Ski industry whines that they can't get cheap foreign labor
Ski resorts are whining about Trump’s ban on immigrant worker visas. The June 26, 2020 Colorado Sun article Struggling ski resort industry frets over Trump’s ban on immigrant worker visas states:
Citing soaring unemployment, Trump’s proclamation applies to H-1B visas used by technology companies, H-2B visas and J-1 visas. The resort industry has spent years relying on visa workers, especially J-1s, many of them college students from the southern hemisphere who spend several months at resorts teaching skiing...
Ok, let's think about that for a minute. Why would students from Latin America want to spend months skiing their butts off while American students won't? In the past, you couldn't throw a jelly doughnut at a ski area without hitting a college-aged ski bum having the time of his or her life.
The article explains:
Labor has been a stress point for ski areas for many years, with the skyrocketing cost of housing in rural resort communities challenging resorts large and small when it comes to filling food and beverage, lodging, housekeeping and on-mountain jobs. For years, resorts have relied on H-2B visa workers and more recently, J-1 workers to fill empty positions once taken by American college students and locals.
Why won't ski bums and locals take those jobs?
Wages.
When ski resorts can hire foreign workers for substantially less than Americans, they magnify their magnificent profit margins.
Cut off their supply of cheap labor and they whine like corporate infants.