We need your help today to protect the H2B Visa program we use to help ensure it continues and helps us provide a legal and stable seasonal workforce for the work we do on your property.
IT WILL ONLY TAKE 2 MINUTES
For nearly a decade, we have utilized a
guest worker visa program called H2B
to fill our seasonal labor positions. Not only does it ensure that our seasonal labor force is legal, it provides us a very stable and motivated workforce. I
n this immigration debate environment, programs such as H2B are subject to criticism and are at risk of being lost.
Some say it takes away opportunity for American workers or suppresses wages but with our local unemployment rate at 4.5% and the required
H2B wage of $15.14/hr
, neither is true. As a part of the application process, employers must prove the inability to attract local workers at that prevailing wage. This year, those recruiting efforts produced 4 local candidates for the 60 visas we applied for. We currently have 55 H2B visa workers out of our staff of 250.
Congress must address federal spending bills for the remainder of fiscal year 2017 and the fate of H2B will be part of this legislation. Congress needs to hear a steady drumbeat from H-2B users and their customers. Your help is crucial in this endeavor. Below is a link to an email tool the National Association of Landscape Professionals has created to make emailing congress simple and easy. Please click below and take 2 minutes to ask
your senators and congressional representatives
to personally contact their leadership in support of including language to extend the returning worker exemption in any fiscal measure to fund the remainder of the 2017 budget.
Information in support of H2B Visas:
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