Landscape Architect Articles

Labor01-01-05 | News

Bush To Push For Immigraton Reform

President George Bush made a public commitment to immigration reform when he met with Mexican President Vicente Fox in November.

President Bush has vowed to support legislation that would bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S., a move that would be a boon to the country’s landscape industry. The president made the promise during November’s meeting with Mexican president Vicente Fox in Santiago, Chile.

The proposal would grant temporary work visas to foreign workers, including undocumented workers already working in the United States. The move would benefit the landscape industry but has been strenuously opposed by some politicians who argue it could undermine national security by making it easier for terrorists to enter the country.

Bush had proposed a temporary worker program last year, but progress stalled with election-year politics delaying the matter. The proposal still faces a tough fight in Washington, D.C.

“Immigration reform faces a difficult road through Congress,” Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake said in a statement. “But without presidential leadership it will be an impossible road. Our temporary worker proposal is a rational reform that recognizes the need to meet U.S. labor demands and enhance national security but does not provide illegal immigrants with an amnesty.”

Workers’ Comp Costs Soar in CA

A new study from the Massachusetts-based Workers Compensation Research Institute has just been released showing that in California the average cost of workers’ comp claims with more than seven days of lost time is 28 percent higher than the median rate in other states. The rate of growth was driven by a 17 percent growth in average medical costs per claim; a 12.5 percent growth in indemnity benefits per claim (wage replacement payments for lost time injuries) and an 18 percent growth in allocated costs to manage the claims known as benefit delivery expenses. These benefit delivery expenses per claim surged nearly 20 percent as a result of higher medical cost containment expenses per claim, rising expenses of medical-legal exams and higher defense attorney payments. The medical costs per claim were 20 to 52 percent higher as a result of higher use of services not higher prices, and the temporary disability durations were three to eight weeks longer. Other states in the study are Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.

New Guest Worker Plan

Rep. David Dreier (R-Glendora) of California has proposed a new guest worker plan.

Rep. David Dreier of California (R-Glendora) has proposed a new guest worker plan that would force employers to verify employees’ citizenship or face a $50,000 fine. The legislation would also have foreign workers register for photo ID Social Security cards and hire close to 10,000 new Homeland Security investigators to oversee the program.

Several other guest-worker plans were proposed by Washington lawmakers in January. In late 2004 President Bush said he favored a three-year visa plan that would be open to foreign residents and to workers already in the U.S. illegally.

Others criticized the mandatory ID plan. “Some Republicans have abandoned their libertarian principles because of their zeal to attack immigrants,” said Tim Edgar of the ACLU.

Congress Fails to Act on H-2B Relief

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Senate and House has failed to include a bipartisan amendment in the omnibus spending bill to increase the H-2B temporary guest worker program cap. The H-2B program annually grants 66,000 work visas for employers demonstrating a seasonal need for foreign workers. Lawmakers did vote to provide the high tech industry with a 20,000 workers cap increase, but not for the laboring sector.

Anti-immigrant sentiments and the perception that H-2B guest workers take jobs from American workers apparently kept key Republicans from supporting a cap increase. “What every American needs to understand is that there has never been, nor will there ever be, an H-2B job that goes to a foreign guest worker at the expense of a U.S. worker,” said John Meredith, director of legislative relations for the American Nursery & Landscape Association. “Any qualified U.S. worker that applies for an H-2B job must be hired,” she added. Ms. Meredith asserted that H-2B reform is the “most urgent labor concern of all service industries.”