Some on Eastern Shore welcome provision, but say it does not solve long-term labor shortage
Eastern Shore crab processors welcomed the federal government’s planned release of new visas to hire foreign guest workers, but they called it a one-year remedy that fails to address recurring labor shortages.“We need a long-term fix to survive,” said Jack Brooks, one of the owners of J.M. Clayton Seafood Co. in Cambridge in Dorchester County and president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association.
It’s uncertain how many of the visas Maryland companies would get — there is often overwhelming demand — or when the workers would be available, according to Brooks and other company officials. In the early 2000s, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, a Democrat, intervened when Northern ski resorts and Florida landscapers were scooping up the visas before Maryland crab houses had a chance to apply. She championed a change that divided the annual 66,000-visa allowance into two semiannual allotments.But Eastern Shore processors have struggled to keep operating in recent years because the demand is so great that many have not been receiving their requested allotments.
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