Tomato Pickets Are Root of Own Stagnant Wages
Re “Protest Trip Ends at Taco Bell,†March 12:
Tomato pickers are so underpaid that they can take 12 days off from work to protest at the Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine. Organizers of the protest complain that tomato pickers earn 40 cents per bucket, unchanged since 1978.
But before crying foul, tomato pickers need to take a basic economic class. Wages for hard-working tomato pickers have remained flat for 25 years because of supply and demand. Each year hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from Mexico enter the U.S. to compete for the thousands of jobs available for tomato pickers. This is the primary reason why the wages in this labor intense industry have not risen in 25 years. There are just too many workers willing to work for 40 cents a bucket of tomatoes.
Wages will rise as soon as the demand for tomato pickers exceeds the supply. Tomato pickers should demand that the U.S. government deter illegal immigration and reduce the supply of tomato pickers.
Francis T. Concannon Jr.
Irvine
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