DONALD TRUMPS “MAR-A-LAGO RESORT CLUB” – LETS BUILD A WALL
AND KEEP THEM OUT!
Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach describes itself as “one of
the most highly regarded private clubs in the world,” and it is not just the
very-well-to-do who want to get in.
Since 2010, NEARLY 300 UNITED STATES RESIDENTS have applied
or been referred for jobs as waiters, waitresses, cooks and housekeepers there.
But according to federal records, “ONLY 17 HAVE BEEN HIRED.”
In all but a handful of cases, Mar-a-Lago sought to fill the
jobs with “HUNDREDS OF FOREIGN GUEST WORKERS FROM ROMANIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES.”
TRUMP WAS FINED FOR HIRING ILLEGAL WORKERS 30 YEARS AGO!
In his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr.
Trump has STOKED his crowds by “PROMISING TO BRING BACK JOBS THAT HAVE BEEN
SNATCHED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS OR OUTSOURCED BY CORPORATIONS”, But according to
federal records, “ONLY 17 HAVE BEEN HIRED.”
Voters………….. worried about “IMMIGRATION” have been his
strongest backers.?? hahahaha Thats a joke to say the least!
But he has also pursued “MORE THAN 500 VISAS FOR FOREIGN
WORKERS AT MAR-A-LAGO SINCE 2010”, according to the United States Department of
Labor, while… “HUNDREDS OF DOMESTIC APPLICANTS
F A I L E D ……..TO GET THE SAME JOBS!!!”
The visas are issued through one of a handful of legal and
often…… “DEBATED PROGRAMS” through which employers can temporarily hire foreign
workers when American labor is not available, HOWEVER there were, according to
Federal Records… sufficient U.S. Resident Applicants, who WERE QUALIFIED TO
FILL THE POSITIONS…. Maybe Trump wanted to SAVE COSTS and PAY LESS to Illegal
immigrants!
As part of its applications for the visas submitted to the
Labor Department, Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago attested that in the vast majority of
cases, it was unable to fill the positions with American workers, or, as he
told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in September, “getting help in Palm Beach during the
season is almost impossible.”
Asked why his club must seek so many foreign workers when
Americans have applied for the same positions, Mr. Trump said in a telephone
interview from Mar-a-Lago this month: “The only reason they wouldn’t get a
callback is that they weren’t qualified, for some reason. There are very few
qualified people during the high season in the area.”
OH COME ON TRUMP!- to
fill ANY POSITIONS for “entry level positions, minimized skill levels, such as waiters,
waitresses, cooks and housekeepers…. Is EASY!... again a “Smart man… Trump is
to TRY AND FOOL THE PEOPLE!”- I have managed Multi-Million Dollar companies…
DON’T DARE TELL ME THAT!
Mr. Trump, who “SUPPORTS LEGAL IMMIGRATION”, drew a parallel
with grape growers in California who need extra laborers during the harvest.
TRUMPS SING-ALONG-THEME…. “I WANT TO PROTECT OUR BORDERS”
which ONLY feeds off the FEARS of the American Public…..
“I want to protect our borders,” he said. “I also want to
protect our businesses. They have to come in legally, and then they go back.
Certain areas, in really successful areas, where we can’t get help, many people
do that. That’s a good thing. Otherwise, you hurt your business.”
From Florida resorts to Midwestern farms to Silicon Valley
technology companies, the number of guest workers has been growing, even as
labor advocates have accused employers of using the programs to replace
American workers with cheaper foreign labor. The Labor Department is
investigating whether outsourcing companies hired by Disney used such
a program to replace American employees who were qualified and already doing
the jobs.
In Palm Beach County, Tom Veenstra, senior director of
support services at CareerSource, a job placement service, took issue with Mr.
Trump’s contention that he could not staff his clubs with locals. “We have
hundreds of qualified applicants for jobs like those,” he said.
After a report by Reuters in July about Mr. Trump’s use of
guest workers, executives from Mar-a-Lago met with recruiters from Mr.
Veenstra’s agency, promising to request local workers for 50 positions.
But Mar-a-Lago sent over just a single job request, for a
banquet server. Mr. Veenstra said CareerSource referred four applicants to the
club, and one of them got the job.
Since then, Mr. Veenstra said, “we haven’t received any
other job orders.”
HEY BUSINESSMAN…..TRUMP!!!- “LET ME GIVE YOU THE FACTS!”
First of all… WAKE UP AMERICA! - TRUMP WAS FINED FOR HIRING
ILLEGAL WORKERS 30 YEARS AGO!
To REPEAT myself….. to fill ANY POSITIONS for “entry level
positions, minimized skill levels, such as waiters, waitresses, cooks and
housekeepers…. Is EASY!... again a “Smart man… Trump is to TRY AND FOOL THE
PEOPLE!”- I have managed Multi-Million Dollar companies also… DON’T DARE TELL
ME THAT!
MORE FACTS TRUMP- ……The UNEMPLOYMENT RATE was in fact low…
at approx. 4.7% …. HOWEVER TRUMP, there are many EDUCATED in Palm Beach…. Skilled
workers. That 4.7% comes from the POPULATION OF 1,320,134 people…. from those
4.7% …. Nearly 300 persons WHO READ THE “JOB-DISCRIPTION(S)” then applied for
those jobs accordingly!.... HOWEVER according to “FEDERAL RECORDS ONLY 17…..
WERE HIRED???” – OH COME ON!
LOOK AT THIS TRUMP-
Other clubs in the Palm Beach area on Florida’s east coast,
including the Breakers, a well-known beachfront resort near Mar-a-Lago, also
use guest workers. Industry experts say they can be attractive to employers
because they are essentially a captive work force.
The foreign employees must be paid the Labor
Department-approved “prevailing wage” for the job and location. But they can
work only for the company that sponsored the visa, and cannot, for instance,
switch to another resort down the road where the pay is better without a new
visa approval. A 2015 report by the Government Accountability Office found that
guest workers’ precarious position tended to discourage complaints about
mistreatment by employees fearful of retaliation by the employer.
“You almost have them as indentured servants,” said Danny
Fontenot, the director of the hospitality program at Palm Beach State College.
“And they affect everyone else’s wages. You can make a lot of money by never
having to give your employees raises.”
Greg Schell, a lawyer in Palm Beach County who has helped
foreign guest workers sue employers over labor violations, said companies
frequently made little effort to find local employees before applying for
visas.
“I have seen no demonstrated need to import guest workers
for the hospitality industry,” Mr. Schell said. “Employers who want to find
American workers find them.”- “EXACTLY WHAT I SAID TRUMP!”
For at least 15 years, according to the Labor Department,
Mr. Trump’s properties have requested guest-worker visas, including at the Mar-a-Lago
Club, the former estate of the cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, where
the initiation fee alone is $100,000.
Housekeepers from abroad ensure that the venue’s eight
seaside cabanas are spotless, the Dorian stone from Genoa shines and the lavish
guest rooms and suites in the main house, an 89- year-old mansion in the
Hispano-Moresque style, are fresh for visitors.
Foreign workers prepare meals and serve them at the
beachfront bistro or the main dining room, and deliver cocktails at wedding
receptions in the elegant White & Gold Ballroom or the more recently built Donald
J. Trump Ballroom. From October to May, tourism’s high season in Palm
Beach, Mr. Trump can often be found at the club on weekends.
He has also sought guest workers at Trump International Golf
Club in West Palm Beach and Trump National golf club and spa in Jupiter, Fla.,
as well as at his vineyard in Virginia and golf clubs in New Jersey.
It is not clear how many visas were actually granted to
Mar-a-Lago or other Trump properties. While the Labor Department certifies a
company’s need for visas, it is up to Homeland Security and the State
Department to grant them, and those departments said they were unable to
provide information on how many visas each employer had received. Mr. Trump and
other resort owners use a type of visa, designated H-2B, for temporary,
low-skill, nonfarm workers; there is a nationwide limit of 66,000 such visas a
year.
“MAYBE WE NEED TO MAKE AN INQUIRY TO HOMELAND SECURITY AND
THE STATE DEPARTMENT TO SEE JUST HOW MANY VISAS YOU REQUESTED FOR MAR-A-LAGO ‘AND’
YOUR OTHER PROPERTIES”!!!
Before it can be granted approval to hire foreign workers
through H-2B visas, an employer has to advertise the openings on a state
website of job listings and twice in a local newspaper, and to report the
number of local applicants and hires to the federal government.
According to records Mar-a-Lago submitted to the Labor
Department, it had received at least 296 local names for 520 seasonal jobs
since 2010. Some applied directly to the club; others were referred through a
job placement service.
Mar-a-Lago hired ONLY 17, ….”ABOUT 6 PERCENT OF THE ALMOST
300 LOCAL APPLICANTS”, the records show.
For anyone not hired, the employer must tell the Labor
Department why. Among the reasons Mar-a-Lago gave: that the applicants could
not be reached or were not qualified, as Mr. Trump suggested in his recent
interview, and that they did not want the jobs.
That was the case for Austin L. Cohen of Delray Beach, who
received a call from Mar-a-Lago and a tour of the 20-acre resort after sending
in his résumé for a wait staff position that paid $10.60 an hour for at least
30 hours a week.
Mr. Cohen said that he ultimately chose to keep looking for
a permanent job, and that he wanted benefits; the job listing did not mention
any.
“It was more like a temporary position,” Mr. Cohen said.
“You work six months and then you’re out of work again. It was my decision not to
take the job.”
Some applicants said they decided against working at
Mar-a-Lago because, like some other private clubs, it discourages gratuities;
its job listings say “no tips.” Local labor analysts say that private clubs
often lose job candidates to restaurants where tipping is permitted.
But Renee L. Seymore, who applied to be a waitress at
Mar-a-Lago last year, said she would have gladly taken the job, and thought her
chances were good.
“They told me I had a great interview,” said Ms. Seymore,
22, who had worked in a barbecue restaurant. “But I never heard anything back.”
Mar-a-Lago did not respond to a question about why Ms.
Seymore was passed over. The New York Times obtained the names of Mr. Cohen,
Ms. Seymore and other applicants through Florida’s open-records law, but the
state-provided records did not give the reasons for not hiring particular
candidates.
Several other applicants contacted by The Times had criminal
records, but Mar-a-Lago did not state that as a reason for rejecting anyone.
To find foreign workers for his resorts, golf clubs and
vineyard, Mr. Trump uses a recruiter based in upstate New York, Peter Petrina.
Mr. Petrina, who declined to comment, is of Romanian descent and has an office
in Romania, which has served as a labor pool for many European countries.
Employers are obligated to pay for workers’ transportation
to the United States and any recruitment fees. The visas are valid for 10
months, although in some circumstances, they can be extended to three years.
Mr. Petrina recruits for other American employers, but
highlights his connection to Mr. Trump in Romania, where newspaper articles say
that he tries to recruit young people who take hospitality courses in college.
Local workers like Bonafacio Quevedo say they are being
forced to compete with the imported workers. He said he was turned away from
Trump International Golf Club when he applied in 2012 despite having previously
worked as a waiter there and at Mar-a-Lago. Today he works full time at a
nearby club.
“A lot of big establishments hire from foreign countries,”
he said. “BUT THERE ARE A LOT OF LOCAL PEOPLE LOOKING FOR WORK.!”
NYT-
modified by Aguila Freedom
