A new Omnibus Spending Bill includes an increase in the H-2B Guest Worker Program for the remainder of the year. Guest workers shuck oysters at Crystal Seas Oyster in Pass Christian, MS. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
GULF SEAFOOD FOUNDATION
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
President Donald Trump has signed a new 2,232-page Omnibus Spending Bill sent to him by the Senate after it passed the House of Representative that includes an increase in the H-2B Guest Worker Program for the remainder of the year.
The H-2B program allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers to fill low-skill, non-agricultural positions. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
The H-2B program allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers to fill low-skill, non-agricultural positions. Currently it provides for an annual cap of 66,000 visas per year, with a few exceptions.
The new bill contains a provision to once again allow the Department of Homeland Security to exceed the annual cap on admissions of unskilled non-agricultural workers. If fully implemented by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, it has the potential to add as many as 63,000 additional H-2B guest workers next year, nearly doubling the size of the program.
New Bill Huge Improvement
“The new provision to exceed the cap on admissions will sure will help a lot!” exclaimed Jennifer Jenkins, a Gulf Seafood Foundation Board Member and owner of Crystal Seas Oyster in Pass Christian, MS, whose company depends on the more than 150 H-2B workers each year. “I’m not sure it will solve all the problems because there are so many people trying to use the program, but anything is a huge improvement from where we were a week ago.”
“The new provision to exceed the cap on admissions will sure will help a lot!” exclaimed Jennifer Jenkins, a Gulf Seafood Foundation Board Member and owner of Crystal Seas Oyster. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
The H-2B Foreign Worker program, many from Mexico and Central America, has continued to grow at a steady pace. The Gulf States of Texas, Florida and Louisiana have more than 33,000 H-2B workers alone, with occupational categories that include: landscaping and grounds keeping workers, seafood workers, forest and conservation workers, and maids and housekeeping.
“The inclusion of language in the Omnibus Spending Bill to exceed the annual cap on admissions by H-2B workers is critical for the seafood industry in Louisiana and along the Gulf coast,” said Louisiana Agriculture Secretary Mike Strain, who has been a strong proponent of increasing the cap. “The legislations deals with the immediate seasonal job needs across a wide variety of industries, including seafood. Each job filled by an H-2B worker provides four new jobs for Americans. The new legislation gives the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, the authority to raise the H-2B cap when he determines that there is an economic need.”
Bill Allows For 63,000 More Guest Workers
The bill limits the total number of H-2B workers entering the U.S. during fiscal 2018 to 129,547; the total number of new and returning H-2B workers admitted to the U.S. in fiscal 2007.
“It is more important than ever to work with the Administration to encourage the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement this provision more quickly than last year and to consider authorizing a much larger number of visas,” said Frank Randol. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
“It is more important than ever to work with the Administration to encourage the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement this provision more quickly than last year and to consider authorizing a much larger number of visas,” said Frank Randol, Gulf Seafood Foundation Board Member and owner of Randol’s Seafood Processing in Lafayette, a crawfish and crab processor.
Randol, who has seen his crawfish and crab processing plant sit idle since the start of crawfish season earlier this year, is optimistic that the cap relief will help him and other idle processors open before the crawfish season ends, as well be completely staffed for the crab season starting in April.
According to Gulf Seafood Foundation Board Member Raz Halili of Prestige Oysters in San Leon, Texas, a company that employs more than 270 guest workers to process oysters, “This will be a big relief for numerous seafood companies across the Gulf who depend upon the program,” he said. “A big ‘thank you’ goes out to everyone involved. The H-2B Guest Worker Program is vital to gulf seafood industry and has helped create higher position and paying jobs for American citizens.”
The signed legislation allows for the use of private wage surveys, a 10-month season and a staggered-crossing for seafood workers. It continues provisions from 2017 limiting the ability of the Administration to enforce the corresponding employment and three-quarter guarantee provisions of the 2015 regulations.
With use of private wage studies for guest workers, the average reported wage grew from $12.31/hour to $13.08/hour between FY 2016 and FY 2017. While many of the H-2B jobs may be menial in nature, the wages are significantly higher than the national minimum wage of $7.25/hour.
“Most people see visa workers as taking jobs away from local American workers. We don’t see it that way because these are jobs locals are not willing to fill,” said Trey Pearson of JBS Packing. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
“Most people see visa workers as taking jobs away from local American workers. We don’t see it that way because these are jobs locals are not willing to fill,” said Trey Pearson of JBS Packing in Port Arthur, TX, a Grade-A producer that packs Gulf shrimp for government contracts as well as grocery chains across the U.S. “Our wage study is one of the highest in the country. There is someone in Alabama that I have to compete against that has a prevailing wage of $9/hour, not to mention third world countries that are paying $2.50 a day for a 12-hour workday. My prevailing wage is between $10.94/hour to 14.07/hour, depending on what year it is. We are not crying about that. It has not adversely affected the American worker, every employee in my plant has gotten a raise because of these high increases.”
Gulf Seafood Depends on Seasonal Workers
Every year JBS Packing petitions for 50 H-2B workers. According to Pearson, “Some years we get the whole 50, some years we are knocked down to 43-45. The biggest problem with this program is that the companies that faithfully use this program, and have passed multiple audits, receive no preferential treatment for continuing to supply accurate documentation, and all supporting information. Our protocols and procedures are different than a construction job where someone is hitting a nail into a board. Seafood needs to be separated as truly seasonal so the visas can be issued when needed.”
The Gulf seafood industry depends upon seasonal workers because of the unavailability of local hires. In 2017 JBS Packing had only a single local hire stay through the entire shrimp-packing season.
The Gulf seafood industry depends upon seasonal workers because of the unavailability of local hires. Photo: Ed Lallo/LalloPhotography
“Local workers are either not available, or don’t want to do the job,” said Jenkins, who is still unsure if she will get 40 guest workers for the summer shrimp season. “We haven’t found a way to successfully get the next generation of workers interested in seafood processing. I have bent over backwards to hire local workers, but it doesn’t get people to work.”
“When we started using the program in the year 2000 there was not as many strings attached to the rules,” said the Mississippi Gulf processor surrounded by a hundred guest workers hastily shucking and processing oysters. “When I now start to fill out the application I don’t know the date I will actually need workers, or the date I will no longer need them, two things expected with the application. We are flying blind when filing the application, hoping to get everything right because of the serious repercussions if we don’t. It is just a hell-of-a-way to run a business.”
Like a lot of her fellow Gulf seafood operators, Jenkins is taking a hopeful approach to the effectiveness of the new legislation. “Without H-2B our business would not exist. We could have all the seafood in the world to process, but without this workforce American’s would not be enjoying Gulf seafood,” she said.
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