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Puerto Rico, Dominican Rep struggle with construction worker shortages

Bnamericas
Puerto Rico, Dominican Rep struggle with construction worker shortages

A shortage of construction workers in Puerto Rico has led the territory to look to the Dominican Republic to help fill the gap as it struggles to recover from hurricanes and earthquakes, although the latter is grappling with labor issues of its own.

PUERTO RICO

On Tuesday, the Puerto Rican representative in the US congress, Jenniffer González – along with five other lawmakers – requested that workers from the Dominican Republic be considered for US H-2B visas, which would allow them to help with reconstruction efforts. 

“I led a bipartisan letter to the secretaries of homeland security and labor to consider workers from the Dominican Republic for H-2B visas, to alleviate the shortage of workers in Puerto Rico, accelerate reconstruction efforts, and avoid losing the federal funds that we secured,” she wrote on her Twitter account. 

According to the letter, the shortage of workers is due to migration to the US mainland. 

“Unless this worker shortage is resolved promptly, the recovery process in Puerto Rico will continue to be severely impacted while costs for projects continue to increase,” the latter states. 

The letter says that nearly 50,000 workers will be needed in Puerto Rico during the next 10 years to complete federal investments. However, the local builders’ association says granting more visas will not be enough.

“We understand that the visa program will help, but not much because we are competing nationally and 66,000 visas are granted in the US each year… So, we’re working with different alternatives to see how to be independent of visas to fill those spaces. We have to work with local employees,” the president of the association, Vanessa De Mari-Monserrate, told BNamericas in July.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic faces its own labor shortage. 

Last April, President Luis Abinader increased the salaries of construction employees by nearly 24% to attract and retain workers. 

“These people that helped with putting this nation on its feet with their efforts will now be recognized and rewarded as they deserve,” he said. 

According to El Dinero news outlet, quoting experts from the Dominican Republic, more than half of the construction workers that will be active in 2023 will be from neighboring Haiti.

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