Hurricanes may cause workers to flee and not return

Despite the latest hurricane (Gustav) on the gulf coast causing less damage than was initially feared there does appear to be a major impact on the workforce to the area.

Contractors for shipyards, petrochemical industry and others in the area have often stated that when they restart work after a major hurricane, that as many as 50% of the workers who fled to Texas and other regions may not return.

Its not just damage from the hurricanes that causes the need for major recritment drives afterwards, its the simple fact that workers when they do move away even for a short time may find alternative employment and simply not return.

The US gulf coast has been harder hit than most in recent times, and yet despite this we have seen the majority of cases not approved by the department of labor for H-2B workers. Contractors to these industries need some legislative help to recruit highly skilled workers into the region, if it isn’t given through an immigration program then perhaps it can be done through some sort of benefits from the government that would allow the region to afford higher salaries that may encourage applications from highly skilled workers nationwide.

Failing this, then the next best option would be to encourage training programmes where they could take foreign workers who have basic skills that would benefit their own country after learning new skills in America. Such a programme would allow them to work with American employers for 12 - 18 months which would benefit both the host country an the workers when they return to their home countries.

Osrec would like to hear from any immigration specialists in USA who may have the experience of having brought people in for these types of skills (welders, fitters etc) successfully through J1 or H3 visa programmes.