Landscape Management, April 2017

strong U S economy a limited legal U S labor pool and an insufficient guest worker visa program so any new idea is worth considering At the end of the day what are our options says Ivan Giraldo president of CleanScapes Shrinking our business closing down operations or keeping it very limited Reducing the opportunities for the people who do want to work I dont think thats what we want so I dont have any other options than to keep trying and doing what I can to make a difference That said recruiting from Puerto Rico hasnt proven to be a panacea for CleanScapes or the other companies that have tried it Like any new venture there are pros and cons to this concept and landscape contractors say they have seen varying levels of success Though its early in the process Merkler is optimistic A third of his 60 recruits arrived on March 20 just before press time and the rest will follow soon after It seems like were on to something he says Were anxious to get the season started and get rolling in this process Why Puerto Rico There are a few big challenges when it comes to hiring in the landscape industry according to Ralph Egües executive director for the National Hispanic Landscape Alliance He says the hurdles include seasonality the demanding nature of the physical outdoor work and industry image people dont realize the opportunity and upward mobility offered at many companies These are issues the industry has faced for years and he acknowledges overcoming them is something all of us in the industry have a lot of work to do on On top of these obstacles the U S unemployment rate dropped to 47 percent in February some say hiring illegal immigrants has become more difficult especially in states that require E Verify thus shrinking the labor pool and the H 2B guest worker visa program is bursting at the seams The latter point is the linchpin All but one of the companies LM identified that are recruiting from the island are or were users of the H 2B program and have faced challenges with it Whenever I hear a company talk about H 2B they call it a headache or a nightmare says Martin the recruiter adding all of his landscape company clients have used H 2B Weve been using the H 2B program for at least 10 years says Merkler whose company employs 400 people at its peak and operates in New Jersey Pennsylvania Maryland and Virginia It seems like there are so many obstacles every year this one being the biggest We cannot afford to pay that new prevailing wage In addition to being priced out of the program H 2B users lament the inability to bring in enough workers and the uncertainty of not receiving any workers due to the 66000 worker cap imposed by the government In some years Congress has allowed for a returning worker exemption which omits returning workers from the head count effectively raising the cap but thats not yet the case this year With everything with H 2B up in the air we have to look other places says Joseph Barnes a spokesman for Yellowstone Landscape which hired Puerto Rican workers as a trial in several markets this year Its too early to tell what the results will be he says but the company determined it was worth a shot If we could find qualified legal domestic workers we would be hiring them Russell Landscape which has not used the H 2B visa program hired about 75 workers from Puerto Rico out of desperation a few years ago following the passage of Georgias immigration enforcement bill HB 87 The law resulted in an extreme shortage of entry level workers across the state due to an E Verify mandate and other measures We were looking for all options to meet our labor force needs says Russell of what prompted his company to attempt to recruit from the island How it works Although there are some requirements when it comes to hiring workers from Puerto Rico see sidebar Rules and regs for the most part contractors say its similar to hiring an employee from another state in terms of logistics and risks Puerto Ricans are not H 2B workers Martin says They do have the opportunity to work anywhere they want to Coming here is a good opportunity for them but its also a April 2017 LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET 49 Ralph Egües Puerto Rico at a glance puerto ricans are American citizens and have been since 1917 although they cannot vote for president and have no representation in Congress Fewer than half of Americans know puerto ricans are U S citizens island residents participate in Social Security but they are exempt from paying federal income taxes The islands official languages are Spanish and English The 3515 square mile island with approximately 34 million people is similar to Connecticut in terms of area and population puerto rican median household income is 19350 compared with 53889 in the U S About 46 percent of puerto rican people live in poverty compared with 135 percent in the U S Unemployment is 12 percent compared with 47 percent in the U S SoUrCES U S CEnSUS ThE EConomiST YoUGov poll UniTEd STATES CoUnCil For pUErTo riCo STATEhood