Farmworkers And Laborers

Job description

Workers will perform assigned duties as instructed by their supervisor. Duties may vary from time to time.

Crops: Blueberry, Blackberry, and Tobacco.

Manually harvest, sort, grade, and pack blueberries and blackberries. Prune blueberry bushes using pruning shears and loppers. Each worker may be given a picking card, which he will keep throughout the workday. Workers may receive a hooked belt and carry 2– 1-gallon picking buckets as they move down assigned rows picking all ripe berries, placing them in the bucket. Each worker must pick the plants clean of all ripe fruit. When buckets are filled, the worker will take to the Supervisor who then punches their picking card. Harvest by use of mechanical equipment, load and transport blueberries to processing shed.

Use hand tools, shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears, knives, and baskets as needed. Inspect field irrigation systems; replace damaged pipes, valves, water jets, sprinklers, etc. using necessary equipment. May construct trellises, repair farm fences, buildings replace damaged posts using wire stretchers, hammers, paint, brushes, etc. Load mulch on trailer and move to fields, unload, and spread mulch around plants as needed. Inspect the field to maintain a 3 to 5 foot weed free strip between rows by removing weeds, grass, etc.

Duties may include tilling soil, applying fertilizers and pesticides, clean, load-harvested products, post-harvest cleanup & other related activities. Workers will be trained on applying fertilizers and pesticides. Inspect bushes for damage, disease or insect infestation and remove or replace as directed by farm manager. Clean, adjust and repair machinery and implements, oiling moving parts and replacing damaged parts.

Blueberries and blackberries: Workers harvesting blueberries and blackberries in GA -Tasks include the loading and transportation of the product from the field to the packing house, clean, repair and maintain packing shed, further packing and palletization of the product, labeling, cooling of the product, loading of trucks by hand, forklift or pallet jack, filling out documentation and transmitting of said documentation. Packing house is located on the farm. Tasks also include maintenance and cleaning of the facility as well as unloading materials.

Tobacco: Workers will be planting, hoeing, maintaining, topping suckering and harvesting tobacco. Workers may chop weeds between plants with hoe; remove tops and suckers from plants, apply side dressing. Use hand tools, shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears, and knives, as needed. Duties may include tilling soil, clean, and maintain crop.

Special Requirements

Workers must have 2 months of verifiable experience in harvesting and pruning blueberries and blackberries, planting and harvesting tobacco. Applicants must furnish verifiable job references or comparable third-party documentation from recent employers to establish acceptable prior experience. This requirement will be applied equally to all new foreign and domestic candidates.