Monday, April 25, 2016

Seems We've Run Out Of American Workers

April 25, 2016

Good morning.  It's gray and cloudy outside at the moment, although the weather man says it isn't going to rain until tonight.  Hmmm.  The temperature today will be warm, reaching up into the upper 60's.  This whole week, the nights will be quite cool with temps mostly in the 30's.  Tomorrow's day time temp is supposed to drop about 22 degrees.  Ouch!!

Yesterday, we went outside to find a spot to put the new rose bush, and Joe planted it and the tulip plants.  He wasn't feeling so good, so we'll pick an afternoon during the week to start cleaning out the gardens. 

After the planting was done it was time to do a couple loads of laundry.  One day this week, I'll put all of Pogo's blankets (the ones he is using) into the wash.  He loves clean smelling blankets.  But then, don't we all?

Today I want to talk about an article in this weekend's newspaper about seasonal workers.  First, here is the image and title for the article.


The seasonal workers whose absence is hurting these businesses don't even live in this country.  These workers are waiting for visas so that they can come here and work and send money home to their families.  Excuse me, but don't we have any folks of our own in need of work?  With the exceptionally high number of people receiving aid, a lot of them could be filling these jobs.

The article says that these same workers have been coming here for years to work these jobs. It goes on to say that employers must demonstrate they have a seasonal need, cannot find American workers for specific jobs and will pay foreign workers prevailing wages so their presence doesn't undercut the pay of American workers.

According to Laurie Flanagan, a co-chairman of the H-2B Workforce Coalition in Washington, "there is no other way to find legal seasonal workers.  This delay in processing the visas is frustrating for employers who are committed to having a legal, documented workforce.  They're having to put off business."

I guess the part that bothers me the most is allowing visas for workers to come in and do these jobs when we already have so many people here out of work.  We are being forced to house, feed and support a lot of people already here.  Why not put them to work instead and let them earn their own way?  They can be trained for these jobs the same way the other workers were once trained. 

Pay is obviously not the issue here, according to the article.  Where are these "outside" folks being put up to live?  Who is paying for that?  We have a lot of people needing a place to live and a job to support themselves.  Give all this space and work to them. 

I don't know.  I'm scratching my head trying to figure out the logic in all of this.  I watch so many people working wicked hard to make ends meet, and yet we are insisting that we need to bring in outsiders to fill our jobs.  Come on, America.  Get real!!

Okay, that's my band box statement for the day.  You know, some days I don't even open the newspaper for fear that I might find another article like this one.  It gets me riled up and ruins the whole day.  It's so much easier to turn on the TV and watch Sponge Bob Square Pants or Thomas The Train Engine. 

I found an rather interesting image on the web that I thought I would share with you.  It's a chart that shows you what to use to remove certain stains.  I hope you find it helpful.

Now it's time for me to do a few things around here.  I think maybe I'll run the vacuum around for a bit.  The dust bunnies are getting out of hand.  So, till tomorrow, Y'all have a wonderful day.

Hugs, Edna B.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Edna,
You have hit the nail on the head. I have been screaming the same thing for years. We have too many migrant workers here when American Citizens need the jobs and the money. I once had a heated debate over this with one of my bosses once and he gave me some food for thought and made a really good point.
SOME Americans are lazy when it comes to manual labor. His example to me was this... I am using myself here as an example. Trust me I worked hard! And he didn't have but a few migrant workers.
He hires me to do a job at $15.00 an hour. I don't care for the job, it is hard back breaking work. I do it but not without complaints, demands for a raise, I would often come in late or call in sick. Even worse my work was not up to standard, done just enough to get by. I didn't care about the end product, I just wanted to get the day done and get home and at the end of the work week collect my pay check.
He said for the Price of Me... he could hire two migrant workers and pay them each $7.50 an hour and get twice the more work completed, and from people that aimed to please and were thankful, and were so grateful that they had a job they would get to work even if they had to crawl.
I was upset with this, but a few years later it actually happened to me. Not by the same employer but another one. Not that I wasn't working hard because I was. But because the company was having some serious money problems. 2 workers at my rate equaled the job being completed faster. Therefore they could take on more projects. I don't know if it worked out for them or not. I had to find another job!
No fair.. You bet it was, and there may be a lot of lazy people out there but there are a lot of honest hard working Americans out there too that need jobs and a paycheck. They should be given the chance first! Ok Enough of my soap box too.

I enjoyed your stain remover. I saved it so that I can refer to it if I need to. I am so tired. I don't know why I cannot rest anymore. Cisco was so comfy last night. He is so soft since I bathed him. (I use my good shampoo and conditioner on him. Ever Straight Brazilian Keratin Therapy). It smells like coconut and I just love this brand. I leave the conditioner on him for about 3 minutes. That is about as long as he can stand to stay still for me. Then after he dried, Jonathan put on a flea and tick liquid from the vet. I would rather that he use the pills but they are very expensive but I told him that by using the liquid that it might dilute with bathing. He said no because it absorbs into the skin. Yeah right... Cisco was rolling all over my bed and the carpet to get it off of him ha.

I am glad that Pogo likes clean blankets. Cisco doesn't like his bed clean. He watches me take the sheets off and I can see the little wheels turning lol.

Guess I had better go and maybe have a nap. Hugs, Beth

The Queen Jester said...

The only problem with this is that many of our American workers would prefer to draw the welfare and unemployment than to do the messy, disgusting jobs that the migrant workers perform.

smiekeltje said...

we have about the same problem here too, with seasonal workers. And it is easy to say that our unemployed should fill those job places, but it isnt always so easy. Often it is far away from the living place of the unemplyed. There is no possibility for them to move house, certainly not for a few months. For a lot of people work is too hard(specially the older unemployed). And if they would do government has to check if they are payed enough according to the laws. If they are, but still earn too little to make a living each month, government still has to fill in the money upwards minimum income needed. But still I too agree that for a lot of people there might be work found.
But having people work for you, without real motivation, no other than having to do the job, otherwise you could be sanctioned, and not doing the job partly because you like it(and then you work a lot better) isn't really working well either. There is much more to be said about it, but I don;t have the real solution for it.It is a difficult problem.

I agree with you that reading or hearing those kind of issues can partly spoil your day, but it shouldn;t! We "simple"people cannot solve the problem(neither can the politicians, it seems LOL)so we better can give our attention to our every day life, which is at times already difficult enough. But also can have funny or happy moments, and that are the ones we should remember!
Hope Joe will feel better soon, and I also hope the drop in temperature in your area will not hold on long!
Have a wonderful day.
Hug
Kyra