WPTV is told that some farm workers are already too scared to go to work and are considering leaving the state as new immigration law is set to take effect this summer.
Fraga said the industries that will be most impacted will be the farming industry, construction and hospitality.
large scale, labor intensive agricultural enterprises be like
"no one [with basic human rights and worker protections] wants to work anymore"
Florida is a big boy for vegetables, for which there isn't sufficient mechanization to sidestep labor like in corn/soy. california had caesar chavez and the UFW, which fought hard and won a lot. florida is in the sacrificed part of the country (Deep South) where labor organization is crushed in its crib, because a labor insurrection there has been the nightmare of capitalists since the 1600s. florida was the first state to adopt "right to work" model legislation in 1948. the number of pogroms against black communities in post-civil war era Florida has yet to be counted.
Florida will do what Georgia, Louisiana and other parts of the deep south already do for their large scale horticultural sectors: prison labor. this latest move is probably part of a play to break the nascent agricultural worker organizations in florida like the CIW (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_Immokalee_Workers). if the retail giants aren't complaining publicly, then you can bet they're onboard.
construction and hospitality will have to figure something out, but those tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, and onions will get picked.
We already use prison labor for agriculture here, but it’s definitely gonna expand. When I take one of the highways out of town I drive past a prison-slave-plantation
for sure. i just mean to say that labor can always be more degraded and we can never assume the fascists don't have a strategy. there is no floor for the social reproduction of labor. they will work prisoners to death and incarcerate more people, increase sentencing guidelines, etc.
prison agricultural labor will be the stick they threaten hospitality workers with: if you don't let the white family from ohio abuse you while you deliver their treats for sub minimum wage, you will be sent to the fields and worked for 10 cents an hour in store scrip until your body fails.
I hate that this is plausible, and I hate that I don't see a way to stop it from coming to that, and I HATE that America will just sit there and take it.
Florida will do what Georgia, Louisiana and other parts of the deep south already do for their large scale horticultural sectors: prison labor.
IIRC that worked out pretty terribly in Alabama and other states that tried that: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/14/alabama-immigration-law-workers
As a Hispanic person though the language around farmworkers as a commodity that libs argue they need them around to exploit for cheap vegetables makes me feel....depressed. Like the options in the two parties are either pogrom against farmworkers or continued exploitation and disenfranchisement.
It reminds me of discussion on the homeless where the two options are pogrom against the homeless or continued neglect and abuse.
Alabama may have fucked it up, but the Vidalia onion empire tests comfortably on prison labor. if a capital formation wants it bad enough, the state will make it work.
never forget the rural economy of the south and all it's law enforcement infrastructure was built around forced labor. the civil war was a changing of the guard, not a changing of social relations. today's state run prison farms are often literally old plantations (Angola).
no matter how terribly they are run, they come out ahead because the labor costs of these labor intensive enterprises are made insignificant. they can fuck up every year for decades because brokers can always import from LatAm markets under imperial control.
large scale, labor intensive agricultural enterprises be like
Florida is a big boy for vegetables, for which there isn't sufficient mechanization to sidestep labor like in corn/soy. california had caesar chavez and the UFW, which fought hard and won a lot. florida is in the sacrificed part of the country (Deep South) where labor organization is crushed in its crib, because a labor insurrection there has been the nightmare of capitalists since the 1600s. florida was the first state to adopt "right to work" model legislation in 1948. the number of pogroms against black communities in post-civil war era Florida has yet to be counted.
Florida will do what Georgia, Louisiana and other parts of the deep south already do for their large scale horticultural sectors: prison labor. this latest move is probably part of a play to break the nascent agricultural worker organizations in florida like the CIW (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_Immokalee_Workers). if the retail giants aren't complaining publicly, then you can bet they're onboard.
construction and hospitality will have to figure something out, but those tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, and onions will get picked.
We already use prison labor for agriculture here, but it’s definitely gonna expand. When I take one of the highways out of town I drive past a prison-slave-plantation
for sure. i just mean to say that labor can always be more degraded and we can never assume the fascists don't have a strategy. there is no floor for the social reproduction of labor. they will work prisoners to death and incarcerate more people, increase sentencing guidelines, etc.
prison agricultural labor will be the stick they threaten hospitality workers with: if you don't let the white family from ohio abuse you while you deliver their treats for sub minimum wage, you will be sent to the fields and worked for 10 cents an hour in store scrip until your body fails.
Oh 100% I wasn’t trying to detract just add to your point
I hate that this is plausible, and I hate that I don't see a way to stop it from coming to that, and I HATE that America will just sit there and take it.
IIRC that worked out pretty terribly in Alabama and other states that tried that: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/14/alabama-immigration-law-workers
https://www.farmprogress.com/wheat/crops-rot-while-trump-led-immigration-backlash-idles-farm-work-142405
As a Hispanic person though the language around farmworkers as a commodity that libs argue they need them around to exploit for cheap vegetables makes me feel....depressed. Like the options in the two parties are either pogrom against farmworkers or continued exploitation and disenfranchisement.
It reminds me of discussion on the homeless where the two options are pogrom against the homeless or continued neglect and abuse.
Alabama may have fucked it up, but the Vidalia onion empire tests comfortably on prison labor. if a capital formation wants it bad enough, the state will make it work.
never forget the rural economy of the south and all it's law enforcement infrastructure was built around forced labor. the civil war was a changing of the guard, not a changing of social relations. today's state run prison farms are often literally old plantations (Angola).
no matter how terribly they are run, they come out ahead because the labor costs of these labor intensive enterprises are made insignificant. they can fuck up every year for decades because brokers can always import from LatAm markets under imperial control.