Los Angeles Equestrian Center

[Bristol_Bay]

@Annie10

@Amberley

LAEC is managed under contract by ASM Global which is owned by Legends Hospitality which is owned by two billionaires Jerry Jones and George Steinbrenner and a private equity firm. They don’t care about anything but the bottom line.

George Steinbrenner is dead

Might he have had heirs?

[Harriet1]

I’m wondering how they are ever going to fill all those jobs in the coming days. There is no alternative labor force with equine handling skills in this area to do this work!

I feel so badly for these horses, trainers and owners. What a mess.

[Paint_Party]

@Harriet1

There is no alternative labor force with equine handling skills in this area to do this work!

I read some of the comments from the general public that followed network news articles about this. The responses sort of boiled down into three ideas:

1. Contact the local 4H club (???) because those kids are already used to handling animals.
2. These are great jobs for high school kids.
3. All those able bodied young men on public assistance can go work at the stables.

See? Solutions abound!

[Harriet1]

So helpful. Sigh.

[kenyarider]

I do wish the myth of the ‘able bodied”’ welfare recipient would just die. I worked with indigent people all my career and none of them would be considered able bodied in body or mind. They all struggled with so many problems, many not of their making. That myth, like the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” needs to DIE!!!

[Annie10]

@Bristol_Bay

@Annie10

And this has all been coming and in the news for how long? And everyone had how long to get their or their workers s together and get their paperwork in order?
Yeah.
What is that about poor planning on one part not being an emergency on the other part?

Oh, yes, I’m sure they listed those minimum wage stall cleaner jobs on Indeed and Monster on January 20, but turned down the hundreds of US-born applicants.

And again, they have had how long to read the room and knew this was coming and get the paperwork in order?

[appypaint]

Plus if they had paperwork, they wouldn’t be undocumented. There was nothing to “get together.” It’s dumb to prescribe that as a solution. I don’t think people understand the risk assessment in a situation like this when your business is on the line. You’re not going to initiate firings and lose your work force unless you have to.

And if they’re detaining documented workers to sift through later (ie if there’s paperwork to obtain)… how are they selecting those individuals? Just pooling together everyone they suspect is foreign? Is that an efficient (or fair) use of our resources?

It’s a cluster. People do not understand behavioral economics.

[Annie10]

@Bristol_Bay

@Annie10

And everyone who hired these illegal
Workers should be arrested as well.

Agreed.

https://thehill.com/latino/429136-more-than-100-undocumented-immigrants-worked-at-trumps-bedminster-resort-during/

And whoever was responsible for the hiring should be addressed appropriately. I know it’s an attempt to make this political (again), so don’t blame the conservatives on the board (again) when another thread gets locked (again) since we aren’t the ones who keep dragging politics into everything (again) after the mods asked us not to. but I highly doubt the President is sitting in HR doing the hiring.

[Annie10]

@appypaint

Plus if they had paperwork, they wouldn’t be undocumented. There was nothing to “get together.” I don’t think people understand the risk assessment in a situation like this when your business is on the line. You’re not going to initiate firings and lose your work force unless you have to.

And if they’re detaining documented workers to sift through later (ie if there’s paperwork to obtain)… how are they selecting those individuals? Just pooling together everyone they suspect is foreign? Is that an efficient (or fair) use of our resources?

It’s a cluster. People do not understand behavioral economics.

Exactly. If they weren’t “undocumented” there would be no issue.

[Harriet1]

Well, the manager apparently quit a few weeks before they fired all the undocumented workers. So it seems like they had a few weeks to prepare.

They should have tried harder to ensure that horse care was covered.

[appypaint]

Everyone seems to know of someone’s cousin’s roomate’s sister who’s committing welfare fraud. It’s never specific, always rumors.

[Maythehorsebewithme]

Another concept for the trash pile is that horse care is unskilled labor. Leading, booting, blanketing, wrapping, even stall cleaning (if you don’t want to waste bedding) requires a certain level of skill. High school kids? Wouldn’t want to do it, wouldn’t be able to do it. wouldn’t want to learn. Plus, the hours–how does feeding, watering, etc. fit into a high school schedule?

[Harriet1]

When I want my horse wrapped properly, I always hire a high school kid from downtown LA with no experience.

[Annie10]

We all learned at some point. None of us were born knowing those things and neither was anyone else who works(ed) with horses

[Annie10]

I do it myself

[Sdel]

It doesn’t take that long to teach/learn, especially with the wonders of YouTube these days.

I did it all on my own as a first time horse owner when the need arose for the first time.

[Paint_Party]

@Maythehorsebewithme

Leading, booting, blanketing, wrapping, even stall cleaning (if you don’t want to waste bedding) requires a certain level of skill. High school kids? Wouldn’t want to do it, wouldn’t be able to do it. wouldn’t want to learn.

Disclaimer: The following is my experience. Depending on your region of the country, yours may be different.

I’m in northern Arizona. There isn’t any immigrant labor, documented or otherwise. Finding and keeping barn staff (feeding, blanketing and cleaning), recruited from the surrounding communities, is a constant struggle.

The pay is good so that is not the issue. The work is repetitive and has to be done in all kinds of weather. Because it’s physical labor, they’re often surprised at how exhausted they are after a few hours. Despite claiming they’ve been around horses, most lack the ability to read basic horse body language. We all know how that ends up. Then there’s the inevitable embarrassment when their peers ask what they do for money and they get teased for shoveling shit.

The average young-ish person from the local community gets sick of it all pretty quickly. They quit without notice and go work at the Dollar Store, Burger King or get a Door Dash gig.

When I first moved to Arizona, I boarded at one posh place that tried the tactic of labeling the stall cleaners as “ranch hands” and giving them colored polo shirts. They still sometimes forgot to feed all the horses or put the blankets on wrong, so that didn’t help. Then there was the place up the road that tried hiring some of the residents of a sober living house. Apparently that went okay until one of the workers OD’ed and passed out in the barn aisle, in front of horses in the crossties, so they had to call the paramedics. They don’t hire them anymore.

I am fortunate. My trainer is the barn owner and it’s her private facility. She does all the feeding. When she’s on the show circuit, her assistant (who lives in the guest house) takes over. A couple of the very capable teens, who own show horses in the barn, help out by putting horses on the walker, leading them to pasture, blanketing, etc. But much of the horse care is hands-on by the owners. The only “hired help” are the muckers and, as I’ve said, finding and keeping them is a constant concern as it is with all the other horsekeeping sites up here.

Finding a source of capable, reliable, fully documented immigrants and/or local American citizens to do mundane barn work in the Los Angeles area is going to be tough. For the sake of the horses, I wish them good luck.

[Calvincrowe]

The real issue is that entire swathes of our economy rely on immigrant labor (and always has) and ALL those immigrants are now being targeted, whether documented/visa holders/green card holders/ etc. The fear and anxiety in the immigrant community, whether brown or not brown, must be off the charts! Since America’s immigration laws are so inadequate, onerous and bogged down, and the world has turned more violent in so many places, America has drawn those fearing for their lives elsewhere.

What we are seeing at LAEC is one glaring example of what is happening in farm fields, orchards, manufacturing plants, slaughterhouses, construction companies all across this nation. There is no “American Worker” out there to take an immigrant’s spot in those skilled but difficult jobs. In our arrogance, we see a woman raking endless rows of lettuce and think- well, any “able bodied person” can do that. I want to see anyone on this thread go do it for a day (me included) and report back. That should be entertaining!

We have needed immigration reform for 50 years and our government leaders have kicked it down the road and played with it in a nasty game of political football all that time. Let’s hope the situation at LAEC is resolved but be prepared for more stories like it.

[poltroon]

I see on facebook that the LAEC boarder groups are trying very hard to support their remaining staff, between cash tips and whatever else they can do.

[neigh]

Please explain to me how “the paperwork” could have been gotten “in order” for illegal grooms? The path to be in this country legally is practically non-existent. You cannot go on line and print out a formatted visa, birth certificates indicating citizenship are of no consequence. How would you have fixed to situation?