When Border Patrol agents arrested eight migrant workers on a dairy farm in Berkshire, the entire dairy farming industry in Vermont felt the shockwaves.
I have a dairy farm. A few years ago I asked my employees if we should add a third shift and do 8 hours instead of 12. They work hard, is seemed like a reasonable idea.
They hated that I even brought it up. They want money and they want to work. I was specifically told by one of my leads that if we were to go to 8 hours, they would work a shift and a half. I’m paying over the average rate for dairy work, and everyone gets vacation days based on tenure.
And 90 percent of my employees will work their vacation days and take the paycheck. They don’t want less hours. They have bills to pay and family to support and shorter hours are less money. Same as most Americans I know. I get it.
I’m not saying it is everyone, but the guys I work with have incredible work ethic and a priority to make money and get ahead in life. And I’m all for that.
What I’m tired of is my people being scared of American politics and the potential for their work and investment in this country to get ripped away on the whim of some scared Karens and the policies maga has enabled. I hate it.
My lead feeder makes 75k a year. That’s more than I take home for myself. I personally sponsored him to get a visa, as I have for over 20 of my other employees over the past five years.
The lower positions take home 160 a day to start. But there is a pay scale based on time employed, and vacation days accrue and improve based on tenure.
These are my employees, but they are also my neighbors and my friends. I go to their birthday parties and their kids graduations. The quincienetas and baby showers.
I know whose hard work and sweat makes my money, and I work along side them every day. I appreciate and try to return that in kind. We are all in this world together.
Your experience is like mine. I feel like all the conservatives that hate immigrants have never really hung out with them. Yes their cultures can be different but they are neat cultures. There are good and bad immigrants just like any other group of humans but they are overwhelmingly good on average.
Depending on jurisdiction OT might not be payable on time that isn’t outside of their regular schedule. I used to work 12h shifts and by law it was ok because that’s the schedule I was assigned and I agreed to, past that it would become overtime and after 4h of OT I could simply refuse to do more (by law).
Again, don’t talk about labor laws as if they were the same everywhere, even in the US there’s federal and state laws, in my case in Canada it’s federal and provincial laws and OT exists in the agricultural sector outside of harvest season in my province (which doesn’t apply to greenhouse work since it’s always harvest season, so no OT in that sector unless it’s not agricultural work you’re asked to do)…
If you read again and pay attention this time you’ll realize that I mentioned the US and gave a Canadian example of agricultural labor laws because the same logic applies, it’s not centralized in the federal government’s hands.
And in another jurisdiction it might be different, over here nurses in the french system do 8h shifts and then are paid OT but in the english system they work 12h shifts with no OT until they work more than that…
Yep, people don’t understand that these guys are moving temporarily to work, not to hang around and go on leisure walks or whatever (hell, they possibly rely on their employer to travel any kind of distance which in some cases means that they’re stuck in a super rural location because they also live on the piece of land that they work on). I mentioned it in another comment but they might even want to work more than 72h and it might be their boss setting some limits.
I have a dairy farm. A few years ago I asked my employees if we should add a third shift and do 8 hours instead of 12. They work hard, is seemed like a reasonable idea.
They hated that I even brought it up. They want money and they want to work. I was specifically told by one of my leads that if we were to go to 8 hours, they would work a shift and a half. I’m paying over the average rate for dairy work, and everyone gets vacation days based on tenure. And 90 percent of my employees will work their vacation days and take the paycheck. They don’t want less hours. They have bills to pay and family to support and shorter hours are less money. Same as most Americans I know. I get it.
I’m not saying it is everyone, but the guys I work with have incredible work ethic and a priority to make money and get ahead in life. And I’m all for that.
What I’m tired of is my people being scared of American politics and the potential for their work and investment in this country to get ripped away on the whim of some scared Karens and the policies maga has enabled. I hate it.
This isn’t praise of how hard everyone wants to work. It’s a damning sign of how shitty the pay and quality of life has gotten in the US.
What’s your starting and average per hour pay for them? And are they getting four hours of OT on those twelve hour shifts?
My lead feeder makes 75k a year. That’s more than I take home for myself. I personally sponsored him to get a visa, as I have for over 20 of my other employees over the past five years.
The lower positions take home 160 a day to start. But there is a pay scale based on time employed, and vacation days accrue and improve based on tenure.
These are my employees, but they are also my neighbors and my friends. I go to their birthday parties and their kids graduations. The quincienetas and baby showers.
I know whose hard work and sweat makes my money, and I work along side them every day. I appreciate and try to return that in kind. We are all in this world together.
Nice, thank you for the circle back and additional information, that was interesting to read!
Your experience is like mine. I feel like all the conservatives that hate immigrants have never really hung out with them. Yes their cultures can be different but they are neat cultures. There are good and bad immigrants just like any other group of humans but they are overwhelmingly good on average.
Depending on jurisdiction OT might not be payable on time that isn’t outside of their regular schedule. I used to work 12h shifts and by law it was ok because that’s the schedule I was assigned and I agreed to, past that it would become overtime and after 4h of OT I could simply refuse to do more (by law).
So yeah, labor laws vary, keep that in mind.
Yes, like trucking, agriculture is exempt from OT, not that some employers don’t choose to still pay it.
Again, don’t talk about labor laws as if they were the same everywhere, even in the US there’s federal and state laws, in my case in Canada it’s federal and provincial laws and OT exists in the agricultural sector outside of harvest season in my province (which doesn’t apply to greenhouse work since it’s always harvest season, so no OT in that sector unless it’s not agricultural work you’re asked to do)…
My bad, it’s federally exempt in the US. The map here is clickable and has state-by-state laws. https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/overtime-map/
This story isn’t about can Canadian jobs.
If you read again and pay attention this time you’ll realize that I mentioned the US and gave a Canadian example of agricultural labor laws because the same logic applies, it’s not centralized in the federal government’s hands.
Oh weird, I hadn’t realized that but guess I should have since nurses work 12 hour shifts too and don’t get OT for that. Thank for the info!
And in another jurisdiction it might be different, over here nurses in the french system do 8h shifts and then are paid OT but in the english system they work 12h shifts with no OT until they work more than that…
Yep, people don’t understand that these guys are moving temporarily to work, not to hang around and go on leisure walks or whatever (hell, they possibly rely on their employer to travel any kind of distance which in some cases means that they’re stuck in a super rural location because they also live on the piece of land that they work on). I mentioned it in another comment but they might even want to work more than 72h and it might be their boss setting some limits.