Last Thursday, landscaper Joe Shiber joined half a dozen other landscaping contractors at the office of International Personnel Resources Inc. in West Chester to grouse about the H-2B problem. In a nutshell, the landscapers have come to rely on a workforce of laborers on temporary seasonal visas, but those visas aren't available this year.
Landscapers are definitely worried about having enough bodies to mulch, mow and weed wack this summer. The reason they had turned to foreign laborers in the first place is because, they say, they can't get good help here for the $7 to $14 an hour they are willing to pay. (Some say they'd get the help if they paid more, but that's another argument.) You can read the Inquirer story about it here:
After the meeting, Joe, an official at J. Downend Landscaping Inc. in Crum Lynne, Delaware County, was standing around chit-chatting and he told this story: The day before the meeting, a man had walked into his office, which always has a help wanted sign, and said, "I need a job. I'm the best worker in Delaware County."
Fine, Joe said. You can start tomorrow. Show up at 7:30 am. I'll be there, the guy said, but first he bummed a cigarette and five bucks to buy a pack off Joe.
Let's let Joe pick up the story -- this is from an email.
"I also wanted to update you on the employee that I hired on Wed before our meeting. If you remember I told you about a man who walked into my office and asked for a job on Wed. night. Because I am short people to do Fall Clean-up operations I hired him and instructed him to come in on Thurs. morning. He did show up on Thurs but lasted three hours and then simply walked off of the job. This type of thing unfortunately happens all the time and is a prime example of why our companies have turned in part to foreign labor. That is not to say that we do not hire local labor, we do and try to as much as we can. We simply cannot find enough labor to do the work."
