[fight_truth_decay]

"It’s really unusual. Even when unemployment is high here, we’re forced to look someplace else for good workers. American kids? Why aren’t they looking for jobs? Don’t ask me — ask the government. My sense is that the government is doling out huge amounts of unemployment and the kids are getting money and everything else that they need from their parents," says club owner Feldberg who, last summer, took on a 22-year-old Polish native. Actually, this is this employee's third summer at the Club — "he loves it there and says that he can make as much as $4000 a month here.... whereas he might only seek out $1000 a month in Poland, where unemployment hovers in the 20 percent range. "

Make welfare regulations mandatory that said recipient must choose, perhaps with some placement guidance,an available job within a reasonable travel area. Then the welfare payment or some "get back to work" benefit (travel, childcare assistance etc) is coupled with the wages earned through a given time frame. This would cut the cost of one welfare payment to each recipient from the presumedly deep pockets of the American taxpayer. The prescribed place of employment of the recipient would pick up the remainder of the total monthly welfare check should it be needed.

But then some Maine business owners say, shitty attitudes" come into play; and finding obedient help from places like Bulgaria, Lithuania, Russia, and Poland is nearly as easy as turning on your computer."

[dirtboy]

"There are restaurants that I've spoken with that know this would be a business killer," said Allyson Cavaretta, director of marketing and sales at Meadowmere.

Yeah, you might just have to pay enough so that local Americans will take the jobs, instead of using foreign labor to expand the supply and hold down wages.

[lelio]

Not knowing anything about Maine, does anyone know how many high school kids there are in the state? Perhaps it is, relatively, full of older people and no teenagers are there to do the menial tasks.

Not that it is an excuse to bring in foreign workers as they'll work for cheap.

[CurlyDave]

I suspect that with a bit of recruiting the resorts could hire all the college students they want for summer jobs. My daughter worked for $8.00 per hour and no benefits last year. And she was limited to 20/hrs per week so they didn't have to give benefits.

Or, look for single unemployed people throughout the country. Many singles would jump at the opportunity to spend the summer at a resort. Travel to Maine for the summer and get $4000 per month.

I suspect that the real issue is that the foreign workers are more "compliant" and that the recruiting agencies take the easy way out & only look in one place where there are lots of workers instead of finding individual Americans.

[FITZ]

A lot of kids won't work because if their parents didn't save up money for their college, they figure the government will give it to them, they don't work their way through college because they don't have to.

[WOSG]

$4000 a month for a 22-year-old.

Geez, why arent the natives of Maine lining up for that?

[Fpimentel]

Why do they need to bother with recruiting from foreign countries for workers. In California, we have all the illegals they would ever need. All they would have to do is advertise the $21,000 for the season and they would have thousands of unemployed illegals applying daily.

[healey22]

For 21 weeks, guests pack the resort's 145 rooms, and the Meadowmere doubles the size of its staff. The resort needs at least 35 additional workers(obedient slave labor from Jamaica) to bring extra towels poolside, serve gin and tonics at the pub, or run the room service cart up and down the halls.

Oh, by the way, my son works at McDonald's when he is not in school. He works so much that I have to make an appointment just to talk to him. He works in a small town where nothing but American kids are doing these menial jobs that President Bush says Americans won't do.

[Penner]

"The recently enforced 66,000 federal cap on H-2B visa applications poses a serious, urgent problem for Maine employers," Snowe said. "This past Monday, I sat down with members of the Maine Restaurant Association who explained that unless a solution is implemented quickly, the hospitality industry may face a paralyzing seasonal labor shortage have to hire Americans.

"The urgency of this potential crisis for our state's tourism cannot be overstated," she said. "With the summer fast approaching, the hospitality industry needs help cheap foreign labor and they need it now."