Americans don't want to do the work

[liberty]

The reason that this is a story is that the foreigners that are replacing black American workers on the farms are themselves white South Africans.

I understand that some of them are very skilled at farming, and all are very dependable and require almost no supervision. They are so happy to be here instead of South Africa; they are willing to put up with almost anything.

They may make $12.00 an hour instead of the minimum wage, but after they pay all their special deductions like rent and training fees or whatever the imagination can come up with, I imagine they make less than minimum wage.

They need to import workers for these farm jobs because Americans don't want to do the work.


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021 ... -heritage/

Black Americans Sue U.S. Farms for Replacing Them with Foreign Workers: ‘It’s Like Being Robbed of Your Heritage’


Black Americans who spent most of their lives working on Mississippi farms are suing their former employer after they were replaced by foreign workers on the H-2A visa program.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, accuses Pitts Farms of laying off a number of black Americans, only to replace them with foreign visa workers from South Africa.


The H-2A visa program allows U.S. farms to annually outsource an unlimited number of American jobs to foreign workers who can extend their stay for up to three years. The foreign families of H-2A visa workers can also come to the U.S. on H-4 visas.


In 1997, a little more than 16,000 foreign visa workers were imported to take American jobs on U.S. farms. By 2020, that number has ballooned to a record 213,400 foreign visa workers — an increase in the H-2A visa program of more than 1,200 percent in less than 25 years.

Data shows U.S. farms use the H-2A visa program to import cheaper foreign visa workers.


CIS
(Center for Immigration Studies)

In interviews with the New York Times, black Americans said they had spent most of their lives earning a living as farm workers at Pitts Farms. The work is part of a long history wherein black Americans along the Mississippi Delta have spent grueling hours on farms doing intense physical labor.



One of the black Americans suing Pitts Farms, 50-year-old Richard Strong, told the Times that he has worked on farms for more than 25 years. His father and grandfather did so as well, as well as his enslaved ancestors.


Strong said about 10 years ago is when he noticed farms along the Mississippi Delta began importing foreign visa workers, almost entirely from South Africa. When the first groups arrived, Strong said he helped train them. Now, more than 100 U.S. farms along the Delta employ foreign visa workers from South Africa over Americans.

An expert on the H-2A visa program told the Times that “virtually all new workers entering the agriculture workforce these days are H-2A workers.” A recruiter for the H-2A visa program called the imported South Africans “the preferred group” over Americans.

“Sunflower County, where [Pitts Farms] is located, is predominantly black; as of 2019, blacks made up an estimated 73 percent of the county’s population,” the lawsuit notes:

For many years, [Pitts Farms] employed a majority Black workforce. As of 2014, however, this number has steadily dwindled, as [Pitts Farms] began applying for and hiring white South Africans for the same work. And since 2014, PFP has used the H-2A program to hire only white South Africans – no black South Africans – although that country too is majority black by a wide margin: estimates stand at around 80% Black compared to less than 8% white. [Emphasis added]

By 2020, Strong said he was fired by Pitt Farms, as were the other American workers, including his brother Gregory, who had also spent most of his life working at the farm.

“I never did imagine that it would come to the point where they would be hiring foreigners, instead of people like me,” Strong told the Times. “… It’s like being robbed of your heritage.”


“I gave them half my life and ended up with nothing,” Gregory said.

The lawsuit states that while Strong and his American counterparts were paid the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and $8.25 an hour on weekends, the foreign visa workers were given nearly $12 an hour.

As the lawsuit gains traction, President Joe Biden’s administration has expanded the H-2A visa program. This week, for example, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that U.S. farms will be allowed to import foreign visa workers from six additional countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mauritius, and Saint Lucia.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas justified the expansion as a way for U.S. farms to import more foreign visa workers when Americans “are not available” to do the work.


The H-2A visa program, much like the H-2B visa program for non-agricultural work, has been proven to undercut working class Americans who rely on manual labor jobs but who are forced to compete against a growing number of cheaper, foreign workers.

In 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) found that a construction company in South Dakota had used the H-2B visa program to import foreign visa workers so they would not have to hire available and qualified American construction workers at a higher cost.

That same year, the DOJ fined a Houston, Texas, bus company for importing foreign visa workers through the H-2B visa program instead of hiring available and qualified Americans who applied for jobs.

[Scooter]

Let's see, American workers (all black) were paid $7.25/hr, out of which they had to pay exorbitant rent for ramshackle company housing. South African workers (all white) were paid $12/hr and were also provided with free housing.

But sure, let's pretend that the problem is that "Americans don't want to do the work".

[Econoline]

By 2020, Strong said he was fired by Pitt Farms, as were the other American workers, including his brother Gregory, who had also spent most of his life working at the farm.

“I never did imagine that it would come to the point where they would be hiring foreigners, instead of people like me,” Strong told the Times. “… It’s like being robbed of your heritage.”

“I gave them half my life and ended up with nothing,” Gregory said.

That really doesn't sound like someone who “doesn't want to do the work”...does it?

[Burning Petard]

On there other hand, it seems like if they had NOT fired him, he would have given them his whole life and ended up with nothing.

snailgate.

[BoSoxGal]

People suing to get their low paid menial jobs back don’t actually want to work.

MAGAt logic.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I've known a few sons of South Africans (white) who spent a couple of years working on farms throughout the USA. Also one who came to learn cooking (chef de dessert or whatever) and a lady who came as an au pair. Their families could afford to send them - it's like a gap year for many.

The majority go to northern and western states, not the south. Idaho, Iowa, Cozad City (the alfalfa capital of the world), Wisconsin, etc. They work with corn, wheat, cows just as their dads and mums do back home.

I've know a few sons of South Africans (black, colored) who would like to work in the USA, especially from the Western Cape vine/grape industries where pay and conditions are somewhat better than in agriculture or animal husbandry away from the Cape.

The fact that it's white SA lads coming across is a historical hangover of apartheid. The need to get out of South Africa is not a trait of a particular skin color. The ability to do so (money) - that's another matter. Fact is, if/when black, colored or Indian South Africans take jobs in Mississippi, they would be equally resented by the local blacks out of jobs.

The reason that this is a story is that the foreigners that are replacing black American workers on the farms are themselves white South Africans

No, the reason it's a "story" for lib is that it gives him another chance to cast blacks as lazy. Obviously they are being replaced by South Africans because the SA lads are white and therefore (subtext/dog whistle) work harder than the idle darkies down south. Of course, he will hide behind "simply reporting" what Breitbart supplied.

[Bicycle Bill]

Fact is, if/when black, colored or Indian South Africans take jobs in Mississippi, they would be equally resented by the local blacks out of jobs.

When my sister and her first husband moved down to Austin about forty-odd years ago, she ended up taking a job as a waitress at a Denny's or something like that.  She told us that even back then, locals (black *OR* white) resented people coming from elsewhere, especially 'Yankees' from 'up north'...

But the real loathing was reserved for the new arrivals who actually took jobs.  Those people were *Damnyankees*, although I think some of the resentment came because she was a so much better waitress — courteous, accurate, efficient, prompt, dependable in terms of being there for her shifts on time and ready to work — that she made her co-workers look bad by comparison.

-"BB"-

[liberty]

I've known a few sons of South Africans (white) who spent a couple of years working on farms throughout the USA. Also one who came to learn cooking (chef de dessert or whatever) and a lady who came as an au pair. Their families could afford to send them - it's like a gap year for many.

The majority go to northern and western states, not the south. Idaho, Iowa, Cozad City (the alfalfa capital of the world), Wisconsin, etc. They work with corn, wheat, cows just as their dads and mums do back home.

I've know a few sons of South Africans (black, colored) who would like to work in the USA, especially from the Western Cape vine/grape industries where pay and conditions are somewhat better than in agriculture or animal husbandry away from the Cape.

The fact that it's white SA lads coming across is a historical hangover of apartheid. The need to get out of South Africa is not a trait of a particular skin color. The ability to do so (money) - that's another matter. Fact is, if/when black, colored or Indian South Africans take jobs in Mississippi, they would be equally resented by the local blacks out of jobs.

The reason that this is a story is that the foreigners that are replacing black American workers on the farms are themselves white South Africans

No, the reason it's a "story" for lib is that it gives him another chance to cast blacks as lazy. Obviously they are being replaced by South Africans because the SA lads are white and therefore (subtext/dog whistle) work harder than the idle darkies down south. Of course, he will hide behind "simply reporting" what Breitbart supplied.

I don't know if the blacks are good workers or not, but there has to be a reason the farms are willing to pay $12.00 an hour when they could pay minimum wage. Are you trying to tell me that capitalists give money away to express their racism? Business people don't think like that. Their ideology is not racism; it's profit, and those that don't think that way don't stay in business long. So, why are they paying twelve-dollar-an-hour to the white South Africans? They are getting something in return, and it is not a warm feeling in their heart.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I don't know if the blacks are good workers or not, but there has to be a reason the farms are willing to pay $12.00 an hour when they could pay minimum wage. Waffle waffle obfuscate duck deny waffle waffle

Thank you

[liberty]

No, the problem is that you can't handle the truth. You're no scientist, a Christian scientist, perhaps.

[BoSoxGal]

Are you trying to tell me that capitalists give money away to express their racism? Business people don't think like that. Their ideology is not racism; it's profit, and those that don't think that way don't stay in business long.

As if American businesses haven’t practiced racism against both employees and patrons so openly it’s gotten them sued and sued and sued . . .

Could you please connect me with your dealer? Whatever you are smoking/snorting/mainlining is definitely fantastic at creating a disconnect with reality and given these times, I’d like to tap into that.

[Burning Petard]

Slavery is economic failure. Too much overhead. Paid workers are much cheaper and more easily replaced. And there are other economic advantages, as was summarized in the line of the song "I owe my soul to the company store.' But 'the master' is willing to pay that cost to preserve his objectively false social superiority.

Emotions always trump rationality, in the short run.

snailgate

[Big RR]

The other "benefit" of paid workers is that there is no responsibility of the employer toward the work once (s)he is let go because they no longer can work at the desired level (as bad as the slave codes were, the responsibility for a slave was cradle to grave--sure some got around it by breaking the law, but generally it was adhered to. Wage slaves were let go to seek charity, if it was avaialble--no profit sharing or subsequent care was required.

But back to the OP, on reasons why companiees like ot employ foreign workers is because thet canot leave (and rarelt know what their rights are). A friend of my family owned a couple of boardwalk restaurants at the shore and always employed foregn owrkers. Sure, one of the reasons given was the old "kids are afraid to work", but the real reason that eventually came out is that "good workers will up and leave, but they can't because of the visa they have". I can recall leaving jobs for better money, but these migrant workers cannot, and that is a big draw for employers (not to mention that they also often own the hosing supplied to them, and get most of the money back in overinflated rent).

[Econoline]

the hosing supplied to them

[MajGenl.Meade]

[liberty]

Why do you think white South Africans are preferred by American farmers so much that they are willing to pay them $12.00 an hour instead of minimum wage? Poster here say it's racists; I don't think so. That's a simple and easy answer, and simple and easy are quite often wrong. I think they pay the white S Africans more because the farmers are getting what they want. Workers who show up at 8:00 and quit at 5 are better than nothing; they sure in hell are not as good as the one that will do whatever it takes to get the job done. Workers that will work as long as he needs to get the crop in before it rains; that is the kind that you want, and willing to pay extra. I have worked with good for nothings both black and white, and I would have fired them if it had been up to me.


https://www.biznews.com/thought-leaders ... sa-farmers
The latter appear to favour white South Africans as they’re English speakers with a “strong work ethic”.

This brings us to the “training” of the foreigners. Forgive my cynicism, but the “equipment”, as revealed in the lawsuit, appears to be of the tractor and truck variety, vehicles that are not unheard of in white South African circles. There also appears to be complicated procedures regarding pesticides, the instructions of which usually come printed on the can."

[MajGenl.Meade]

You missed the point again, lib. The issue is why do you without fail choose to push articles reflecting (in your view) a lack of abilities and the low worth of black people? It may be pathological. See a doctor.

[MajGenl.Meade]

You missed the point again, lib. The issue is why do you without fail choose to push articles reflecting (in your view) a lack of abilities and the low worth of black people? It may be pathological. See a doctor.

[Joe Guy]

That was worth repeating.

[MajGenl.Meade]

No you have to spot the difference to win!