A potential tweak to a federal guestworker program has thrown a big scare at Middle Peninsula seafood processors who count on hiring workers from outside the United States to deliver oysters, clams, crabs and other Chesapeake Bay products to tables and grocery shelves across the country.
The H-2B program run by the federal government allows employers to hire foreign workers, many from Mexico, to temporarily come to the United States and work in nonagricultural services such as seafood processing.
Last year, a new U.S. Department of Labor rule scheduled to take effect Oct. 1 would have changed the method for determining the wages of H-2B workers. In some cases, wages would have risen as much as 83 percent, local business owners say.
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