Sunday, December 16, 2007

From Jim Royal


KM4, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.



As the Christmas recess in Washington get ever closer, we would be grateful if the blog readers would contact their legislators regarding the H2b Returning Workers Exemption. For the circus industry, It is vital that it get passed before the Senators and Representatives head for home.



Many thanks,

Jim





Jim Royal

General Manager

Kelly Miller Circus

580 326 8345

580 743 3782 (C)

www.kellymillercircus.com

Posted by Buckles at 12/16/2007 02:39:00 PM

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to William Delahunt, Congressman Mass (Cape Cod) the Hispanic Caucus withdrew opposition to the H2B rider on Wednesday, though as of Thurs they had not yet reported their position change to the Speaker. Joe Baca, Congressman California who was spearheading opposition has withdrawn his "nay." Since this a rider on an appropriations bill, there are other non-visa issues to be settled, and in fact Congress passed a one week emergency appropriations bill to fund the Gov through next Friday. Fingers crossed, but it seems likely that Congress will pass the bill with the H2B rider this week, giving Mr Bush a chance to sign it next weekend. With 120 day window associated with Visa apps made under H2B it will certainly be tight processing new Visa applications before the earliest shows go out prior to spring, but it shouldn't shut down anybody's season. The hospitality industry has been looking at J1 student visas to replace H2Bs, and the landscapers and golf course firms have been looking at bring in non-visa workers from Puerto Rico. Unfortunately those options aren't attractive for circuses and carnivals. (Though carnivals have always used a few J1 Visa workers.) Looks like it will be a matter of holding one's breath through the next few days to see if the legislation moves forward -- but at least specific opposition to H2B is no longer an issue. The more pressure on members of the House, the better. The Senate seems to be inclined to do their job once they receive the bill.

Ben

16 December, 2007 14:53
Anonymous said...

Funny how whenever there's a labor shortage, the first though is to import workers, when we have millions of able people here already living on government benefits. I live in an area with thousands of people from Puerto Rico, who seemingly do nothing all day but walk the streets. Yet, Conklin Shows at the
Big E had many ride operators from South Africa. Weird.

HM

16 December, 2007 19:05
Anonymous said...

How, in a country of 300 million people, is there a shortage of workers? Maybe what we have is a shortage of work ethic, not enough kids being raised to understand the value of an honest day's work.

Japan is about the size of California, so it's not a fair straight comparison- but still, though you often see four people doing the work one could easily accomplish, everyone has a job. There is virtually no unemployment here, no homeless people, everyone is educated. A little over fifty years ago, Japan was in ruins. Now it has a booming economy. It can be done.

America's the greatest country in the world. We value our independence. So I suggest we get off our butts, manufacture our own toys, do our own research, pick our own lettuce. We have the space, and the manpower. It can be done.

(Unfortunately, it's not such a great place for a lion trainer to earn a living anymore, which is why I'm elsewhere.)

I'll step down from my soapbox now.

17 December, 2007 16:42
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

A little over fifty years ago, Japan was in ruins. Now it has a booming economy. It can be done.

Ms. White,
Are you suggesting, if we let a country drop an atomic bomb on us, then out source all of their labor to our country, things would be better here?

17 December, 2007 18:44
Anonymous said...

Ms. White,

Get back on that soapbox; I'll call CNN. Your comment makes more sense than all the Presidential wanna-beeeees.

Also,did you notice that there are no FAT ASS people in Japan?

In the USA, we're all sitting on our REALITY FANNIES watching the TV after we drove home with SNACKS in our Japanese cars.

17 December, 2007 18:53
Anonymous said...

I'm sure more than a couple people here remember what it's like running round to shelters and Salvation Armies looking for guys and hoping they'll stick around and work for a couple weeks. It may be all well and good and absolutely correct that we have no shortage of people who should be happy to earn a wage whether in a lettuce field or on a canvas crew, but the fact is that it's been tough to find guys who will actually do that for a long time now. Sad but true, I can find twenty guys in front of Home Depot every morning who will work harder for $7.50 an hour than anybody I can find at the State Employment Office. It breaks my heart that I can't hire them. Credit where credit is due, Seasonal Visa workers for the most part do their jobs well, don't complain, and rarely blow the show. God Bless them for that.

17 December, 2007 19:49
Anonymous said...

Talk about work ethic, I just fired an employee that had tried for 2 years to get on any sort of disability that he could find syptoms on the internet. Refused to go out and get a real job and when his other part time employer offered him a full time job, with benefits, he turned it down because he thought the job might endanger his health. I suggested that he put in applications at as many places that would accept them, and he replied that he thought 2 applications at a time were sufficient.
He also, I have heard from other sources probably turned down 1 or 2jobs that he would have had to work their hours not his hours. I am now paying him unemployment until he gets another job.
Work ethic???
Bob Kitto

17 December, 2007 20:01
Anonymous said...

What?! Don't be ridiculous, Casey. I'm not suggesting ANYONE ever drop another bomb, anywhere, for any reason, ever on this planet. That was an ugly, horrific episode in the history of mankind. What on earth could you possibly mean by that comment.

What I'm saying is there are plenty of people in our own country to do all the work we need done, if we'd just get off our butts and do it. The benefits of an employed society are staggering, and I see it all around me daily. Every citizen here- as well as foreigners employed legally- are covered by health insurance too. It's a good idea. If they can do it, so can we. Canada covers their citizens, as does England. It can be done with a proper system in place. Are we such snobs we can't utilize good ideas from other countries? Anyway, I think we should do the work ourselves.

International trade should be a choice, not an obligation. If we took care of ourselves, rather than depending so greatly on imports, our economy would be booming too. Then we export the surplus. But everything is upside down.

I've heard the politicians say immigrants are doing the work Americans won't do. When did we get so spoiled we can't/won't work in the fields? Our forefathers did, laying the groundwork for this great nation of ours.

Just so you know Ben, I'm highly in favor of legal immigration. It's what America was built on. But I have a real problem with people who break the law, even if they'll work for $7.50 an hour. I came to Japan for the same reason the guys in front of Home Depot came to the U.S. The money is better. I'm in Japan legally, so it really irks me others can't do the same and follow the laws when they come to MY country.

Remember whe Oliver Douglas used to go on his patriotic rants on Green Acres, and the music played in the background?

17 December, 2007 23:45
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Pat, the I am sure that the blog is no place for mine or your political views. So I will respond just once more. What I mean by that comment is several things. You said 50 years ago they were in ruin, now they are not. You don't think it has anything to do with the fact that since then, America buys everything from them. Maybe it does not. They do have a much higher work ethic you are right. As do all other Nationalist Societies.

18 December, 2007 09:11
Anonymous said...

The politics of all of this makes my head spin. I realized a year or so ago that all politics makes my head spin and I didn't even know what Party I belonged to anymore. It's sad that many of those who are here illegally and willing to work, while those who were born here aren't. And it's all very tough when there are actual jobs to fill. That said, of course the guys in front of Home Depot are off limits. Can't help but think in all of this however of a certain famed elephant man who entered the US hidden in a boxcar from Canada. He earned the right to stay serving in the military. In today's political climate he would be just like the guys doing day labor, illegal and unable to change that status no matter what. The House passed a $516 Billion Dollar Appropriations Bill last night. Waiting to hear if the H-2B rider made it through as an attachment. If it did, focus today shifts to the Senate and to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada.

18 December, 2007 09:32
Anonymous said...

Bad news I'm afraid. And this will indeed have a serious impact on the Outdoor Amusement industry in early '08. Even if a "fix" is rushed through in January, many new guest workers would be unable to start work before late April or even May. Here's the official story as it stands now...

The provision for a one-year fix to the H-2B non-immigrant visa program was not included in the $517 billion omnibus spending bill that passed the House yesterday for the 2008 fiscal year.

Trade associations and H-2B employer groups said this legislation offered the best chance of passing the visa program’s one-year fix before the end of the calendar year. The Senate is expected to consider the bill today. Barring any major conflicts over Iraq war spending or a presidential veto, the appropriations bill with no H-2B fix is expected to pass, says Tom Delaney, PLANET's director of government affairs.

"While we would like to report otherwise, the reality is that H-2B relief may have to wait until next year," said PLANET CEO Tanya Tolpegin and Bob Dolibois, executive vice president of the American Nursery & Landscape Association, in a joint statement released yesterday.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) expressed her disappointment that the House would not accept the one-year extension that allows returning workers to be exempt from the H-2B program's national cap of 66,000 workers. This provision was included in the version of the Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill that passed in the Senate.

“This is not a new issue, not a new policy, not a new loophole and not a new cap,” Mikulski said in a statement. “We’re not breaking new ground here. We are simply trying to extend the guest-worker provision that has expired. Small and seasonal businesses and their workers are counting on us.”

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, made up of 24 Democratic members of the House of Representatives who are from Hispanic decent, objected to the H-2B fix and other so-called “immigration-related” measures, saying they want the issue dealt with only as a part of broader immigration legislation, according to an article on Congressional Quarterly’s Web site.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

18 December, 2007 11:55
Anonymous said...

Oh, I don't know Casey. Maybe the blog IS a place for this stuff, after all the Blogmeister will not post anything he doesn't want to!

You actually helped me make my point. Yes, one of the reasons Japan is so successful is because of the exports to the US and other nations. But it took a lot of work. I think America is in big financial trouble, on the brink of a different kind of ruin. We have borrowed billions of dollars from China and other countries. How will we pay them back? WHO will pay them back? Our great-great-great-great grandchildren?

I'm saying we have the resources to be the biggest producers of everything! Food, technology, cars, you name it- we have the space, the freedom and the manpower. But instead, we are the biggest importers worldwide. My question is WHY?

To me the answer is we've become spoiled. It's 'easier' - and more cost efficient- to hire cheap help, even if they aren't in the US legally. Corporate America and big business has convinced us we need imported cars instead of a Ford. We import beef, for pete's sake! Why? Like we don't have enough land to raise and process our own cattle? It just seems ridiculous.

And for anybody reading this who says, "yeah, well I don't see YOU out there picking lettuce, Pat!"
I will tell you if I was unemployed, and needed a job, and that's what was available, I damn well would. Frankly, I think cleaning motel rooms and factory work falls into about the same category, and I've done that too. I've just been lucky enough to have found work for decades in my own
"field"- which has lions rather than lettuce.

ok, that's all. See you at the next 'cover' discussion!

18 December, 2007 16:32
Anonymous said...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently assured western ski resort operators yesterday that the House will take up H-2B Visas immediately after they return in January. The ski resorts have done some hiring under J1 Visa rules and they're concerned that if they do too much hiring domestically it could impact later Labor Dept certification under H-2B. Even if Congress manages a January "fix" and workers returning under the now traditional exemption can be processed immediately it still means long lines waiting for understaffed ski lifts through most of the winter. Any further delay or further roadblocks in January and all Hell breaks loose for landscapers in the Southern States who are starting to spend a lot of money recruiting labor in Puerto Rico until the issue is resolved. I know that CFA emailed members again this week urging continued contact with local Reps and Senators. Congress is going home, but their district offices will be open and the more pressure the better. Not every H-2B worker who could return under the exemption does, and the longer the Outdoor Amusement industries have to wait to begin processing "new" workers the greater the damage to the '08 tented circus season.

19 December, 2007 10:55
Anonymous said...

Quick note. Congress has been back in session in Washington since the 15th. They've made some headlines looking at steroids in baseball, and certainly both Parties will be hustling to push through a stimulus package to deal with the looming recession -- but circus and carnival fans are encouraged to remember that we need H-2B Visa relief ASAP to deal with 2008 (and beyond) labor issues. I won't rehash it all now. For more information and the full story go to:

http://www.slowburning.com/save_our_midways/

23 January, 2008 12:06
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Thanks for the reminder Mr. Trumble. I had called both my Rep, and my Senator earlier, and was held off. Though I am no political analyst, I feel Senator Cornyn is likely to push on this. He is taking alot of flack at home here for not taking enough action on immigration.

23 January, 2008 18:57
Anonymous said...

Just an update. The US Senate will be voting on a stimulus package to head off recession -- probably on February 6th. There are two versions of the Bill, and likely the more conservation version which has already passed in the House will also be passed by the Senate. There's some hope that Senator Barbara Mikulski will be able to attach H-2B Visa relief to he Senate version. This may be the best chance to get some Visa relief before carnivals and circuses are well into mid-season.

31 January, 2008 17:29
Anonymous said...

Bad News on the on-going seasonal labor issue confronting the outdoor amusement business. After the failure earlier this month to attach H-2B Visa relief to a broad economic stimulus package the last best chance at resolving the issue collapsed this week when the Congressional Hispanic Caucus again made it clear that any change in seasonal worker numbers must be included in a broader immigration package.

For carnivals and circuses this is bad news and adds up to fewer seasonal workers, fewer experienced workers, and a likely higher turn-over in general labor through the season. A difficult scenario on top of continuing fuel price crisis and parts of the country in recession.

Four months ago I think that many of us thought that although the outdoor amusement business has relatively little clout, the landscapers, the golf course operators, and the hotels could ultimately muscle through a fix. Our job on the carnival and circus side was to keep the issue alive in the minds of our members of Congress. Visa relief enjoyed broad bipartisan support from Conservatives and Liberal alike, but one powerful caucus has seemingly closed the issue in terms of any kind of help this year. The best we can do is to conti nue the pressure hoping for a better a outcome for 2009 and a real increase in total visa numbers allowing circuses and carnivals to successfully compete with other seasonal employers for labor down the road.

17 February, 2008 11:25
Anonymous said...

I knew this was going to happen a few years ago; and knew it would be to difficult for me to take a tiger act over the road. I am in Germany now with Cirque Charles Knie, and hope to return to the United states; if the situation should change.
Love to all,
Susan Lacey

17 February, 2008 13:26

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