Each summer workers from overseas come to Maine to bag groceries, make beds, do laundry, and prepare and serve food. Where do they come from? Countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, China and Vietnam.
Elena and Ralph Smith, owners of McSeagulls Restaurant in Boothbay, do not have to use a service to find their workers. Elena is from Russia, and she has many contacts overseas. This summer they have hired two Bulgarians, two Russians, two Azerbaijani and two Moldovans.
“We keep the chain going, we’ve been doing this for 13 years. The system is nice and consistent, like getting together with friends of friends we’ve known. The employees come either from inter-exchange program, or from people the Smiths know. “They always work two or three seasons,” Elena said.
Mike Kennedy, who owns the Five Gables Inn in East Boothbay with his wife De, said this year they had two workers, one from China and one from Vietnam. Cross-cultural exchange is one aspect of the experience.
“The Vietnamese man we have here met one of our customers who had been in the Vietnam War. The two of them were talking for a long time,” said Kennedy.
Many of the foreign workers who come during the summer are on H-2B visas. A petitioner can ask to bring over foreign workers on an H-2B visa for different reasons, one being the seasonal need; the petitioner must show that the work is seasonal and is of a recurring nature. The H-2B cap or limit set by Congress is 66,000 visas per year.
Ed McDermott, who runs the Topside Inn in Boothbay, has a Bulgarian and Lithuanian working for him. He received many emails from people abroad looking for work. One employee returned from the previous year, and then he hired three new workers, two of those were by word of mouth.
Eric Blom, spokesman for Hannaford Supermarkets, said the Damariscotta store was able to fill the positions locally, so they did not hire foreign workers this summer. There are four foreign workers in the Boothbay Harbor Hannaford; two from Lithuania and two from Bulgaria. They work part-time following also working at local bed and breakfasts.
“It’s a good opportunity for those students, and it helps us out especially at that time of the year when we have short-term staffing needs,” Blom said.
