While Congress wrangles over immigration matters, an array of Hampton Roads businesses find themselves caught in the middle and left short-handed.
From August 2006 to August 2007, 136 local businesses applied for foreign workers under the federal H-2B visa program, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Labor data. Of those requests, more than 3,100 workers - from landscapers to budget analysts - were approved for visas to take jobs in the region's nine cities. The Labor Department also granted about 250 visas for work in North Carolina's Outer Banks.
In Washington, a House subcommittee has held up renewal of a provision passed by Congress in 2005 to provide for returning foreign workers for businesses that had used the H-2B program in previous years. Under that provision, those businesses - including the 136 in Hampton Roads - could have applied to bring back those same foreign workers outside of the existing H-2B quota of 66,000 visas.
The "returning worker" provision expired late last year. Without an extension, these business had to scramble for that limited nationwide pool.
"It's the single biggest challenge we've had in five years," said Bill Maxwell, owner of Maxwell Landscape Service Inc. in Chesapeake.
Maxwell has used the H-2B program for five years to bring in laborers from Mexico, who represent about a third of his staff handling landscape design and maintenance for homeowners and commercial customers. By the beginning of March, he knew he wasn't going to receive his requested 10 workers, having missed the cutoff for the nationwide quota.
Without those expected hands, Maxwell hired a few temporary workers and boosted overtime for his 20 or so core employees to complete the planting and weeding, mowing and trimming. Three of Maxwell's trucks sat idle Thursday without enough workers to use them, while laborers looked likely to sweat through another weekend, the owner said.
"By the end of the year, I'm hoping to just be even with what I did last year," he said of his projected revenue.
Most H-2B participants work as landscapers, housekeepers for hotels and seafood processors. A couple of Mexican restaurants in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake asked for visas for cooks last year, and Hampton company Data Management Group of Virginia Inc. requested two budget analysts at salaries of $90,000 a year, the federal data shows.
Under the program, U.S. employers can hire temporary workers from other countries for non-agricultural, seasonal jobs that they demonstrate they cannot fill with U.S. residents. As H-2B visas have grown more popular among businesses, requests have exceeded the 66,000 cap for many years.
Without the returning worker option, those in the program that didn't receive approval before the visa limit was reached now must find ways to fill gaps in their staffing or reduce their workloads.
For hotel operators in Virginia Beach, that could mean fewer rooms cleaned in time for arriving guests, particularly by Memorial Day, said John Gallo, a director of U.S. Americans Inc., an agency that oversees H-2B applications for some Oceanfront hotels. "You can't assign 25 rooms to one girl and expect her to do it properly in the same time," he said.
But many Beach hotels don't rely on H-2B workers to fill those jobs. Instead, they tend to use the J-1 visa program for foreign exchange students. Some of those facing the H-2B shortage will try to add J-1 workers, Gallo said.
Landscapers and seafood processors don't have the same opportunities to supplement with visiting students, said Amanda Wright, executive director of The Labor Co., another H-2B processing agency.
"You could not get a J-1 in here to do landscaping to save your life," she said, explaining that the students arrive in the United States to learn a skilled trade and prefer the social setting of hotels and restaurants. "They're not going to come here to labor in the hot sun."
The Labor Department sets the prevailing wage for an area for each category of job, and employers must pay at least that. Wages for most of the local H-2B jobs ranged from $6 to $10 per hour, federal data shows. Maxwell pays supervisors between $10 and $17 per hour, while other laborers earn between $7 and $12.
Wright's company, based in Amherst, managed to receive visa certification for four Virginia Beach landscape companies before the cap was reached, she said. Maxwell is one of her clients who didn't fare so well; his application missed the cap by a day. Maxwell lost not only the muscle of the Mexican laborers, including three supervisors, but their expertise learned year after year in the business, he said.
"That hurts your bottom line right there," he explained. "They know the accounts. They know the vehicles. They know the safety procedures. They know how to do the work. We've trained them."
News researcher Jakon T. Hays contributed to this report.
Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com
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There are plenty of Local Americans for Any job
There are plenty of local Americans to work any job. The problem is some employers just aren't willing to pay the freight. Some employers are just plain CHEAP CHEAP and still want to pay the same hourly rate as they did 30 years ago. I loved the story from years ago about the Va Beach councilman with the Dairy Queen that had to start his workers at $10.15 an hour just to find local teenagers who'd work for more than a few weeks. News flash to all the big entrepreneurs out there, reliable and quality basic laborers cost more than $10.00 per hour. If you are not willing to pay that then you can expect shoddy work or at the very least workers who will try to make up the pay difference by pilfering. And there never has been a shortage of skilled professionals such as nurses or computer programmers. What there has been is an over abundance of employers who sought to increase their profits at the expense of their workers. When workers feel undervalued they leave if they can. Lots of nurses got out of the hospitals because the responsibilities and the number of patients increased with no commensurate increase in pay. As for programmers there is no shortage of skilled programme
Job shortage? Pfft!
It's funny, they mention seafood processors and restaraunts as being shorthanded. Wasn't it a local seafood company that recently paid 6.9 million for hiring illegal aliens? And wasn't it a local restauraunt that was making fake i.d.'s for illegal aliens? There is no shortage of decent (legal) workers in America, there is a shortage of decent employers willing to pay an honest days wage for an honest days work. You don't even need migrant workers to pick crops anymore, machinery has been around for years that can pick anything, including strawberrys (supposedly the hardest crop to harvest), but why pay the extra for it when you can hire "migrant" workers for dirt cheap and pocket the extra?
Low risk prisoners, like the ones you see on road cleaning details, have been used forever at planting and harvest time, it's called work release, check into that before outsourcing another job to exploit cheap labor.
Outsourcing of Programmers
About 10 years ago, I had a job interview with a company that I later saw whining on TV about how they couldn't find qualified American programmers and needed more Indian ones. I met their requirements, and have worked with enough Indian programmers to know that their skills are about the same as those of Americans. Those companies just want to exploit cheap labor. There is plenty of talent in the USA. At least they should get honest and say they want the foreign workers because they cost less.
section 8
But all that money taken from the middle class to go to section 8 housing ends up in the pockets of some middle class and probably more upper class that operate large section 8 housing projects! If you make tons of money by operating large scale section 8 housing projects where you are garanteed payment from the gov't, do you complain about poor people on section 8? Poor people don't chew up the money and eat it. They put it back in circulation rapidly as they have no savings. Same with gov't handouts. All the food purchased on WIC cards benefits the shareholders of RJ Reynolds or Phillip Morris. Not that I like gov't handouts since I'm the one most likely to get screwed. Middle class white guy! The poor need me to live off and the rich want *ALL* of the money so they have their eyes on mine, weather it's by psychological warfare marketing of products or getting their friends in gov't to tax it out of me, to give to the poor, so they can give it to the rich.
silcn
Why work when the fruits of your labor will not cover basic living expenses, yet the people who benefit from your labor live a life full of excesses? The corporate executives in America have seen pay increases something like 400%+ in the past years but workers have seen little (inflation). Savings rates are down. People aren't dumb. They know there is no point in working if you are on that level. They know the corporate executives are getting rich and not sharing a fair portion. And make no mistake, poor people are profitable. Take portions of their paychecks as fees for cashing their checks since there are no banks (banks own interests in some of the check cashing ops tho). Plus all the service fees for late payments, which eclipse returns that can be made through many other investments. A friend worked for a cell phone company and quit. He said he was "disgusted at how the company takes advantage of the poorly educated low income people." I didn't get details.
Davidm says:You cannot pay
Davidm says:You cannot pay rent and put food on the table for your family for $6.00 - $7.00 per hour
You sure can't but I suggest you get off my dime and do something worthwhile instead of expecting others to pick up your rent tab/grocery and medical tabs ...whats wrong with working for this and give back to taxpayers this amount of you welfare checks and section 8 checks and such? Think about it..If everyone on the dole that was an able bodied person including the ones able to make babies (many excuses about bad backs but they sure can lay there an make more babies and not complain now can't they?).
There would be more than enough money to cut taxes for the ones being sucked dry by the government to support lazy slugs..lets do the math here..section 8 pays 1200.00 rent to a family of 4....the parent can go and make 40 hours at 7 dollars which is 210.00x4 is $840.00 dollars less I have to pay in taxes...think about it..multiply this by the hundreds of thousands on section 8...the numbers don't lie..but these people sure do!
Hmmm
Why don't he go over to the poor neighborhoods and offer them some money? Oh that's right, they are more likely to complain when they are asked to work a few extra hours without pay. They have a safety net to fall back onto.
Rent and food
You cannot pay rent and put food on the table for your family for $6.00 - $7.00 per hour. There are plenty of people willing to work around here for a respectful wage. These companies just don't want to pay for them so they hire mexicans instead. I sure don't feel sorry for any of them! Hire Americans not mexicans.