# H2A Workers



## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

Out in the blue berries the other day... one of the largest bee keeps asked if I thought he could hire H2A workers (I suppose because we have a lot of them in this area). I had never heard of H2A workers as beekeeps, but perhaps they can and are used that way. Just wondering....

I had to ask - what was wrong with his current crop of employees (he has 5). He said nothing was wrong with them except they would stay with him a year and he would train them and then they were off getting there own bees. This meant he was always in training mode. He figured it took about a year to make an employee really useful.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

H2A? Huh?


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## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

I guess I should have explained more. H2A workers are legal groups of hispanic men that come up from Mexico to do agricultural work. If you hang around a little longer you will no doubt see plenty of them.


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

They can come from any country on the approved list, many commercial beeks use this program effectivly. The workers can stay in usa for up to 10 months per year. I know of 4 large opertors who use from 5 to 30 workers on this H2A program. In the past a few contractors who handle the paper work have advertised in the ABJ, have not seen ad recently.


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## merdoc (May 4, 2010)

I worked in a factory with alot of immigrant workers these people really work hard and fast.Dont get me wrong im all american but i have to give these guys i worked with credit they hustle.They were ok when you got to knowem but most kept to themselves and hard to understand use alot of sign with hands.


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

sqkcrk said:


> H2A? Huh?


sqkcrk,

You might like to see this list:

http://www.labor.ny.gov/workforcenypartners/h2a_orders.shtm


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Havent hired any of these folks... yet but got to be around a group of them a couple of years ago. It was about time for them to be going back to Nicaragua at the end of the season and they were so excited. One of them told me how he was going to use part of the money he earned to buy a cow for his family. That really put it in perspective, these are real people with real families that want a better life, some good workers and some not so good (kind of like us) . It isnt very often I have "real Americans" come knocking on my door looking for work any more even with the economy the way it is. I had a guy a couple of years ago that only wanted me to sign a form saying that he had asked for a job so that he could continue to get some sort of benefits, I told him sure I have a job for you and he just said no, no, I don't want a job I just need you to sign this :doh:


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## Johnny (Sep 7, 2007)

jim lyon said:


> I had a guy a couple of years ago that only wanted me to sign a form saying that he had asked for a job so that he could continue to get some sort of benefits, :


Get rid of unemployment and see what happens! It's crazy whats happend to some people.


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