Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Next, how workers, farmers and businesses in Alabama are dealing with a new immigration law that's attracting national attention.
NewsHour economics correspondent Paul Solman visited the state and filed this story, part of his ongoing reporting on Making Sense of financial news.
Another excerpt
PAUL SOLMAN: But Keith Smith says the global market sets price, not farmers.
KEITH SMITH, sweet potato farmer: If we pay more, it eventually puts us out of business is what's going to happen. And you're going to end up with food supplies, instead of coming from America, they're going to be coming from Mexico, from Chile, from Honduras, where they're not really regulated like we are.
PAUL SOLMAN: Moreover, the farmers insist, most Americans just can't or won't do farm work. When Smith's immigrants fled, he hired locals to help harvest his sweet potatoes.
KEITH SMITH: I probably had three or four out of 50 that is really worth anything, as far as being a good worker. It's just a lot of it is, is, they're not skilled and they don't know how to do what we're doing, and they ain't durable enough.
PAUL SOLMAN: They aren't durable enough?
KEITH SMITH: They ain't durable enough, because they're not used to doing that kind of stuff. They come out and work two to three hours and: Whew. I have had it. I can't take this anymore.
PAUL SOLMAN: Come the fall, some 40 workers usually pick Smith's sweet potatoes. He's down to 15, many of whom live nearby.
This was Melinda Martinez's (ph) fourth day on the job.
WOMAN: And I had to go home yesterday. I couldn't handle it. It's backbreaking.
PAUL SOLMAN: Martinez couldn't keep pace. At 40 cents per bucket, she made $30 for the day, compared to $75 and up for a practiced picker.
PAUL SOLMAN: Martinez couldn't keep pace. At 40 cents per bucket, she made $30 for the day, compared to $75 and up for a practiced picker.
WOMAN: It ain't really worth the gas I'm spending to get here.
PAUL SOLMAN: Jerry Spencer has been ferrying unemployed workers from Birmingham, an hour away. Most last a day or two.
JERRY SPENCER, Grow Alabama: City workers are unprepared physically, mentally and in training. And I'm seeing some good hardworking people coming out of the cities that may stick with it, but -- but you can bet, as the economy gets better, they find a job in the city, that's where they're going.
Take special note of the comment "If we pay more, it eventually puts us out of business is what's going to happen. And you're going to end up with food supplies, instead of coming from America."
That's what the politicians do NOT understand. Pay workers more = higher prices at the market for Americans. This WILL drive the markets to look elsewhere to lower their costs. As for jobs outside agriculture, how many people do you know that actually make a good living at the same jobs immigrants take today?
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