An amusing story about immigrant workers here in Maine.

[editec]

So my son and his posse of chums are looking for work, right?

And so they're out there raking blueberries making $3 a bucket. And they're fairly content, too, since they're making a decent days salary for the work, even if it is an asskickingly hard way to make a dollar.

Anyway...

There were also about 40 Hatians picking berries and naturally the boys thought that these full time farm workers were going to show them up.

Didn't happen.

In fact, the boys are raking blueberries at a rate about twice that of the migrant farm working professionals.

They've all migrated from hand rakes to the full sweep 150 comb rakes to increase their collection and salaries.

Well the Hatians decided that instead of bringing in full buckets, they'd bring in buckets that were not full, leaving about 4 inches empty. (remember the pay is per full bucket)

When the manager of the harvest told them that they needed to fill their buckets, they went on strike demanding another 50 cents for FULL buckets.

So, they all got fired.

And now White kids from Maine are once working to bring in the harvest and they're happily making $3 per FULL bucket.

I tell you folks this, for a couple reasons...

First of all to put that LIE -- that Americans won't work hard for their salaries -- wherethat fucking LIE belongs...in the box of lies we call Republican talking points.

Secondly, I tell you this so some of you truly understand what a third world nation American (or at least this part of Maine) has truly become.

All three of these kids are HS grads, bright, ambitious, hardworking and ready willing and able to carry their own weight. They WANT full time work.

And I suspect that those kids are TYPICAL of most American kids who cannot find work, too.

At any rate, the turnabout factor in this story just cracks me up.

I now know that my son is willing to work harder than a farm migrate worker if he gets paid a fair wage to do so.

Oh yeah, one more thing...some thieving bastards stole his cellphone.

My son and his posse is not amused. (the kid is MY KIND of liberal, you see?)

I think some Hatian bastard is going to get his ass kicked if the boy figures out which one did it.

I wouldn't screw with this boy, folks. He has my anger-managment temperment and youth on his side, too.

He was climbing glaciers on some kind of suvival course last month, so he's looking mighty lean and mean of late.

Anyway a little life in Maine story for your amusement and consideration.

 

[strollingbones]

rake blue berries? we just pick them here....why the raking?

i agree that americans will do more jobs now that the recession is on us...

 

[AllieBaba]

Of course it's a lie that immigrants do work Americans "won't". That's asinine.

Strolling, they use rakes because they can harvest more, faster.

My brother and sister picked strawberries in the summers when they were growing up. I babysat and made more, so never did. But when I was 19 and living in Eugene my best friend and I decided we were going to make a killing picking them, and went to a field. I don't remember what they paid, they paid by the fucking FLAT, and it was not much...something like $.50.

All day long we sat in the dirt in about 80 percent humidity and 90 degrees, sun beating down (no shade, it's a strawberry patch!). In the end, I earned just enough to buy a Big Gulp. Which I REALLY needed.

And I fried the skin on the back of my neck.

It's a job for kids. The kids were picking like crazy, passing us up, filling flat after flat.

 

[xsited1]

 

[strollingbones]

how in the hell do you rake berries? doesnt that tear the bushes and berries apart?

 

[del]

rake blue berries? we just pick them here....why the raking?

i agree that americans will do more jobs now that the recession is on us...

they're lowbush berries in maine; you probably have high bush berries where you live. second hardest job, physically, i ever had was raking berries one summer in machias. the bushes are usually only about a foot tall or less.

hardest was raking scallops. harvesting cranberries comes in third.

Vaccinium angustifolium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[strollingbones]

Maine's blueberry rakers work very hard for not much pay

i found this article del...which says the same thing you are saying.....yes we have high bushes....honey hush i didnt know there were low bushes....you poor yankees....we pick them by hand...never hit the ground..i have a whole new prepective on maine berries

 

[del]

Maine's blueberry rakers work very hard for not much pay

i found this article del...which says the same thing you are saying.....yes we have high bushes....honey hush i didnt know there were low bushes....you poor yankees....we pick them by hand...never hit the ground..i have a whole new prepective on maine berries

they are tasty little suckers. i've got a couple of bushes in my backyard, raspberries too, but the birds usually beat me to them.

what the hell, they have to eat, too.

 

[Anguille]

Yesterday, neighbors brought me a quart of blueberrries they picked themselves in Maine. They are already have eaten but I'm going to make a clafoutis with whatever is left tonight, if there are any left.

Anyone else remember reading this as a child?

 

[del]

Yesterday, neighbors brought me a quart of blueberrries they picked themselves in Maine. They are already have eaten but I'm going to make a clafoutis with whatever is left tonight, if there are any left.

Anyone else remember reading this as a child?

i never read this one, but i did read homer price and centerburg tales about a hundred times each.