Labor shortage teeters on the critical edge

Issue Date: July 12, 2006

By Kate Campbell
Assistant Editor

As the border with Mexico tightens and Congress continues to drag its feet on passing comprehensive immigration reform, farmers and labor experts say the California farm labor pool is rapidly shrinking. A lag in reporting labor statistics makes it hard to pinpoint exactly how short the labor supply really is, but many growers put the gap at about a 10 percent to 20 percent shortage statewide, with bigger gaps in certain commodities and areas.

It's generally agreed that the farm labor situation is at a tipping point. Important things like planting, pruning and weeding have gotten done?although more slowly than in years past. The cool, wet spring put many crops behind schedule and reduced potential yields. Fewer people are working longer hours. And there's an increasing shift to mechanization.

But as the harvest season goes into high gear, particularly after Labor Day, the supply of available workers may tip from very tight to critically short. How bad the situation will become, what the extent of crop loss there will be depends on many factors and unforeseen circumstances.

"The Central Valley is getting into full swing for harvest," said Tulare County farmer Kerry Whitson. "Stonefruit and grapes have started harvest. There's a lot going on here and there's a lot going on in the Salinas Valley. Everybody is seeing a labor shortage.

"People are scrambling for crews," said Whitson, who is a member of the California Farm Bureau Federation Labor Advisory Committee. "I've had a couple of growers call and ask me what we're paying because they're having a difficult time getting crews. I told them I thought they needed to bump their wages up a bit.

"But, what you're really going to see from here on out is agriculture competing with agriculture for workers, depending on commodity and the kind of work involved. At the same time, some of the best workers are being pulled into the trucking and construction sectors.

"During the next four to six weeks we'll see a much greater demand for labor as the grapes get in to full swing. We always start with tight situations in certain commodities," Whitson said. "The raisin crop is an example. They always start out short and need a lot of labor quickly for a very brief period of time."

Because of the competition for workers between commodities in the San Joaquin Valley, mid-August through September is the time when people expect to find out just how short the labor situation is, Whitson said.

"Fortunately this year there's a light stonefruit crop, a light grape crop, a very short olive crop. The shortness of the crops will perhaps aid in getting them in simply because they're smaller. If we had bumper crops, we'd be in big trouble."

Salinas Valley grower Gary Tanimura said that his diversified growing operation is getting by with available workers, with the exception of filling strawberry crews.

"We're kind of short on strawberry pickers and we had to increase the wages last week just to draw enough people to harvest," Tanimura said. "But so far that's the only crop in the Salinas area where we're seeing problems.

"Lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower crews seem to be enough to cover the acreage right now."

On the Central Coast growers are reporting labor shortages, but they say it hasn't reached the critical stage where crops are going unharvested and growers are taking financial losses.

Bill Moncovich, president of Giant Berry in Watsonville, grows and processes strawberries throughout coastal California. He said the farm labor situation is short, but not critical. Crews are working longer hours to finish and, he said, his company could always add people. The situation is at a tipping point.

"When we get into the processing strawberries in Oxnard, we start losing people," said Moncovich, who is a member of the State Board of Food and Agriculture. "People don't stick around because they want to go for the better money. They know they can get better paying ag jobs in other areas throughout the state."

Moncovich said one of the things that surprised him this year is the high return rate for workers. He said in years past the company had about a 50 percent return of the same workers from the year before. This year the return rate is more than 60 percent.

"We don't know what to attribute that to," he said. "Maybe it's because they want to solidify their relationship with a specific grower in case immigration reforms come down. Maybe it's because they were afraid to go back home when harvest finished up last year. We're seeing people coming from further south in Mexico each year so it takes them longer to travel each way. Then there's the border situation."

Moncovich said that in the Santa Maria area, the company has shifted to a new strawberry variety that doesn't have a heavy ripeness peak that allows harvesting to be spread out. That means fewer workers are needed per acre to get the crop off at the right time.

Growers in the Santa Maria area also report a more rapid adoption of mechanization, with some crops, like broccoli, being machine harvested for the first time on some farms. The prices for machine-harvested vegetables is lower because the quality isn't as good as those harvested by hand, but they say, in a labor market as tight as today's, it's the best way to get some commodities to consumers.

"Everybody pretty scared about the labor situation," Moncovich said. "If Congress decides to pass enforcement only immigration reform legislation, what are we going to do? Congress just doesn't get it. Do they want to outsoucre our food supply? Do we want to be held hostage for our staples? This is ridiculous."

Art Machado, whose family operates a dairy and grows raisin grapes and winegrapes near Fresno, said the dairy is operating pretty well, but could use some more workers. He's shifting to more mechanical harvesting for grapes.

"The machines don't care if it's 110 degrees (F)," Machado said. "They just keep going. The expense of hand labor will kill you.

"But even with machine harvesting, you have to have crews come in and cut canes so the grapes start drying a little bit on the vines before harvest. We're having problems getting enough people to even go in and do that job."

Machado said he's optimistic that his family will get their crops in because they've planned far in advance for a harvest within a tight labor situation.

"It's not a dire crisis right now, but the labor supply situation is getting worse," he said.

Field representatives with the Farm Employers Labor Service said so far growers they talk to are getting by with the existing labor supply. But, they point out that the period of heaviest demand will begin around Labor Day.

Labor contractors are predicting there will be 20 percent fewer workers at peak harvest than there were last year, which also was a short labor year.

"When it comes to harvest, that's when we'll really find out how short we are," said Rigo De La Cerda, FELS field representative. "The growers hope the labor supply isn't more than 20 percent down. People don't have a good handle on it yet, but its getting harder to fill jobs."

On the horizon are additional changes to federal regulations that could spell further labor problems for farm businesses. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has proposed a rule to amend employment eligibility verification regulations.

The change would impose an obligation on employers to take "reasonable" steps upon receiving a so-called Social Security Administration "mismatch" letter. Employers who fail to take such steps under the proposed rule would be subject to a finding by DHS' Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they possessed "constructive knowledge" that they were employing an undocumented alien.

Under the proposed rule, an employer would have between 14 and 60 days, depending on the circumstances, to verify the legitimacy of an employee's documents. If an employer could not do so at the end of the 60-day period, the employer would have to terminate the employee or face potential penalties.

(Kate Campbell is a reporter for Ag Alert. She may be contacted at kcampbell@cfbf.com.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top