Higher wages and incentive programs seem to be the only way for
local farmers to ensure that they will have a steady labor supply
in the near future
Due no doubt to long past due increased enforcement of illegal immigration at our borders since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the law of unintended consequences has reared its ugly head. Our mostly small-operation local farmers find themselves short of manual laborers as this season’s crops come to fruition. One local farmer, Tim Chiala of George Chiala farms in Morgan Hill, reports that the value of his last strawberry crop declined in the $20,000 to $30,000 range due to overripening for lack of pickers. Other local farmers report similar losses and fears for crops that are now becoming ripe.
The job of a farm laborer for row crops is hot, dusty, exhausting and boring, yet the supply of those willing to do the labor was always in abundance before. This is because many who worked the crops not only had a family tradition of doing so, it was a matter of eating or not eating.
The hard facts are that previously this labor was performed by those desperate, often under-educated people for whom a job, any job, was a matter of survival. Now, with the current shortage, it appears that the laborers are able to pick better jobs, with the prospect of higher pay for the usual piecework paycheck.
Indeed, Chiala has instituted what can only be described as an incentive plan to keep his workers around – he’s paying them for make-work projects around his property to ensure their availability for when the crops come in. It costs money, but appears to be working.
Is there a solution? Of course. Higher wages. We realize that the farmers are caught in the middle between labor, fertilizer, equipment and water costs, among many others, and contracted prices from produce buyers. But, in the long run, a higher wage is really the only thing that will work when demand outstrips reply. This is even truer in an industry in which a day can make a substantial difference in the price farmers obtain for their products.
Most of our local farmers are hopeful that Congress will act and institute a program to allow guest workers, as in times past. In the current poisonous, polarized national political climate, we caution against dreaming that any reasonable, workable plan will pass and make things easier, at least in the near future.
This year’s crops are contracted for and in the fields and ripening, so little can be done except hope. For next year and those subsequent, we strongly feel that different, innovative solutions must be discussed and implemented, because the future of South County’s agriculture depends on those actions.
