Crew Leader/farmworker

Job description

Crops/Commodities: apples.
First-line supervision and coordination of agricultural workers. Under the direction of farm management, assign tasks and monitor crop production operations. Train workers in techniques such as planting, cultivating, or harvesting and in use of safety measures. Train workers in safe equipment operation. Direct or assist with adjustment or repair of equipment or machinery. Take directions from managers on work schedules, production requirements, and conditions of equipment and supplies. Maintain details of personnel actions. Operate employer's electronic time keeping system. First-line supervisors do not have direct hiring or firing authority, but may be asked by farm management to give warnings or take disciplinary action against works for safety or work rule violations.

Rock/Roots/Stick/Brush Pick-Up and Removal:
Worker will pick up hand rocks, roots, sticks, brush from ground and place on trailers, in loader buckets or piles. The use of pointed shovel, ax, loppers or pry bar may be necessary for help with pick up. Pay will be hourly. Worker will be required to walk, bend, kneel, stoop and lift for long periods of time.

Pruning:
The supervisor will set the standard for pruning a block of trees and will provide all the necessary equipment to perform the required task. Workers will be assigned rows of trees and must prune according to the predetermined standard as instructed by supervisors. All limbs and branches pruned must be removed from the tree and moved to the center of the drive row. Pruning may involve the use of ladders and motorized platforms. Hand pruners, hydraulic saws and air pruners may be used for cutting limbs.

General Farm Labor:
Some of the work required from the worker to be performed that is incidental to farming crops listed in this application may be described as performing hand cultivation duties, planting crops/trees, transplanting (may include riding on a transplant machine), cutting spears and sorting, weeding or hoeing crops, root stock work, cleaning, repairing seed beds and racks, setting up and moving irrigation pipes and equipment. Tasks the worker must be able to perform include: assist in pest controls; install culverts for field drainage; remove and reinstall sprinklers, remove debris, boxes, and discarded plants from fields to keep clean growing areas; general ranch maintenance; basic irrigation maintenance; clean and maintenance equipment and tools, assist in equipment cleaning, assist in applications by hand or tractor of fertilizers and or/pesticides; frost control of sprinklers, frost blanket coverings, or hoop coverings. Assist with farm building/field maintenance and repairs. Repair fences.

May be necessary to assist in the use of farm equipment such as tractors, fork-lifts, trucks and harvest machinery, etc. Spray, mow and other miscellaneous field work. Workers must operate all equipment properly and in a manner that protects operator, others, the employer's products and property. Failure to comply with safety requirements and operating instructions may result in disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination.

Orchard Maintenance:
Workers will perform any of the following duties: Hand thinning, strap and tie fruit trees for tree training (may require motorized platform); pick up rocks, roots and limbs, strip and pull suckers and training tree, install bamboo stakes, wires, clips, posts and irrigation tubing; pull weeds, spread mouse bait, clean equipment, build/repair tree trellises including setting bamboo, spread compost, remove strings and wire from trellises, cutting suckers and training trees, fixing boxes, graft fruit trees, cutting back fence rows, hanging deer deterrents, watering trees, putting on trees guards and other hand task. Care of young-non-producing fruit trees, including weeding, tree trunk painting, hand fertilizing, hand clipping and feathering trees.

Special Requirements

This job requires a minimum of 6 months of agricultural experience working on a farm overseeing crews handling mechanized and manual tasks. Crew supervisors are responsible for overseeing that farmworkers perform manual tasks with accuracy and efficiency. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience. Saturday work required. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs. Employer-paid pre-employment and post-hire drug testing required. Criminal background check required. Workers must have either a U.S. CDL license with a Class B and Passenger Endorsement or a Mexican CDL - Digital Mexican License with A and B Endorsements. Must be eligible to apply for a Farm Labor Contractor Employee certificate within 30 days of hire.