U.S Citizens Lack Stamina To Do Alabama Agriculture Work

Alabama’s Governor Rob Bentley says he’s insulted. The idea that Americans, Alabamans in this specific case, can’t or won’t do the work available in the state’s tomato fields is…anti-American.

But the CEO of an organization that promotes state-grown produce, Grow Alabama, is more discouraged than insulted. According to the Associated Press, Jerry Spencer went in search of workers to pick the tomato fields close to Birmingham. The workforce pool dwindled after the state approved the strictest anti-immigrant law to date. And even though a federal court has imposed an injunction on parts of that law, the effect has been notable.

Spencer tried to recruit American citizens to do the work in the fields, even offered free transportation.

But Spencer said that of more than 50 people he recruited for the work, only a few worked more than two or three days, and just one stuck with the job for the last two weeks.

The Governor fought back, saying through his spokesperson that there are people willing to do the work. But the feeling, even among the tomato farmers, is that the idea of getting American citizens to pick and clean their fields is not working.

(Tomato farmer Helen Jenkins said)…”You can’t get the (American) workers out here to do the work that the Hispanics were doing. They’re just not capable.”

For the moment, proponents of the law are going with an interesting definition; they’re calling the labor shortage a “temporary” condition.  But the folks in the field are calling it something else:

A four-person crew of immigrant workers can pick and box more than 250 crates of tomatoes in a day, Spencer said, or enough for each person on the crew to earn about $150 at the height of the harvest.

A 25-person team of citizens recently picked and processed about 200 boxes in a day, he said, earning each member only $24. Spencer said the people weren’t in good enough physical condition to work harder or longer hours and typically gave up when faced with acre after acre of tomato plants ready to be picked.

Unemployment in Alabama is at 9.9%, but  few are rushing to the fields for the available jobs.

They should have checked with their neighbors. After Georgia passed similar law earlier this year there was a reported shortfall of 11,000 agriculture workers and the governor, Nathan Deal, urged farmers to hire people on probation. It didn’t work there either.