To our partners in the Michigan Festivals and Events Industry:

You are surely aware that we continue to be in a crisis regarding the lack of available U.S. workers for our carnivals. We all know there are jobs begging to be filled throughout the State, and our industry is no exception to this problem. In fact, the problem is exacerbated due to the difficult nature of the work, seasonal operation, and traveling away from family for months at a time. This is an issue for other segments of industry in our State as well, including the Landscape Industry and Hospitality Industry.

Nearly every carnival operating at your events throughout the State of Michigan depends upon a Federal guest worker program (H2B Visa) to staff its operations with trained, reliable, sober, and attentive employees who return year after year. These employees work side-by-side with U.S. workers who are willing to take the jobs, a group of individuals that has steadily decreased year after year.

Each year there continue to be massive increases in the number of requests for H2B visas for seasonal employers. The number of visas that will be issued is capped; and as a result, industry sectors requesting these worker visas are put into a lottery, with a few winners randomly selected each year. As a result, our industry is in a crisis seeking workers to operate our equipment at your events.

SOLUTION

Recent news reports express optimism that a deal could quickly come together in the Senate during the current lame-duck session on a bill that contains protections for DACA recipients. If this deal includes workforce visas, we need it to include an H-2B returning worker exemption. Exempting returning workers from the cap would allow companies with a good reputation following the requirements of the program to re-hire returning guest workers who have been servicing your events for the last several years.

ACTION

We need you and your management team to reach out to your U.S. Representative and Senators, as a constituent, to ask them to talk to the party leadership to let them know that H-2B must be included in a potential immigration package or year-end spending bill.

Please click on the document attached for your district. The table within each document provides guidance for our request to reach out to your U.S. Representative and Senators using the staffer contact information and sample language identified within. If you have a close connection to these individuals and prefer to call, that would be outstanding if you have any questions or concerns about this request, please feel free to call Sonja Skerbeck at (906) 280-5186 or email; sonja@skerbeck.com. Please let us know any feedback by emailing Gray Delany with the Seasonal Employer Alliance gdelany@sealabor.com.

Congressional District Representatives

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