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["Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>]

That's not the norm in most of California, Bev.

Anyone else ever worked the fields?  Anyone else ever done piece work?

Well, let me tell you, IF you really work you make FAR more than minimum
wages.  I worked the bean fields in Healdsburg and the prune fields in
Sonoma County  right along side the legal and illegal workers.  We made BIG
bucks!  We'd go as a group, a bunch of us girls, and we'd buy a whole year's
school outfits including angora and cashmere sweaters and shoes made in
Italy.  We shopped the frofro stores and bought the best and that was on 4
to 6 weeks earnings!  We shopped I. Magin locally, the chichi shops on the 
river in Guerneville and hit the city (SF) to do the rest of our shopping.

So, field workers can make good money and we weren't paid anymore than the
the other folks were.  We took our lugs and had a tally sheet and everyone
was paid at the end of the day.

I also worked the cannery in Graton.  We were paid minimum wages but the 
bonuses brought our pay WAY above minimum wage!  My girlfriend and I were 
the only "white" folks there.

Did piece work for Electro Vector which paid minimum wage plus money for 
everything over minimum and bonuses for those who had the least returns. 
BIG money!

As to the landscaping industry, the big companies in Central and Northern CA
pay a whole bunch more per hour than minimum wage and most of their workers 
are illegals.  The little mom & pop lawn mowing outfits aren't going to pay
much (usually $10 to start) but the other ones sure do.  Even up in HumCo 
which is one of the poorest counties in CA the minimum paid for what Don 
calls "mow and blow" is $10/hr.

Plus, a whole bunch of the construction companies doing federal jobs,
Davis-Bacon wages, are hiring illegals.  We are talking ridiculous amounts
of money for some of those jobs!

Lynda
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we 
are
to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and
servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."  Theordore
Roosevelt, 1918.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>


> Wow, no wonder they are coming to GA.  Here, they make $10 starting pay
> through temp agencies with benefits.  If they get on in a mill directly,
> they make a minimum of $12/hour, and more with shift work and overtime.
>  A lot of the mills get illegals to work nights and weekends because
> they will, so they end up with 50-60 hour weeks and lots of overtime.
> Two of my former coworkers and friends made over 70K.