A Heavy Lift for a Stone Company

 

With Washington lawmakers distracted by the immigration reform debate last year, a critical program to allow returning seasonal workers to reenter the United States quietly expired. Now, small businesses nationwide are faced with crippling seasonal worker shortages, particularly in the tourism, construction, and landscaping industries.

 

"The H-2B visa program is not an immigration issue. It is an economic issue that if not fixed will cause many small businesses to fail," says Mike Loukonen, whose family business, Loukonen Brothers Stone, has quarried Colorado red and buff sandstone by hand with hammers, bars, and wedges for 118 years.

 

Loukonen usually doubles his staff of 25 employees between April and November under the H-2B visa returning worker program, which exempts temporary seasonal workers who have participated in the H-2B visa program during the previous three fiscal years from counting toward the 66,000 visa cap.

 

However, the exemption expired last September, and the 66,000 cap was quickly reached. Without enough workers, Loukonen says that he has to consider buying stone from neighboring companies, which would increase his costs and reduce his profits.

 

Loukonen would hire American workers if he could. He runs ads in local newspapers every year. But, in the past 10 years, only three Americans have applied for the quarry jobs, which pay $12.51 an hour. Of those, only one showed up for work, and he left after half a day. "These seasonal workers do the jobs that no one else wants," says Loukonen. "The H-2B visa program is truly a win-win for foreign workers and small business owners."

 

The U.S. Chamber is urging Congress to extend the H-2B returning worker program. Learn more.