Especially during the summer, many Cook County businesses recruit young people who come from all parts of the globe to fill positions that can’t be filled locally due to a shortage of employees.
You see them in grocery stores stocking shelves, in restaurants waiting tables, bussing dishes, cooking, doing dishes, they work behind cash registers, cleaning rooms, making beds, using their might, muscle and minds in jobs many are overqualified for. It’s not unusual to work alongside someone who hails from overseas who holds a master’s degree or two—and can speak several languages as they toil in menial labor. Yet they are glad to come here and get to know us, make some money, and fill a need in the community; their energy and efforts keep Cook County humming in peak tourist seasons.
But a cutback in H-2B visas has meant area businesses are having trouble filling jobs, and this has left many to worry and wonder who is available to fill job postings in a tight labor market as the summer tourist season rapidly approaches.
The shortage of labor in Northeastern Minnesota isn’t lost on Congressman Rick Nolan. Nolan’s press secretary Samantha Bisogno said, “The congressman regularly helps resort employers with their H-2B visa applications— making sure everything goes through the system efficiently and correctly— through his Constituent Services.
“The congressman sent a letter to the House Appropriations Committee asking that the fiscal year 2017 funding measure include the reauthorization of the returning worker exemption for the H-2B program. That exemption allows workers who were previously granted an H-2B visa to not count against the overall annual visa cap, which are 66,000. Without the exemption, small businesses would not be able to hire the workers they need to operate fully. We’ve heard this concern from across the district— Brainerd to Grand Marais, etc. The Omnibus spending bill that will be voted on also has language that has the same effect as reauthorizing the exemption would have had.”
On May 4, Congress passed the Omnibus spending bill, which will allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to nearly double the program for the fiscal year 2017, upping the H-2B visas available to approximately 130,000.
However, the DHS isn’t mandated to meet that 130,000 number and could ignore the suggestion from Congress if it so chooses.
For Tom Rider, co-president of Lutsen Mountains Ski and Summer Resort, finding enough workers through the years has gotten harder and harder.
“This summer we are hoping to hire eight H-2B workers, and 15 J1 workers. We had a slightly higher total for last winter, so about 50 total over the course of a year.
“You ask what we will do if we don’t get them? No easy solution,” said Rider. “Local hiring, despite higher wages, gets harder and harder each year. If we don’t have enough staff between H-2B, J1, and local hires, we will cut back on services, we will have management staff on the front lines during peak periods, we will be particularly surgical with the schedule and move staff around to maximize their impact, and we will pay lots of overtime.
“Like everyone else, we have been short staffed for years and it’s getting worse because local hiring is more difficult (smaller pool, lots of competition), and foreign workers are harder to secure because the government is making it harder and harder each year with low quotas, more red tape, and higher rates of visa denials for reasons that are not apparent. The costs of these foreign worker programs are very high, which is testament to the difficulty of hiring locally.”
Last fall U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar met with area business leaders at Lutsen Mountains at the Summit Chalet to talk about a variety of topics, the shortage of foreign workers near the top of that list.
Scott Harrison, owner of Lutsen Resort, asked the senator for her help.
Harrison laid out his case. “Lutsen Resort employs 90 people year round between full- and part-time,” he said. “In the summer our numbers increase by 50 plus. Within an eight-mile radius from Lutsen Resort, there are three additional businesses operating with the same staffing need.”
Harrison said the J1 visa program was working well. He explained, “J1 staff are students currently enrolled at university in their home country and want to travel to see the U.S. and earn some money. They must be scheduled to return to school in the fall. Their visa is good only for their summer break, no longer than 120 days. J1 visa holders pay all of their fees and airfare.
“I hired 23 housekeeping staff for the summer of 2016 and 16 are on a J1 visa. We could not operate without this program outside our busiest months. We would hire locally or outside the area of the U.S. for staff if we could.”
But, said Harrison, the H-2B program is equally important but recent changes to it, “have created hardship and long wait times.”
However, a cap on the numbers of workers who can obtain this visa, 33,000 April-September and 33,000 April-March, and a three-month application process for employers is hurting the program, Harrison told Senator Klobuchar.
“We rely heavily on foreign workers and the H-2B program isn’t working” said Harrison.
On March 6, 2017, Senator Klobuchar joined with several senators to send a letter to John Kelly, secretary, Department of Homeland Security, asking about, “regulatory improvements in the H-2B program that can increase processing efficiency and predictability.”
Unfortunately, the letter didn’t call for an increase in visas, just that the quota of 66,000 be met. In 2015 more than 5,000 H-2B visas were available and never filled and during the first half of 2017, not all of the visas have been issued.
H-2B visas are used by employers to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs during peak seasons when there are not enough area workers to fill those spots.
H-2B visa holders can stay up to one year, with a two-year extension a possibility.
The returning worker exemption, which expired September 30, 2016, allowed employers to hire H-2B workers who had come to the U.S. in at least one of the prior three fiscal years without those workers counting toward the annual cap on visas. Employers would like to see that policy returned.
The 2017 H-2B visa cap was reached March 16, leaving no visas available until Oct. 1, 2017.
For Bluefin Bay, this is the third year of the program. In 2015 they recruited six H-2B workers, 14 in 2016 (they ended up getting 13) and at first it looked grim for 2017, said Brian Sherburne, Bluefin human resources manager.
“We didn’t think we were going to be able to get any employees through the H-2B program this year because of the delay in processing. So, we started to call businesses located out west looking for people whose first stint was ending under the program. We weren’t the only company to do this. If you can find someone before they go home, you can file for an extension, and if they are willing, they can work for you,” said Sherburne.
“It turned out that we got all 24 H-2B employees we asked for, filling our job openings except the cook position. We are still trying to get that position filled.
“The program is expensive. If you don’t file for premium processing, it can take months, and you probably aren’t going to get any employees. Premium processing costs $1,250 per worker; then you pay airfare and fees to get the workers here.”
But, said Sherburne, “By getting the H-2Bs filled we reduced our J-1 visas.”
Sherburne added, “We certainly like to hire in country and in the county. This year we have college kids from Michigan and Colorado coming to work. We would prefer to hire locally. It’s a little frustrating that we can’t find more local workers,” he added.
The H-2B Workforce Coalition, an alliance of more than 40 industry associations recently released a statement, “Since the congressionally-mandated visa cap of 66,000 was reached extremely early this year, many small businesses face the threat of not operating at full capacity during their peak season as they struggled to find the workers needed to support their full-time, domestic staff.
“Lodging industry employers always look first to the U.S. workforce to fill critical job functions during peak seasons at hotels, but in many instances, there are no workers available,” said Brian Crawford, vice president of government and political affairs at the American Hotel & Lodging Association and co-chair of the H-2B Workforce Coalition.
Unfortunately, until legislation mandates an increase in H-2B visas or streamlines and shortens the application process, expect to see a sea of help wanted signs as employers look far and wide for employees who can fill an onslaught of openings.
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