The workers have been in fine spirits this summer in the small plant where Dexter Guillory cuts up alligator meat to feed the growing demand from Southern restaurants for the swamp creatures’ steaks. Mr. Guillory runs his family business in this Cajun country town with a mix of local employees and guest workers from Mexico, who come up each year on legal visas through a federal program known as H-2B. All the workers are paid by the pound of meat they carve in the well-chilled plant, and this year there have been plenty of alligators, so earnings have been good.  “I love this work because I cut more alligator, I make more money, that’s why,” said Lorena Aguilar, 38, who has been coming from Sinaloa, Mexico, with half a dozen of her relatives, to work for Mr. Guillory for part of the year for nearly a decade.  But small-business owners in south Louisiana, like Mr. Guillory, who cut alligators, peel crawfish, shuck oysters, shell crabs and process shrimp say they are about to receive a shock from new Labor Department regulations that make broad changes to the H-2B program. The employers say the rules, including some issued in January and some still under consideration, could put many of them out of business.

On Wednesday, several Louisiana food associations brought a federal lawsuit against the Labor Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which jointly administer the H-2B program, saying a new mandatory method for setting wages for foreign workers would cause “catastrophic results.” Starting Sept. 30, they would have to pay guest workers at crawfish and shrimp processors wage increases that range from 51 percent to 83 percent of current hourly rates, according to the suit.  The employers said these sudden increases would be crippling and would expose them to unwinnable competition from foreign imports and from other businesses that hire illegal immigrants. The suit was joined by other Louisiana businesses that use the guest-worker program, including forestry companies, hotel and amusement park owners and sugar growers. (click on link to read full story)