Farm Labor Shifts from Migrant Workers to Locals

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By Rudabeh Shahbazi

Summary

The crackdown on the Mexican border has made it more difficult to hire new migrant workers.

Story Published: Jul 20, 2008 at 7:01 PM PST

ECHO-- Farmers are seeing a different crowd line up for jobs, as locals replace migrant farm workers.

"Really good people, if you find them, you keep them," said Lloyd Piercy, who owns Echo West Ranch. He produces a variety of crops, and he needs good bodies to do it.

"The migrants that traditionally come from South America, Central America, Mexico, have a really strong work ethic," he said. "So they're really in high demand.

He's had some of the same people on his staff for more than a decade, and says they are like family. But the crackdown on the Mexican border has made it more difficult to hire new migrant workers.

"That is still a difficult situation," said Piercy. "That's still a problem."

About 75 percent of the labor force on his vineyard used to be made up of migrant workers. Now it's down to about half his employees. The other half is made up of locals who came looking for work.

"The work that's traditionally done by migrant workers, those people are still really in high demand," he said. "Their wages have actually increased."

While farm wages rise, recreational industries that depend on fuel have plummeted. The most recent local casualty of the sinking economy is a trailer manufacturing plant in Pendleton.

As former employees look for new work, they're making their way outside to the farms.

"Then there's of the areas around that have laid off, so we're getting people from out of the area that come in. I've had really good applicants this year," said Piercy. "Some really qualified, really dynamic people."

Still, he misses the migrant workers. Piercy says most people don't realize how valuable they are.

"They don't take away from the community, they contribute to the community. People that have the immigrants, that have the migrants, are the winners," he said. "Having good workers that want to come here for the better wages, and better jobs and standard of living."

Piercy says labor contractors have taken over to sort out legalities for the immigrants who do make it here, so they are generally above board and better paid now than in the past.