DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Trump admin looks to cut farmworker pay to help industry during pandemic: report

Trump admin looks to cut farmworker pay to help industry during pandemic: report

The Trump administration is reportedly working on plans to reduce the wages of foreign workers on U.S. farms, a move it think swould help farmers facing economic uncertainty during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by NPR.

Farmers have struggled during the pandemic as schools, restaurants and other businesses that buy their products close. The blow from the pandemic follows the tariff war with China that already resulted in economic hardship for some farmers.

According to NPR, President Trump's new White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has been working with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to consider a policy reducing pay for foreign guest workers. Those workers, on the H-2A seasonal guest-worker program, make up about 10 percent of farm laborers.

"The administration is considering all policy options during this unprecedented crisis to ensure our great farmers are protected, and President Trump has done and will do everything he can to support their vital mission," a White House official told NPR.

It's not clear how the Trump administration would take the measures to reduce pay, but NPR reports that Perdue has pushed to change a specific rule that guides how farmers using the H-2A program pay their workers. The rule requires farmers to pay their laborers a wage comparative to local hourly pay laws. Under the rule, hourly pay rates range from $11.71 in Florida to $14.77 in California.

Perdue has said in the past that those pay rates are "kind of pricing ourselves out of business" and has suggested changes.

Such a policy, if it were to be implemented, would come on the heels of Trump announcing Friday that he has instructed Perdue to get aid to farmers and develop a program of "at least $16 billion" to provide relief to the industry.

Farmworkers have been labeled essential during the pandemic, and some have feared there could be a food shortage if the industry is not properly taken care of as the virus spreads.

Last month the United Nations said that while harvests have been good and staple crops remain in demand, a shortage of field workers brought on by the pandemic could lead to problems in the food supply.

Erik Nicholson, the national vice president for the United Farm Workers, told NPR that guest workers are worried they may lose their jobs and are already vulnerable, living in cramped housing without proper hand-washing facilities during the pandemic.

Updated: 11 p.m.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/49...during-pandemic

PHASE 6 of the Billionaire Pandemic Stimulus: Starve the people growing our food.

Starve the people growing our food ... ...

Sometimes a clinical diagnosis just isn’t necessary ... TDS is clearly the only way to draw that conclusion from that article ...

I wish I had the limited mental capacity to make up mental illnesses for others and believe them... What will you do when things get back to normal and being dumb is a thing again? If there is a true TDS it's all these Trumpians that think their feelings equal facts because they hate education.

So, the school kids have quit eating, and since people don't go to restaurants, they've quit eating?

It's more of a situation of how the supply chain works. Take Florida for example along with some dairy farmers. Most of their customer base was supplying schools and restaurants. In those situations their crops are dying in the fields. They are dumping milk because their consumer base is no longer purchasing their products.

‘It’s catastrophic.’ Coronavirus forces Florida farmers to scrap food they can’t sell

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241627101.html

Dairy farmers forced to dump milk as schools and restaurants close

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dairy-farmers-hit-hard-by-coronavirus-are-spilling-a-lot-of-milk/

You see, not every farmer has contracts to sell their supplies to grocery stores. It's a little more complex than, "So people stopped eating?"

It will take time to adjust the food supply chain. Grocery stores can only hold and store items with a short shelf life. They only have so much footage in warehouses and storage facilities for food that will spoil or rot.

If it were only as simple as you wish to make it sound that would be great. But it's not.

Lot's of people have taken temporary pay cuts. Lot's of people have been furloughed.

We can't run our farms out of business. We have to keep them open.

That is one of the BIG advantages this country has. We have lot's of fresh water and we can grow and graze copious amounts of food and livestock.

We feed the world.

At what point do people who make so little are put in a situation where they can no longer afford to live?

It's a good question. Auto plants all over are shut down. How are they going to live for any length of time on unemployment wages?

There are no good answers.

I understand there are no good answers. It's tough on almost everyone. I just think there is a certain minimum standard that we must maintain.

Let's take you auto worker example. Unions provide what is called "sub pay" to help close the gap between unemployment and their regular wage. So they are pretty well covered.

I'm simply talking about trying to not harm people who can barely put a roof over their head and food in the belly as it stands now.

Not to mention they are working their asses off and cutting their pay is the last thing that should be happening. We can dump trillions into the stock markets and keeping billionaires afloat, but we can't subsidize these farms to keep them operationally sound? GMAB

And it just so happens that the majority of these people are brown.

Sub Pay isn't crap....what $40 a week, maybe?


You don't know what the migrants but in their belly. Not far from here is Dalton, Ga. It has a high Mexican population. I am not going to say illegal because many may be legal. I don't know so I am not going to point that finger.

What I do know is they have maybe 10 people living in a 2 bedroom house or maybe 5-6 in a 2 bedroom apartment.

They live the way they live. Many look a bit chunky, so they are eating something.

Look, I am not for cutting anybody's pay, but if cutting some pay helps the farmer keep the family farm up and going, I think it a good move.

It's a two way street. You have to try to protect both workers and business. Business needs people to work there to build their products or perform their services.

Workers need business to provide them jobs. We have to come out of this where thousands of business' don't just shutter up or there won't be jobs.

My feeling is more business' and people will go bankrupt over the number of workers/people who die from this.

We have to keep business viable for the American Way to work.

We talk about taking care of people. Well, my answer is I agree, but sometimes taking care of the people is taking care of the business that provides the jobs.

Think about it....what if Ford and GM went out of business? We aren't building cars anymore. What if GE went out of business? We aren't building lightbulbs or jet engines anymore.

The jobs have to be there for this to work.

They get that on top of unemployment and it probably adds to more than these field hands make anyway, but you are not defending them? Auto Workers make more base then get 75% on unemployment.

With sub pay, they will recieve 74% of their regular pay.



There's a reason for that. It seems you are suggesting their pay gets cut so even more of them will have to bunch up and share that two bedroom apartment.



Average in Georgia
$11.18 per hour

https://www.indeed.com/salaries/farm-worker-Salaries,-Georgia

I'm just wondering if you are actually serious here. You think it's okay to cut the wages of people who make 11$ an hour? Seriously?

I know that people shouldn't be profiting off of such a tragedy. Even though many people are. But at some point you can't just keep taking from those that already have nothing. Or maybe you can?

They are mostly brown people. If this was some white supremacist Trumpian voters, you could bet your ass Trump wouldn't be talking pay cuts.

Carry on my wayward son's.

I am out.

Thanks for a reasonable response, for once.

I forgot that some dairy farmers are dumping milk. Good reminder..

I just thought a very brief explanation of how the food supply chain and storage limitations may be helpful to make understanding the situation better.

and I won't take a cheap shot like saying "for once". I know you just can't help yourself but please try harder next time.

I just might know a bit about supply chain issues.

My thank you was in regards to reminding me that some dairy farmers are dumping milk. And it has nothing to do with trump.

I was referring to this little dig. But you knew that.

My reasoning for explaining the supply chain was this little goodie.



It seemed you questioned the crops rotting in the field aspect as boiling down to it couldn't be accurate since people didn't stop eating. If I misunderstood your intent, I'm sorry. But as a superficial response, that's what I gathered from it. So thus, my explanation of why and how this is happening.

And no, none of the supply chain issues has anything to do with Trump. It's simply the way the supply chain is set up.