Thursday, November 02, 2006

Mexicans stealing the jobs Americans don't want

In the news, I keep hearing about how the Mexicans are sneaking out of Mexico into America to take away our jobs. Listening to the news reports, as they talk about illegal aliens, I keep picturing little green men from Mars coming to do us ill. Interesting work alien; strange that it is used for people from outerspace and for humans from another country.

Anyway, back to the job issue. Now, has anyone ever really contemplated the jobs the Mexicans are struggling to get to America to steal from the American workforce? I live in a small farming community in Kentucky, and as you know, Kentucky is known for its tobacco. How many people out there have ever worked in tobacco? Go on, raise your hand. Now, how many of you have ever cut tobacco? Or hung it? Hard work, wasn't it? Want to do it for a living? You bet your darn tooting you don't. It's toooo hard.

For those of you out there who have lived a sheltered existence and have never had the pleasure of cutting or hanging tobacco, we will enlighten you on the whole tobacco process.

First, there is the Tobacco Setting Process. Now this is not so bad. Other than riding on the sitter for long enough hours that your buns go numb and your back cramps, the worst that can go wrong is that you get sunburned, breath in the noxious chemicals (most of them poisonous to the human body) used in setting the tobacco, and get covered in wet, slimy, chemical-rich water.

Next, we have the Topping Process. After the tobacco has grown awhile, been sprayed with various noxious (most of them poisonous to the human body) chemicals to kill weeds, bugs and fungus, the farmer goes out into the field and individually breaks the top off each and every plant. Let's get an idea of the scope of this project. An acre of tobacco has about 8,000 plants. No machine for this job, folks. Just old-fashion hard labor. A farmer seldom raises only one acre of tabacco; it would not be cost effective. Let's say the farmer has three acres. That means 24,000 plants which have to be individually topped.

In late summer, the tobacco has to be cut: the Tobacco Cutting Process. This is where the Mexicans come in. Each stalk of tobacco (some weighing up to 10 lbs) is somewhere between 4 to 6 ft. tall and the stalk is about as round as the end of a baseball bat. The procedure for cutting tobacco is: get a small hatchet, called a tobacco knife, which looks like a small tomahawk; bend over; strike each tobacco stalk at the base with the approximate force you would use if trying to cut a watermelon in half; stab the tobacco stalk on something called a spear; bend over again and repeat the process over and over and over.

Now let's talk about spearing tobacco. The tobacco is speared onto a stick (4 ft. long x 2 in. square). The spear is a round metal cap that comes to a super-sharp point. The tobacco stick is pushed into the ground; the metal spear is placed on top. The idea is to jam each stalk of tobacco onto the spear with enough force to make the spear pierce through the tobacco stalk and the stalk to slide onto the stick. Most farmers, depending on the size of the tobacco, want about 6 stalks on each stick.

Think about this for a second or two. To place 6 stalks onto a stick, an individual has to bend over, cut, spear. Bend over, cut, spear. Bend over, cut, spear, Bend over, cut, spear, Bend over, cut, spear. Bend over, cut, spear. Is your back hurting yet? The pay is .12 cents a stick. No, I did not type that wrong. Twelve cents per stick. Not per stalk, per stick. Now, let's go back to those 8,000 plants-per-acre. Are you doing the math? Is this a job most people would give up their job for?

Now don't blame the farmer for these poor wages. They have to pay that little to make a profit. The government and the tobacco companies control how much money they are given per pound. Farmers can't set their own prices like your neighbor doctor, lawyer, or hairdresser.

We have now come to the Housing Tobacco Process. Tobacco is hung in a barn or similar structure to dry and cure. The top of most barns is about the same height from the ground as a single story home. One houser climbs to the top of the barn, places one foot on a round pole or board (think 4 x 4 in diameter), spreads his legs as far apart as he can, and places the other foot on another pole or board. Take a second or two to visualize yourself doing that little feat. Climb to the top of your house, put your foot on a 4 x 4, spread your legs and place the other foot on another 4 x 4, nothing underneath you but ground. Somehow, I don't think very many of you are going to rush to do it. Now lean down as far as you can (past your feet) balancing yourself on the poles, hands loose because you have to grab and pull up the tobacco that is being handed up to you, and hang the stick of tobacco on the rails. Remember, you can't hold on; your hands have to be free to grab, pull up, and hang the tobacco. Think how tired your legs will get in a very short while. Remember that 8,000 stalks-per-acre. If 6 stalks are placed on each stick, that makes 1,333 sticks of tobacco that has to be hung per acre.

Obviously housing tobacco is a group effort, but finding individuals willing to cut and hang tobacco is getting harder and harder. In fact, it's downright impossible. The older folks don't want to do it anymore (or can't), and the younger folks don't know how and most don't want to learn.

So, we come to the Mexicans.They are willing to do this hard labor for little pay under deplorable working conditions. All they want in return is money to help feed their families back home. They are willing to walk miles under conditions that would kill many of us, taking huge risk, to come here to do this job.

I don't think the Mexicans are taking the jobs that Americans want. Americans don't want to work in tobacco. It is hard, demanding, exhausting work. If there are Americans out there who want to work in tobacco, go to any tobacco farmer at cutting or housing time, and I guarantee you will be put right to work. For the rest of you who don't want to do this labor, let the Mexicans come. The American farmers need their help.

P.S: There are many other crops just as difficult to harvest. If you don't believe me, read up on garlic farming; then decide if you want to give up your job for that one.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous1:18 PM

    i live in Chicago im a union bricklayer im 1 of the lucky ones that still has a job thank god!Mexicans are not just taking jobs Americans don't want. that's BS.they are taking all the jobs . every-were u go no matter what, fast food ,construction, health care,all u see are Mexicans working.go thru a drive-thru in Chicago, the Mexican working the drive-thru cant speak or can barely understand English that's crazy u come to our country and cant speak our language.that's BS.then they have what are called anchor baby's .who do u think is paying for that we the people our,they are all on welfare and the real Americans are paying for it.that's BS. they need to shut the boarders down do not let any more of these people in our country.that's why unemployment's so high right now. Obama opened our country up to all these people.that's BS to. i have an 18 year old son that's going to college right now he can not get a job because he don't speak Spanish that's BS.i got this crazy thought that are language was English. how wrong i was. im just 1 of millions that feels this way.

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