulted in labor shortages, even as critics argue farmers could find workers if they paid higher wages.
Last year, 3,953 workers were brought into Washington through the H-2A program.
Felix Vargas of Pasco, a retired diplomat and former vice consul in Mexico who is now a volunteer senior adviser for the group, said he expects to see seasonal workers from last year return. But he told the Tri-City Herald for a story Tuesday that Washington needs 3,000 more workers at a minimum.
More than 5,000 prospective workers already have registered to attend the job fair in Mexico, Vargas said. The U.S. Consulate will vet the new applications and make sure those applying have ties that would make them return to Mexico.
The group will represent about 24 employers, mostly from the tree fruit industry.
Dan Fazio, director of the Washington Farm Labor Association, has said Washington ranks second in the nation for labor-intensive crops behind California.
Washington is the No. 1 producer of apples and is a top grower of sweet cherries. Both are labor intensive crops, and Washington farmers set record-high production values for both in 2011.
The value of Washington crops was $9.4 billion in 2011, up 14 percent from $8.25 billion a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Apples were the top commodity with a value of $1.83 billion, while the 2011 sweet cherry crop was valued at $534 million.
___
Information from: Tri-City Herald
What about all the people here on unemployment? Legal citizens that are living off my tax money. They should be given the 1st opportunity (Yes I said opportunity) to get off unemployment and start contributing back to society. But it is easier to be a freeloader and get free money than work hard to earn an honest dollar. We hired some people from worksource that was an epic fail. If there are so many jobs open why are we paying people to be on unemployment? Also SD where are you living at? I work in the industry and there are not many people willing to do the job. Ignorant and grossly incorrect statement.
THEY SHOULD GO TO PRISON FOR HIRING THOSE PEOPLE. THERE ARE PLENTY OF PEOPLE HERE WILLING TO DO THE JOB .
 @S D yea but they wont do it will they. I want you to go look for them if you can at least ten then i will believe you..
Â
 @S D your a fool- have you tried picking apples and pears, and cherries for that matter, that is the most hysterical thing I have ever read. Well guess what I have and it took me a woman all day with one other woman to pick half a tree,one year when the INS was out terrorizing pickers and they were all so afraid to come to work I had to go looking for help in Selah, I put out ads, I went everywhere and asked my friends to help, only person I found was a lady my age, we were both in our 50's. I made my daughter who is of Mexican descendancy pick apples on my Farm, jajaja I hired local white boy teenagers in Selah and they lasted a half a day and could not cut it! I spent nearly 10 years trying to legalize my husband, I spent over 20thousand dollars and guess where he is, well it aint on my Cherry orchard, that is for sure. People need to get their heads out of the sand, who do you think has picked all your vegetables and fruit for the past 45 years, Santa? The workers from the old bracero program are now in their 70's!!! So who do you propose that you know that are so plentiful are willing to go and pick my Cherries, which are probably dead by now, because I had to move to Mexico to be with my Husband because the INS did not approve his immigration papers. After 6 years of Marriage and 20 thousand dollars, oh yeah, 20 k, really you can be so naive some of you oh so opinionated people, but until you wear MY shoes do not OPINE! And I am an AMERICAN not a drop of latin, Mexican or hispanic blood, but I married a Mexican, and I was raised in Mexico as a child so I think I might have a little more knowledge thatn mr SD has about this situation, plus I was a Snokist Cherry grower, a small potaoes small time grower. I lost everything because of this stinkin stupid policy. My Home, my livelyhood, and my family! But life goes on, and I am now in Baja California sur, back where I grew up and happy as a clam, and eating them too. Unfortunately my marriage did not survive the separation of several years until I could afford to come home. Guess that is the way the Apple pie crumbles huh. i sure hope something gets done so no one else will have to suffer like I did, it was devastating.
I wish you well in your home country; Mexico.
Â
By the way I was raised in orchards in Wenatchee-Washington; in the cabins for what were then called transient workers. And my family picked fruit, thinned, sprayed, irrigated, and worked hard. The pay was not good; but we were never on welfare and did not expect others to pay our way.
The problem in the U.S. is not that legal people can not do the work; it is the fact that they have been taught manual labor is beneath them.
The very things like honor, pride in any job well done, humility, and that charity begins at home; have been destroyed by the modern progressive movement.
I was against NAFTA as well as many of your countrymen in Mexico; but the politicians had their way.
If you care about Mexico; start effecting change where you live; instead of blaming a Nation you no longer live in.