Margo Walsh, CEO of MaineWorks, has found a way to fill jobs with unemployed Americans instead of relying on foreign workers. Walsh’s firm promotes the hiring of convicted felons into jobs in construction, landscaping, and property maintenance; jobs that many companies would like to fill with H-2B visa holders and other foreign workers.
Walsh recruits vulnerable workers from places like sober houses and connects them to companies that then pay MaineWorks for the use of its employees.
Walsh charges the companies a few extra dollars more than she pays her employees in order to make a profit. MaineWorks brought in $1.7 million in 2015, showing that there is a great desire to fill these positions with American workers.
The company also provides all of its employees with individual counseling and resources to keep their workers on the road to recovery. The program has been very successful with only 4%, out of the 150 employees, that reoffend and return to jail, way below the national recidivism rate of 70%.
“When you give people work, you give them a sense of purpose and some dignity and focus in their life,” says Antonio Ramos, an employee of MaineWorks who was convicted of trafficking heroin. “And these types of things, they just don’t benefit employers. They don’t just benefit the tax rolls. They benefit families. They benefit the community and all of us.”
Walsh says the success of her company shows, “There’s a really compelling need for this. There’s a constant source of great people coming out of the systems and a lot of people in recovery, a lot of work in construction, which is great-paying jobs.”
Walsh is looking to expand her company into other cities such as Denver and Miami.
Last week, a group of nine House Members sent a letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security asking them to quadruple the number of H-2B visas issued to low-skilled foreign workers each year.
Read more on this story at Bangor Daily News.
