Farmworkers work at a winery in Clarksburg, Calif., on March 24. Farms continue to operate as essential businesses even as the coronavirus has hurt the agriculture industry. Farmworkers work at a winery in Clarksburg, Calif., on March 24. Farms continue to operate as essential businesses even as the coronavirus has hurt the agriculture industry.
to ensure Americans have food to eat and U.S. grocery stores remain stocked. Workers on the H-2A seasonal guest-worker program areThe effort to provide"wage relief" to U.S. farmers follows an announcement Friday by the USDA to develop a program that will include direct payments to farmers and ranchers hurt by the coronavirus. TrumpLast month, the U.S. State Department said it will start processing more applicants seeking H-2A temporary guest worker visas to ensure U.S.
"So in the middle of a pandemic, rather than trying to figure out the cheap way to do things, we need to make sure we live up to the expectations society has of us as an industry to keep the food flowing," Nicholson said. "President Trump should see right through what the agriculture lobby is demanding in the name of 'food security' at the height of a health crisis – lower wages for American workers and more cheap foreign labor," said Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports immigration restrictions."These appalling demands underscore that the whole way this nation produces food should be re-examined.
Because propping up wages is for CEOs. FoodSupply
The farm workers live an impoverished life while big farm owners receive taxpayers money. Somethings wrong with this picture.
I just be damned if you don't die from COVID-19....the GOVERNMENT is going to starve you to DEATH.
Somebody please explain to me who the trump is helping besides himself and his closest friends?!!!
But farmers are not obligated to pay a low wage, surely. Could some fair minded folk pay them what they are worth?
Gringos culeros, ojalá no vayan los trabajadores del campo a trabajar a USA, que se queden en México. Mueranse de hambre y de miedo, miserables.
Do not bite the hand that feeds you
Terrible idea.
Hahahahahaha wow what incentive does any foreign person have to risk ending up in a concentration camp to come to our virus laden country and work for now even LESS money? Hahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Problem is--there is such a disconnect between people and where their food comes from. Buy seeds now and grow at least something, even if its just one pot on your balcony.
Finally. Why weren't they included from the beginning?! And they social distance.
And that’s... capitalism*. * - with socialist protections for bad, but important, capitalists.
For 15 years the same 7 Legal guest workers have been vital to our Louisiana family rice and crawfish farm. Crawfish has tanked to 1.00/lb. rice prices suck too. We haven’t cut wages and supply housing, trans, gov fees, insurance, travel exp. we’re busting our ass. The real facts
Can’t let a little thing like a pandemic derail their goal of screwing the little guy whenever possible.
I hope you all like your meat and grain crops. Because there is no relief for produce farmers, who grow independently and sell direct to consumer.
Hyperinflation will take care of wages.
The cruelty is the goal here.
😡😡😡😡😡😡
Slavery is illegal.
Help our farm workers, not the billionaires! payallheroes supportfarmworkers nobillionairebailouts “Chairman and former CEO, John H. Tyson, has a net worth of around $1.8 billion. But if you ask him, he’ll tell you he’s “just a chicken farmer’.”
Hmm, where can we save money? Farm workers! These people have had it too easy for too long. Next week, we reevaluate child labor laws.
They want to reduce the pay of those who are exposing themselves to Coronavirus, even though they are getting paid the lowest wages? Got it👇
metaquest Srsly?
slave labor is needed in terminal phase capitalism
Mr. Trump, before you do this, I would like for you to try farm labor for just one day. It may change your perspective more than any written or spoken word.
kendellrea
😡
This is crazy! These poor people work their asses off for the little bit of pay they receive. No health benefits, no sick days, holidays or weekends off. Trump has a damn tariff war & THESE people get punished? Let that asshole get out into the fields, get a taste of real work!
The GOP will spend billions of taxpayer dollars to bailout meat company giants, including JBS from Brazil, big dairy, ranchers... WTF paytheheroes supportfarmworkers nobailoutforJBS
Everything this administration does pisses me off. EVERY REPUBLICAN NEEDS TO BE KICKED TO THE CURB. VoteBlueNoMatterWho Election2020
This administration is disgusting.
How damaged are they to think the way to successfully feed a nation is to try and starve the people who came to help.
That will definitely motivate them to pick more.
Everyone in a position to support this should be on a services blacklist....you support it and no plumber, electrician, driver, lawn service, etc. will do work for you. Handle your own problem and see how that goes.
💔 Perdue proposing helping Ag by lowering pay of both foreign & domestic farmworkers below 'prevailing' rate in surrounding area, though farmworkers deemed 'essential' to economy during pandemic. Advoc for foreign workers say inadeq hand washing stations, crowded living qtrs.
Fuckin A
Really? Like they get paid all that much anyway and it is incredibly hard work
This admin sucks
Trump never learns from his mistakes. He just doubles down on them, expecting a different outcome. Which is by Einstein's definition, 'insanity.'
I’ll be shocked if Trump’s real legacy isn’t the return of unionized labor.
Easy to research who is trustworthy and who isn’t.
A CEO needs to be able to afford that vacation home, second vacation home, yacht, etc but damn the farm worker who wants to feed their children or have a roof over their head.
Instead of pursuing practical trade policies the president crippled the agricultural sector with targeted tariffs. Then he threw tons of taxpayer dollars at the failing farmers. Now he wants to squeeze the lowest paid players in the game. Are we great again yet?
Foreign, not foreign, labor is labor. Government and private businesses have got to stop the primitive use of excuses to rip people off of their just due. It is immoral.
Some farms with produce stands might have been claiming to be restaurants, paying their workers as wait staff. Now that restaurants are actually closed these wages will stand out at IRS. Might be worth looking into wages of “waiters and waitresses”. The workers earn 2 to $4/hour.
SenToomey we need the farm workers now more then ever. Reducing their pittance of a wage seems ridiculous. Speak up - do the right thing
So they want to pay these folks less money during a pandemic? I wonder if they realize many of them will not bother? If I were a guest worker, I might not come here at all for less money. This will further hurt the industry and our food supply chain.
NPR. The orange man bad network. UsefulIdiots
Foreign guests tells me all I need to know.
Hmm... try hard as I might, I can’t find “In Profits We Trust” anywhere in COTUS or on our money.
By 2022, where much of our food is grown, ALL Californians will have a $15 minimum wage. FFS, Trump is a pathetic con artist. Poor Jamie Dimon may have to lose a million a year so the good people of Delaware can afford things like food.
So, almost slavery?
Jesus Christ! Lowering the pay of the most vulnerable. Brilliant stuff. Just get it over with and float a bill voiding emancipation. John Roberts will bring back slavery if you ask him real nice.
So Trump is asking the farm workers to pay subsidies to the farm owners? Use our tax money. This is why we pay taxes.
Didn't farmers just get a 34 billion dollar hand out? WTF did they do with that money? Now they have to steal from the poor.
Their wages are not pathetically low now?!?!?
...because lowering workers' wages is just what the economy needs right now.
Slavery by another name.
This makes me wonder how many H-2A workers Trump Winery’s looking for this season.
No! Just no!
Despicable
Nasty
Don't matter if they are essential. They're not American. That's what counts in this Trump era
Yeah that makes sense, sarcasm. They’re essential to feed us but Trump wants to cut their pay? He’s out of control! What if they said 🖕you Trump. We’re on strike, you white folks can go pick your own food! Trump’s so fixated on revenge, he’d have ICE deport them & starve America
Despicable
Wage deflation.
He's just filthy to the core.
Always the poor have to pay. How bout reducing some of that corporate welfare mone and give it to the workers. We need food more than cruise ships.
Pennies... This is just more racist bull shit
WTAF?
This will help nothing they already make dirt, the cruelty is the point
They already make only a fraction of the minimum wage. How much farther do they think they can cut pay before even the desperate won’t do this work?
Then they can pick it theirselves. Let the high earners do the work.
Wait, the WH is encouraging illegal immigration over hiring the millions of lad off US citizens. This WH? Don’t tell FOX and the MAGA crowd.
The WH? You mean Trump? You mean Trump's administration? We did not elect 'the WH'. So sick of having 'the WH' shoved down our throats. Sounds like a regime.
lowering wages from the bottom to the top is wrong, it should be lowering wages from the top to the bottom.
Yup, Trump sacrifices the poor again. He cannot go fast enough!
Trump would love to see people work without pay.
It's white man hitting on Indian & Black etc folks once again & think going to heaven; as Pope Francis bends giving the Hope for $$$
Should have nuked the South when we had the chance.
Absolutely disgusting.
Same as it ever was: Republicans Hate Workers.
What?! So “We desperately need you to work for us to keep our country and it’s economy alive, but we want to pay you less. That’s ok, right?” Un-Trumping-believable. How about all the farm executives, starting with Mar Purdue take a pay cut first?
NPR is ran off our taxes yet is staunchly anti-American and leftist, why?
'That is BS, they should be payed more and the ones that cry about immigrant yet eat the food they pick, should have their wages cut.'
Cutting back on the food produced and throwing away what does not go to the restaurants is a crime . When so many can’t afford food. It needs to redistributed to the people. The gov could buy it for food banks. Feed the people, the farmers 1)
Wrong. Try again starting at the other end of the funnel.
MONSTERS
No end to his cruelty.
More slavery!
But I hear Trump and Biden are the same according to dumbass so called progressives
Just wait until the GOP realDonaldTrump (if re-elected) comes after SocialSecurity hard to pay for the trillion dollar Coronavirus bills.
❓🤔
Oh of course he does...now immigrants are 'Guest Workers'! Really they have been helping our farmers for YEARS!!!! SO WHY PAY THEM LESS WHEN THEY TOO COULD DIE JUST BY BEING HERE!!!! WTF tRUMP
Buy what the farmers grow and distribute it to food banks. They’re struggling.
How about giving ag some of that sweet corporate bailout money and leaving the poor farm worker wages alone?
Yeah, the farmers are struggling. Having to wake up before sunrise in a stranger's house after you haven't showered in nearly a week. Clothes are dirty because you don't have time for laundry. Oh wait, those are laborers. Not technically the same, right?
“Foreign guest workers?” This label is supposed to make us think he isn’t targeting migrant workers? It’s just another racially motivated attack by the racist in the WH.
Reads article. Reads comments. Obviously, nobody else read the article. What else is new?
Another disgraceful idea by a cruel administration.
These people are disgusting. How about reducing stock buybacks? Executive bonuses? Lobbying?
How about we start with reducing the pay for all Federal level politicians from the administration on through the halls of Congress and the Senate? They are proving themselves worth far less than any agricultural worker.
They don't remember that without these farm workers, we will just have no...food.
Are you fucking kidding me?
So..Repubs just want to return to slavery, yes? How much can you pay a worker and still keep him/ her barely alive enough to work 12 hrs a day in the heat? No HEALTH insurance, no OT! Certain Repubs have the answer and they are coming for us next.GOPLeader
How Low can you go?
Pay workers less. That'll give them incentive to work harder. genius
How much are they making now? Slave labour is your solution?!? Jesus.
Trump and his adorable children should try this line of work. They’d be the best at it. It would be a beautiful thing.
This is disgusting
That’s an interesting concept. Don’t most wages end up back in the economy? Not understanding the logic or rationale of how lowering low-paid workers salary, even lower, helps? 🧐
Let’s lower the pay for those working in the White House first. Then Congress.
While they're at it, can they do something with the struggling Congress industry, and president industry, and trump family industry....
Can I read a headline at 3 o’fuckingclock that won’t make me upset? This country sucks all the dick rn
Why do that- farmers will never get help then...the farmers used to get migrant workers but now now
What if they cut CEO pay instead...?
Oh yeah, God forbid the agriculture corporations lose any of their wealth. Let’s cut the workers wages. 😤😤😤 TrumpIsALoser
Reminds me of an old despairinc poster. Just because those workers are vital to help keep us fed doesn't mean the powers that be won't seek to treat them like utter garbage.
REDUCE wages- so basically feudalism.
Really? This is how he wants to help farmers? Reduce the pay of the workers! Good gosh, have we really fallen that far from decency?! TrumpLiesPeopleDie TrumpIsAnIdiot trumphasnodecency
Wait till they start getting clobbered by this
This makes me physically ill. Every day!
if I was them, I would just leave.
Dear God you and I have had this discussion many times about your love for justice and our President’s distaste for fairness and doing the right thing. You know his address and you know he needs a visit. Please make a house call and teach him about justice and mercy!
Eat less Pay more US citizens could lose a few pounds anyway
So we will have no produce.
eartheats
I don't understand the economics of lower pay for 'essential' workers when we are asking them to risk contracting a disease. If we grant him his wish, will he lift immigration restrictions?
SixPersistsBlue
The Game Show Host Will Be Responsible Thousands Pounds Of Produce Rotting In There Fields Because There Are No Workers To Harvest Them. The Next Economic Crisis
We are in a 'war'. All bets are off during a time of crisis. Look at how many people are getting zero income. This is ridiculous to blame on the 'White House'.
Is this a freaking joke?
What kind of country have we become? Who are we as a people anymore with this sick, selfish, ignoramus as President? If you believe in God, he's cursing us for electing this diabolical subhuman named $$Donald Trump$$.
Immigrants WERE our AG workers, trump wont let them in.
Where has American heart gone?
Instead of taking it out of the WORKERS, why doesn't Ag Dept just subsidize the farmers' prices So MANY other options!
What's wrong with this man in the White House? When you have a salad do you ask what hands picked this lettuce? Does is it taste different?
Good we need citizens to get money
A cpl of weeks ago the GOP was worried about nurses getting rich on unemployment. Now the farmworkers make too much! Omg. ToxicGreed Corrupt&Incompetant Trump&Co
Ridiculous WTF
The Cruelty is the Point.
Just use and abuse them. So heartless!
Work from Home Opportunity for Experienced Adjusters (Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and surrounding areas of) compensation: Pay will be consummate with experience. employment type: part-time telecommuting okay Work from Home Opportunity for Experienced Adjusters
More racism. How original.
Unconscionable. No one else is going to do this work. This is inexplicable exploitation.
Has no one studied economics in that place?! Lowering wages means less competitive pay for your workers, which means they leave, and when no one else wants the job, the company is overburdened, and then they shut down. We do NOT need farms shutting down!!
I know Mexicans who work on a farm. They usually work around 85 hours a week at 11.71 an hour. But get this, most only pay $30-40 a week. How is this?
Truly awful. Taking from those who are doing the work to give to those who are selling the fruits of their exploited labor.
DolphinDemVoter Perhaps they should give some of those “essential” cruise line billions to these folks who really need it ?
Reduce the essential. Where is the logic?
Uh, no... pay them MORE!!
IndKingCountyWA Once again my vocabulary of outrage fails me. 😖
IndKingCountyWA I detest trump.
Alot of Americans are going to be needing these jobs. Need to suspend all work visas.
Evil. Always evil. Agriculture work is some of the hardest work there is.
People DO REALIZE that farm workers are already EXEMPT from minimum wage right?
if they are Essential shouldn't you pay them a lot more?
Spin reality, lie, repeat. defundNPR
Karma, where are you? There's a White House full of *!* you missed!! Start at the top!!
On Good Friday? The party that wraps itself in Jesus. I think it’s time to review the beatitudes. Shame. ( thanks for reporting this, sorry for the rant)
JistArgo Why would they want to lower their pay? They should all be given permanent significant raises.
That is so cruel.
SenSchumer TeamPelosi This is a disgrace, our food supplies would be destroyed much the same way realDonaldTrump IvankaTrump have destroyed CDC and FEMA national supplies if it weren't for the migrant workers still working the fields and factories. DumpTrump JoeBiden
NO. Wages for those workers must RISE.
DolphinDemVoter They are entitled monsters.
there is no bottom to the racism that comes out of the WH
Put the Trump family to work as well as Mnuchin on a farm for a full day so they will get an idea what working is all about
The WhiteHouse just loves to kick people.
there is no floor to their depravity.
A damn shame.