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Union Blocks Foreign Workers

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By TED JACKOVICS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 18, 2007

TAMPA - A contractor in Mississippi has withdrawn a government application to allow up to 400 foreign workers to enter the United States to take welding jobs at Tampa's largest shipyard, an official with Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation said Wednesday.

The application would have led to filling jobs at Tampa Bay Shipbuilding & Repair Co. with immigrant workers, but it was withdrawn after a Florida labor group objected, said Lisa Scott, a program manager for the agency in Tallahassee.

A key objection was that a required job notice to alert local workers to the Tampa job opportunities was posted in a Pensacola newspaper rather than in a Tampa Bay newspaper, said Mike Williams, president of the Florida Building & Construction Trades Council, which represents unions in the Florida AFL-CIO.

That meant it was unlikely local workers skilled in welding would have learned about the job opportunities, Williams said.

If no local applicants had stepped forward, it would have paved the way for approval by the federal labor and immigration departments to allow foreign workers from Mexico to fill the jobs under provisions of the H-2B visa program, he said.

'It is bad enough we have to deal with illegal immigration, we have to be alert to legal immigration programs to protect our jobs,' Williams said in a telephone interview from Tallahassee.

Neither Tampa Bay Shipbuilding, nor Blackhawk Marine and Industrial Contractors of Ocean Springs, Miss., returned phone calls Wednesday about whether the job opportunities exist in Tampa.

A posting on Tampa Bay Shipbuilding's Web site indicates an unspecified number of available jobs for welders, pipe fitters, shipfitters and machinists.

Williams said that he became aware of Blackhawk's application for foreign workers when the company sent him notification, as mandated by law.

However, Williams noticed that in an Internet search the job postings were listed in the Pensacola News Journal, rather than in a Tampa Bay newspaper.

He also objected to getting the notice midway through the stipulated period to get U.S. job applicants and had three working days to protest.

'To the best of my knowledge, there was no job posting in Tampa Bay,' Williams said 'And the $17 an hour rate for the welding jobs is lower than what local union workers would get.'

Williams contacted state Sen. Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg, for assistance on the issue.

'After initial thought at trying to hire alien workers, Blackhawk is now planning on supplying its labor needs with American workers,' Justice said in a news release.

He was on the Senate floor Wednesday and not available for comment.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817 or tjackovics@tampatrib.com.

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