Posted on 07/02/2002 12:45:20 PM PDT by chance33_98
Foreign students find jobs in limbo By MIKE STARK Gazette Wyoming Bureau
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. - About 80 more young people arrived here Monday afternoon expecting a job with Xanterra Parks and Resorts.
They were destined for disappointment - at least temporarily.
The expectant workers are part of a wave of arrivals in the last week, mostly European college students, who have shown up to work at Xanterra's hotels, restaurants, stores or campgrounds.
The problem is, the workers are weeks late and the jobs have already been filled. Company officials vowed Monday afternoon that each of the arrivals will eventually be employed.
"We're doing everything we possibly can to try to make a positive out of something that's negative," said Judi Lages, vice president of sales and marketing at Xanterra's headquarters in Aurora, Colo. "I know it's very devastating for the students, but we just didn't know they were coming."
Each year, Xanterra travels to Europe to recruit food servers, laundry workers, room attendants and other seasonal employees for the upcoming summer. The company is a concessionaire in several national parks, including Yellowstone.
But in early June, when most of the signed-up students were expected to arrive in Yellowstone, many did not. The biggest snag, it appears, is that it took much longer than usual for the students to get visas approved or to otherwise make the international crossing.
When the students didn't show up and Xanterra didn't hear from them, company officials assumed they had vacancies to fill.
"We had to fill those positions. Otherwise, we'd have a lot of angry people in the park that couldn't get served," Lages said. "When the others arrived, we didn't have an opening for them."
In recent days, many of those students have arrived in Livingston, Mont., three or four weeks after they were supposed to start work.
"With some of the people that showed up Friday, their paperwork showed a June 1 arrival day," said Jim McCaleb, Xanterra's general manager in Yellowstone.
The workers have been shuttled to temporary housing at Mammoth and Old Faithful, where many will sleep on cots from the American Red Cross and wait for other arrangements and news about their jobs.
McCaleb said the unemployed workers will be given meals and access to recreation facilities. They won't be charged for food or lodging.
"We're not charging them a dime," McCaleb said, adding that the company is trying to make sure every worker is processed and ready when a job opens up. "The last thing we want to do is leave them stranded."
When Xanterra went to Livingston to bus 26 students into Yellowstone last week, there were nearly 60 waiting for them. Since there weren't enough room for all of them, some stayed in town and looked for work there.
McCaleb estimated there are 100 to 120 people in employment limbo. Some have apparently left, others have been relocated by Xanterra to work at Mount Rushmore or Crater Lake National Park.
The remaining workers will start working in Yellowstone as soon as work is available. He and Lages said there is high turnover in summer employment so the international students should be able to start work soon.
"We're expecting this to be a 10- to 14-day challenge for us and then things should be worked out," McCaleb said.
"They'll eventually have jobs, but it's just a matter of finding enough hours to make everyone happy," Lages said.
McCaleb said he'd heard that seasonal employers in other national parks, including Yosemite and Denali, also had delays this year in getting their summer workers from overseas. Part of the problem may be tighter travel restrictions stemming from Sept. 11.
"That's what I'm guessing but I don't know for sure," McCaleb said. "There seems to be a common denominator though."
Lages didn't think anyone is to blame, it's just a bad set of circumstances that has left the company with glut of potential employees on the sidelines and many international students stinging over the loss of money and work.
"I don't think anyone is at fault," she said, adding that this is the first time something like this has happened. "Right now, we're trying to do the right thing."
All this employer had to do was go to ANY college campus and they would have been swamped with applicants.
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