Businesses Face Cut in Immigrant Work Force

NYT ^ | KATIE ZEZIMA

[indcons]

For years, William Zammer Jr. has relied on 100 seasonal foreign employees to turn down beds, boil lobsters and serve cocktails at the restaurants, golf course and inn he owns on Cape Cod and in nearby Plymouth.

This summer, however, the foreign workers will not be returning, and Mr. Zammer, like other seasonal employers across the nation, is scrambling to find replacements.

“It’s a major crisis,” he said. “We’re very short on work force. We’ll be looking at opening a little later, closing a little earlier, looking at how we do our menus.”

Mr. Zammer is caught up in a Congressional standoff over immigration overhaul that is punishing employers who play by the rules and that, advocates of change say, could cost small companies billions in lost business.

In an effort to win support for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and its allies have blocked voting on legislation that would allow employers to rehire foreign seasonal nonagricultural workers independent of a 1991 quota.

As a result, the government is limited to issuing the 66,000 seasonal work visas set when the visa program, known as H-2B, became law — 33,000 for winter workers and 33,000 for summer workers. Last year, more than 120,000 foreign workers entered the country on H-2B visas.

For Cape Cod, the impact has been devastating. Employers will receive only 15 of the 5,000 visas they had requested, according to the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s just ruthless for the Hispanic caucus to do this, use it as a bargaining chip,” said Mr. Zammer

[indcons]

An unbiased headline would read: "Businesses Face Cut in Illegal Alien Work Force"

Then again, this is the NY Times. Enough said.

[indcons]

It looks like the Congressial Hispanic Caucus (and its allies) is blocking the hiring of legal seasonal workers in favor of its most ardent supporters - illegals and criminals.

[beekay]

Maybe now college and high school students will be able to find jobs.

[Sybeck1]

What happened to high school and college kids? Too busy playing X-Box, or they want to much money?

[applpie]

Wah Wah. maybe now american kids can once again get summer jobs. around here they have been impossible to get.

[A_Former_Democrat]

William, why won’t you go into the inner city and offer jobs to already-Americans where unemployment is chronically the highest?

Hmmmm.

[cinives]

Many businesses won’t hire workers under age 18 anymore - child labor laws and liability too painful.

[4yearlurker]

That's about right. It's the video game generation. I fellow I know was lamenting to me the other day that his daughter ran up two credit cards and the card companies are always ringing his phone because his daughter lives at home. She is 23,no job,no car,lives with daddy,no aspirations. I told him to give her the ultimatum and make her get a job to pay the credit cards off. He looked at me like I was speaking Egyptian or something. This story ties in with this thread.

Meanwhile my 22 year old daughter is gainfully employed,with a new SUV,(that she pays for herself) and pays her student loans on time. She is making almost a grand a week and I'm very proud of her!!

[gjones77]

Maybe they should just send the visas back and hire American high schoolers looking for work.

I work in Plymouth, MA and my Fiance’s live on the Cape, and I can tell you first hand that the constant influx of illegal immigrants, and the legal, has depressed wages to the point that the only people who will do the work there are immigrants.

It also brings a rise in the crime rate with it, and jobs for high schoolers are scarce there on the Cape because they would rather hire the seasonal employees than the locals because the locals are more prone to expect their employers to follow employment laws, immigrants don’t.

[Califreak]

[RoadKingSE]

the foreign workers will not be returning, and Mr. Zammer, like other seasonal employers across the nation, is scrambling to find replacements.

"How much further is it? Can I drive the boat? Why do I have to carry your bags Daddums?"

Er, uh shut up Patrick and don't you dare drop the Single Malt. Your dumb ahss would still be in rehab if your father wasn't a Senator. You know Zammers Mexicans have run off.

[Vigilanteman]

Not so many moons ago, my family stayed at a famous ski resort in Utah. Even the Hispanic looking employees spoke English at a native or near native level.

I asked one of the kids if they had trouble hiring a workforce which seemed so polite and efficient. He told me they didn't. I asked if they paid well. He told me they started at only a quarter an hour over minimum wage. He smiled and said "I'll bet your next question will be how they get us to drive out this far to work. The answer is seasonal ski passes which we can use when we're off duty."

[Ben Ficklin]

"It looks like the Congressional Hispanic Caucus(and its allies) is blocking the hiring of seasonal workers..."

What about Bilbray(FAIR lobbyist), Tancredo, and the rest of the GOP Immigration Caucus? How are they voting?

[Clemenza]

When I was in HS, those of us who had jobs worked at video stores, movie theatres, and retail shops. Most of my classmates despised fast food as "Haitian work."

Maybe in podunk-ville USA you will find teenagers who want to pick fruit, but I doubt it. Otherwise, you will either get the "workfare" people or LEGAL immigrants under contract.

Anyone who whines and b-tches about young people "not finding jobs" ignores reality. I spent my high school years in an area filled to the rafters with immigrants, legal and illegal, yet had no problem finding work, neither do my high school age cousins.

When faced with a choice of having a comfy job working the register versus working a fryer or picking grapes, your average middle to upper class teenager will always opt for the former.

[mysterio]

I guess businesses that can’t fill jobs will have to raise the wage they are offering.

[Sybeck1]

There is always convicts.

[kcvl]

Dear Mr. Zammer & The New York Times,

Does Mr. Zammer pay the ILLEGALS’ health insurance or do the people of the state pay for hospital visits? How many hospitals have to close before someone gets a clue? No, it’s not just about getting cheap labor for Mr. Zammer’s restaurant it’s about much, much more.

Signed,
Sick Of It!

“William Zammer Jr. of Mashpee, who is vice chairman of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and also vice-chairman of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association”

” Mr. Zammer, who operates the Coonamessett Inn and the Flying Bridge Restaurant in Falmouth, Tugboats Restaurant in Hyannis, and Pine Hills Country Club in Plymouth”

” Mr. Zammer said the overseas workers are upset about the situation.

“Those people are in tears down there,” he said of the Jamaican workers.”

[Clemenza]

Agreed. All the farmers in upstate New York need are all those nice young men sitting on their benches and seat-less toilets in Attica. I wholeheartedly support the idea, but the civil rights groups (and now-governor David Patterson) would have a fit.

Here in NJ, we do have a farm on the grounds of Rahway prison. Don't know if they would go for using the Cons down in the Pine Barrens to pick blueberries or in Vineland to pick tomatoes, although it would be preferable to the scores of illegals that have made places like Bridgeton and Vineland an anarchic mess.

[HenpeckedCon]

This article is horse sh_t! You can’t walk 5 feet down the Cape without tripping over an illegal alien from Brazil.