((PKG)) US CRAB WORKERS
((Banner: Guest Workers))
((Reporter: Aline Barros))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Hooper’s Island, Maryland))
((Banner: Since the 1980s, crab houses in Maryland have hired temporary workers from Mexico. In 2018, the guest worker visa grants were changed to a lottery system))
((Olivia Rubio, Visa Recipient))
We have the opportunity to come here to work and support our family, help our children move forward.
((Robin Hall, Co-Owner, GW Hall & Son Seafood))
Well, right now, I have 30 visas. 30 ladies will be coming in here to work. I don’t have them all here right now, but they’re on their way. They should be here actually tomorrow, the rest of them. I don't know what we would do, or the whole area would do, without them. They keep it all moving. All the people in this whole area have built their business on them, and their livelihoods, and you just get cut off. How do you run a business, and tomorrow they just throw a switch and say, “No, that’s it, you don’t get anybody.” It doesn’t work that way. This whole area, and all the people that make the baskets, and the boxes, and the plastic cups, all of them are going to be devastated by it too. That’s a lot of, a lot of income they’re going to lose.
((Banner: A nearby company, Russell Hall Seafood, received no worker visas in the new lottery. The facility is idle.))
((Harry Phillips, Owner, Russell Hall Seafood))
Well, we need 50 visas to bring our workers from Mexico. We’ve applied for American workers, and there’s no luck at all. They’re not going to pick the crabs like we need, the way things are now. The lottery system, through the visa program, is really what kicked us out of the program, and we’re just waiting for more visas to be offered, so, maybe we got another chance.
((Reporter))
How long do usually the workers stay here, and how long is their work day?
((Harry Phillips, Owner, Russell Hall Seafood))
They come in April, and leave end of November, to the middle of December. It’s like an eight-month job, and that’s another reason why we can’t hire American workers, because it’s not a full time job. It’s only eight months out of the year.
OK, these are the crab crates that we would normally be putting the crabs in to steam, then they would be put on the table for the ladies to pick the crabs. And as you can see, we’re all ready. We have baskets here, empty baskets, but we have no workers. Got everything but the workers.
((Banner: Harry Phillips receives a call from Mexico about worker visa grants))
((Harry Phillips, Owner, Russell Hall Seafood))
Edgar, we’ll call you and let you know, but they’re going to release 15-thousand visas next week.
You know, they want to be here real bad, you know. A lot of them don’t even work in the winter time, they don’t, they don’t have jobs, and the money they make, they make here in the summer time. And most of it goes back to Mexico, other than what they spend for stuff here, you know.
