Trump Winery Looking to Add Foreign Workers
The winery in Virginia is owned and managed by Eric Trump.
— -- The Trump Winery is working to add more foreign workers to its staff after a presidential campaign in which the president-elect criticized companies for moving jobs overseas.
The Virginia winery, owned and managed by Eric Trump and not his father, is seeking to add six foreign workers to its staff for six months, from January to June 2017, to prune grapevines and perform a “variety of manual/equipment operation tasks in a vineyard operation,” according to a Monday filing with the U.S. Department of Labor.
Trump Winery is seeking the temporary visas under the H-2A program, which allows American employers to fill seasonal agricultural jobs with foreign workers. The winery also requested 19 temporary visas under the same program last spring. It also requested temporary visas in 2014 and 2015. News of the filing with the Labor Department was first reported by Buzzfeed.
The winery and Trump transition team did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment on the winery's pursuing foreign workers. When he becomes president, Trump's Labor Department will review the winery's request.
The jobs would pay $10.72 an hour on a bi-weekly basis, according to the filing. Overtime rates are not applicable to workers under the visa program unless required by state law.
Trump, who will take office in less than 30 days, made the promise to create jobs in America -- and punish companies who move operations out of the country -- a central theme of his campaign.
He has continued to tout that message as he prepares to take office, calling on companies to “buy American” and “hire American” on several stops of his post-election “thank you” tour.
Eric Trump, who campaigned for his father, also pushed his father’s jobs message.
“We’re losing all of our jobs, people are working harder, we’re being taxed more, all of our jobs are going overseas. It’s just a very, very sad thing,” he said in a Fox News interview in September.
At a presidential debate in March, Trump said it is “very, very hard to get people” when asked about why he hires foreign workers at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, Florida.
In July, the club requested dozens of H-2B visas for housekeepers, waiters and cooks.