MDI seasonal businesses face shortage of foreign workers
Hotels and restaurants on Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park, are posting help-wanted ads for the upcoming high season.
The Mount Desert Islander reports that the worker shortage is heightened by the uncertainty around whether the foreign workers they usually hire will be able to enter the United States.
“We’re optimistic that the annual crisis is resolved by Congress once again and we can properly staff and function,” Harborside Hotel manager Eben Salvatore told the Mount Desert Islander. “But at the same time, we’re researching other options.” http://www.mdislander.com/maine-news/visa-cap-hinders-local-labor-supply
The Islander reported that workers through the federal government’s H-2B program, for temporary non-agricultural workers, usually begin to arrive at the Harborside and its sister Ocean Properties hotels in late April. Most are from Jamaica.
“Everyone’s hanging by a thread right now,” Portland immigration attorney Marcus Jaynes told the Islander. “I’ve had several clients just bail on the program because of the uncertainty. But a lot of them don’t have other options; they are going to be really stuck.”
On March 31, U.S. Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., introduced the “Save our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2017,” co-sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
According to King’s press release, the bill aims to “increase certainty for businesses, allowing seasonal employers to better prepare for fluctuations in demand. The legislation includes a ‘returning worker exemption’ provision, which allows people who have previously worked in the U.S. through the H-2B visa program to not count against the visa cap. There was no returning worker exemption in FY2017, which has caused hardship for seasonal small businesses that were not able to fill their workforce demands.”
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