The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: CactusCarlos on November 29, 2011, 03:20:42 PM
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x33897
Why Americans Won't Do Dirty Jobs
Posted by BridgeTheGap on Tue Nov-29-11 12:46 PM
Skinning, gutting, and cutting up catfish is not easy or pleasant work. No one knows this better than Randy Rhodes, president of Harvest Select, which has a processing plant in impoverished Uniontown, Ala. For years, Rhodes has had trouble finding Americans willing to grab a knife and stand 10 or more hours a day in a cold, wet room for minimum wage and skimpy benefits.
Most of his employees are Guatemalan. Or they were, until Alabama enacted an immigration law in September that requires police to question people they suspect might be in the U.S. illegally and punish businesses that hire them. The law, known as HB56, is intended to scare off undocumented workers, and in that regard it’s been a success. It’s also driven away legal immigrants who feared being harassed.
Rhodes arrived at work on Sept. 29, the day the law went into effect, to discover many of his employees missing. Panicked, he drove an hour and a half north to Tuscaloosa, where many of the immigrants who worked for him lived. Rhodes, who doesn’t speak Spanish, struggled to get across how much he needed them. He urged his workers to come back. Only a handful did. “We couldn’t explain to them that some of the things they were scared of weren’t going to happen,†Rhodes says. “I wanted them to see that I was their friend, and that we were trying to do the right thing.â€
His ex-employees joined an exodus of thousands of immigrant field hands, hotel housekeepers, dishwashers, chicken plant employees, and construction workers who have fled Alabama for other states. Like Rhodes, many employers who lost workers followed federal requirements—some even used the E-Verify system—and only found out their workers were illegal when they disappeared.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/why-americans-wont-do-dirty-jobs-11092011.html
Yep - and if he were "trying to do the right thing" he'd do the same
Posted by kath on Tue Nov-29-11 01:21 PM
like pay a freakin' decent wage for hard work, follow labor laws, and provide benefits.
What an asshole.
Miserable conditions at a non-living wage. Sounds attractive to me.
Posted by Pacifist Patriot on Tue Nov-29-11 01:25 PM
Do I really need the sarcasm emoticon?
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Illegal immigrants are doing the jobs American don't have to do because they get welfare, SSDI, SSI, foodstamps, free/lowcost housing, medicaid, etc., etc..
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Yep - and if he were "trying to do the right thing" he'd do the same
Posted by kath on Tue Nov-29-11 01:21 PM
like pay a freakin' decent wage for hard work, follow labor laws, and provide benefits.
What an asshole.
And if he paid the wages Kath thinks the worker should get, then only the dreaded 1% would be able to afford the fish
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Illegal immigrants are doing the jobs American don't have to do because they get welfare, SSDI, SSI, foodstamps, free/lowcost housing, medicaid, etc., etc..
Bingo.
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Illegal immigrants are doing the jobs American don't have to do because they get welfare, SSDI, SSI, foodstamps, free/lowcost housing, medicaid, etc., etc..
What JR said!
Hell with all those benefits Americans won't even do regular blue collar work. It just doesn't pay the same after Uncle Sugar takes his vig. The above is also why only the lower classes can have 5-6 kids while the middle class struggles to have 2.
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I know quite a few people who do "dirty jobs." Both of my youngest kids did landscaping on crews where everyone else was Hispanic when we lived in SC for 11 months. It paid better than fast food, and was a better environment. And one did landscaping while going to school last summer in Dallas.
Youngest worked two years at an orchard and vineyard when first in college. First year, the rest of the crew was here from Mexico on a visa. At the end of that season, the owner told her if she could get a crew of more college kids, he's pay them the extra in hourly wages what it cost him to bring in aliens. She did it. Even before the raise it was paying better than retail and fast food. The other college kids were surprised they could get the work.
I used to know a teacher that got so fed up with dealing with that nuttiness, she went to work for a guy that emptied and serviced septic tanks. Said it matched her attitude at the time. After a year she and a neighbor lady bought the fella out and have been doing well since. Making more than she did as a teacher.
Most people out here have worked beet farms, potato farms, hay farms, hog farms, built fence, whatever. Most everyone I know has trapped or snared coyote and bobcat for the money. Stinky, exhausting work. Heck I clean rentals in the winter for landlords who are older just because it's good exercise and extra cash. Sometimes it requires a scoop shovel to start. And my day job is... well, would be considered pretty good by most.
So, there may be a prejudice against manual labor, but it can be overcome.
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So, there may be a prejudice against manual labor, but it can be overcome.
DUmmies can't overcome it, to them, it's a terminal disease.
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I know quite a few people who do "dirty jobs." Both of my youngest kids did landscaping on crews where everyone else was Hispanic when we lived in SC for 11 months. It paid better than fast food, and was a better environment. And one did landscaping while going to school last summer in Dallas.
Youngest worked two years at an orchard and vineyard when first in college. First year, the rest of the crew was here from Mexico on a visa. At the end of that season, the owner told her if she could get a crew of more college kids, he's pay them the extra in hourly wages what it cost him to bring in aliens. She did it. Even before the raise it was paying better than retail and fast food. The other college kids were surprised they could get the work.
I used to know a teacher that got so fed up with dealing with that nuttiness, she went to work for a guy that emptied and serviced septic tanks. Said it matched her attitude at the time. After a year she and a neighbor lady bought the fella out and have been doing well since. Making more than she did as a teacher.
Most people out here have worked beet farms, potato farms, hay farms, hog farms, built fence, whatever. Most everyone I know has trapped or snared coyote and bobcat for the money. Stinky, exhausting work. Heck I clean rentals in the winter for landlords who are older just because it's good exercise and extra cash. Sometimes it requires a scoop shovel to start. And my day job is... well, would be considered pretty good by most.
So, there may be a prejudice against manual labor, but it can be overcome.
Every one of those jobs sound better than some of what I did when my family owned a dairy farm.
Try clearing out a plugged drain on the walkway where the cows come into the dairy barn, up to your elbows in cow crap!
In sub-freezing weather!
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Every one of those jobs sound better than some of what I did when my family owned a dairy farm.
Try clearing out a plugged drain on the walkway where the cows come into the dairy barn, up to your elbows in cow crap!
In sub-freezing weather!
Dairies are definitely tough. Hogs = same deal too often. Trapping requires rotten meat mixed with mtn. lion, bobcat or coyote urine (speaking of dirty jobs!) or skunk scent. And I won't go into detail on preg testing cows (you probably been there, bought the gloves), or failed calving stories. Or doctoring cattle (lump jaw or cancer eye, anyone?).
You know it would be good for the DUmmies, too.
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Dairies are definitely tough. Hogs = same deal too often. Trapping requires rotten meat mixed with mtn. lion, bobcat or coyote urine (speaking of dirty jobs!) or skunk scent. And I won't go into detail on preg testing cows (you probably been there, bought the gloves), or failed calving stories. Or doctoring cattle (lump jaw or cancer eye, anyone?).
You know it would be good for the DUmmies, too.
Done all the above, we bought the gloves by the case from the A.I. tech (I'm talking Animal Insemination, not Artificial Intelligence, since we bred our own cows, too.)
Whenever we had a cow down with Milk Fever, Dad would pass the needle to me, because I could hit the jugular vein quicker than he could.
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No one knows this better than Randy Rhodes, president of Harvest Select, which has a processing plant in impoverished Uniontown, Ala. For years, Rhodes has had trouble finding Americans willing to grab a knife and stand 10 or more hours a day in a cold, wet room for minimum wage and skimpy benefits.
Is this a side-line to the leftist ranting on the radio? ;)
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emptied and serviced septic tanks. Said it matched her attitude at the time.
:lmao:
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Illegal immigrants are doing the jobs American don't have to do because they get welfare, SSDI, SSI, foodstamps, free/lowcost housing, medicaid, etc., etc..
Bingo!
And if he paid the wages Kath thinks the worker should get, then only the dreaded 1% would be able to afford the fish
And another Bingo!
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I guess BridgeTheGap has never watched this show...
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=velpYkaaXeU[/youtube]
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I guess BridgeTheGap has never watched this show...
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=velpYkaaXeU[/youtube]
Mike Rowe is a NUT!
I LOVE THIS GUY!
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I dunno what the dirtiest job is, but I have an acquaintance in the big city--I do his income taxes every year--Felix, an American citizen of Texan derivation, who strips hides off of cattle and other livestock that have died of one disease or another (usually some type of bloat).
A short, stout, amiable rotund little guy, Felix has a big heavy stay-at-home wife and two boys.
Felix makes good money and his attitude is, "Well, somebody's got to do it."