Tag Archives: H-2B temporary work visas
Maryland Crab Industry Says Labor Shortage Looms Again – Call for change to H2B Visa Program
Ask Jack Brooks, president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, how the Maryland crab-picking season ahead looks right now, and he simply said, “Ugly.” The problem has nothing to do with the supply of crabs expected to be caught and processed in the crab houses of the Chesapeake Bay. The problem is labor. Every year, a total of 66,000 H-2B temporary work visas are up for grabs in a nationwide lottery. >click to read<
Hooper’s Island crab houses call for change to H2B Visa Program after 1 house out of 10 recieves workers – Phillips believes it’s not just the 
crab houses that will close if this continues, the entire seafood infrastructure including watermen and wholesalers on Hooper’s island could be wiped out. “They could survive if there were one or two houses that miss out on visas but with nine out of ten [businesses] they are going to go out of business too,” he said. Video, >click to read< 12:37
Seafood company to pay back wages to migrant workers
An Alabama-based seafood company has agreed to pay a group of migrant workers back wages in a class action lawsuit. A federal judge Wednesday ordered R&A Oysters to pay 18 migrant workers more than $30,000 in back wages and attorney fees. The laborers were brought from Mexico on H-2B temporary work visas to shuck oysters at the company’s facility in Mobile County. The H-2B visas allow employers to temporarily hire foreign nonagricultural workers. Attorneys for the Louisiana-based company and lawyers representing the workers agreed to a consent judgment to settle claims that laborers were paid less than the federal minimum wage during their first week of work. Read the rest here 15:42
