GCSAA Has Co-Signed a Letter
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H-2B WORKFORCE COALITION Protecting American Workers Through a Stable and Reliable Seasonal Workforce www.h2bworkforcecoalition.com Brian Crawford, Co-Chair December 14, 2020 American Hotel & Lodging Association Laurie Flanagan, Co-Chair President-elect Joseph Biden AmericanHort National Association of Landscape Vice President-elect Kamala Harris Professionals 1401 Constitution Ave., NW Gregg Hartley, Co-Chair Outdoor Amusement Business Washington, DC 20230 Association Steering Committee: Dear President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris: American Hotel and Lodging Association American Horse Council The H-2B Workforce Coalition offers its congratulations on the election and looks AmericanHort forward to working with your Administration on issues critical to the economic American Seafood Jobs Alliance viability of small and seasonal businesses. The H-2B Workforce Coalition is Federation of Employers and Workers of America comprised of thousands of employers and their representatives from industries such Forest Resources Association as lodging, landscaping, seafood, restaurant, tourism, equine, forestry, amusement Golf Course Superintendents Association parks, golf courses and others. Our members are businesses that rely on the H-2B of America visa program to supplement their U.S. workforce during seasonal surge and peak Mackinac Island Convention & Visitors Bureau business needs. We were pleased to see in The Biden Plan for Securing Our Values National Association of Landscape as a Nation of Immigrants, your acknowledgement of the importance of temporary Professionals foreign worker programs such as H-2B to the US economy and the need to reform Outdoor Amusement Business Association the current inflexible and cumbersome admission. Seasonal Employment Alliance U.S. Chamber of Commerce Our members of all sizes and in varied industries go through exhaustive measures to find American workers to fill their seasonal workforce, including posting the position with their State Workforce Agency (SWA), coordinating with the SWA to locate every available local applicant, and posting the job opportunity on a national job registry. Only after these recruitment measures fail to identify enough willing and qualified US workers is an employer certified by the US government and authorized to use temporary foreign workers to meet their temporary or seasonal labor needs. In some scenarios, continued efforts to hire American workers even include offering retention bonuses, paying staffing agencies to recruit domestic workers from other areas of the country, and partnering with local correctional facilities to hire workers through work release programs. The process for such certification and admission of foreign workers is highly regulated with federally mandated wage levels and required benefits, including transportation, to ensure that all available US workers are hired. The H-2B Workforce Coalition members support and comply with the program’s goal of ensuring that U.S. workers similarly employed are not adversely affected. However, the nature of the work, its seasonality and the location of businesses, particularly in geographic locations with small residential populations, simply does not and cannot attract sufficient local workers to staff the seasonal surge. The H-2B supplemental labor program is therefore essential to the economic viability of these businesses and to the continued employment of their permanent, full time US employees. It has been established that a single H-2B temporary worker supports three to four permanent US worker jobs. The economic viability of these businesses will be critical to the economic recovery and expansion we all anticipate post-pandemic. Prior to the pandemic their viability was severely impacted by the cap on worker admissions. This cap of 66,000 annually was first enacted in 1992 and has not been revised or updated since. In the strong pre-pandemic economy, the need for supplemental workers was evidenced by US government certification of workers needed in numbers well over triple the number of visas provided under the cap. Even during the height of the pandemic- related job layoffs, seasonal businesses in several sectors were unable to find available US workers. As your measures to ensure the return of a strong and expanded economy succeed, the outdated cap will once again stifle the economic viability of these businesses. The Coalition has long advocated for and supported passage of legislation to reform the H-2B program to address the outdated cap and other overly bureaucratic requirements of the program that the Biden Plan identifies. In the absence of such immigration reform legislation and in recognition of the overwhelming and federally certified need for temporary foreign workers, Congress, in annual appropriations bills, has provided the Administration with authority to increase the number of workers admitted based upon a showing of adverse economic impact to businesses as a result of lack of workers. This has provided critical relief to our members and, should that authority be included in legislation for FY 2021, the Coalition urges the Biden Administration to work with our members in ensuring that labor needs are met and no further economic hardship results from lack of labor for our members while the country continues its post-pandemic recovery. The Coalition will continue to support legislative and regulatory reform of the H-2B program and looks forward to working with the Biden Administration to achieve that as soon as possible. Sincerely, National Organizations AgWorksH2, LLC American Farm Bureau Federation American Horse Council AmericanHort American Hotel & Lodging Association American Immigration Lawyers Association American Moving & Storage Association American Rental Association American Seafood Jobs Alliance American Sugar Cane League Associated Builders & Contractors, Inc. Associated General Contractors AZTEC Foreign Labor, Inc. Club Management Association of America Federation of Employers and Workers of America Forest Landowners Association Forest Resources Association Golf Course Superintendents Association of America H-2B Providers' Coalition Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute Irrigation Association JKJ Workforce Agency, Inc. LandOpt másLabor National Alliance of Forest Owners National Association of Home Builders National Association of Landscape Professionals National Association of Realtors National Association of State Departments of Agriculture National Council of Agricultural Employers National Club Association National Fisheries Institute National Golf Course Owners Association National Hispanic Landscape Alliance National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association National Independent Concessionaires Association, Inc. National Restaurant Association National Roofing Contractors Association National Ski Areas Association National Thoroughbred Racing Association National Wood Flooring Association Outdoor Amusement Business Association Outdoor Power Equipment Institute The Pool and Hot Tub Alliance Rayonier Resource Management Service, LLC Seasonal Business Alliance Seasonal Employment Alliance Snow & Ice Management Association, Inc. Society for Human Resource Management The Associated General Contractors of America Treated Wood Council Tree Care Industry Association U.S. Chamber of Commerce U.S. Travel Association Utility Sprayer Alliance Regional Organizations Carolinas Chapter – Club Management Association of America Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association Chesapeake Bay Seafood industries Association Golf Course Superintendents Association of New England Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association Gulf Seafood Institute (AL, FL, LA, MS, TX) Landscape Contractors Association (MD, DC, VA) New England Seasonal Business Coalition Pacific Seafood Processors Association Peaks & Prairies Golf Course Superintendents Association (WY, MT) Southern Nursery Association (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, MO, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV) The Heart of America Golf Course Superintendents Association (KS, MO) Mid-Atlantic Association of Golf Course Superintendents West Coast Seafood Processors Association (CA, OR, WA) Alabama A Cut Above Landscape Management, Alabama American Lawn Company, Alabama Alabama Forestry Association Alabama Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Alabama Nursery & Landscape Association Alabama Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance B&C Irrigation Systems, Alabama Brownsferry Mercantile LLC, Alabama Calloway Inc., Alabama Embassy Suites, Alabama Greenscape Contractors, LLC, Alabama Jubilee Landscape Management, Inc., Alabama Kissel Entertainment, LLC, Alabama Landscape Workshop, Alabama Linan Construction, Alabama Metal Roofing Solutions, Inc., Alabama PCH Hotels and Resorts, Inc., Alabama Resort Recreation Center Inc., Alabama RFA Mexican Restaurant, Inc., Alabama The Track, Alabama Turf Tamer Inc., Alabama Alaska Alaska Glacier Seafoods, Alaska Alpine Lodge Hotel Operations, Alaska International Seafoods of Alaska Inc., Alaska Arizona Arizona Lodging & Tourism Association Arizona Nursery Association B & J Concessions LLC, Arizona BrightView Landscape Development, Inc., Arizona Brown’s Amusements, Arizona Corporate & Employee Services, Arizona Concession management services, INC, Arizona Home Builders Association of Central Arizona It's Magic, Inc., Arizona JJ & Sons, Arizona Just For Fun Rides INC, Arizona Kastl Amusements, Arizona Lopez Concessions LLC, Arizona Midway West Amusements, Arizona Odyssey Foods LLC, Arizona