Would You Pick Lettuce for $50/hour?

[Nbadan]

John McCain doesn't think you'd last....


EUKINg8DCUo


The first questioner seemed to challenge his commitment to organized labor. When McCain started to praise a particular labor group in Arizona, the crowd booed again.

“Stop!” he said with a smile, drawing laughter from the crowd. “I surrender.”

But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration plan.

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain’s job offer.

“I’ll take it!” one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. “You can’t do it, my friends.”

MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12155322)

[Spurminator]

Outdoor, stress-free labor? I'd do it for $25/hr.

[dimsah]

Ditto. I would walk out of my current job this second for that gig if I could manage at least $25/hr.

[Yonivore]

Outdoor, stress-free labor? I'd do it for $25/hr.
Even though you were offered $50. Nice.

[Spurminator]

So THAT'S why I'm so underpaid. I had this whole salary negotiation thing all wrong. Blast!

[Wild Cobra]

That's why I dislike McCain. He's an illegal alien lover. He needs to support the laws, not help or justify breaking them.

Yes. I would do it for $50/hr.

Funny thing how people buy into their bullshit...

[Clandestino]

That's why I dislike McCain. He's an illegal alien lover. He needs to support the laws, not help or justify breaking them.

Yes. I would do it for $50/hr.

Funny thing how people buy into their bullshit...

for how long? a day, a week, a month? then what? you'd probably only do it for a couple hourse and say fuck this shit.

[possessed]

Not only would I do it, I'd work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.

[fyatuk]

I wouldn't do it. Mostly because I have a bad knee, shoulder, and back so I physcially couldn't do it for more than a day or two. But I'd be willing to put in a day and make $500 bucks before walking out ;)

[rascal]

Most people would not do it for long. You need to get acclimated to that type of work and be in fairly good shape. Too many people are out of shape and over weight and would not last.

[xrayzebra]

You have to wonder. Who did this work before the illegals came
along? I am quite sure the lettuce didn't walk out of the fields
by themselves.

And I have another question. Why cant the damn government
come up with a program to admit "legal" workers into the
states in sufficient numbers to handle crops. Would that be
so hard?

[peewee's lovechild]

Hell yea I'd do it for $50 an hour.

My family and I used to do it for about $2 an hour when I was a kid.

[Spurminator]

You have to wonder. Who did this work before the illegals came
along? I am quite sure the lettuce didn't walk out of the fields
by themselves.


At what precise point did the illegals "come along"?

[whottt]

Sign me up...

[xrayzebra]

Let me put it this way. I was born in North Texas and we had
one Mexican family in my hometown. I went to school with their
children. Now my hometown has a very large Mexican population,
mostly illegal. They came along after I was a grown man.
Now you figure it out. They haven't always been here as you
are attempting to insinuate.

[peewee's lovechild]

Let me put it this way. I was born in North Texas and we had
one Mexican family in my hometown. I went to school with their
children. Now my hometown has a very large Mexican population,
mostly illegal. They came along after I was a grown man.
Now you figure it out. They haven't always been here as you
are attempting to insinuate.

They were all over the American southwest before Manifest Destiny raped them of thier land and branded them foreingers.

[Yonivore]

They were all over the American southwest before Manifest Destiny raped them of thier land and branded them foreingers.
And, the Native Americans before them...

What's your point?

[smeagol]

we need to fix our skilled immigrant 'system' (lottery :rolleyes) of assimilation first

Touché . . . :toast

[rascal]

Let me put it this way. I was born in North Texas and we had
one Mexican family in my hometown. I went to school with their
children. Now my hometown has a very large Mexican population,
mostly illegal. They came along after I was a grown man.
Now you figure it out. They haven't always been here as you
are attempting to insinuate.

Your wrong. Mexicans have been in Texas long before there were Texans.
You would think someone who has lived on this Earth as long as you would have more smarts.

[BonnerDynasty]

Why would I work when I can collect welfare?

As long as the Mexicans don't take my mailbox, they can have my jobs!

[xrayzebra]

Your wrong. Mexicans have been in Texas long before there were Texans.
You would think someone who has lived on this Earth as long as you would have more smarts.

Really. How do you know that. Were you all over Texas.

[smeagol]

Would You Pick Lettuce for $50/hour?

Hell no!

(I have a bad back)

[Wild Cobra]

for how long? a day, a week, a month? then what? you'd probably only do it for a couple hourse and say fuck this shit.
If I could be a farm worker for $50/hr, damn right I'd do it. I like the outdoors. I like sweating and doing physical work.

Sorry if you think you're too good to work for $50 per hour. If you make more than that, they great. I only made over $100k during three years of my like. It's nice to have that type of money to play with. If it takes hard work to have it again, then damn strait, I'd do it.

Problem is, the job doesn't pay that much. It was a statement of propaganda to justify letting illegals work. Wages, like any thing else are supply and demand driven. The farmers want to bring in the illegal workers so they can have a good supply of labor and not have to raise their wages to bring in citizen workers. Employers are part of the problem. It's not that USA workers won't do the job, it's that we won't do them at slave wages. They can attract legal workers if they pay more. As long as we allow illegal workers to do these jobs, the wages will never be to our standards.

I say take the people on welfare and make them do these jobs. At least make them work part time to get the balance of their checks. The only people we should be giving unearned income to are those who cannot work. The elderly, disabled, etc. All able bodied workers should do something for their money instead of being freeloaders. We have too many freeloaders in this nation.

[Wild Cobra]

Why would I work when I can collect welfare?

As long as the Mexicans don't take my mailbox, they can have my jobs!
[/SARCASM], RIGHT?

Looks like we agree. As long as we have able bodied workers not working, we don't need to allow more unskilled workers in. My though anyway, yours?

[RandomGuy]

Your wrong. Mexicans have been in Texas long before there were Texans.
You would think someone who has lived on this Earth as long as you would have more smarts.

Texas Symbols, State Names (http://www.shgresources.com/tx/symbols/names/)


From an Indian word meaning “friends”

Texas comes from the word "teysha" meaning "hello friend" in the language of the Caddo Indian tribes. Spanish explorers and settlers used this word to refer to the friendly tribes throughout Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

The state motto of Texas is "Friendship." The word, Texas, or Tejas, was the Spanish pronunciation of a Caddo Indian word meaning "friends" or "allies." (Acts of 1930, fourth called session of the 41st Legislature, p. 105.)

Of course, I wonder what would have happened if the mayans had actually gotten it up their butts to conquer the other indian tribes in this area and further their civilization...

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/1/16/Mendoza_HumanSacrifice.jpg


ooops.

I guess attributing all the evils of humanity to one civilization or another might be something of a stupid exercise to begin with.

Is there any doubt in anybody's mind that if the native american tribes had gotten ironworking and tool usage down a millennia before the Europeans they would have been any less kind to the European tribes (yes Europeans lived in tribes before there were nations)?

Evil is evil, but nitpicking about this shit is a waste of time in my opinion.

[RandomGuy]

If you really want to delve into history...

Mexico was actually part of the European House of Hapsburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habsburg).

That's right history mongers, Mexico was part of the Austrian Empire.

Where do you think Mexican brewing history comes from?

It is not a coincidence that one of the most famous mexican beer exports:
http://www.beercollections.com/Breweries-Mexico/Images/IM621715.gif

Actually gets its name from a German speaking area. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bohemia)

Tejano music doesn't closely resemble polka music by coincidence either.

Betcha didn't know that when you woke up this morning...

(did I mention I have a degree in German? ;) )

[101A]

If you really want to delve into history...

Mexico was actually part of the European House of Hapsburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habsburg).

That's right history mongers, Mexico was part of the Austrian Empire.

Where do you think Mexican brewing history comes from?

It is not a coincidence that one of the most famous mexican beer exports:
http://www.beercollections.com/Breweries-Mexico/Images/IM621715.gif

Actually gets its name from a German speaking area. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bohemia)

Tejano music doesn't closely resemble polka music by coincidence either.

Betcha didn't know that when you woke up this morning...

(did I mention I have a degree in German? ;) )You should be shot for comparing that swill to a good German Lager!

(got so fucking sick on Corona and tequila in Matamoros [/sic.] in '88 that I can't smell a Mexican beer without getting queeeeezy)

[Don Quixote]

I guess attributing all the evils of humanity to one civilization or another might be something of a stupid exercise to begin with.

Evil is evil, but nitpicking about this bullplop is a waste of time in my opinion.

An amazing, excellent quote. Yes, people on the Right might want to steer clear of attributing evil to illegals, hippies, Democrats, etc.

And the Left would do well to avoid attributing all of mankind's evils to (name em, I heard all these in college)

the capitalists (so said the communists with whom I went to college)
America
the White Man (so says Farrakhan, Wright)
the Jew (I've heard some dinosaurs on the Right say this, no one of influence though)
etc.

[Don Quixote]

My question ... if picking lettuce gets you $50/hr, then how bad could inflation have gotten to where it pays that much to begin with?

Would a Pepsi now cost $50?

[Nbadan]

My question ... if picking lettuce gets you $50/hr, then how bad could inflation have gotten to where it pays that much to begin with?

Would a Pepsi now cost $50?


Just shows that McCain has no idea how much normal people really make...

[Don Quixote]

has he ever had a job outside politics or the military?

(honest question)

Not sure. You won't get rich being in the military. Shoot, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force (whoever he is right now), an 0-10, still only pulls down about $250K annually. Remember that he is essentially the CEO of the Air Force, a large multibillion $ corporation full of great technology and people.

But in politics, yes, you can get rich. :greedy

Not sure what McCain has to do with $50 lettuce, either, other than he sorta alluded to it.

[boutons_]

$50/hr x 2000 hours = $100K/year,

a fantasy, McCain's point? the mofo is dumb as a bag of hammers.

How about "45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes picked"

=======================

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/images/header/header-corner.gif
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/images/header/logo.gif (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/contributors/rep-bernie-sanders/headshot.jpg Sen. Bernie Sanders (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders)

'The Harvest of Shame' (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/the-harvest-of-shame_b_96759.html)

Posted April 15, 2008

Last January, I visited Immokalee, Florida, to get a first-hand view of what was going on in the farm fields of Florida. On one of the days when I was there, a federal grand jury handed up an indictment alleging that workers were held in conditions that amounted to slavery. On Tuesday, a Senate panel convened a hearing into what long ago was called the "harvest of shame."

Let me very briefly tell you what I observed and what I learned from talking with a number of workers who pick tomatoes. At 5:30 am I was in a parking lot in central Immokalee and saw hundreds of workers mulling around for buses to take them to tomato fields. While most of the workers were selected to board buses and go to work, not all were. Those who were not picked earned no income at all during that day. Also, if it rains, as it did when I was there, workers are sent away from the fields and do not earn income for those hours.

In talking with workers who go out into the fields I learned that they make approximately 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick. This wage has not increased since 1998; and in fact, farm worker wages have dropped 65 percent in the last 30 years, after adjusting for inflation. I also learned that while it is possible under optimum conditions to make as much as $10-$12 an hour, the average hourly wage is far lower than that. In fact, most workers in the tomato fields earn about $250 a week in income. Why are wages so low?

I also learned that there is no overtime when workers work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. There are no benefits. Health care is a serious problem especially for people who do hard, physical work as they do in the tomato fields, yet employers offer no health insurance. The housing that I saw was deplorable and extremely expensive. It was not uncommon for eight or 10 workers to be paying $500 a month to live in a trailer which, in the city where I was mayor, would never have passed a safety inspection.

"Is it really going to take an act of Congress to get Florida's tomato pickers a raise?" an editorial in the St. Petersburg Times asked. "The men and women who work the fields in Immokalee earn 45 cents on average for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes harvested. It is a meager wage that has not been raised in more than 20 years. Yet when a couple of fast food giants generously agreed to pay workers an added penny per pound, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange sabotaged the deal and has refused to negotiate even after congressional leaders offered to be intermediaries."

The editorial goes on to say that: "The truth is that Florida's migrant farm laborers are among the worst paid workers in the state. They haven't had a piece rate increase in a generation, and the Growers Exchange wants to keep it that way. Even when someone else is willing to foot the bill."

Thankfully, due to the dedication and hard work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the conditions that exist in the Florida tomato fields has begun to come to light. As a direct result of the coalition's efforts, two large fast food companies -- McDonald's and Yum! Brands, whose subsidiaries include Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silvers and A&W -- have agreed to supplement the pay of these workers at a rate of an additional penny per pound for the tomatoes they buy. McDonald's and Yum! are to be commended for their commitment to help alleviate the despicable situation in the Florida tomato fields. Sadly, some other fast food companies, like Burger King, are resisting making a similar move which for a minimal cost would almost double the income of the Florida tomato workers.

In addition, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has threatened fines of up to $100,000 to any grower that cooperates in implementing the penny per pound agreements, something that I simply cannot comprehend. I have met with Reggie Brown with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange personally about this subject, and I am pleased that he could join us today to explain this situation in greater detail.

Unfortunately, this is not a new problem. In 1960, Edward R. Murrow described the horrendous situation facing farm laborers in his famous TV documentary as a "Harvest of Shame." Tragically, almost 50 years later, not much has changed. Farm laborers, mostly migrant workers, continue to be ruthlessly exploited with low pay and poor working conditions.

In an era of globalization, the American people are becoming more and more concerned not only about the quality of goods they consume, but about the conditions facing those who produce those goods. In my view, the American consumer does not want the tomatoes they eat to be picked by workers who are grossly mistreated, underpaid, and in some case even kept in chains. This must not happen in the United States of America in 2008.

What is going on in Immokalee and other regions of Florida is deplorable and at its core repugnant to the values that our country is built upon. I hope Senate hearings will begin to shine a spotlight on the harvest of shame that is going on to this day in the tomato fields in Florida and will lay the groundwork for the legislative changes that will be needed if the large buyers of tomatoes in the fast food and supermarket industry and the large growers continue to resist the reforms that are desperately needed.

The time is now that large corporations like Burger King and recalcitrant growers that continue to profit from the slavery and near-slavery like conditions in the tomato fields of Florida begin to pay a price in the marketplace, in the court of public opinion, and, if necessary, in the United States Congress. I truly believe that, once they learn the truth, "American consumers will not patronize companies that continue to profit from the current situation.

In the United States of America, millions of workers are being forced into a race to the bottom. As poverty increases and the middle class shrinks, they are seeing their standard of living decline. They are working longer hours for lower wages, and are losing their health insurance, pensions and other benefits. What we have in the tomato fields of Florida are workers who are living on the lowest rung of the ladder in that race to the bottom. We must address their plight not only from a moral perspective, but with the understanding that if we look the other way, and accept the terrible exploitation they are suffering, every American worker is in danger as that race to the bottom accelerates.

Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, is a member of the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee which held a hearing on this issue on Tuesday, April 15. To read more about the Immokalee farm workers, click here (http://www.sanders.senate.gov/issues/tomatoes.cfm).

httpp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/the-harvest-of-shame_b_96759.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/the-harvest-of-shame_b_96759.html)



(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/the-harvest-of-shame_b_96759.html)

[smeagol]

In talking with workers who go out into the fields I learned that they make approximately 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick. This wage has not increased since 1998; and in fact, farm worker wages have dropped 65 percent in the last 30 years, after adjusting for inflation. I also learned that while it is possible under optimum conditions to make as much as $10-$12 an hour, the average hourly wage is far lower than that. In fact, most workers in the tomato fields earn about $250 a week in income. Why are wages so low?

Evil illegals stealing those great paying jobs from Americans!

And on top of it, they make the country unsafe because they kill people while drunk driving (Bill O'Reiley told me that).

Illegals = root of all evil

[peewee's lovechild]

And, the Native Americans before them...

What's your point?


My point is that they've always been here.

I'm talking about the Native Americans as well.

[peewee's lovechild]

If you really want to delve into history...

Mexico was actually part of the European House of Hapsburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habsburg).

That's right history mongers, Mexico was part of the Austrian Empire.

Where do you think Mexican brewing history comes from?

It is not a coincidence that one of the most famous mexican beer exports:
http://www.beercollections.com/Breweries-Mexico/Images/IM621715.gif

Actually gets its name from a German speaking area. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bohemia)

Tejano music doesn't closely resemble polka music by coincidence either.

Betcha didn't know that when you woke up this morning...

(did I mention I have a degree in German? ;) )


Mexico was not ever part of the Austrian Empire.

Maximilian, who was declared Emperor of Mexico by Napolean III of France. Maximilian was a member of the Hapsburg-Lorraine branch of the Hapsburg family. That is to say, the French faction of the Hapsburg family.

He was not German and he provided no "german" infulence to Mexico. He was Emperor of Mexico for only three years until he got executed.

There was, however, a huge flux of german immigrants that came into Mexico, as well as the United States. This is how the accordian, some types of beer, and some types of cheeses came to prominence in Mexico.

(did I mention I have a B.A. in History?)

[Don Quixote]

Well, I'll see your B.A.s in German and History, and raise you a B.S. in Environmental Science and an M.Div. in Christian Thought!

How, then do you account for the differences in cheese used on enchiladas in Texas versus those in Mexico? We need to know this.

[peewee's lovechild]

Well, I'll see your B.A.s in German and History, and raise you a B.S. in Environmental Science and an M.Div. in Christian Thought!

How, then do you account for the differences in cheese used on enchiladas in Texas versus those in Mexico? We need to know this.

Texas is in the U.S. and Mexico is . . . . well, Mexico.

[Don Quixote]

Texas is in the U.S. and Mexico is . . . . well, Mexico.

An amazing, excellent revelation!

I'm going to write a book on it!

[peewee's lovechild]

An amazing, excellent revelation!

I'm going to write a book on it!

Make sure to credit me.

I don't want to have to sue you.