Take Action on Immigration Reform

Martin Tirado, CAE (CEO, SIMA) and Mark Adamson
(Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Douglas Dynamics)

'Before this year’s Congressional session ends, please take action and contact your elected member of Congress to urge them to take action on immigration reform...'

By Martin Tirado, CAE
Early in 2013, SIMA joined a broad coalition of organizations affected by immigration labor issues, specifically the H-2B program. Most commonly used in our industry on the green side of member's businesses, the program can also be used for snow and ice immigrant labor. Before this year’s Congressional session ends, please take action and contact your elected member of Congress to urge them to take action on immigration reform, fix the H-2B Department of Labor interim wage rule, and preserve the integrity of the H-2B program as it currently exists.

Information on these issues can be found on the website of the H-2B Coalition. There are also three organizations that are part of the coalition whose web pages include further information and direct you on how to take action:

• PLANET/Landcare Network: http://www.congressweb.com/pln
• ANLA – American Nursery and Landscape Assocation: https://www.votervoice.net/ANLA/home
• H-2B Coalition: http://www.h2bworkforcecoalition.com/action.asp

These issues were delivered by SIMA on Capitol Hill twice this year. In the spring, SIMA staff members Phill Sexton and I held initial meetings with Congress and their staffers to discuss how this and other legislative items affected our members. In July, a larger SIMA delegation met with several more Congressional offices on this issue.

Take a few moments, read SIMA’s position statement on this issue, and send an email and follow-up phone call to your member of Congress.