shucker shortage

Date: Sunday, April 27, 2003 9:07 AM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

In case you didn't know, there is a desperate shortage of oyster
shuckers. Even worse, young Americans are not interested in shucking as
a career option. All of this means that the future is very bleak for
everyone that likes to eat oysters. According to the oyster companies
this labor shortage can only be solved by importing more workers from
Mexico.

Oyster companies are joining the choruses of businesses that want visas
to be easier to get for the foreign workers. They complain that it can
cost up to $1,500 per visa and lots' of paperwork. They figure that the
way to solve their problem is to "relax the laws a little bit" and by
lowering the fees.

Here is a sample listing of shucker H-2B LCAs that you can see by using
the advanced search on the LCA database at:
www.ZaZona.com/LCA-Data

GREEN'S OYSTER
Bevans Oyster Company
HILLMAN SHRIMP & OYSTER
OREGON OYSTER FARMS
Pride of Virginia Bait & Oyster

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/04/22/shucker.shortage.ap/index.html

Oyster industry looks to Mexico to fill shucker shortage

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) --There are still plenty of oysters the
problem is a shortage of shuckers.

With old-time shuckers dying out and few locals interested in the
grueling job of prying open oysters, the Gulf Coast industry says it's
in trouble unless it gets greater freedom to bring in workers from
Mexico.

"It's piece work, but a good shucker can earn $12 to $15 an hour," said
Sal Sunseri, owner of P&J Oyster Co. in the French Quarter in New
Orleans. "But the younger generation is not interested in this type of
hard, physical labor."

Sunseri is applying to get work visas for six immigrant shuckers, an
expense that could run up to $1,500 for each worker. Industry officials
say that's too much money for many operations around the Gulf.

"We're just trying to relax the laws a little bit -- it just takes so
much paperwork," said Teddy Busick, chairman of the Gulf Oyster
Industry Council and a partner in the Ole Biloxi Shrimp and Oyster Co.
in Biloxi, Mississippi.

For the most part, oysters still are shucked by hand.

Shuckers wear a heavy leather glove on one hand and they whack the
oyster shell with a hammer. Then, they pry the shell open with a knife,
and scrape the oyster into a pot to be taken into another room for
processing.

A good shucker can do up to 15 sacks a day, with 250 oysters in a sack.
At P&J, 10 shuckers open 30,000 oysters a day.

"It's dirty but somebody's got to do it," said Ervin St. Amand, an
11-year veteran who makes about $70 for a six-hour day at P&J. "Not too
many people know the trade. It's not as easy as it looks. It's an art."

At many plants, shuckers start before dawn and work until noon, a
schedule that has suited many second-earners like mothers and young
people.

In Louisiana, where a third of all U.S. oysters are grown, immigrants
-- from Slavs to Spanish -- have been a staple in the harvesting and
processing of the delicacy seafood. Vietnamese later became the workers
of choice in south Louisiana, but the labor pool is drying up.

"There's not been an influx of a new generation of people willing to
start at the bottom and work their way up," said Mike Voisin, chairman
of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force and co-owner of Motivatit Seafoods
Inc. in Houma.

Sanby Tran, a Vietnamese immigrant who has worked as a shucker for 20
years and now works at P&J, said her six children do not want to follow
her in the job. "It's too hard," she said.

Louisiana officials estimate state oyster production creates about
10,000 jobs and generates $266 million a year.

Oyster processors and growers fear tighter restrictions on immigration
since the September 11 attacks are curtailing the industry's ability to
grow and stay competitive. Oystermen said they are not seeking to
exploit cheap labor, but create a new class of shuckers.

"We need more consistency in employees -- we want them to stay," Voisin
said. "There's plenty of space."

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