AVON — In December, Pete Cuccia taped a “Help wanted” sign on the window of his Avon liquor store and went through 50 applications in a few hours. Almost every applicant hailed from South America.
As business fizzled, he had to turn away the daily stream of job-hunting Brazilians, Argentines and Peruvians who stopped by his Village Warehouse Wine & Spirits store.
“Any other season and I could have helped them out,” Cuccia said. “Used to be, if you showed up, dressed nice and had a smile on your face, you could have any job you wanted. Used to be the worker was king.”
No more. As unemployment climbs in Colorado’s mountain towns, the temporary-visa workers who for years have filled resort jobs during winter’s busy months are going jobless. Many of the visa-toting students spent as much as $4,000 for airline tickets, visas, paperwork and insurance, only to find resort employers replacing their “Help wanted” signs with “Don’t bother asking for work” signs.
“I remember in 2006, there were so many jobs. If you wanted three jobs, you could get them. This season is so different,” said Rafael Ribeiro, 23, a student from Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Ribeiro paid a Brazilian exchange firm $3,500 to help secure his J-1 worker’s visa and landed a breakfast cook job at The Lodge at Vail. He was lucky. One of his roommates returned home after not finding any work.
Eagle and Summit counties have long relied on hundreds of visa workers from Brazil, Argentina, Peru, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. They sell T-shirts, bus tables, run chairlifts — all the worker-bee jobs that keep ski towns humming in the bustling winter months.
In past seasons, Vail Resorts — which operates four ski resorts in Eagle and Summit counties — has anchored 9 percent to 10 percent of its more than 11,000 seasonal workers with international students using the J-1 visa. This year that percentage has remained the same, but the number of J-1 workers was whittled by about 300, said Bob Chapman, the company’s director of recruiting.
Long before the season’s first flakes fell, Vail Resorts saw economic trouble on the horizon and committed to hiring fewer J-1 visa workers. None of Vail Resorts’ J-1 visa workers who arrived through their contractual program were left without work, Chapman said.
Still, Chapman is saddened to hear of J-1 visa workers spending several thousand dollars only to arrive at a resort town where jobs are scarce.
“In years past when we have heavily relied on those folks,” he said, “they have been sort of the saving grace.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
