Ezell Discounts Labor Shortage Reports, but County Growers Dispute His Claims

Although some Orange County agricultural employers disputed his conclusion, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Western Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell claimed Tuesday that reported labor shortages on California farms reflect “more a perception than reality.”

Ezell, in Irvine to help publicize the INS amnesty program for agricultural workers who are in the country illegally, said new measures announced Tuesday in Washington would strengthen the program and prevent any real labor shortage from developing.

Under the new immigration law, illegal aliens who worked at least 90 days in some type of agriculture between May 1, 1985, and May 1, 1986, are eligible to become temporary legal residents. Response to the program, which began just this month, has been less than overwhelming, and the INS will distribute thousands of flyers in Spanish “to get the word out,” Ezell said.

‘Have to Try Harder’

“There’s been some concern that not enough was being done to get to the eligible people, who are here and who are in Mexico,” he said. But the announcement in Washington by INS Commissioner Alan Nelson that the agency plans to open additional legalization offices in Mexico will improve the program’s chances of success and will avert a future labor shortage, he said.

“It’s no longer business as usual,” Ezell said. “Growers are going to have to try harder to recruit (legal) workers.”

When asked about recent complaints by many of the region’s growers that their crops already are rotting on the vine for lack of field hands, Ezell denied the existence of an impending crisis.

“Apprehensions at the border are high, and the people are still coming, so they’re going somewhere to work,” Ezell said when asked about the reports of shortages. “And I don’t see anyone running to the EDD (state Employment Development Department) for workers.”

But a number of Orange County farmers and nursery owners--and the owner of the agricultural labor camp where Ezell was speaking--disputed his claim that the reports of labor shortages are exaggerated.

Hardest hit so far, by their accounts, have been the county’s strawberry growers. John Magarro, who farms about 200 acres in Irvine, said he lost about 30% of his crop this year because he couldn’t hire enough pickers.

‘Guess They Were Afraid’

“We had to let certain sections go for three or four weeks, and the berries just rotted on the vines,” said Magarro, who after farming in Orange County for more than 20 years said he may cut back his acreage this year by as much as 40%.

“A lot of the people who worked for us in the past never bothered to come up from Mexico this year--I guess they were afraid they’d get picked up. . . . And it’s a bit of a backbreaking job for domestic labor.”

Irvine grower George Murai estimated that he lost about $50,000 this summer because some strawberries stayed on the vine too long and had to be sold as a frozen, rather than fresh, product. “Our crews were short about 50 men, out of maybe 300 people,” Murai said. “We’re coming into tomatoes now, and if we’re short on that, too . . . well, we’re just going to wait and see.”

Arturo Espinoza, owner of the California Labor Camp on Jeffrey Road, said he “could put 50 guys to work right now. In the last 60 days, I haven’t had a single new man.”

Espinoza said he has about 150 men at his camp, most of whom work for either El Modeno Gardens nursery or Hines Wholesale Nurseries. His camp--barracks, a mess hall and a basketball court--has room for 200. He said that he has tried workers from the state employment office in the past but that they have not worked out.

“I expect real trouble in November,” he said. “That’s when the nurseries begin to hire for the holiday season.”

Nanci Jimenez, personnel director at El Modeno Gardens, confirmed that the nursery could use more workers. “We had to pay a lot more overtime than usual this spring,” she said. “We usually have about 80 seasonal workers, and right now we’re down to 58 or 60.”

Despite a base hourly wage of $5, the nursery hasn’t had a job applicant in nearly two weeks, Jimenez said.

‘Hard to Get Any Bodies’

A few miles away at Hines nursery, field manager John Walden said that he, too, had had to juggle his workers and that employment applications were way down.

“I used to just pass the word and we’d have the jobs filled,” Walden said. “Now it’s hard to get any bodies in here.”

All of the nursery’s 100 to 150 field workers are Latino, Walden said, and he expects that more than half of them will apply for amnesty under the new immigration law.

Not all growers are reporting shortages, said United Agricultural Assn. Vice President Frank Caterinicchio, who conducted a straw poll of about 15 growers and agribusiness concerns. The Santa Ana-based group represents growers and other agricultural businesses in California and Arizona.

“There is a shortage in some industries and commodities, but I don’t think you can make a blanket statement and say there is a shortage of labor industrywide,” said Caterinicchio. “Some of our largest members are reporting a labor surplus, in fact.”

Most growers who are complaining of shortages are actually experiencing a shortage of applicants and are able to find workers after a few days, Caterinicchio said.

But Kay Hara, a strawberry farmer in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, said he looked all season for six workers to fill out the 18-man crew he needed to harvest his 40 acres and ended up losing “thousands of dollars” because he was unable to find anyone.

“I exhausted all my normal channels,” said Hara, a former president of the Orange County Farm Bureau. “It just seemed like there was no one available.”