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6 April 2017 Landscape and Irrigation www.landscapeirrigation.com These days, it seems that you just don't know what to believe. The proliferation of media sources has made it easier than ever to spread misinformation, falsehoods, and alternative facts on pretty much any topic. Take H-2B, for example. Anti-immigration activists have characterized the seasonal guest worker program as a great injustice to American workers. They claim that the true purpose of the program is to allow business owners access to cheap labor, and that the use of H-2B workers has a profoundly negative impact on American wages and jobs. Their narrative contends that scores of American laborers remain jobless, while foreign migrant workers snatch up work that would otherwise go to American citizens. Unfortunately, the activist disinformation campaign on H-2B has been highly successful. Couple that with the volatile 2016 election that clearly demonstrated many of the electorate have concerns over immigration, and it makes for a skittish Congress that is hesitant to act when it comes to anything even tangentially related to H-2B reform. This is the political environment that landscape professionals and other seasonal workforce employers currently face when advocating for H-2B reform and relief. Something as common sense as allowing for returning workers to be exempted from the annual 66,000 visa cap is now viewed as political controversy. So what can we do to change this perception? Well, a good starting point is for every landscape professional to contact their D.C. Congressional delegation in support of critically needed reforms to H-2B, such as reinstating the returning worker exemption for 2017. You can rest assured that many of them are already hearing from their constituents who falsely believe that H-2B is a way for employers to "hold down wages and benefits" for American workers. We need to strongly counter this false narrative with the truth: Seasonal industries such as landscaping, hotels/resorts, tree planting companies, and seafood processing rely on the H-2B program to supplement Fake News, Alternative Facts, and H-2B ■ BY PAUL MENDELSOHN their seasonal workforces when they experience a shortage of legal seasonal workers. To help drive home that message, here are some suggested talking points for you to use in your contacts with your Congressperson: ■ Many businesses must hire significantly larger workforces during the season in which their services are offered. For landscape professionals, that is typically between April 1 and Labor Day. Why can't these companies just hire U.S. workers? Quite simply, because a clear majority of U.S. workers don't want to accept seasonal jobs — they view hard, hot, manual labor as undesirable. ■ The hiring of H-2B workers does not take jobs that would have gone to American workers, and the H-2B program does not present businesses with a cheap alternative to local labor. In fact, the underlying principle of the H-2B program is that U.S. employers must locally advertise the available positions, including with local job placement offices, preferentially offer the jobs to U.S. workers, and hire every qualified local applicant before they are even allowed to apply to hire H-2B temporary workers. Only after the Department of Labor is able to ascertain that there are not enough qualified local workers available for hire are businesses allowed to apply for H-2B workforce support. Believe me, when employers find local workers, they hire them. ■ Before the government allows a U.S. employer to employ H-2B workers, the Department of Labor conducts a wage survey to determine what the prevailing wage is for work in the area. The prevailing wage is the "average" wage paid to a local worker for the same type of job and is currently well above minimum wage. The Department of Labor reports that, nationally, the average wage for entry-level seasonal landscape work is around $12.50 per hour plus overtime. For companies to qualify for the H-2B program, this same wage must be offered to local workers, not just the foreign H-2B workers. ■ Far from taking U.S. jobs, having the opportunity to fill local workforce shortages by using temporary seasonal H-2B workers frees H-2B employers to promote their U.S. workers into better- paying, year-round jobs. Studies have shown repeatedly that every H-2B foreign worker supports almost 5 "upstream" jobs filled by U.S. workers. Further, if employers wanted to hire cheap labor they could simply ignore the H-2B program completely and hire illegal undocumented workers, which as you know are plentiful. The H-2B program makes, not takes, U.S. jobs. ■ By choosing to source seasonal workers through the H-2B ILLUSTRATION ABOVE ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/SMARTBOY10 STAYING CURRENT Believe me, when employers find local workers, they hire them.