Labor,
business agree to principles on immigration [Associated Press]
Business
and labor groups announced agreement Thursday on the principles of a new system
to bring lower-skilled workers to the U.S, a key priority for a comprehensive
immigration bill. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO reached
consensus after weeks of closed-doors negotiations they were conducting at the
request of Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., two of the
senators involved in crafting an immigration deal on Capitol Hill. Ensuring
that future workers can come to the U.S. legally is expected to be a central
element of the deal, which will also address border security, employer
verification and a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants
in the U.S. The principles announced Thursday include agreement on the need for
a way to let businesses more easily hire foreign workers when Americans aren't
available to fill jobs. This will require a new kind of worker visa program
that does not keep all workers in a permanent temporary status and responds as
the U.S. economy grows and shrinks, the groups said in a joint news release.
Editorial: State's farms need
legal workers [Santa Cruz Sentinel]
…At
the peak of harvest time last fall, California had 453,000 agricultural workers
-- but a tight labor market is provoking farm groups to press Congress for a
guest worker program that would ensure a steady flow of workers and prevent a
mass exodus of newly legalized farm laborers….Farmers say they have cause for
concern about immigration reform, because in 1986 -- the last time legalization
was tried -- many laborers left farm work for higher paying, year-round jobs
elsewhere. These legal residents were replaced by more illegal workers.…Farmers
say that a federal program designed to allow temporary entry of migrant
agriculture workers -- called H-2A -- doesn't work in California because it
means they have to pay higher wages and housing costs, and deal with
bureaucratic paperwork.…Immigration reform has to help provide a more reliable
source of labor for California farmers.
Fertilizer
fee plan may cost farms in San Joaquin, Salinas valleys [Visalia Times-Delta]
Recommendations
by the California State Water Resources Control Board could hurt farmers’ bottom
lines in the San Joaquin and Salinas valleys, but help improve the quality of
drinking water….One suggestion listed is setting a point-of-sale fee on the
purchase of nitrogen fertilizers….The water board hasn’t recommended a fee
amount, but some farmers and others in the agricultural industry already are
bristling at the suggestion of a new fee. “I think it’s bad, because they’re
just charging more money for more bureaucracy,” said Tom Barcellos, who grows
corn and and other crops on his southern Tulare County farm to feed his herd of
dairy cows….Barcellos said part of his problem with the fee proposal is that it
puts all the blame for nitrates in groundwater on farmers, and not enough
research has been done to determine other sources, including naturally occurring
nitrates and nitrates seeping underground from septic systems, community waste
systems and urban runoff.
Commentary: Environmentalist
camel's nose is under farmers' tent [Modesto Bee]
They
say if you let a camel's nose under a tent, then eventually the whole camel
will get inside. I'm not Lawrence of Arabia, but nothing is more intrusive than
the State Water Resources Control Board.…This five-member board spews forth
more regulations as our state cuts its own environmental spending. The board's
funding continues by taxing farmers and by tapping new sources of revenue from
them….How much more of the burden in "cleaning the environment" can
the private sector bear? Government regulations are instrumental in sending our
jobs to China, while making our farms and small businesses uncompetitive. These
environmental regulations and taxes do little but destroy what's left of a
sinking economy.
California
fire chief defends secret fund [Sacramento Bee]
California's
fire chief last week called his department's off-books fund "an invaluable
tool" and said he "will not apologize for using it to improve our
cost recovery efforts" in an internal memo obtained by The Bee. Since
2005, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire,
has paid the nonprofit California District Attorneys Association to house a
special fund for training seminars and high-tech investigatory equipment. The
fund collected $3.6 million overall and is being dissolved this month at the
nonprofit's request. While the fund has drawn legislative criticism and
prompted a Department of Finance audit, Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott
vigorously defended the Wildland Fire Investigation, Training and Equipment
Fund in a "monthly message" he sent last week to his employees….Over
the last decade, Cal Fire has more aggressively pursued businesses and
individuals that it believes responsible for negligently sparking wildfires.
That effort included establishing the special fund in 2005 and launching a
dedicated unit of investigators, attorneys and forensic accountants in 2008, as
The Bee detailed in a story on Sunday.
Gerawan
Farming sues UFW over bargaining comments [Fresno Bee]
Gerawan
Farming is suing the United Farm Workers union over comments it made about the
farmer's alleged reluctance to bargain with the union. The defamation lawsuit
that was filed in Fresno County Superior Court on Feb. 15 claims the company's
reputation and relationship with its workers have been harmed by negative
comments from a union spokeswoman. Gerawan is seeking compensatory and punitive
damages.
Ag
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