Californias multicrop farming economy is a cornucopia of over 250 different commoditiesat least 100 of these crops are tender and perishable. each with a different harvest season. The growers of such crops cannot develop a stable. yearround work force because they simply dont have stable. yearround work to offer. Unfortunately. it is impossible to secure enough domestic labor to do the parttime migrant work. In fact. a pilot program to recruit local labor through the California Employment Development Department failed to attract enough workers. Half of those who did show up were illegal aliens. While the existing and proposed H2 program may adequately serve the labor needs of some agricultural commodities such as tobacco. sheep and sugar cane. it does not provide the flexibility needed to provide delicate crop industries with an adequate harvest labor force on short notice. Indeed. even the relaxed 50day H2 notification period in the bill before us is still too restrictive.
Keywords matched
illegal aliens migrant