77-24-B7
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Apples
TranscriptI don't know whether an apple a day keeps the doctor away but this year the Labor Department did its best to keep the apples away-from us. I'll be right back. From time to time in these broadcasts I've discussed the unemployment situation and given evidence that at least some of the unemployed prefer to remain that way. It would seem they have an ally in the U.S. Labor Department. This last October the apple growers of New England who had seen a late spring snowstorm knock the blossoms off the trees and a September rainstorm do the same to about ten percent of the apples faced further trouble. The rain had delayed the harvest of the $50 million crop until the fruit was ripe and ready to fall but there were no workers to pick the apples. The U.S. Labor Department has been making it harder and harder to bring in foreign labor insisting that the farmers hire unemployed Americans. Now that makes sense providing you can find Americans who do the work. And with a 7+% unemployment rate you'd think that wouldn't be too difficult since a fella can earn $50 a day picking apples. But the apples kept on ripening the growers kept on recruiting and the apple stayed on the trees. The Labor Department itself staged a recruiting drive in one of New York City's areas of high unemployment, spending $10,000 in the effort. They signed up 75-15 of whom reported for work and all of whom quit the first week. Still the growers had to appear before five district courts in five states, two U.S. courts of appeal and the United States Supreme Court before they could get permission to hire foreign labor. They were able to prove they had engaged in intensive recruiting drives among the unemployed in Vermont and in Eastern cities with high unemployment-such as Boston and New York. Finally and just in the nick of time they were permitted to import Jamaicans and Canadians. The crop was saved and the imported laborers seemed pretty happy to get the work. They averaged about $1500 apiece for a few weeks of work. In view of the reluctance of Americans to take those jobs it's interesting to see what kind of workers cross the border and an ocean to pick New England apples. Some of the Jamaicans have counted on this work for a number of years. Their jobs at home have to do with the tourist trade and are therefore seasonal. They come here, pick apples in New England, sugar cane in the south and go home to their seasonal work. From Canada came Nova Scotia lobster men and clam diggers who go south after their own seasons wind up at the end of July. Some of these bring their families down on weekends and make the job a kind of expense paid vacation. When the Labor Department is forced to relent and let those visitors do this work it is of course all legal. But it makes one wonder about the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of illegal alien invasion or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do. One thing is certain in this hungry world; no regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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