Take our jobs, please

An unusual suggestion for immigrant-labor concerns

By Culinate staff

August 18, 2010

Earlier this summer, the United Farm Workers — the farm workers’ labor union founded by César Chávez — launched an unusual PR campaign. Titled "Take Our Jobs," the campaign asks Americans unhappy about illegal immigration to the U.S. to step up to the labor plate by taking the jobs currently filled by migrant laborers.

Interested? You can apply online — or not. As CNNMoney.com noted,

Despite the dismal job market in the U.S., where the unemployment rate is 9.5 percent and 14.6 million people are out of work, there have been few takers. Most applicants quickly lose interest once the reality sinks in that these are back-breaking jobs in triple-digit temperatures that pay minimum wage, usually without benefits, according to the union. Some small farms are not required to pay minimum wage, and in 15 states, farms aren’t required to offer workers’ compensation.

Some other numbers, from CNNMoney.com reporter Aaron Smith? “The Department of Agriculture counts nearly one million farm workers in the United States. According to the Migrant Farm Worker Justice Project, 85 percent of farm workers are immigrants — and up to 70 percent of them are illegal.”

Those workers, of course, supply the country with much of its food. As the campaign website declares, “We are a nation in denial about our food supply.”