WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Guest Worker Changes Underway

Guest Worker Changes Underway

Shoreham, Vermont - October 11, 2009

Apple picking season is winding down at Champlain Orchards in Shoreham. A group of half a dozen Jamaicans pick Empire Apples, a seasonal job that many have been coming back to for decades. "It's just a break from Jamaica. To go and come back year after year," said Clement Reid, a picker from St. Elizabeth, Jamaica.

These workers come to Vermont for four months, earning a set rate of upwards of $9 an hour. After they finish here, some will move on to processing turkeys at nearby slaughterhouses.

Apple growers and state labor officials say they have seen a small increase this fall in the number of Vermonters interested in these jobs. But with unemployment rates at record highs and expected to increase in the coming months, the bulk of the jobs, around 200 in Addison County alone, continue to go to guest workers.

Whitney Blodgett runs Sentinel Pine Orchards just down the road. The second generation apple grower says the Jamaicans fill a need that can not be filled with local labor."It's extremely hard physical labor. And the biggest thing is it's seasonal. It's only six weeks of work and then we don't need them anymore. So if they want a full time job that's not the answer," he said.

The U.S. Labor Department has proposed new rules for agricultural guest workers, also known as the H-2a program. Part of the plan is to provide incentives for U.S. workers to take these kind of agricultural jobs. "I think the objective here is to try and be sure that Americans take the jobs that are here in America," said Vt. Labor Commissioner, Patricia Moulten Powden. "There have been some revisions already in H-2b and other foreign labor visas that have resulted in fewer visas being granted."

Under current rules, apple growers are required to show that they made a good faith effort to hire locally. But growers say they're concerned about any new regulations that would make it more difficult to bring in the guest workers. "There's quite a few hoops to go through as it is too. We have to pay their transportation, their housing while they're here, that's an added expense. We want to keep this business going and we need the labor," said Blodgett.

The U.S. Labor Department is taking comments on the new guest worker rules till next month. Until any changes are made these Jamaicans will continue to fill a vital need to these apple growers.

Alexei Rubenstein - WCAX News