‘Take Our Jobs’ - please

UFW President Arturo Rodriguez addressed UAW convention delegates in June.

Some messages – especially political ones – are better received with a dose of humor.

And when TV pundit Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” (pronounced “Coal-BEAR Re-POR” – the “t” is silent in Colbert and report), joins the mix, rest assured it will be satire at its best.

The United Farm Workers’ national “Take Our Jobs” campaign is being played for jokes, but it’s about serious business: the immigrant labor issue and need for reform in our nation’s crucial agricultural industry and the way it treats its workers.

With tongue firmly planted in cheek, the union’s clever campaign to challenge assertions that undocumented immigrants are taking jobs from American workers was launched June 24, inviting U.S. citizens to apply, train and work in the fields.

“We said, ‘Invite them to take our jobs, and let’s go for it.’ It’s been phenomenal at how we’ve gotten people to look at immigration differently,” said UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, adding that the union supports farm workers regardless of their legal status or nationality.

Rodriguez said the idea came about in March when the union’s worker leadership suggested they take a different approach to U.S. immigration policy, which has turned into an increasingly ugly debate.

In January, Arizona passed a law that targeted immigrants and attempted to legalize racial profiling. On July 27 a federal judge struck down parts of the law, but the fight isn’t over. Conservative lawmakers in states including Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida are threatening to introduce similar legislation.

“The reality is farm workers who are here today aren’t taking any American jobs away. They do the work that most Americans are not willing to do and often work in unbearable situations,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t think there will be many takers, but the offer is being made. Let’s see what happens.”

With passage of immigration reform as their goal, the UFW sent a letter to U.S. lawmakers encouraging them to refer constituents to vacant farm worker positions and offering to train citizens and legal residents “who wish to replace immigrants in the fields.”

“Either Congress acts to bring a solution, or we will continue to see our food production move to other countries,” said Rodriguez. “The United States depends on these farms and farm workers for food.”

The UFW supports AgJobs, a bipartisan-backed bill in the Senate that would allow those who have worked in U.S. agriculture for at least 150 days in the previous two years to get legal status (not permanent residence). More than a million farm workers would benefit.

The bill, S.B. 1070, has been proposed in various forms since the late 1990s, with backing from the UFW and other farming groups, but it has never passed.

“The Colbert Report” featured the campaign on July 8, with Rodriguez as special guest.

“Americans don’t want to work in the fields because conditions are horrid,” the UFW leader told Colbert, adding that so far only three applicants out of 9,000 inquiries took jobs in the fields.

“Make that four,” Colbert quipped, with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Jennifer John