COTTON
Ginners Marketplace
MasterFlow III Gin Stand Controller
COTTON FARMING IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GINNING INDUSTRY.
Labor Continues To Be An Issue It’s all over the news about how good the job market is. In many places, there are “help wanted” signs everywhere. Labor is tight. In some areas, labor is tighter than others. It’s no great shock that the ginning industry relies on a largely migrant workforce. With a tight labor market, able-bodied people who want to work can find work year-round. If you want a job, you have a job in most parts of the country, including a large portion of rural America. However, most people don’t want to work at a seasonal job no matter how good the pay may be. Additionally, in areas where local workers traditionally have come to work at a gin, many are moving out of the workforce for health and age reasons. Focus Of Conversation Shifts Even though the season isn’t over yet in many places (it just won’t end), it’s not too early to start thinking about the upcoming season’s labor. This brings up the reason for my article. Meeting season for the cotton industry — the time when organizations gather and people prepare for another crop — is in full swing. As we move from meeting to meeting, there are similar conversations that come up no matter what part of the country you are from. For example, people talk about machinery changes, trucking changes, harvester changes and unwrapper changes. These topics used to be discussed with an eye toward getting the job done faster or more efficiently. Now they revolve around how to eliminate people. Labor is a driver in so many discussions today. In my part of the world, a number of gins were concerned about finding enough people to run two shifts. Hurricanes Florence and Michael took care of that problem for this year, but in some ways the storms have made folks concerned about next year. The effects of such disasters linger. People who had worked at gins in some areas are now working on recovery efforts and will be for a couple years. Construction, cleanup, infrastructure repair, etc. are claiming a number of field and gin workers for longer-term employment.
Dusty Findley, CEO of the Southeastern Cotton Ginners Association, contributed this article. Contact Findley at 706344-1212 or dusty@southern-southeastern.org. TWITTER: @COTTONFARMING
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Cotton Ginners Marketplace
Secure Labor Now A gin used to have many more applicants than they had jobs, now they barely get enough to fill what they need. There are many outlets to find workers, but the purpose of this article is to encourage ginners to start securing the upcoming season’s seasonal labor force soon. Make sure you have your current workforce contacts and stay in touch in the off-season. Recruit them to help find legal employees. Work on labor leasing contracts if that’s available or start discussions with local producers who use H-2A to try to maximize that effort. Whatever your way of recruiting and securing labor, it’s never too early to start, but it can often be too late.
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