COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Mastronardi Produce says it’s losing millions of dollars because of a severe general labor force shortage at its greenhouse operations in Coldwater. The Canadian based firm, which opened its tomato greenhouse in Coldwater in 2012, more than doubled its size locally last year by building the largest pepper greenhouse in the United States.
Chris Gill, the firm’s director of greenhouse operations in Coldwater, says the starting wage is $11.56 an hour. Production at Pepperco USA began in March, but Gill says the employee turnover rate has been more than 80%. He says they need between 80 and 100 workers and currently, they’re short roughly 60 workers. At the Maroa tomato greenhouse, there’s a 60% turnover of workers with 200 the ideal number of employees but the shortage, with the upcoming peak season starting next month, right now is nearing 100 workers.
Their goal has been to hire in the Coldwater area, but Gill says it’s been a struggle from the beginning and contrary to popular opinion, it’s much more expensive, and not cheaper, to use the federal migrant worker program. According to Gill, someone driving by the Maroa greenhouse in recent days will have seen 30 yard dumpsters lined up loaded with tomatoes because they don’t have the labor to actually pick the produce off the plant quick enough to prevent it from spoiling.
Gill says without a consistent quality general labor force, the greenhouse operations will not be able to succeed.
