Some Businesses Say Immigrant Workers Are Harder To Find
At Fieldale Farms in Gainesville, Ga., workers cut up chicken breasts and feed the parts into machines. The pieces are then marinated, breaded and eventually sold to restaurants.
The work here can be physically demanding. Not a lot of people want to do it — even though the average wage here is $16 per hour plus benefits.
Tom Hensley, the company president, says Fieldale Farms hires just about anyone who can pass a drug test.
"We hire 100 people a week. Because we have 100 people who quit every week, out of 5,000 employees," he says. "We're constantly short."
President Obama's executive actions on immigration, announced in November, will allow an estimated 4 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to stay in the country indefinitely.
But without congressional action, many of the long-term problems in the immigration system — including work shortages like that at Fieldale Farms --remain unaddressed.
And the shortage at the Fieldale plant has gotten worse. For a long time, a large majority of the workforce came from Latin America, mostly Mexico. Hensley always checked their documents, though he concedes some of those might have been forged.
Whatever their status, he says, the Latinos he hired were good employees with a strong work ethic and a low absentee rate.
"They were outstanding," he says. "If you asked for overtime, everybody raised their hand. They couldn't wait to come to work. Because they appreciated having a job."
Today, only about one-third of the workers here are from Latin America. In 2011, Georgia passed one of the strictest anti-illegal immigration bills in the country. Before that, the county became part of a federal program that designated local police to help find undocumented workers.
Arturo Corso, a local activist and lawyer, says Latino residents were stopped for minor offenses. Those who didn't have the right papers risked being taken to jail and deported.
"You had immigration agents partnering up with deputies at these roadblocks," Corso says. "Even if they stopped a taxi, they would ask the people riding in the back seat of the taxi, "Show me your social security card.' "
The program was modified in recent years, so the risk of deportation has dropped significantly. But Hall County retains a bad reputation among Hispanic immigrants — even those in the U.S. legally.
Maria, who didn't want her last name used, came to Georgia years ago from Mexico without papers. She has legal status today and owns a store, but she says she wouldn't advise other immigrants to come here. "Because if they come here and they don't have papers, they're running a huge risk," she says through an interpreter.
No one in county government wanted to talk about the climate for immigrants. Republican Congressman Doug Collins grew up in Gainesville and says local and state laws have probably discouraged some immigrants from coming to Georgia. He concedes that's a problem for employers.
"We do need a short-term guest worker program — where they come in, they do the job and they're able to go back home — so that there [are] sufficient employees for this kind of work that right now they're struggling to find," Collins says.
But he says such a program needs to be part of a comprehensive immigration bill that also secures the borders — and in the current political climate, that's hard to achieve.
Meanwhile, companies such as Fieldale Farms struggle to find workers. Tom Hensley says that as Latino immigrants have left, he has to hire more native-born Americans, who tend to be older.
"So we've had to hire middle-aged Americans who have not been used to working in an industrial facility and they have difficulty keeping up with the machines. So it's not the same labor force that we had 10 years ago," Hensley says.
As for President Obama's executive order, Hensley sees it as a kind of Band-Aid solution. It allows a lot of undocumented workers to remain in the country, but it could easily be reversed by the next president.
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Transcript
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
The U.S. poultry business is growing. And with that growth, there's growing demand for immigrant labor. NPR's Jim Zarroli recently visited a poultry operation in the South, and he found executives there are looking for broader congressional action on immigration beyond President Obama's executive action, which doesn't help them much.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: At Fieldale Farms in Gainesville, Ga., workers cut up chicken breasts and then feed the parts into machines. The pieces get marinated and breaded and eventually sold to restaurants.
JOHN WRIGHT: We don't waste any of it. It's all used in some shape, form or fashion. This is actually cut in filets and nuggets.
ZARROLI: John Wright is the company's vice president of operations. Work here can be physically demanding, and not a lot of people want to do it, even though the average wage here is $16 an hour plus benefits. President Tom Hensley says Fieldale Farms hires just about anyone who can pass a drug test.
TOM HENSLEY: We hire a hundred people a week because we have a hundred people who quit every week out of 5,000 employees. We're constantly short.
ZARROLI: And the shortage has gotten worse. For a long time, a large majority of the workforce at Fieldale Farms came from Latin America - mostly Mexico. Hensley always checked their documents, though he concedes some of those might have been forged. Whatever their status, he says the Latinos he hired were good employees.
HENSLEY: They were outstanding. If you asked for overtime, everyone raised their hand. They couldn't wait to come to work because they appreciated having a job.
ZARROLI: Today only about a third of the workers here are from Latin America. In 2011, the state of Georgia passed one of the strictest anti-illegal immigration bills in the country. Before that, the county became part of a federal program that designated local police to help find undocumented workers. Arturo Corso, a local activist and lawyer, says Latino residents were stopped for minor offenses, and those who didn't have the right papers risked being taken to jail and deported.
ARTURO CORSO: You had immigration agents partnering up with deputies at these roadblocks. Even if they stopped a taxi, they would ask the people riding in the backseat of the taxi to - you know, show me your Social Security card.
ZARROLI: The program was modified in recent years so the risk of deportation has dropped significantly, but Hall County retains a bad reputation among Latino immigrants, even legal ones. Corso takes me to meet Maria who didn't want her last name used. She came to Georgia years ago from Mexico without papers. She has legal status today and owns a store, but she says she wouldn't advise other immigrants to come here.
MARIA: No.
UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: Why not?
MARIA: (Through interpreter) Because if they come here and they don't have papers, they're running a huge risk.
ZARROLI: No one in county government wanted to talk about the climate for immigrants. Republican Congressman Doug Collins grew up in Gainesville. Collins says local and state laws have probably discouraged some immigrants from coming to Georgia. He concedes it's a problem for employers.
CONGRESSMAN DOUG COLLINS: We do need a short-term guest worker program where they come, they do the job and then they're able to go back home so that there is sufficient employees for these kind of work that right now they're struggling to find - at the same time still encouraging Americans to take those jobs as well.
ZARROLI: But he says such a program needs to be part of a comprehensive immigration bill that also secures the borders, and in the current political climate, that's hard to achieve. Meanwhile, companies such as Fieldale Farms struggle to find workers. Tom Hensley says that as Latino immigrants have left, he has to hire more native-born Americans who tend to be older.
HENSLEY: So we've had to hire middle-aged Americans who have not been used to working in an industrial facility, and they have difficulty keeping up with the machine. So it's not the same labor force that we had 10 years ago.
ZARROLI: As for President Obama's executive order, Hensley sees it as a kind of Band-Aid solution. Is allows a lot of undocumented workers to remain in the country, but it could easily be reversed by the next president. Plants like Fieldale Farms need a steady supply of workers, but without congressional action, finding them is likely to remain difficult. Jim Zarroli, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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