WASHINGTON Seafood industry representatives visited Capitol Hill Wednesday in hopes of changing new U.S. Department of Labor regulations threatening to shut down local businesses.
In a press release Tuesday, officials from the Coalition to Save America's Seafood Industry said they are alarmed by the "unprecedented and abrupt" actions of the labor department in requiring increased wages and better living conditions starting Oct. 1 for seafood processors working on H2-B visas.
The H2-B program allows employers to hire foreign workers on a one-time seasonal visa for labor jobs and in Maryland, is widely used by the seafood industry to staff plants processing crabs and other Chesapeake Bay bounties.
CSASI officials said the new wage regulations would place crab pickers' wages in the same category as supermarket butchers and meat cutters. Coalition members said such cost increases could lead seafood processing companies to shut down for the season, if not permanently.
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