Thread: OUTRAGEOUS!!St Regis Hotel Built With Foreign Labor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc9IGnH6MIc

The St. Regis Hotel on the beautiful Florida coast is being built with workers brought in from Mexico.

The reason: THERE ARE NO AVAILABLE US WORKERS.

There is one hotel I'll NEVER visit!


as a Matter of Fact... It's just about time to Out~Source the Federal Government... it is worthless and nothing but a drain on America

Those poor poor people. Makes one wonder who does have faith in our government? I don't know of anyone.

HIRE AMERICAN WORKERS!

Solis Investigating Guest Worker Visas on Florida Hotel Project

by James Parks, Mar 4, 2009

In one of her first official acts as labor secretary, Hilda Solis has asked for a review of how Mexican sheet metal workers were given visas to work on the St. Regis Hotel project in Bal Harbour, Fla., when more than 1,000 members of the Sheet Metal Workers union (SMWIA) are out of work in the same area.

The company hired to install the heating and air conditioning ducts, CYVSA International, received approval from the state of Florida and the Bush Labor Department for visas to bring in foreign workers for seasonal work. But the visas are supposed to be granted only if there are no Americans available to do the job.

Florida ranked second in the number of jobs certified for foreign workers under one of the visa programs known as H-2B. In 2008, a total of 22,195 jobs in the state were approved for H-2B foreign workers, including 1,145 construction workers, 119 roofers, 10 electricians and six bricklayers.


Many employers want to bring in more guest workers to keep wages low, experts say. Many companies pay less than a living wage, and some force the foreign workers to live in horrid conditions and work long hours.

Solis wants to know how CYVSA could hire foreign workers when there are sheet metal workers out of work in South Florida. At a town hall meeting earlier this week, as part of the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Miami, Solis said:

We are going to have to take a look at it and, hopefully, work closely with [Homeland Security Secretary Janet] Napolitano to see how we better focus so that these things don’t happen and that we avoid them [in the future]. There were before I came into my position visas that were permitted under the Bush administration that we will take a very, very close look at and [with] a very keen eye go through. But, rest assured, we will take a strong view on that.

Jim DeFede, an investigative reporter for Miami’s CBS4.com, describes how CYVSA, one of the largest construction companies in Mexico, manipulated the rules to ensure it could hire foreign workers. CYVSA’s action also show how the current immigration visa system favors employers, the SMWIA says.

DeFede reports that CYVSA applied to Florida for permission to use foreign labor on Sept. 30, 2008. The next day, Oct. 1 at 9:05 a.m., the state agency, following federal rules, opened a 10-day recruitment period to find U.S. workers. During those 10 days, CYVSA was required to contact the local union and place ads in the Miami Herald.

But CYVSA did not place the ads or call the union until it was near the end of the 10-day period and never said there was a deadline to apply.

The union sent resumes of unemployed sheet metal workers to the state by certified mail Oct. 10. But by the time they were mailed, the state had officially closed the recruitment period at 9:16 a.m. on Oct. 10. The state then notified the federal government that no American citizens applied for the jobs and the Department of Labor subsequently certified CYVSA’s request for foreign workers.

Larry Stewart, business manager for SMWIA Local 32, told DeFede this is not a union or nonunion issue. This is an issue that affects all workers, he said. And it is outrageous that the U.S. government and the state of Florida allowed the employer to profit by importing foreign workers when so many U.S. workers are out of work.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/03/04/solis ... l-project/

Originally Posted by jean

Those poor poor people. Makes one wonder who does have faith in our government? I don't know of anyone.

HIRE AMERICAN WORKERS!

It is truly heartbreaking/infuriating!!!! It is such a blatant slap in the face to all the unemployed Americans who want a job desperately. OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOT RUN BY US AND THAT IS PROOF POSITIVE ONCE AGAIN!!!

BAL HARBOUR (CBS4) ―

Mar 3, 2009 7:34 am US/Eastern


In CBS4's exclusive I-Team investigation, Jim DeFede has been reporting for weeks about foreign workers brought in to work on a construction project instead of South Florida construction workers. Now, there are new details on how the workers were brought into the country and how the investigation has caught the attention of the Obama administration.

Hilda Solis, the newly confirmed Secretary of Labor in the Obama Adminstration, has asked for a review of how Mexican sheet metal workers were given visas to work on the St. Regis Hotel project in Bal Harbour.

"We are currently reviewing that situation," Solis said during a town hall meeting in Miami.

Solis, a former member of Congress who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate five days ago, also revealed for the first time the precise visas used by the CYVSA International to bring in their workers.

"They actually came in through what they call an E Visa," she said.

The company had applied for H2B Visas for the workers and had actually received approval from both the state of Florida and the U.S. Department of Labor for H2B Visas even though H2B Visas are only supposed to be issued if there are no American workers available to do the job. There are currently more than a thousand unemployed sheet metal workers in South Florida and they complained they were shut out of the project by state and federal bureaucrats that were more interested in helping employers than in protecting the rights of American workers.

"We know we that we are going to have to take a look at it and hopefully work closely with our cabinet secretary [Janet] Napolitano at Homeland Security to see how we better focus so that these things don't happen and that we avoid them [in the future]," she said. "There were before I came in to my position visas that were permitted under the Bush Administration that we will take a very, very close look at and a very keen eye go through. But rest assured we will take a strong view on that."

Solis also spoke about the challenges she faces in taking over a department that had been badly undermined by the Bush Administration.

"The challenge is putting life back into this agency that needs to be resuscitated," she said. "We need to attract good people to come back to the department. We need attorneys, we need investigators, and we need people who are going to restore integrity and respect in our work place."

http://cbs4.com/local/defede.jobs.iteam.2.948963.html

Interesting find Skip. We'll see if Solis is serious about her investigation. Sometimes investigations are done but seem to get swept under the rug.

Breaking Ground

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St. Regis Resort & Residences, Bal Harbour



St. Regis Resort & Residences (left), Bal Harbour

WHAT Large resort and residential development.

AMENITIES Beach access and a full-service spa, among others.

PRICES Private condominiums and condo-hotel units both start at $1.9 million. Fractional residences are also planned, but prices are not yet available.

STATUS Scheduled to open in late 2010.

DETAILS When the Sheraton Bal Harbour, a Miami Modern-style building formerly known as the Americana hotel, was razed in 2007, fans of the area’s vintage architecture mourned. Those in the market for luxury condos were more welcoming of the move. The St. Regis Resort & Residences, Bal Harbour will fill three 27-story towers on a nine-acre site on Collins Avenue. Spread throughout the buildings will be 183 hotel rooms, 268 private condos, 36 condo-hotel units and 24 fractional residences. It is the first development for the St. Regis brand, whose parent company also owns Sheraton, to include all three of these types of residences. So far roughly half the residences have been sold, and the fractionals are expected to be offered for sale around the end of this year. The residences, with one to three bedrooms, include details like balconies, marble bathrooms and wine refrigerators, and among the services will be butlers and personal chefs. There will be the 12,000-square-foot Remède Spa and fitness center; multiple pools, a restaurant and a wine bar. The project fronts 1,000 feet of Atlantic beach and is across the street from the Bal Harbour Shops. Both the Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports are a half-hour away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/great ... reak1.html

So far roughly half the residences have been sold, and the fractionals are expected to be offered for sale around the end of this year.

http://www.stregisbalharbour.com/index.php



WATCH THE PROMO VIDEO

http://www.stregisbalharbour.com/video-preview.php

If Solis IS serious about investigating this, could it also be because the Florida governor is a Republican? I wouldn't trust this Labor Secretary as far as you could throw her. This story is going on all over the country, wherever there is still work going on.