Thread: SMILE: Yosemite park looks locally for workers

Hiring in their backyard
Firm that hires Yosemite park workers looks locally as recruiting foreigners seasonally becomes more difficult.
By Vanessa Colón / The Fresno Bee03/20/08 23:04:16
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JOHN WALKER / FRESNO BEE FILE
Rachel Tejeda of Fresno is rooms division manager at Yosemite's Ahwahnee hotel. Yosemite National Park has been hiring more local seasonal workers, rather than relying on foreign workers as it has done in the past.


Dozens of foreign workers arrived weeks late for seasonal jobs at Yosemite National Park last spring, throwing operations into chaos. This year, the company that does the hiring is looking closer to home.

Foreign workers, a staple of the seasonal work force nationally, also have become harder to recruit because of changes in visa rules. So the firm is recruiting much more heavily in the Valley -- and finding workers who didn't even know jobs were available at the national park.

Officials with Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts at Yosemite Inc. acknowledge they probably could have found more local workers to fill the jobs before, but they just didn't try hard enough.

"We were not being smart in the type of outreach we wanted to conduct," said Kenny Karst, spokesman for the company, which operates retail stores, motels and other amenities at Yosemite.

Delaware North has hired a recruiter and stepped up its appearances at job fairs and trade shows. Company officials have appeared on Spanish-language television shows to get the word out about jobs. They give away pens and other trinkets with a recruiting phone number.

Delaware North says it has spent $230,000 on those efforts.

So far, the firm has hired 88 Valley residents and expects to use 29 fewer international workers than last year, when it gave jobs to 183. In addition, 300 full-time jobs are open.

The number of foreign workers could decline even more in years to come as Delaware North seeks to turn seasonal positions into year-round jobs, Karst said.

Among the new workers is Delilah Haro of Modesto, who was hired in November as a housekeeper at the Ahwahnee hotel.

Haro, 20, said she didn't know of possible jobs at the park until her father heard about it at a job fair. Then she and her sister both got jobs -- and she's happy she did.

"The first day, I got lost. I thought I was stuck in the woods, but I found my way," Haro said. "I like it now. I will stay here for a while."

That's the kind of commitment Delaware North officials said they are looking for after what happened last year.

The company had expected more than 100 workers by April from Ecuador, Thailand, Ukraine and Mexico -- but they didn't arrive until June, said Laura Chastain, Delaware North recruitment manager.

The result was a lot of hard work for people who didn't expect it during the first part of the peak season, which runs from late March to October.

"Everyone was making beds," Chastain said. "We had people from HR and the accounting office making beds."

Yosemite also had to delay the opening of food and beverage operations, she said.

"It was rough," Chastain said. "Thank God we are not in that boat. ... I can actually sleep at night."

The new approach to hiring also could help solve another problem: It has become more difficult for seasonal workers to return to the United States, because a rule that helped them do so has expired.

Returning overseas workers are no longer exempt from the annual visa cap of 66,000, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In the past, returning workers didn't count toward the cap.

"It's a lot easier to draw from the local community than to have to go through the international process," Karst said.

In general, employers are supposed to try to fill jobs with local workers before recruiting from overseas, said Sharon Rummery, spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"If you can get Americans to work in the positions you have open, then there's no need to hire people from other countries," she said. She declined to talk about Delaware North's practices specifically.



Enlarge this imageJOHN WALKER / THE FRESNO BEEDelilah Haro of Modesto cleans a room Thursday afternoon in the Ahwahnee.

About a quarter of the company's seasonal workers have been foreigners, Chastain said. The number of seasonal jobs varies, but last year it was 600, she said.

It's unclear why the foreign workers arrived late last season. Steve Royster, spokesman for consular affairs at the State Department, said there were delays in the processing of visas from Mexico last year but didn't know whether that occurred for other countries. Royster said he doesn't know of delays this year.

Chastain expects a different scenario this year.

Plus, she said, those who are hired can save money -- and move up.

Entry-level jobs pay minimum wage -- $8 -- but employees can live at a dorm for $19 a week. They can also get three meals a day for $45 a week. In addition, workers get medical insurance, paid vacation and paid sick days.

Rachel Tejeda of Fresno started out as an office assistant four years ago at the Ahwahnee but moved up the ladder. She now is the rooms division manager, a position that can pay $50,000 to $60,000 a year.

"There's several things that keep me here," she said. "It's the people. The hotel. And the friends I call family."

For Joey Cruz, an Army National Guard reserve from Merced, Delaware North's effort to recruit locally paid off with a job that gives him time off for his duties as a reserve.

Cruz, 31, learned about the job through Labor Ready, an agency that supplies temporary employees throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. He's shoveled snow and cleaned rooms at Curry Village since June 2007.

"I came here a long time ago as a guest. I never thought I'd work here," he said. "It's perfect for me."
The reporter can be reached at vcolon@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6313.




http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/477040.html

Officials with Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts at Yosemite Inc. acknowledge they probably could have found more local workers to fill the jobs before, but they just didn't try hard enough

Well, keep on trying harder -- and longer. And if you pay a reasonable wage, you will have no problem finding workers without having to rely on illegal workers.