Grace McCaffery, the founder of the Hispanic Resource Center of Northwest Florida, said the 45 Chilean aviation mechanics laid off by ST Engineering –Mobile Aerospace Engineering mechanics at its Pensacola and Mobile, Ala., sites received their termination letters the same day she appeared on WCOA’s “Real News with Rick Outzen.”
The letter from HR Senior Director Ryan Lee stated the workers were terminated on June 26. The grants of H-1B1 status were limited to one year.
“You may be held subject to future immigration bars if you accrue more than 180 days of unlawful presence after your status expires,” Lee wrote. “Please make immediate arrangements to leave the United States f you have not already done so.”
The company offered to travel expenses to return to Chile.
“Their clock is ticking now. Because of their visas, they have 60 days from their termination date to find another job, which would require a new sponsor, or leave the country,” McCaffery said. “They want to stay. Of course, they love this area, they love this country, and they invested their entire lives and their family’s lives in coming here. So doing everything that we can to help them kind of get through these 60 days.”
She said some prospective employers have expressed interest in workers, but they have to move to other parts of the country. McCaffery added that ST Engineering has halted layoffs but announced to all Chilean workers that none of the visas would be renewed.
She said that one of the workers shared with her a photo of Powerpoint slide that was used to recruit aviation mechanics from Chili. According to the photo, the mechanics were told that they could work up to leadership positions and “possibly H1B and green card.”
“I think that it’s pretty clear that there was no way that ST was going to be able to recruit them if they didn’t make it look like they could stay longer, but it’s also why there’s nothing documented,” she said. “There’s no written contract anywhere.”
McCaffery added, “That’s crazy for a company to dangle that in front of an employee, but it is definitely proof that that was the expectation that they had in deciding to come here and accepting a position with this company.”
Featured Photo by Jacob Hodgson on Unsplash
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