Business

Local farmers tell Sen. Tillis of need for farm labor

Danny McConnell explains the farm labor situation to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who watches workers clean ginger root.

By Bill Moss, Published: December 27, 2017

DANA — Standing in a cold warehouse, their gloved hands working in a tub of cold water, immigrant workers at Danny McConnell’s farm are doing the tedious job of cleaning ginger root, a specialty crop McConnell grows.

If American workers apply, McConnell is happy to give them a shot.
“We have people that come to us, ‘Give me a job, I need a job.’ And then when it comes time they never show up,” he said. “Either (they) don’t show up or they’ll come work a little bit and that’s it.”
With the ginger-root cleaning task as a backdrop, McConnell greeted U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis on Friday and offered first-hand testimony on why farmers want Congress to pass an immigration reform bill that will ensure an adequate supply of labor.
“We need employees,” McConnell said a few minutes before the senator arrived. “We want employees that are not afraid that they’re going to be deported if the paperwork’s not all right or whatever. Even if you do have legal documentation, when it gets in Washington, sometimes the numbers don’t match up and you have to verify that and that’s very very hard to do.”
Tillis has made headlines in recent weeks as a leading sponsor of a bill that would allow the children of illegal immigrants to stay as long as they as they’re employed, in school or serving in the military.
Tillis traveled to Hendersonville Friday to hear about farm labor concerns, first on McConnell’s farm and later in a room filled with farmers, agribusiness leaders and others interested in the issue, including state Sen. Chuck Edwards and Rep. Chuck McGrady.
Farmers, agribusiness leaders and elected officials urged U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis to protect farm labor in immigration reform legislation.“I’ve been listening to the farmers since I was in the state Legislature,” Tillis said. “Part of what I’m trying to do is go back and tell stories to other members who aren’t listening to the farmers and recognizing the issue they have with farm labor. Last week I was with about 30 or 40 dairy farmers near Statesville. The week before that I was with four or five hundred farmers at their annual meeting in the Greensboro area and there’s one consistent theme. If we don’t get labor inputs right then they are going to go out of business.”
Tillis, the state House speaker elected in 2014 in the most expensive Senate race ever, acknowledged that he’s working to bring his fellow Republicans around on immigration. But he added that Democrats, too, are part of the blockade.
“One (aspect) is the so-called dreamers,” he said. “But when you get to the work visa program you have as many Democrats opposed to fixing the problem as you do Republicans. The Republicans oppose it because they falsely believe there’s enough American workers to do the job at a price that we can remain competitive globally. The Democrats are opposed to it because labor unions want to increase the price (of labor) to a point that you get to the same outcome. When America starts relying on other nations to feed us, it’s hard to gin these things back up once we lose that base.”
Tillis said when he goes back to Washington after visiting North Carolina farmers, he tries to convey the urgency of what he’s heard.
“You have a lot of people that don’t understand that the people who put food on our table are competing against international competition,” he said. “Even when you raise the hourly rate, for whatever reason we do not have enough American workers willing to fill the need, and if you raise the rate too far then you’re not going to have a viable business.”
“Sadly, what I’m doing more than anything else is reporting very specific stories of farmers who are on the brink of no longer being able to do what they’ve been doing for generations,” he said.
McConnell provided more testimony to support that.
He grows 20 acres of strawberries, 50 acres of apples and 60 acres of vegetables plus specialty crops. McConnell needs 25 farmworkers at peak season, although he had only half that many this past summer.
“We just got along the best we could,” he said. “I did not plant as much anticipating that this might happen. We left some stuff in the field. We did not leave any apples. Our apples were a little bit on the light side.”