Workers Claim Racial Bias in Farms’ Hiring of Immigrants.

[elleng]

For years, labor unions and immigrant rights activists have accused large-scale farmers, like those harvesting sweet Vidalia onions here this month, of exploiting Mexican guest workers. Working for hours on end under a punishing sun, the pickers are said to be crowded into squalid camps, driven without a break and even cheated of wages.

But as Congress weighs immigration legislation expected to expand the guest worker program, another group is increasingly crying foul — Americans, mostly black, who live near the farms and say they want the field work but can’t get it because it is going to the Mexicans. They contend that they are illegally discouraged from applying for work and treated shabbily by farmers who prefer the foreigners for their malleability.

“They like the Mexicans because they are scared and will do anything they tell them to,” said Sherry Tomason, who worked for seven years in the fields, then quit. Last month she and other residents filed a federal lawsuit against a large onion grower, Stanley Farms, alleging that it mistreated them and paid them less than the Mexicans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/us/suit-cites-race-bias-in-farms-use-of-immigrants.html?hp

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Another story that doe not pass the smell test.

Heard this clap trap argument when we tried to form and expand the NFO in the late 50's and early 60's. NY Times,what a joke,just more of their False Equivalency stories. These growers will never think about expanding their hiring to any non brown skin persons. Just more of the fuel for the Racist Wall Street crowd.

[elleng]

2. Right,

never mind facts on the ground.

'Even many of the Americans who feel mistreated acknowledge that the Mexicans who arrive on buses for a limited period are incredibly efficient, often working through the dark seven days a week to increase their pay.

“We are not going to run all the time,” said Henry Rhymes, who was fired — unfairly, he says — from Southern Valley after a week on the job. “We are not Mexicans.”

Jon Schwalls, director of operations at Southern Valley, made a similar point.

“When Jose gets on the bus to come here from Mexico he is committed to the work,” he said. “It’s like going into the military. He leaves his family at home. The work is hard, but he’s ready. A domestic wants to know, what’s the pay? What are the conditions?'

[customerserviceguy]

3. That's the "malleability" that the article was talking about

American farmers and hospitality businesses want workers who dare not complain, will do whatever they're told, who can take being cheated every once in awhile, and "domestics" might not.

That's why I'm for the status quo on immigration, as soon as the existing illegal immigrant population is given the unfettered right to stay here, they will wind up on the dole as illicit employers load up on the next group of cheap labor that can be exploited, and this time for another 25-30 years before there's another immigration deal.