when the word went out, he paid probably a little bit more for the labor. he had the labor. he brought in vans and filled them with those cherries. he was able to salvage his crop, and he could not have done that if he didn't have the flexibility to find folks. a good majority of those folks probably didn't have legal documents? absolutely. your program would allow for that movement, and between folks, and this is so critical when we're talking about seasonal fruit and vegetable production and weather-related instances coming in, so we need to have that mobility. >> in the statement that maureen torrey of new york submitted to us, and i have it in the record, she's the owner of torrey farms, a 12th generation farm. took 1,000 acres of fresh market vegetable production out of production and instead planted corn and wheat because they were unsure of how they would get their labor commitment. what did that mean? that meant their payroll for 1,000 acres of onions of $2.5 was replaced by payroll for 1,000 acres of corn for $70,000 per year covering two employees. how that benefit

and it's not just grunt labor. it is somebody skilled in what they're doing. >> i know my time is running out, but as mr. black pointed out that we have had these hearings and we've wrung our hands repeatedly, but what you're saying is any plan that doesn't deal with taking the current work force and somehow converting them to a legal status is not going to completely work, is that right? >> we have a number of people in this country have to figure out way to give them some kind of an adjustment of status to allow them to be in the country to work, you're absolutely right. >> thank you, mr. chairman. my time has expired. >> mr. ross? >> thank you, mr. chairman. let mel lay the predicate for m questioning, so you understand where i come from. i'm from a predominantly rural place, we have a lot of specialty crops. we have a tremendous demand for labor, and i concur with several of your testimony today that this is an issue that must be addressed. it had been debated, it's lingered and no action has been taken. but i

he was a tunnel labor. he is a laborer's labor. you see all the orange shirts in this room today. what ron remembers is critically important. as a labor leader in any union, but especially ours, the day we forget that the most important part of our union is the members, we are in trouble. ron has never forgotten that, and never will. the brothers and sisters in this room paris but to r -- pay respect to ron myers and the honor done to our union. he has never forgotten they are the most important part. about half the room is full of people who are here because ron is retiring and they are happy about it. the other half are here because they are not happy he is going. for those of you who are happy he might not be around as much, we have worked out an arrangement so that on these tunnel project, dealing with the sfpuc, working with our contractors, who the laborers' union understand the risk and capital they put out every day to make sure that we did project safely and on time,-- bid projects safely and on time -- ron will be working for the next 12 months with us as a consultant. h

department of labor agriculture worker survey. the survey found that over the 2007 and 2009 period that 48% of farm workers openly admitted to being illegally in the country. the actual figure may be even higher. the naws shows that 85% of first time farm workers openly admit to being illegally in the country. what options do growers really have? since 1986, the program has made visas available for temporary workers. the american agriculture told the sub committee that the program was characterized as extensive and complex regulations that hamstring employer who try to use it and costly litigation when issues of alien workers are sought. the department of labor was opposed to the program. front and center was assuring the availability of labor and harvesting whose timing varies with the weather. unfortunately, timeless has never been the h 2-a program's strong suit. neither is the availability of the domestic labor. the bush administration's plan was to revamp the program. the plan was rescinded by the obama administration and rem

the department of labor was opposed to the program. front and center was assuring the availability of labor and harvesting whose timing varies with the weather. unfortunately, timeless has never been the h 2-a program's strong suit. neither is the availability of the domestic labor. the bush administration's plan was to revamp the program. the plan was rescinded by the obama administration and remade the program into a system designed to stream line the regulatory process and speed up the guest workers that faced labor shortage. it was designed to make the cost of the program more manageable for the growers. even though the changes did improve the program, let me make it clear on one point. the h 2-a program is not structured to meet the needs of the vast majority of agriculture employees in the united states. it simply is not flexible enough to provide an adequate supply of labor in timely fashion to many growers, especially growers, especially crops across the country. i look forward to hearing the testimony today of diverse panel of

>> expect the labor force. well, you need about 100,000 to 150,000 per month to keep up with the growth in the labor force. >> so if we had 150,000 jobs per month, all other things being equal, unemployment rate will not come down? >> correct. all other things being equal, participation rate will stay the same and the jobs being found will go to the new folks coming into the labor force. >> the rate of job creation last month, all other things being equal, how long will it take for us to get employment down to say 6 1/2%? >> that requires a lot of speculation i need to-to-avoid because i really -- to be honest, i can't predict rates which people will enter the labor force. i can tell you that the job growth we have seen since employment turned around is measured by the payroll survey is still about 5.6 million below, still about 5.6 million drop or loss from -- still 5.6 million jobs to be gained in order for us to regain all of the jobs lost during this downturn. >> thank you plrks galvin. >> on page 3 of your

itwith laborers who helped to build those facilities. the laborers union goes beyond san francisco in terms of their contributions. congratulations on being a grandfather, rocco. [applause] >> do we entertain the motion to adopt the resolution? >> most certainly. >> motion to adopt a resolution honoring my brother, ronald meyers. >> all of those in favor? >> aye. >> opposed? thank you. the motion carried unanimously. [applause] thank you. we will now move on with the rest of the agenda. >> [unintelligible] there is just a little 3 minute video that we wanted to make sure that the commission knows about. if you do not mind. i will not speak. i had a speech for you and i never write one, but today i will surely, in the honor of ron meyer is, i've been like for you all to see just where he has taken this commission and the people that you are now responsible for. if you do not mind. >> please, go ahead. >> this is the training center. that is ronald. he's the head of the training center for laborers in northern california. these are the fol

we've talked about some of them. >> labor. >> labor becomes a very important element, particularly as labor union membership is rising throughout the '30s and into the '40s. labor becomes in many ways the backbone of the democratic party and a lot of the story of the decline of the democratic party in the late 20th and 21st century has to do with the decline of the labor movement. in fact, what's some of the first things some of the new republican state governments did after they came into power after the 2010 election? >> collective bargaining. >> today what is the strongest element of the labor movement? what types of unions? >> public sector unions. >> that's exactly what they went after. that was that huge controversy in wisconsin. so labor is a second very important component along with african-americans. yeah. >> farmers? >> not so much. i mean, farmers, kind of, are a swing vote. but you couldn't say, he did better among farmers certainly than democrats had done before, but they never became a core element the way blacks and union members were. the south. you have the paradox o

although, again, many blacks who were in domestic labor farm labor were excluded. but you know, but the fair labor standards act, you know, the south was beginning to sour a bit on the new deal. so you now had republicans as a consequential majority and southerners in the congress upon whom the president could no longer fully count. so by 1938, the president's power in congress had been weakened. the new deal, as a major domestic form, had pretty much run its course. attention was being shifted to foreign affairs. you know, by the mid- to late-1940s. -- late 1930s. what were happening abroad? what were some of the huge events that the president had to respond to in the mid to late '30s? >> japan had declared war on china. >> or had invaded china, exactly. i'm not sure they declared war. they certainly invaded. there was a horrible, bloody war. germany was expanding. first in austria then in where? czechoslovakia. what else was going on in the world? those were two huge things. >> civil war in spain. >> civil war this spain that seemed to pit russia against germany

he was a tunnel labor. he is a laborer's labor. you see all the orange shirts in this room today. what ron

labor forces they need. they're ineffective. they're inefficient. we have litigation out of control and now we're looking at how we can keep our growers from trying to farm their property for houses instead of crops and to keep them from taking the crops overseas because it's the only way they can make a living. having said that, we have some wonderful proposals on the table today. i think chairman smith has a very good one. i think mr. lundgren has a good one. i want to address those. i'd like to go with the commissioner and then mr. wenger and themr is portability something that's absolutely necessary in order to have an adequate guest worker program in this country? commissioner? >> congressman, did you say portability? >> portability, yes. in other words to go from pli employer to employer once they're over here or to stay with one employer. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> portability is necessary. >> absolutely. >> mr. wenger? >> absolutely. you have to have portability or it's not going to work. >> mr. w

think about it. >> free labor? >> good skilled labor. but -- >> improve hit image. >> improve his image. this bloodthirsty murderer. i'm going to curry favor with the u.s. i'm going to improve my image. i'm going to be the savior of the jews? and, of course, does it work out? no. a few hundred jews ultimately come to the dominican. but that's just an indication of how bad things got at evian. and you know, fdr tried but he was stuck. then ultimately the jewish problem would become merged with what problem? world war ii. and the lead-up to world war ii and this huge controversy that we're not going to try to resolve right now. you know did, roosevelt do enough, he did not do enough to help the jews and you know, the simple answer is, did he do everything possible? no. did he do more than any other world leader, including winston churchill? yes. far more than any of them. could he ultimately have stopped the holocaust? no. united states didn't have troops on the ground in europe, except for italy, until when? come on. you all know. june yo

this would to be a win for labor. i look forward to seeing those beautiful works of art that will sail majestically through our san francisco the. why not leave a positive effect on our community by a honoring bill local hire ordinance that many of us in this room have worked diligently to approve and preserve? the reason san francisco has a local high lot is that we believe that good faith efforts have historically failed for

the laborers, carpenters, engineers. it looks like we're on the verge of winning prevailing wage, and then they have already been won across the board. but we have not come to terms with local hire. we still stand here saying we want prevailing wage, and we want local hire. if you look through the document of the jobs plan, it has good faith efforts on just about every single page. he may not have heard it today, but this thing is good faith efforts which has failed. we developed in law. all of us in this room. we came together with you, supervisor, the board, and we're working with mayor lee to aggressively implement this law. and whether you have a debate about public, quasi-public, clearly they're spending public money in different avenues and mechanisms, but when we talk about the spirit of local hire, supervisors, we want to go one step better. that is what we ask the andorra -- the authority. let's use the community's local hiring law. that is there. no good-faith efforts. as my friend espanola jackson said, who ca

[applause] >> i am reading mostly the labor part of students and labor chapter because that is what i wrote. on october 5, the mass convergence of students and workers at foley square in response to the october 1 arrests of more than 700 ows protesters on their brooklyn bridge played a pivotal role in raising public awareness of the occupy movement. the event also shows how occupy wall street facilitated interconnections and coalition building. indeed, the ows enabled solidarity between student and labor movements was by no means inevitable. conflicting motivations, needs and goals had in recent years foster divisions not only between workers and students but between students of public and private universities and between workers from different unions. with this this and and and more for schools of to budget cuts in corporate takeover of public services, the occupy movement offered a large umbrella to mobilize groups with seemingly different priorities towards a common cause. the story of how the occupy rally and march came to be and the offense is subsequently enabled highlights occu

>> we expect the labor force uni about 150 to 150,000 jobs per month to keep up with the growth and labor force. spurring if we had 150,000 jobs per month all other things being equal league and played on employment will not come down? >> correct all of their things the participation rate will stay the same and go to the new folks coming in the labor force. >> the rate of job creation last month all other things being equal how long will it take to get employment down to say 6.5%? >> that requires a lot of speculation to avoid because i can't predict the rate at which people will enter the labor force. i can tell you that the job growth we have seen since employment turnaround is measured by the payroll survey is still about 5.6 million below. there's still about a 5.6 million drop or loss from still 5.6 million jobs to be gained in order for us to regain all of the jobs lost in the downturn. >> last, on page three of the report coming to indicate that government jobs are down considerably since over the course of the last 12 months, to enter the 76,000 jobs lost in the decline in the loc

monday morning a ballot for the labor leadership will be conducted. following kevin rudd's resignation yesterday, i have formed this view that we need a leadership ballot in order to settle this question once and for all. i believe it is in the interests of the labor party that it be determined once and for all. but much more importantly i believe it is in the interests of the australian nation. >> there's been speculation about this for months and months and months. would kevin rudd make a challenge against julia gillard or not? what's this all about? it's all about kevin himself who was ousted by the prime minister from the job of prime minister in june, 2010. and he's never got over it. he remains bitter and angry about that and he wants his job back. a short time ago mr. rudd spoke about his intentions. >> i am pleased and encouraged by the amount of positive support and encouragement of me to contest the leadership of the australian labor party party. i have many more calls still to make. the overall argument to me is that they regard me as the b

it's a demand of the future labor opportunities. that kind of sector ral employment strategy i think is the way forward. >> and the community college when it receives money for the training, people have to buy book r books and even that expenditure has short-term positive effects on the economy? >> i think that's right. clearly there is very much a demand for precisely this kind of training and, in fact, if you look at the constraints -- we talk about community colleges in this town. if you look at one of the real constraints in that community colleges face, they are way over capacity in many places throughout the country. part of that is people are going back for schooling and part of that is emphasis for communities like -- >> the state and local governments have been laying off people because of their balanced budget requirements. can you say a word about the importance of the federal government providing revenue sharing so that they would stop laying people off? >> absolutely. we've seen this almost every month for the past few

energy and not as much as food and more inflation than labor cost inflation and ultimately driving labor costs in addition, they just did overtime and not like they added all of these people with 5% unemployment rate and let them go because the economy. there is he' a lot of people working overtime, and they could ease back on without firing them, we're not going to see unemployment rise because consumer prices may rise a little bit and watch labor costs. >> what do you think, do you think we're going to see more out of this all of this. >> and all due respect to toby, it's not old time economics, i have to combree with gary b. while consumers are paying higher prices, somebody is earning that additional income, okay, it all stays within the economy and it it doesn't necessarily automatically equate to layoffs. i mean, if you look back, as he did, as he mentioned, and over periods of time when we had rising prices, the most recent one was the 2007-2008 period, we had an increase in payroll, we had decline in unemployment. so, until the point when maybe, if it it results in a recession, y

when you expand the labor curve, a simple economist will say the price of labor goes down and we're all hurt. the more people that work here, the more people that are chasing jobs and we're all doomed. wrong. the expansion of the available labor force creates opportunities that did not exist before. you have innovation and entrepreneurialism that increases the actual size of small and medium-sized businesses. they consume and that expands the demand curve. you have a dynamic economy for 90% of u.s. born workers that enhances their wae

ws labor working group within the first week of the occupation of ducati. the group would come to have more than 100 members representing more than 40 unions adopted a dual purpose supporting union struggles and taking inventory for the occupying movement. by the october fire valley, the group had succeeded in securing the endorsement of the executive council of the afl-cio but larger federation of unions in the united state. i was surprised at the eagerness with which the units responded to me. a founder of the labor working group, this alliance is unprecedented in the u.s. and distinguishes occupy wall street from the movement of the 60s when unions were more conservatives in the youth culture tended to be antiunion. the unions have been under attack for the 1% and they are looking for new strategies and new allies. one said she was the transit workers union, 100 which in the fall of 2011 was involved in difficult contract negotiations. working through the o. ws labor working group to tw rank-and-file set the table of liberty plaza fast and with hard hats

this would to be a win for labor. i look forward to seeing those beautiful works of art that will sail majestically through our san francisco the. why not leave a positive effect on our community by a honoring bill local hire ordinance that many of us in this room have worked diligently to approve and preserve? the reason san francisco has a local high lot is that we believe that good faith efforts have historically failed for women, for minorities, for the colored community is throughout san francisco, and all of the disadvantaged residents that live here. the america's cup event authority has the opportunity to have a positive effect on our city. i implore you to honor our work, honor our mayor, and honor our laws. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am the program rector of -- last month, the city and county enacted a local high ordinance. the intention was to protect san francisco jobs for san francisco residence. a good chance, a better plan must meet or exceed a lot in san francisco. as supervisors a

labor follows the demand for labor.ost: ed, tell us about this project that majority leader harry reid helped usher earmarks home for. $20 million allocated to build a bridge over the colorado river right to your community. has that made a difference in your town? caller: there is one bridge now. there used to be a crossing at the dam, of the clothes that for the 9/11 scare. the other bridge will be a shopping mall or a city park. i do not know if they really get enough traffic, or if it is a matter of convenience. i do not think it's about the traffic so much as it is about convenience. there's not a lot of development here. host: ok. on twitter -- host: ross is in louisiana on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. you are on the program. caller: i am a frequent viewer of your program. i enjoyed the program. any time we have politicians doing anything that will benefit them, it is like there in it for themselves. it seems the only time they want to do something is if they are going

hundreds of farm workers come here looking to make contact with labor bosses. if they are lucky they will be picked for another hard day of work. >> reporter: the men and women select redirect examination the ones boa boarding buses. he worked in the tomato field for nearly 30 fields. >> americans really like their vegetables and frults. who is going to pick it. the people born in this country have better kinds work, and they're not going go to the fields. >> reporter: things are slowly starting to get better for florida's tomato field workers. -year after more than a decade of patient organizing work, the coalition of immokalee workers reached a mands mark agreement with growers and corporate tomato buyers like mechanic donald's and burger king. the agreement gives them a penny more for every pound of tomatoes they pick. that doesn't sound like much but that one cent increase translates into an additional 32 cents for every bucket picked by workers. that in turn will boost each pardon me hand's pay by about $5,000 a year. >> we're entering this threshold of en

budgetary consolidation, liberation and competition and labor reform. there we cannot even we cannot -- and do not intend to proceed by decree law. so there are negotiations going on. they will be concluded by the end of march. and they will -- they are being oriented in the direction of reducing this is something the imf, the eu, the oecd recommended to italy, reducing the segmentation of the labor market, reducing the uneven treatment between the insiders and the outsiders who cannot get in, mainly, the young. and also changing the nature of some social protection mechanisms so as to reduce a bit the distance between italy and some nordic countries in having more flex security, namely, a closer kpatibility between labor market made more flexible and modernized system of social protection centered on the individual worker but not on the individual job as was the case for so many decades. now, this, ladies and gentlemen, cannot be a -- of course it cannot be an unbiassed report that i am submitting to you because i'm certainly very, very biassed althoug

widespread racial segregation we pursue it relied on labor, fast police force. should say something about the red -- racial segregation was interesting, workers from so many different countries from thousands from the u.s. who made up most of the skilled labour force, thousands, many more thousands from the west indies. people of african descent from jamaica and barbados, a few thousand from spain, a few thousand from more than europe. a very diverse group and yet the united states structures the labour force using a kind of biracial -- biracial sort of approach similar to jim crow in the united states. there is a photo of the west indian work force in the canal zone. in this biracial approach put white workers, u.s. workers on the so-called gold wrote -- and backward groups in the west indies were on the silver role and paid in silver. life was very different for those two groups but a lot of what is fascinating about the canal zone is so many workers didn't quite fit into that black versus white structure. the spaniards. fascinating group. the u.s. imported 6,

when you expand the labor curve, a simple economist will say the price of labor goes down and we're all hurt. the more people that work here, the more people that are chasing jobs and we're all doomed. wrong. the expansion of the available labor force creates opportunities that did not exist before. you have innovation and entrepreneurialism that increases the actual size of small and medium-sized businesses. they consume and that expands the demand curve. you have a dynamic economy for 90% of u.s. born workers that enhances their wages. the other 9% got whacked up side the head with globalization and immigration and everything you can list and they need help. getting rid of immigrants doesn't really help them. the final point is if you look at the last 15 years, 25% of publicly traded companies in the united states are essentially from the bay area region and one out of four was started by an immigrant. we have great data on this because it's all transparent. you can look it up. you can tabulate it. it's all a list of companies that we own, from google to intel, we know these companies

. >>> labor pains, mitt romney hits rick santorum. and a history with unions, might be a weak spot for santorum in a primary, but is it an attack that could hurt romney in the long run? >>> and with just over a week before the michigan primary, gm posts it highest profit ever $7.6 billion in annual profit. how does the company's new success impact mitt romney who says the government's auto bailout was a bad idea? >>> plus, on capitol hill, looks like the deal might finally be done. negotiators had to hammer out a last-minute deal. not just on the payroll tax extension, but also had to deal with something regarding pensions in the federal government. but will rank and file republicans try to block it? that's coming up next. good morning from washington. it's thursday, february 16th, 0 2012, this is "daily rundown." my first reads of the morning. mitt romney is playing up his roots. >> gosh, i got lots of old friends there. there's an old high school -- we lived across the hall from each other. chuck and others from grand rapids. any ot