2 months ago
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FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - The farming assemblage has been near scratching their heads aft a arguable connection from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins connected Tuesday.
In the statement, made astatine a quality league with Republican governors, she said determination would beryllium "no amnesty" for workplace workers astir the country.
She besides floated the thought of replacing the workers with automation and what she called "34 cardinal able-bodied adults" with Medicaid.
Wednesday, she seemed to treble down.
"At the extremity of the day, we person plentifulness of Americans here, moving to guarantee that we're transitioning to that afloat American workforce, either done automation, the dignity of work, moving a batch of able-bodied Americans disconnected of the authorities programs into those enactment opportunities is truly what's next," she said.
Now, galore crossed the ag-rich portion are confused astir what that "next" measurement looks like.
That includes Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias, who had immoderate beardown words successful effect to Rollins.
"The ag caput is an idiot," Arias said. "As a erstwhile workplace idiosyncratic myself, I tin archer you firsthand that she's ne'er spent a time picking cantaloupes and watermelons."
Meanwhile, Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers' League, says the secretary's statements person fixed him flashbacks.
"It's a repetition of what happened successful 1998 successful California nether President Clinton, called Welfare to Work," Cunha said.
He says that it came astatine a clip of a monolithic workers' shortage, with tens of thousands of unfastened jobs successful 10 counties astir the region.
Cunha was 1 of those down a determination aviator program.
However, helium says successful full the programme got conscionable 560 applicants, and from those, helium says lone 3 said they would bash that job.
"One idiosyncratic got lost. The 2nd idiosyncratic went to the job, to the grower, and worked a fractional a day," said Cunha, who told YourCentralValley.com that the idiosyncratic near due to the fact that of the hard work.
He says the 3rd idiosyncratic ne'er showed up, and instead, "Went backmost to the employment improvement and said, 'I request to assertion worker's comp due to the fact that I wounded myself astatine the occupation site,'" helium said.
Ultimately, helium testified to the U.S. Senate connected however the programme was ineffective.
He says now, it's not just to farmers to enactment them done a akin situation, and not just to workers that person been present for decades, galore of whom are experts astatine their craft.
"These workers cognize the industry. It's hard work," said Cunha. "Just arsenic the president said, you're not going to get U.S. radical bending implicit and picking fruit."
As for automation, Ryan Jacobsen, CEO of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, says we conscionable aren't determination yet.
"Table grapes, peaches plums, nectarines, cherries, blueberries, immoderate of these things there, erstwhile it comes to trying to get that caller nutrient to a user successful a non-bruised state, we conscionable don't rather person that automation determination yet," said Jacobsen.
Jacobsen says we're astatine slightest 5 to 15 years distant from automation similar that.
