Labor and Law

Amy Stankiewicz

One Ohio tomato grower has shut his doors for the year, exemplifying a challenge that many growers are facing as the availability of immigrant laborers wanes and the future of immigration law in the United States remains unclear.

Charles Jones, owner of Charles Jones Produce LLC in Oak Harbor, Ohio, announced that he was shutting down his operations this season because he can’t find enough workers. His is Northwest Ohio’s largest fresh-market tomato production operation. But his dilemma is not unique to him alone.

According to reports in The Toledo Blade, Baldemar Velasquez, union president of the Toledo-founded Farm Labor Organizing Committee (which represents 500 farm workers who are typically employed by Jones), has said that many farm workers — and even Latinos who aren’t farm workers in northwest Ohio — are concerned about being racially profiled by immigration border patrol agents and local law enforcement officers. As a result, they are avoiding the work they typically seek, thus leaving growers like Jones in a lurch for hard-working employees during the busy seasons.

At the end of June, the U.S. Senate passed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. The measure is being called the most sweeping overhaul of America’s immigration system since the days of Ronald Reagan.

On July 10, however, House republicans held a meeting to determine how they would handle the immigration bill, and they emerged from the meeting saying they could not support the Senate’s version as it stands. In other words, immigration reform still remains very much up in the air.

Those 500 migrant farm workers usually employed by Jones earn a combined annual payroll of about $2.6 million, Velasquez told The Toledo Blade. And a lot of that income is spent locally on food, clothing, gas and more. Time will tell what this will do to Northwest Ohio’s local economy. After all, it’s more than just a labor issue when it comes to providing work for society’s job seekers.

Read more about Charles Jones’ decision and other reactions to current immigration issues in the United States in our News section in this issue. And feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts. I’d love to hear how labor issues and immigration reform challenges are impacting your growing operation.

Amy Stankiewicz, Editor | astankiewicz@gie.net
216-236-5960 | Twitter: @Greenhousemag