Tuesday, January 31, 2017

File Under "Strange But True": Trump's "American Workers First" Policy Doesn't Apply When It Come to Pruning



The Washington Post reports today that Trump Vineyard in Virginia is asking the Labor Dept. to let it hire foreign workers. Read the story here.

1 comment:

  1. It's a shame that this compliance with legality in hiring farm workers has to be politicized. I understand the point of your post title, but I also admire his taking a legal approach. Most USA native natural born people (human beings who are white, black, brown, yellow, purple with green stripes and pink poka dots, etc) reject as a rule such blue collar labor work as a rule. Some of the most talented workers are often foreign born. I'm not really sure what the nationality of the work force will be for the vineyards. Being a former landscape supervisor, I am aware not all workers are equally talented for specific tasks. Take pruning for example, most people are terrible at this task. Most are simply hackers. Fruit orchards and vineyards especially need knowledgeable pruners who know what to look for so as to optimize next year's crop. Done incorrectly and you could ruin any future harvest. In my urban landscape field, I needed people who could sculpt aand prune in a way they was beneficial for the plant and aesthetically pleasing in the landscape. Most natural born US citizens we hired were terrible. Many of the hispancis we hire were very talented, but not all. At least a legal guest worker program would be refreshing.

    Back during the Bracero Program era, I had a friend who lived and worked the family Apricot Farm in Hemet California. The hispanics who the hired from the Bracero Program were exceptionally talented and productive workers who were paid piece work. Then in the early 1960s, the Civil Rights movement chamged all that. Unions and even Churches wanted the program stopped because they said it took jobs away from Americans. Workers after that were bussed out from Los Angeles to Hemet to harvest the Apricots for the same piece work price paid per flat. It was a disaster. The people hated the work and often many of the flats had dirt clods or rocks on the very bottom layer of the flats with apricots only on the top layers.

    The real problem here is not your President legally hiring guest workers (6), but ideologues trying to score political points because they hate this guy's guts. Okay I get that. But google ALL politicians (both right & left) who hire illegals to be gardeners, maids, etc, etc, etc and both ideologies fail. You can even google as far as other countries in Socialist Europe and fine the same exact hypocrisy. Fact is, no one has the superior moral high ground on this and that's just simply the flaw of democracy when people place as rulers over themselves other humans with the same imperfections and flaws as everyone else. Both sides of the issue are failures and irrespective of which way the pedulum swings each time (right or left) democracy will always be a 51% versus 49% (give or take) and nothing will ever be united. Welcome to reality.

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