Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO Wendy Northcross.
HYANNIS – A federal stopgap spending bill was signed into law last week and efforts are being made to quickly implement cap relief for H-2B visa seasonal workers.
A provision in the bill allows for the Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, to increase the H-2B worker cap from 66,000 workers up to just over 129,000.
The New England Seasonal Business Coalition is signing a letter being sent to Kelly from business coalitions nationwide urging the application process be re-opened immediately.
Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO Wendy Northcross says getting more workers to local seasonal businesses quickly is significant.
“Our seasonal economy really depends on enough people to serve our customers so that a business can make enough money to get through the winter,” Northcross said. “Sometimes it’s a make or break season for folks.”
The unemployment rates are historically low and businesses are having trouble finding workers only looking for seasonal work, according to Northcross.
“It’s going to be really critical to try to get our allocation again this year for H-2B workers,” Northcross said.
An effort is also underway to get a bipartisan letter from members of Congress to urge Kelly to expedite the increase. The New England Seasonal Business Coalition is working to try to members of the New England Congressional delegation to sign onto that letter.
Businesses are looking for the cap to be raised as quickly as possible because the process to secure H-2B workers can take up to two months.
“I think it depends on where an employer was in the process when the cap was reached and everything just froze,” Northcross said. “On the outside, the longest it would be is two months, which means folks might not get their temporary seasonal workers until July.”
Congressman William Keating (D-Bourne) said the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor have been asked to fast track an increase through a bipartisan effort.
Keating said the provision passed through the spending bill to secure more seasonal workers is a “new door.”
Since January, Keating and others worked to get a “returning worker” exemption passed through budget appropriations.
The exemption would allow workers in the hospitality, landscaping and construction industries who previously worked in the U.S. in Fiscal Years 2014, 2015 and 2016 to return without counting towards the federal cap.
The “returning worker” exemption was used in four of the last 11 years, including last year.
“What they are doing, as a process, will be more cumbersome and could result in delays, which in our region for this season by the time anything was approved might become a moot point to our local hospitality industry,” Keating said.
Keating said the new resolution sounds complicated, but isn’t.
“The unknown is the factor here,” he said. “It would have been much better, greater certainty and greater effect to do it the way we had suggested.”
Northcross said employers in the region are already feeling the effects from the uncertainty of the availability of seasonal workers, and are having a tough time trying to find individuals to fill needed openings.
“A couple of employers that I spoke to [last] week said they have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on radio ads,” Northcross said. “In some cases they need people with driver’s licenses and so half of the applicants that maybe the ads have generated people don’t even have driver’s licenses.”
Northcross said the issue would probably not cause businesses to close if they can’t get enough employees but their bottom line costs will be affected.
“They’ll be paying more overtime or they won’t be able to sell as much product or service as many customers,” she said. “And over time that will have an effect of pulling back for that business.”
The solution passed through the spending bill to raise the cap for H-2B workers would only be another bandage.
“This is just for this year only,” Northcross said. “It is just a one-year fix on an issue that really needs a complete overhaul on the process.”
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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