Summer jobs in N.E. -- now, Ski areas recruit workers south of the equator

The Boston Globe ^ | February 12, 2006 | Robert Gavin

[A. Pole]

WEST DOVER, Vt. -- College student Lorena Lama once spent a good part of her school vacation on the beaches of her native Chile, where summer lasts from December to March. But two years ago, she decided to try a new summer experience: a Vermont winter.

While it may sound crazy to New Englanders, Lama, 26, is just one of hundreds of seasonal workers who each year leave the 80-plus degree weather of the Southern Hemisphere's summer to work at ski resorts in some of the coldest places in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire.

Recruited from countries such as Chile, Brazil, South Africa, and Peru, these international workers account for anywhere from 5 percent to 15 percent of the peak seasonal workforces of the region's ski areas, according to figures from several resorts. Most are college students like Lama, hoping to improve their English or just wanting to see the States.

In many ways, it's a match made in heaven -- if your idea of heaven includes wind chill. Ski resorts, which double and triple their employment for the winter season, need to fill lots of jobs that last from December to March. These students, on summer break, want to work from December to March.

International workers provide a critical supply of labor for the ski industry, resort officials said. It's difficult to fill all the short-term restaurant, hotel, retail and operations jobs, particularly when US students are still in school.

[...]

[A. Pole]

More "jobs Americans won't do".

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Visit any Tahoe area ski resort and you'll find young workers from all over the southern hemisphere. Nothing new here.

[Clintonfatigued]

They would have us believe that there is a shortage of qualified American resort workers?

What will the free traitors say next?

[hillary's_fat_a**]

Hell, why go all the way to Chile, Brazil, and Peru to find these workers? There are plenty of Mexicans willing to do the work Americans won't do!

[bert]

It is far more likely there is a shortage of Americans who will actually show up to work. The unemployed now mostly cinsists of people who don't work.

[Ax]

In the summer of 2003, my wife and I went on a coach trip of the western National Parks. We were amazed to see that a good many of the summer jobs there were being done by young people from Eastern Europe. I can't believe that there are no young Americans that wouldn't KILL to spend a summer in the glory of Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons.

[A. Pole]

The unemployed now mostly cinsists of people who don't work.

And who are those unemployed who do work?

[A. Pole]

I can't believe that there are no young Americans that wouldn't KILL to spend a summer in the glory of Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons.

They could not be exploited so easily as they know the law and can defend themselves.

[cmsgop]

Doing the Ski Jobs Americans don't want too do.........

[bert]

....And who are those unemployed who do work?....

They while away their days not working, lazily allowing others to do for them that which they are unwilling to do for themselves in their drug fog. They lack the gumption to get up every day and earn their keep. They are the dregs, the scummy film at the bottom of the American barrel. They report, get in a day or two and then somehow can't make it a third in a row. They have endless excuses for what is actually just plain laziness.

[A. Pole]

You did not understand my question:

"....And who are those unemployed who do work?.... "

You said that majority of the unemployed do not work. I am curious who are those "unemployed who DO work"? Don't they commit fraud?

[raybbr]

The unemployed now mostly cinsists of people who don't work.

Unassailable logic bump. ;)

[BluH2o]

Most winters my wife and I ski in the intermountain region ... CO or UT ski areas, we alternate. Many of the young people working in these resorts are from Australia or New Zealand. Vail just completed construction on a large nice looking dormitory (just off I-70) to accommodate their seasonal workers ... which other ski areas will probably emulate. Reasonably priced housing near ski areas is tough to come by and discourages many youngsters from wanting to work in high end winter resorts.

[Leisler]

New England Yankees import cheap Irish labor.
High Plains farmers import cheap Scandinavian labor.
Mid West factories import cheap German labor.

What, you want to send them back too?
What's your solution, wait, I already know. Pay more. Ok, genius. Up in the sticks mountain ski resorts are in the leisure buisness. No one needs to go skiing. The business is competing against other leisue activities such as going to Florida. Raise prices to pay labor, customers do something else, like Florida. You going to help pay the people in the hick towns that live off the ski resorts, tax the resorts, pay for their schools, police and fire? I didn't think so. So for the sake of some unknown American, supposedly just dieing to work in a low pay, low skilled, season job...you'd have the resort, the town, the money go tapioca? atip.

[RFT1]

You want the US to become like what California is nmow, politically, then just keep on importing cheap labor. Soon enough, there will be no chance any conservative will be elected president.

[Alter Kaker]

Hell, why go all the way to Chile, Brazil, and Peru to find these workers? There are plenty of Mexicans willing to do the work Americans won't do!

Yes, but unlike Mexicans, Chileans know how to ski. How many ski resorts do you think there are in Guadelajara?

[Camel Joe]

It was a job I held when in high school 25 years ago, we couldn't get half the people to show up then. I don't think free trade has much to do with this. You should take a couple of economics courses at your local college. Stay away from the courses offered by the rather socialist, er sociology departments and take the courses from the business department. As someone who has done both I can tell you the social scientists are socialists who believe in command control economics. I would also suggest you visit the Walter E. Williams website for some insight. http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/

[Leisler]

In England the non-working Brits are complaining about the hard working Poles taking their jobs. Some reports say that half of the workers on construction sites are Polish. In France and Germany, same. French plumbers complain that Polish plumbers work too fast, long hours and weekends. Polish plumbers say the French/Germans are just lazy. I suppose you support tossing these tradesmen back to Poland.

[A. Pole]

New England Yankees import cheap Irish labor. High Plains farmers import cheap Scandinavian labor. Mid West factories import cheap German labor.

What, you want to send them back too?

It would be absurd and impossible to do so now. Same way as it will be absurd and impossible to to it to the future 700 million descendants of the immigrants from the Third World. Do you want USA to become multicultural 1 billion people society in pattern of India?

We do not know if the history of America would not be better if this continent were settled primarily by the descendants of XVIII century America.