Farmworkers And Laborers, Crop

Job description

Thinning: The employee will be lined up in its designated row (leaf products, romaine, boston, escarole, endive, cabbage) and will use a hoe to thin the lettuce (product) 8-14 inches apart from plant to plant. One ½ mile row will take approximately 20 – 35 minutes to complete thinning. Employee is expected to thin between 16 and 22 rows per day to meet standards.
Weeding: Weed all kind of leaf commodities (baby leaf, romaine, boston, escarole, green leaf, red leaf & cabbage).
The employee will line up in designated rows and they will be using a hoe and/or hands to pull the weeds that are too close to the lettuce (product). One ½ mile row takes approximately 20 to 35 minutes to weed. Employee is expected to weed between 16 and 22 rows per day to meet standards.

Corn: corn puller will first be taken to designated field ready to be cut and harvested for that day. Once the corn puller is properly ready for work, the corn puller will line up in corn rows designated for him to pull. The worker will then proceed to stand in his or her area and bend over to each corn stalk and snap off ears of corn that are available to pull with his hands. After snapping off ears of corn, he will inspect them and then throw them onto tables that are located on the corn harvesting machine that will be moving behind the corn pullers as they continue to move forward in their designated rows. Everyday there will be different corn orders, there will be days when it will contain certain specifications on what needs to be cut, for example when dealing with first and secondary ears of corn etc depending on what the corn stalks have on them. The worker will be pulling corn, always keeping in mind that he will always have to meet company quality standards. Meeting these standards is a very important part of the job and the corn puller will have five days to train for these quality standards and the quantity of work expected from them and any other co-worker doing the same job. A corn pullers should harvests a minimum of 50 boxes of corn per hour in order to be able to move along with the machinery that will be continually advancing behind them; we expect any new corn puller to meet the same minimum within the first 5 days of work.

Tray Pack: The worker will be lined up in designated corn rows, then worker will start packing 4 to 6 ear corns per Styrofoam tray. Worker must meet a requirement of packing 80 to 100 corn trays per hour.

NOTE: All packing activities will be done inside the field.

Lettuce: The Lettuce Cutters will line up in designated lettuce rows. Workers will bend over each lettuce to cut. After cutting the lettuce, workers will inspect and trim. Workers will then put the lettuce in a bag and put the bag on a stainless steel table that will be continually pushed behind the cutters as they proceed on their rows.
Romaine lettuce: The cutters (Crew of 12) will be taken to designated fields that are ready for harvest, the cutters will line up in front of the harvest machine, the machine has a conveyor belt that goes around the machine bringing in empty boxes, the cuter will bend over, cut and trim the romaine lettuce, put it inside the box or RPC, each container should have 4 lines of 6 romaine lettuce each, they will close the box and put the box on the conveyor belt to be transported to the back of the machine. On the romaine machine there is a platform were closers, stockers, strap and pallet jack person work, the crew consist of 10 to 14 workers, meeting quality standards is a very important part of the job. Cutters will have 5 days to train for this quality standards and quantity of work expected from them. In order to be able to keep up with the machine, workers should be able to cleanly cut: 12-13 heads per minute of Iceberg wrap lettuce heads, 16-18 heads per minute of Romaine flip top, 16-18 heads per minute of Romaine hearts, 16-20 heads per minute of any naked commodity.

Special Requirements

This type of work, involves working conditions that require tremendous stamina, a high level of physical activity in cold or extremely hot conditions in direct sunlight and in adverse weather such as rain. The work requires a high level of physical conditioning.