A Hole in One

Date: Sunday, March 30, 2003 2:05 AM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Jeff West, rich businessman and avid golfer, became interested in the
bodyshop business in 1998. That year, just days before a major golf
tournament, about 100 workers walked off the job, all complaining about
hard work that included lifting rocks and cutting trees down for $8 an
hour. West wanted to make sure that his boys in the field wouldn't ever
again demand higher pay or better working conditions. West left behind
the stunning view from his tidy fairways and manicured greens in
Michigan to become a big time headhunter for Mexicans who would be
willing to slave away at golf courses throughout the country.

West started a bodyshop called GTO International:
http://www.gtoint.com/gto/ His company also specializes in H-1B visas
so it's a one stop shop no matter what kind of worker an employer
needs. To keep costs low and profits up, he hires thousands of Mexicans
to work in landscaping and golf courses across the nation. West uses
the H-2B visa to import workers but feels that another bracero program
is needed to bring in even more workers. It doesn't seem as though all
of this cheap labor has done much to lower green fees, but somebody
must be pocketing a lot more money in the form of higher profits. Not
surprisingly West claims that he hasn't made money off the bodyshopping
business.

Part of West's success must be due to his reputation as a stern
disciplinarian. One time a worker drove to the grocery store to buy
food because his family was hungry. That worker made Jeff West very
angry because he didn't ask permission to leave the farm. Just so
everyone knew who was boss, West fired the worker and his entire family
and ordered them to leave.

Mr. West's business partner, Bob Wingfield of Dallas, complains about
American workers because they aren't willing to milk cows in the cold
Vermont winters, cut grass, and slap cement in 100-degree weather in
Dallas or Houston. He says that it's necessary to import Mexican
workers to do this kind of work.

Mark Krikorian of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies,
or CIS, says that West's advocacy is "naove" and "self-serving."
Krikorian's voice must have got buried in the sand traps because the
fat cats that use the golf courses probably hire their own imported
laborers.

There is a cruel irony to all of this. The H-1Bs that West imported
into the U.S. from India and China are probably playing golf on courses
that are maintained by his H-2Bs from Mexico. Meanwhile American
citizerns are running out of unemployment payments.

http://are.berkeley.edu/APMP/pubs/agworkvisa/golfwork072102.html

A hole in one for U.S. labor shortage?
Entrepreneur recruits Mexicans for temporary U.S. golf course jobs
by Alfredo Corchado
MARFIL, Mexico -- Jeff West, an energetic American entrepreneur and
avid golfer, has a new passion: halting the flow of undocumented
immigrants to the United States.

His way of achieving that goal, however, is unconventional and drawing
some criticism.

Mr. West has become one of the most aggressive headhunters in Mexico,
recruiting thousands of Mexican immigrants to work legally in
landscaping and golf courses across the nation.

"America doesn't need new citizens," Mr. West said recently, sizing up
dozens of Mexican men waiting to be interviewed for jobs in the United
States outside his office in this central town of Guanajuato state.
"America needs workers."

Mr. West's views represent what immigration experts call America's deep
ambivalence about Mexican immigrants.

As the United States debates how far to open its doors to immigrants,
Mr. West is taking a page from history and another from his
entrepreneurial playbook.

He is calling for a system based on the bracero program, an agreement
with Mexico that brought millions of Mexicans to work seasonally on
farms and railroads.

Mr. West, however, insists that such a program would work best with
minimal government involvement. He is calling on the U.S. government to
dramatically expand guest-worker programs with minimal government
interference.

It's a view that, despite some objections, is gaining supporters,
including President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox.

Countries in talks

The two governments continue to hold high-level talks aimed at
legalizing millions of Mexicans living illegally in the United States.
Tens of thousands more immigrants also would be allowed into the United
States through temporary permits.

Mr. Bush has avoided talk of amnesty, but he has repeatedly called for
ways to "figure out how to make sure willing employers are able to
match up with willing employees."

Mr. West is convinced that he has found the way to do that.

Lost in the debate, Mr. West says, is an ongoing demographic shift that
has U.S. employers worried about a looming labor shortage that is
already affecting some of the country's key industries.

That's an argument that critics such as Mark Krikorian of the
Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, or CIS, rebut as
"naove" and "self-serving."

"It's the same old story," Mr. Krikorian said. "Employers always want
more workers to choose from. That gives them more power as it weakens
the bargaining hand of the worker."

As for Mr. West's contention of luring workers and not citizens, Mr.
Krikorian calls it "pure fantasy. A civilized society like ours cannot
create the conditions to get temporary workers to go home again. ...
There is nothing more permanent than a guest worker.

"Ultimately, temporary workers become the anchors for families, friends
and neighbors who, too, want to come to the United States."

Still, proponents of temporary workers insist that the numbers don't
lie, and they warn of a dire U.S. labor shortage that they say
threatens America's economic prosperity and its way of life.

By 2010, according to the Census Bureau, baby boomers are expected to
be retiring at a rate of 1.5 million per year. And according to the
U.S. Labor Statistics Bureau, as many as 167 million jobs are expected
to be available with only 158 million workers on hand.

Acute labor shortages in construction in Texas, dairy farms in Vermont,
orchards in Tennessee and the service industry from Philadelphia to
Dallas have forced many to rely heavily on immigrant workers, labor
analysts say.

As much as 50 percent of America's farm workers and 25 percent of
household workers are undocumented immigrants, according to a study
produced by the Pew Hispanic Center.

"Jobs are being created faster than workers, and our workers are aging
rapidly," said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a labor and immigration policy
lobbyist for the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We have a
people problem. We simply don't have the people and that's hurting us
and it's only getting worse."

As for Mexicans taking jobs away from Americans, Mr. West's business
partner, Bob Wingfield of Dallas, says: "I don't see my sons and
friends cutting grass, or slapping cement in 100-degree weather in
Dallas or Houston, or milking cows in Vermont."

All of which helps explain how and why Mr. West, 40, left behind the
stunning view from his tidy fairways and manicured greens in Michigan
to become a headhunter in a country he hardly knows.

Guest-worker program

He was once a proponent of tougher borders to keep out undocumented
immigrants. He blamed them for many social ills, such as high dropout
rates and the draining of social services.

What he has done, however, is redirect his energy for a better
controlled border by helping people cross the Rio Grande.

He has been successful at using the H1-B guest-worker program that
allows up to 66,000 foreigners to work temporarily in specialized
industries that can demonstrate a dire labor shortage. He says he has
placed thousands of Mexicans with American jobs in the last several
years.

He charges each worker $135 for a process that involves tedious
paperwork, notifying state unemployment offices and placing weekend
newspaper employment ads for landscaping and golf course jobs.

All the jobs pay the prevailing wage in the region, usually from $7.50
to $12 an hour. Mr. West then travels through Mexican villages,
recruiting young men to work in the United States for up to 10 months.

Thanks in part to Mr. West's efforts, there's hardly ever a shortage of
workers to do landscaping or to maintain greens at golf courses.

They work across the country, including Beallsville, Md., where a group
of men from the state of Puebla toil from sunup to sundown. On their
day off, men use two-iron clubs to practice fairway shots.

"What's the big deal?" said a perplexed Marco Antonio Sandoval of
Zacatlan, Puebla, as he swung his club. "I prefer soccer."

The perks of his job, Mr. Sandoval explained, are beyond working at a
world-class golf course or watching basketball legends Michael Jordan
and Charles Barkley tee off.

The beauty is that he is able to zip back and forth across the border
without hassles from the U.S. Border Patrol, free from the burden of
paying unscrupulous smugglers' exorbitant fees, and without fear of
becoming another casualty of the increasingly dangerous U.S.-Mexico
border.

"We also get to keep our identity," explained Mr. Sandoval, noting that
in prior years as an undocumented immigrant he called himself
Francisco, Jorge and Estiban.

He also used phony Social Security numbers to conceal his identity from
the U.S. government. "Now I'm Marco Antonio. That's why we're so
grateful to el Seqor West. He has brought us out of hiding, out of
hypocrisy."

Earlier incarnation

To be sure, Mr. West doesn't pretend to be a savior, and the
guest-worker concept isn't all that new.

Back in 1942, the Mexican and U.S. governments embarked on an ambitious
guest-worker program that lured 3 million workers to help with the
labor shortage created by World War II.

The program immediately became mired in corruption and eventually was
suspended amid congressional cries of workplace abuses, lack of federal
oversight and unsafe working conditions.

Moreover, critics said the program became a magnet for millions of
undocumented immigrants who created vast networks that lured their
friends and relatives. It's a process that continues today.

Mr. West knows the concerns all too well. Sure, he says, he wants to
make a buck, although he says he has yet to make a profit. But money
aside, Mr. West says that by regulating a safe, orderly flow of
immigrant workers, he is aiding U.S. employers and helping Mexico's
economic development.

The transformation of Mr. West, a native of New York City with Irish
roots, began accidentally. As a supervisor for one of Michigan's most
prestigious golf courses, Mr. West's biggest headache usually centered
on securing a stable workforce. He said he lost about 150 workers a
month.

Just days before a major golf tournament in 1998, Mr. West lost about
100 workers, all complaining about hard work that included lifting
rocks and cutting trees down at $8 an hour.

Mr. West hopped in his pickup truck and began roaming the streets,
looking for replacement workers. Thanks to a thunderstorm that had
ruined the area's seasonal crops, Mr. West found dozens of unemployed
Mexicans at a temporary shelter.

The tournament was saved, and Mr. West found an answer to his labor
shortage. The workers weren't just happy with their new jobs, they also
demanded longer hours.

He soon changed jobs and began matching employers in the golfing
business with employees in Mexico. Business boomed.

Business expanding

In just two years, Mr. West has opened three offices in Guanajuato,
Monterrey and Puebla. He said that he expects to open two more by next
year.

He predicts that the number of laborers will increase to 20,000 from
the current 3,000, one reason he's lobbying U.S. congressional leaders
to expand the guest-worker program.

Pointing to the failed bracero program, Mr. West says that milestone
effort should be used as a benchmark on what not to do.

For instance, as a private business, Mr. West and his small staff make
it a point to talk to every worker to make sure that no one is being
exploited.

He and his staff also make sure that employers keep their end of the
bargain. That includes paying the prevailing wage and providing free
rooms, food and transportation.

When complaints arise, he talks to the employers to straighten things
out, or he eliminates them from his list.

"Our reputation is at stake," he said. "Every time someone doesn't
succeed, our business hurts."

Not all workers, however, complain. Recently, Mr. West's staff notified
Juan Antonio Barba and his brother Sergio that their names didn't
appear on the list to return to their jobs in Michigan.

A saddened Antonio Barba walked out of the office and immediately
blamed himself for being shunned.

It must have been the night when he took the pickup truck without his
employer's permission and drove to the grocery store to buy food, he
concluded. When the employer angrily confronted Mr. Barba, a 36-old
farmer from Leon, Guanajuato, told him, "We were hungry."

Now, Mr. Barba mused, "These bosses want sheep, workers who don't
complain."

His brother, Sergio, countered: "Stop complaining. We have to find work
with someone else. Our families depend on us."

Sending money home

Antonio Barba agreed, explaining that a year ago they managed to send
home more than $10,000.

That money, he said, is helping pay for a new ranch, additions to the
home and eventually a new exporting business. Some day, Mr. Barba said,
he doesn't want to have to migrate again. For now, he says, "I'd rather
be a sheep than unemployed, or work in Mexico."

Such stories reflect some of the reasons why key Hispanic organizations
and some members of Congress are against expanding the guest-worker
program. Workers have no rights, they insist, especially after a
landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision reducing legal protections for
undocumented workers.

Mr. West, however, sees it differently. While his program isn't
perfect, he says, he is constantly seeking ways to improve it. He'll
talk to the Barbas' former employer to find out why they didn't make
the list.

"Every story has two sides," he said. "Often there are language and
cultural problems."

But the Barbas' economic success last year gives Mr. West reason to be
hopeful.

"The best way to help Mexico and the United States is to help them find
a mechanism so Mexicans can work, make money and return home," he said.

"The alternative now is to break families apart because demand for them
in the United States is too great, and it'll become even greater in the
future," Mr. West said. "What will we do then? Hire an illegal alien,
or go out of business. The choice isn't so difficult."

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