Xanterra, Yellowstone concessionaire, to review hiring procedures
Xanterra, Yellowstone concessionaire, to review hiring procedures
LIVINGSTON (AP) - Xanterra Parks and Resorts will review its hiring procedures before next summer, the company's general manager for Yellowstone National Park says.
In the meantime, the company is doing what it can to accommodate scores of young foreigners, mostly European college students, who thought they had summer jobs in the park but arrived to find the jobs already filled.
They arrived late, sometimes weeks late, and the company had to fill the jobs, said General Manager Jim McCaleb.
Xanterra operates hotels, restaurants, stores and campgrounds in Yellowstone and other national parks. It regularly recruits summer workers overseas.
"What we're hearing from many of the kids is that the process for getting visas is delayed," McCaleb said. He said the delays were caused by reactions to the terrorism attacks on the East Coast last September.
The problems surfaced when dozens of the young people began showing up in Livingston, 50 miles north of the park, looking for work, free Internet services to contact their homes, or other help.
Xanterra was simply turning them away and telling them they might have jobs, maybe just part-time work, in a few weeks, they said.
Now Xanterra is doing what it can to accommodate them until they get work. They are being housed and fed free of charge in the park until they get jobs, McCaleb said. After that they must pay $70 a week.
"The employee housing is full at this point," McCaleb said Friday. "We are setting up something very close to a youth hostel situation for most of these kids."
He estimated 100 of the young job hopefuls were staying in the park.
The Bozeman Red Cross has loaned Xanterra 100 cots for them. He said it is unusual for private companies to request such help.
"It wasn't until I signed the agreement that I realized who they were," spokesman Norm Eggert said. At that point, he said, he thought it was too late to back out.
Some of the young job-seekers have found other work in the area. Bud Cahill of the 63 Ranch has hired several and provided them lodging, but said someone should take responsibility for their situation.
"This is a crime," Cahill said. "If these were American students there would be lawsuits like you wouldn't believe."
"This is an embarrassment to all of us as Americans."
Thanks for the link. That's very interesting. I think some people here should note that Xanterra is in fact the very same company as Amfac. They are not different companies. They simply changed their name this year, which is odd. Perhaps, their image has sunk so low that they thought a change of name may confuse people enough to give them a new look.
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Here's an opinion article about what is happening at Grand Canyon National Park under Xanterra:
