Labor Report

by Tom Reyes

Back in the 1940's, with the United States wedged heavily in war on two fronts, farmers and the construction industry found themselves facing a tremendous shortage of labor, most available men had traded the hoe and hammer for a weapon.

To combat this shortage of man-power, the government turned to Mexico for help, thus the birth of the Bracero Program. Primarily initiated in response to eleviate problems faced by the farming industry with the shortage of labor, the Mexican worker was offered many incentives, including a savings program (unfortunately, that money has some how disappeared and is in the center of controversy) to leave their homes for the duration of the war and work the farmland.

The Bracero Program was so successful it was expanded into the 1950's and now it went beyond the farmland and into other areas such as construction and landscape service.

But with the end of the program, the Mexican worker found the economy in their own country had not improved but had declined significantly during his absense. And now, without a Bracero-type program in place, that worker found himself having to enter the United States illegally in an attempt to earn enough money to feed his family.

That action has resulted in an influx of illegal immigrants which, although a policing problem for our government, has been a boom for the farm system and, in our case, for the landscape service industry. These "illegals" have provided the stoop labor most U.S. workers won't do.

But recently, Mexico's new president, Vicente Fox, spoke of inticing the illegals with better wages and a better home situation in an attempt to lure them back home.

Although in the past 20 years many of these people have gained legal status in the United States, they find a return to their homeland interesting. Many would not hesitate to return to better conditions.

True, things have gotten better at the border. At a recent conference held at Chapman University in Orange, California, the inroads achieved since the inception of the North American Fair Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have favored Mexico to a greater extent. New manufacturing plants, mainly those concerned with assembly, have provided the Mexican worker with a steady job and a steady paycheck. It has also opened the borders from Mexico to Canada with stronger import and export opportunities.

The loss of the Mexican worker, the so-called "Cheap Labor," will cause a hardship to many of our industries, but it could also open the employment door for the many on federal and state assistance programs.

At the Chapman conference it was suggested that in order to "save" businesses such as those in residential gardening, assistance programs would partner rather than take on the entire burden of financial aid to the unemployed. Thus, not only would more jobs come available, but taxpayers would not see tax monies going to support the entire assistance program.

Mexico has seen an exodus of its younger work force because of its economy, but with the envisoned improvements both the United States and Mexico would undoubtedly benefit in the end.