Posted on 08/27/2018 4:24:23 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Brian Friend sat at his kitchen table nursing a Friday-night beer this spring when he realized he would need to cancel $80,000 in landscaping contracts because he couldn’t hire enough workers.
“It was a low point,” said the 42-year-old Mr. Friend, who runs Sylvan Gardens Landscape LLC in Pittsburgh.
Like landscapers across the country, Mr. Friend has faced a severe labor shortage this year, spurred by low levels of unemployment and high demand for visas under the foreign seasonal-worker program known as H-2B. Higher wages and added bonuses haven’t attracted more workers, some landscapers say.
Richard Cafaro, owner of family-run Lawn Maintenance Services Co. outside Pittsburgh, said he was forced to shut down the 48-year-old company because it didn’t receive any of the seasonal foreign-worker visas it requested. For 17 years, the company had relied on those for the majority of its field crew.
“I just had no path forward,” said Mr. Cafaro, 47. “It’s so frustrating.”
Customers weren’t happy. Theresa Dozzi used Mr. Cafaro as her landscaper for 20 years. Ms. Dozzi, 64, watched this spring as the grass grew so high it became “unsightly” around her 10,000 square-foot brick home set on 3 acres in Fox Chapel outside Pittsburgh.
“It was a nightmare,” she said.
The tight labor market and visa shortage are hurting all kinds of industries that rely on seasonal workers, from Maryland’s crab-picking industry to New England restaurants to Michigan fudge shops. But the $82 billion-a-year landscaping industry is the largest user of the visa program that allows employers to bring workers from abroad for temporary positions, accounting for 50% of all such visas certified by the government this year.
The visa program, which has a cap, was oversubscribed quickly this year, leaving landscapers across the country unusually short-handed.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Right! He could always resort to using Americans to do the work... Oh, but then he would have to pay them a living wage.... never mind.
The grass was “unsightly” she said.
“It was a nightmare,” she said.
First World problems.
Because we’re no longer exploiting Third World workers quite so much.
I mow my own.
Good for my blood sugar.
Needs to buy some equipment manufactured in the US and cut her own yard. Or move to an apartment.
Bush’s fault... wait Trumps fault!
This sounds like what was going on in Germany in the ‘80s, causing them to import cheap Muslim labor. That didn’t turn out so well.
Democrats refuse to pass the new agriculture bill because it has a requirement that able bodied people work or get off the food stamp program. The Bible says, “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” These lazy loafers ought to be pushing a lawn mower or they should not be getting taxpayer-funded food.
I was in Greenwhich and Darien,Connecticut a couple of weeks ago and saw absolutely no evidence of overgrown hedges or unmowed lawns.
“he realized he would need to cancel $80,000 in landscaping contracts because he couldn’t hire enough workers.”
I’m sorry, that just
doesn’t pass the smell test.
Reduce government disability and workers will magically appear.
No joke. Hire Americans and treat them like humans instead of slaves.
He could, he just wants to pay them cash and less than minimum wage, no withholding, etc. He doesn’t want to pay the paycheck company.
Pay what the market demands, idiot!
So this guy, Brian Friend, foregoes $80K of contracts because he didn’t want to up the wage a few dollars/hour so as to attract the needed labor?
Mow your own damned lawn.
Lots of folks on welfare ... I see opportunity here.
people on welfare make lousy workers, they are on welfare because they are lazy.
How about high school kids? never mind...
Hmmm...there is a Landscaping outfit in my area.
I see them all over the place doing jobs.
Not an illegal in the bunch.
We live in a solidly middle class neighborhood of around $180,000 +/- homes.
Very, very, very few owners do their own grass. A number of lawn care “companies” work the area. Most have somewhat scruffy looking workers.
The scruffy companies do good work and work cheap. They also offer a discount for cash. I wonder why - /s.
You mis the point
What Americans? There are no americans to do these jobs.
You assume a local labor pool that apparently does not exist.
“Ms. Dozzi, 64, watched this spring as the grass grew so high it became “unsightly” around her 10,000 square-foot brick home set on 3 acres”
WHAT!!??
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