Temporary Mexican workers at Timmies?

[keith1612]

Each summer, we used to get a lot of backpackers coming through the Okanagan. They would work at the orchards and plant trees during their stay. Who's to say locals wouldn't do the work in their place? Have you tried to hire people to work at an orchard lately and not been able to find any? Do you have any first hand experience with this? Or are you just assuming?

anyone following it has seen the problems.
the seasonal workers from quebec etc used to like to come here and get paid well semi low to pick fruit and get a place to stay and dinners etc and enjoy a fun summer and party in their youth.
now its slum lord and bad food and bad wage.
so the option is bring in third world starving people and pay them low and treat them bad.
what a plan.

[Sn0man]

Know orchadists and there was a big expose done on the news some time ago - out of work people wouldn't do the job - no takers.

Any particular reason for that?

I know picking fruit and tree planting used to be a profitable - if not laborious - endeavor. My sister (who, at the time, was in high school) used to do this in the summers. They would make up to $160/day, and I think it was based on how much they could produce in a day.

What's changed to make it so unattractive that neither locals nor Quebecers would do it any more?

[grammafreddy]

I'm gonna stick my neck in the noose and ask a question here ...

A lot of the orchardists now are East Indian. Do you think that has anything to do with locals and the French Canadians not wanting to pick fruit now? Do the Caucasian orchardists have the same problems getting pickers?

My former landlord was an East Indian orchardist and I saw first hand how he treated his workers over the 7+ years I lived there. I would not have worked for him - for a lot of different reasons. Finally all he could get were Mexicans and he treated them like dirt. I felt so sorry for them.

[Fancy]

I see Quebecers in the summer so they are still coming around though maybe not as many. If people aren't willing to try then that can be attributed to just plain laziness and lack of ambition.

[keith1612]

I see Quebecers in the summer so they are still coming around though maybe not as many. If people aren't willing to try then that can be attributed to just plain laziness and lack of ambition.

or try the real reason, abusive slave labor for garbage wages that wont even support a months rent in the okanagan let alone food and a lifestyle.

[keith1612]

I'm gonna stick my neck in the noose and ask a question here ...

A lot of the orchardists now are East Indian. Do you think that has anything to do with locals and the French Canadians not wanting to pick fruit now? Do the Caucasian orchardists have the same problems getting pickers?

My former landlord was an East Indian orchardist and I saw first hand how he treated his workers over the 7+ years I lived there. I would not have worked for him - for a lot of different reasons. Finally all he could get were Mexicans and he treated them like dirt. I felt so sorry for them.

sorry but yes its the truth.
look in vancouver they fill vans with workers like mexican slaves and transport them around.
its a sad switch to our fruit industry, used to mom and pop owned now its foreign owned it appears with poor wages and treatment.

[Fancy]

Shouldn't be worrying about lifestyle if trying to put food on the table. If someone isn't willing to give a job a go and be content to sit on their duff then that speaks volumes to me.

[Sn0man]

I see Quebecers in the summer so they are still coming around though maybe not as many. If people aren't willing to try then that can be attributed to just plain laziness and lack of ambition.

or try the real reason, abusive slave labor for garbage wages that wont even support a months rent in the okanagan let alone food and a lifestyle.

I would say that is closer to the real reason than the laziness or lack of ambition of the locals, or Quebecers.

[Fancy]

“Are we going to have enough help, and what kind of help are we going to have? Are they going to be productive?” he says, recalling the questions he’d ask. “We used to have around 25 people at one time to take the crop off, because some of them weren’t very fast, and some wouldn’t show up. You’d have 25 and end up maybe with six, and the others wouldn’t come. It was hit and miss, and it just doesn’t work.”

But that changed when British Columbia signed on with the Seasonal ­Agricultural Workers Program in 2004. Gutknecht began participating in 2005, and hasn’t looked back.

http://www.goodfruit.com/Good-Fruit-Gro ... ut-costly/

As far as laziness is concerned, that was shown in the newsclip.

[keith1612]

Shouldn't be worrying about lifestyle if trying to put food on the table. If someone isn't willing to give a job a go and be content to sit on their duff then that speaks volumes to me.

so you expect people to degrade themselves to sub par conditions and wages to work for say 3 weeks , ohh where do i sign up.
workers travel to take winter and summer positions that arent full time.
ski hills depend on them as do orchards.
take a look who big white and silver star employ alot of, they bring in from australia, but they treat them good.

[Fancy]

so you expect people to degrade themselves to sub par conditions and wages to work for say 3 weeks

I didn't say anything about expecting that at all - the point is (again) the people asked to work wouldn't even consider it sight unseen etc. etc. How would they know about the conditions if they don't look into it?

[Fancy]

If there aren't the labourers, the orchardists can go out of business.

[keith1612]

If there aren't the labourers, the orchardists can go out of business.

ahhh thats it, so to keep orchaedists in business with the huge houses they live in (drive around and look) give them cheap slave labor?
and remember when a crop fails or is poor they get cash from the govt as a subsidy, bet the worker didnt.

[motorhomebabe]

So now we have all our homeless and a lot of our young people on Social assistance, and we still bring in government subsidized foreigners to do the work?

[keith1612]

So now we have all our homeless and a lot of our young people on Social assistance, and we still bring in government subsidized foreigners to do the work?

hey and dont forget paying a lower wage.