10/01/04

For the first time in the 42-year history of the United Farm Workers union, a grower addressed its biennial convention on Aug. 29 in Fresno, Calif. Peter Orum, owner of the Midwest Groundcovers nursery operation in St. Charles, Ill., and newly elected president of the American Nursery & Landscape Association, spoke to the estimated 1,000 UFW delegates and other attendees at the invitation of UFW president Arturo Rodriguez.
The unprecedented invitation came as both groups press for enactment of sweeping farm labor reform legislation known as AgJOBS. Years in the making, AgJOBS has the backing of 63 U.S. Senators of both parties, and 117 Representatives in the House. It also has attracted the endorsement of virtually every major agricultural commodity and employer organization, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and other labor advocates, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and every major national Hispanic and immigrant rights group.
Describing the challenges that have drawn historic adversaries together, Orum said:
“I am here today because we are fighting together for the future of American agriculture. The Labor and Immigration bill, S.1645 and H.R.3142 or AgJOBS as we call it, is absolutely essential to that future. If we do not have a dependable workforce now and in the future, the American specialty agriculture as we know it will little by little disappear to other countries. And that will happen to vegetables and fruit as well as to nursery plants, livestock and many other crops and products. We are in the same boat, you and I. We want to keep these farms and these jobs in America! We want our trained, experienced, and trusted workers to be able to keep working with us, to live openly in our society.”
Only election year politics stand in the way of Congress swiftly enacting AgJOBS into law, thus beginning the process of systematically overhauling America’s broken immigration system starting with the one industry where the problems are stark and the bipartisan solution is ripe, though not without controversy.
Said Orum, “Our anti-immigration adversaries have nothing to offer that can function. They don’t even have the guts to follow the logic of their own talk and [follow through on] deporting all of these workers. Maybe they also know that the country would come to a screeching halt if that was done. So these people stand by the principle that our nation must ‘never reward illegal behavior,’ yet they seem to tolerate the lawless status quo of smugglers, and deaths in the deserts, and farmers struggling to stay out of jail or bankruptcy court.”
Orum and Rodriguez joined in calling for President Bush to seize the opportunity at hand, by urging the Senate to pass AgJOBS immediately upon returning to Washington in September.
It can only help to add your own voice. Call your legislators and let them know how the need for labor affects your business.