Farmworkers

Job description

Manually plant, transplant, cultivate, harvest, sort, grade, and pack strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, okra, peaches, cantaloupes, lettuce, spinach, onions, satsumas, nectarines, peppers, peas, broccoli, eggplant, corn, and flowers. Use hand and gardening tools, such as shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, thinners, shears, stake drivers, knives, chainsaws, and mowers. Operate equipment to pull wagon through fields or between fields incidental to the job being performed during harvest. Apply fertilizers, transplant, weed, thin, or prune plants and trees. Clean and load harvested products.

Harvest satsumas, nectarines, and peaches by hand. Fruit must be handled carefully to avoid bruises, cuts or damage. Fruit will be graded by size, weight, color, or condition. Discard inferior or defective products and/or foreign matter. Place fruit in bucket and either empty bucket in trailer or place full bucket on trailer and get an empty bucket to continue harvest. Prune and thin trees according to predetermined specifications. Workers must have a general understanding of how pruning affects competition with fruiting wood and how thinning is done to provide nutrition to the developing fruit. Remove all resulting material from the fruit trees rendered from performing pruning tasks. While thinning trees, limbs must not be torn from the trees, nor should limbs be completely stripped of leaves or fruit. Proper spacing and selection of fruit are critical to maximizing the trees potential yield.

Pre-harvest activities for berries may include staking, tying, transplanting and pruning. Workers will help install black plastic and drip irrigation on rows in field being careful to cover all exposed edges of plastic cover with soil and be careful not to tear or punch holes in plastic. Plant berry plants in pre-punched holes on the plastic covered rows being careful to place the plants at the same depth in the soil as they grew in the nursery. Remove weeds from around the plants and from the row middles. Pick fully ripe berries; discard any deformed, decayed or undersized berries according to supervisor's instructions. Carefully remove any undesirable berries from plant that would later cause fungi to attack the plant. When harvest is completed, assist in removing plants from the plastic to prepare for planting the next crop. Remove the plastic and drip irrigation tape from the row and load on trucks for removal from field.

Harvest blueberries by walking through assigned rows while bending and reaching to pick ripe blueberries by hand without bruising or damaging the fruit or bush. Workers must use care to pick bushes clean of all berries of the correct color and size, as instructed by their supervisor. Place picked berries into buckets. Defective and low quality fruit must be discarded. When harvest activities are complete, workers may prune and thin blueberry bushes using hand clippers. Workers must follow the pattern and instruction set forth by the supervisors to carefully select which branches to clip.

Transplant, stake, and tie tomatoes. Harvest tomatoes by pulling tomatoes of the correct size and maturity from the vine and placing into bucket. Stems will be removed from harvested tomatoes. Harvest okra by cutting the stem with a knife and placing into bag. Hand pick peas and place into bucket. Harvest corn by hand, making sure stalk is pulled clean of all ears of correct size and maturity.

Transplant onions by walking down rows and throwing (pitching) onion sprouts into beds. Workers will then place sprout into pre-dug hole and bend down to cover with dirt. Any extra sprouts will be taken to the next row. Workers must use care when planting not to damage transplants. Harvest onions by picking up onions, clipping top and roots using shears, placing in bucket, and carrying bucket to wagon.

Special Requirements

Three months of verifiable fruit and vegetable farm worker experience required. Work outside in inclement weather conditions including extremely hot, humid, cold and/or wet weather for extensive periods of time. Perform prolonged standing, walking, reaching, stooping, bending, kneeling, pushing, pulling, lifting and carrying up to 50 lbs., hoist up to 30 lbs. over head and support 35 lbs. over the shoulder while walking for prolonged periods of time. Use repetitive hand movements, climb 8 ft ladders and reach over head for extended periods of time.