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A Day Without An Immigrant

Longer wait to get a shake, not a plant


It was a mixed bag of attendance at businesses and offices in South Hillsborough on Monday.

The line at the Collins Produce Shake Shak at State Road 60 and St. Cloud Road in Valrico moved a bit slower, but not unexpectedly. “My workers get to pick a day off and they chose today,’’ manager Bonnie Wilkins said. “It wasn’t like they left me holding the bag.’’

She was short one worker, which accounted for the longer lines, but otherwise asked others to work in place of the four Hispanic employees that would normally have been there. “We have a good working relationship with our workers,” Wilkins said. “We give and we take. We try to accommodate each other and work together.”

At Emerald Hill Nursery, a plant farm north of Plant City where 15 of the 20 employees are Hispanic, it was business as usual, said owner Jim Haggard.

“Every one of them showed up,’’ he said. “They never even asked for the day off. ... Some of them just can’t afford to miss a day’s wages. We were happy they were here. We weren’t looking forward to today without them.’’

Director Richard Harrison was the only employee in the office at Dover’s Adult Migrant Jobs & Education Program office Monday. Still, a few students trickled in.

“It’s dead compared to an average Monday,’’ he said. “We had five or six students show up.’’ On a typical Monday, he said, classes would host 35-40 students. The federal and state program helps migrant workers to hone their educational skills so they can pursue careers outside of the fields.—Yvette C. Hammett


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