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As H-2B deadline approaches, Ohio Landscape Association savors victory
20 Sep, 2007 By: Sandy MunleyWashington D.C. was crawling with advocates of the H-2B program on Sept. 6. The Save Small Business Fly-In was very successful in getting about 200-250 participants from around the country to let their legislators know how vital this program is to the success of their small businesses.
Ohio showed up in full force with 30 people to lobby on the hill. The Ohio Landscape Association has made lobbying for Senate Bill 988 and House Bill 1843 a top priority, and myself and OLA legislative committee chair, Mary Wheeler, created a separate H-2B committee to work on strategy.
The committee members have taken their work very seriously. They made phone calls and wrote letters to their peers to get them involved in the lobbying process and ask them to come to Washington D.C. with us. For many of the Ohioans, it was their first time to lobby in Washington. It proved to be a very exciting trip for all who attended.
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| The contingency from the Ohio Landscape Association makes its way through the halls of Congress. |
Our trip started out on a very sad note with the Honorable Congressman Paul Gillmor passing away on Wednesday morning, Sept. 5. Two OLA members, Craig Bauer and Ken Rau, both from Bauer Lawn Maintenance of Maumee, OH, had a meeting scheduled with Congressman Gillmor on that morning and ended up meeting with staff. His staff did not know why he hadn't shown up at the office. Later in the day, Craig and Ken were shocked to learn that he had passed away in his D.C. condo. Our sincere condolences go out to his wife, children, family, friends and staff.
On Thursday morning, we attended a constituent coffee scheduled with Senator Sherrod Brown. Senator Brown had been skeptical of supporting the H-2B program in the past because of concern about American jobs. He was very impressed with the number of people that traveled from Ohio to speak with legislators about their dire situation.
He was equally impressed that our group included quite a mix of people. There were owners and employees of landscape contracting firms, an attorney, Barry Freeman, and even a supplier, Pat Preston of Preston Chevrolet/Ford. Pat came to voice his concerns that truck sales will suffer if landscape firms do not have a legal workforce available to them.
Senator Brown did his job. He asked very good questions and listened carefully, giving everyone a chance to speak. He promised to discuss our issue with his staff and give us an answer by Monday, Sept. 10.
Next, the group was off to Senator George Voinovich's office to meet with his counsel, Doug Dziak. Senator Voinovich is an original co-sponsor of S. 988 and has been very supportive over the years to our needs. The primary reason for this meeting was to gain insight and to thank Mr. Dziak and Senator Voinovich. We encouraged them to continue speaking with others about supporting H-2B legislation.
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| From left are H-2B advocates Chris Hayes, Groundmasters div. of Brickman; Sandy Munley, Ohio Landscape Association; Congresswoman Jean Schmidt; Roger Myers, American Beauty Landscaping; and George Hohman, Turfscape, Inc. |
We were told that we are doing the right thing, knocking on doors in Washington and writing lots of letters and making lots of phone calls. We were advised to continue getting co-sponsors across the country and to work with other groups such as our national associations and the coalitions that are lobbying for H-2B.
We had constituents from 10 of the 18 congressional districts in Ohio with us. We split into 2 groups and managed to make it to every office, armed with a packet of information. Congressmen Steve LaTourette and Ralph Regula had previously signed on as a result of earlier visits.
We received a warm welcome at every meeting, although many of our congressmen and women are hesitant to co-sponsor legislation that could be conceived as pro-immigration legislation. We were very careful to explain that this is a small business issue; the guest workers that come on H-2B visas are not seeking permanent residency. They are carefully screened and are tracked to enter and leave the country on a set timeframe. We also explained that employers must prove they cannot hire American workers and prove the seasonality of their business before they can qualify for the program.
The only "on-the-spot" commitment we got while in Washington was from Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. She has a real love for our industry and was anxious to support the legislation.
Our Ohio group left Washington exhausted, but feeling good about the work we had done.
True to his word, on Monday, Sept. 10, Senator Sherrod Brown made his decision. He signed on as a co-sponsor! I was so excited to send out an email to our group to let them know they were successful in helping the Senator make a well informed decision.
I am a strong believer that grassroots efforts really do work. The Ohio Landscape Association is committed to continuing efforts to get the balance of our congress signed onto House Bill 1843.
PLANET has a very good H-2B toolkit on their Web site that provides information and sample letters to make it easy for you to get involved. The system will automatically find your legislators based on your home address and will customize the letters to those legislators. It also allows you to edit the copy if you want.
I would like to encourage every reader to go to the Web site and send letters. Even if you do not use the H2B program you may need it someday, and you will feel good about helping your industry.
The author is president of the Ohio Landscape Association.
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