Tighter U.S. borders ‘killing our labor force’
collar professionals, like 401(k) plans, health insurance, subsidized housing and profit-sharing bonuses. Full-timers at Solorio’s Silverado Farming, for example, get most of those sweeteners, plus 10 paid vacation days, eight paid holidays, and can earn their hourly rate to take English classes.
But the raises and new perks have not tempted native-born Americans to leave their day jobs for the fields. Nine in 10 agriculture workers in California are still foreign born, and more than half are here illegally, according to a federal survey.
Instead, companies growing high-value crops, like Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in Napa, are luring employees from fields in places like Stockton that produce cheaper wine grapes or less profitable fruits and vegetables.
Growers who can’t raise wages are losing their employees and dealing with it by mechanizing, downsizing or switching to less labor-intensive crops.
Jeff Klein is doing all of the above. Last year Klein, a fourth-generation Stockton farmer tried to sort out the pros and cons of persevering in the wine business or quitting. He couldn’t make the math work and quit growing grapes.
Although Trump earned Klein’s vote, he worries that recent orders ratcheting up deportation plans and calling for a border wall are putting a chokehold on an already tight pool of workers.
“That’s killing our labor force,” the 35-year-old grower says.