On the Labor Shortage, HOAs, and Speaking Spanish

[MineralMan]

So, a crew of four men are finishing up the job of putting new siding on the townhome my wife and I bought in June of last year. That's an expensive job, but our contract for the purchase said that new siding would be installed without any new assessments. It's one of the reasons we decided on that place. An exterior remodel at no additional cost. BONUS!

The quad home building, in a development of 7 other quad home buildings that are essentially identical, was built in 1974 or 75, so the original siding, which was replaced with new vinyl siding was old plywood T1-11 siding that was in wide use on places like that. It needed replacing. Along with the siding, we got new gutters, soffits, soffit vents and new outdoor lighting as part of the deal.

I have been reading reports that there is a serious labor shortage in the construction trades here, so I expected a delay, but nope. The crew, hired by a large local contractor has been busy since late April, working on the job on one building at a time. By the end of the summer, all of the quads will be done.

I soon learned that only one person on the four-man crew spoke English. He's the crew leader. All spoke Spanish. The owner of the construction company, who drives a big-ass Ford F350 diesel pickup, speaks only English, of course. I know siding work and general construction, but I stayed away from the work crew. Nothing worse than a property owner hanging around and asking questions. I watched them work, though, on an adjacent quad. They work hard, long, and fast, and do everything properly. I can tell.

So, I didn't talk with the crew, except to say Good Morning, and nod my head and smile as I come and go. But, I stayed out of their way as they went about their very noisy work, yelling back and forth at each other in Spanish. Hard, fast workers, but careful.

They're wrapping up late this afternoon, so I just went out with four envelopes containing a cash tip for each of them. All four were up on the balcony deck, doing that area as the last part of my townhouse and the quad. On the envelope, I wrote, "¡Gracias por el trabajo!" As I handed them the envelopes, I said something else complimentary in Spanish to each of them. Big smiles, and surprised looks were my thanks from them. This is Minnesota. The average homeowner here does not speak or understand Spanish.

Given the shortage of workers, I think they probably get good wages from the Contractor. If not, they could easily find other jobs. But, if it weren't for Spanish-speaking immigrant workers, people would be hard-pressed to get crews for siding, roofing, and other construction and remodeling work. Are they documented? I have no idea. It doesn't matter to me. They did good work.

America was built by immigrants. It's still being built by immigrants. Eventually, and already in some places, they are or will be the majority. That scares right-wing, racist idiots, who whine but aren't interested in doing the work that builds a nation and its homes.

¡Gracias por el trabajo, señores!

[RKP5637]

1. Crews I've been around on some of the buildings I've owned, I've always found the immigrants

work harder than some of the white guys. I've always noticed this, and I've been around construction. For one example we were laying a large patio. I noticed the edges had scant rebar. I asked the white guy working the edges if he could throw in some extra rebar. Well, he gave me some lip, that it wasn't needed, blah blah blah. A Mexican guy on the job noticed ... and brought over more rebar and put it in. The white guy slunk away. I was talking with the owner of the company later about some stuff ... he said he always tries to hire all immigrants when he can. They do better work and are easy to get along with. And he pays them top dollar.

[MineralMan]

2. Contractors make more money when the work is done quickly, efficiently, and properly.

They know that. So, of course they hire hard-working employees. They pay them what it takes to keep them on the job.

[RKP5637]

3. Yes, absolutely!!! n/t

[Xolodno]

4. I practically grew up in construction.

My father put me on the roof when I was 14 (and I got the messed up back to prove it), that was also the day I decided I was going to college.

But yes, immigrant workers get the job done, no questions ask. Others tend to want more pay than what is reasonable, drag out the hours to get more pay, some are drug addicts and unreliable to show up, etc.

I did learn a lot of spanglish however.

[MichMan]

5. Is their employer withholding taxes, Social Security, and Medicare taxes from them?

Are they receiving any benefits like health care, vacation and sick days? Is their employer paying into Unemployment and Workman's Comp for them?

Or is he undercutting his competitors who are playing by all the rules?

You should care about that.

[Hekate]

6. A lot of undocumented workers in CA can present a green card if asked. So yes, they are taxed ...

And no, they don’t get benefits.

I don’t like the broken immigration system, as it’s not good for our national karma. But there are millions of people here, and they need the work and are willing to do the work. They are willing to do the work that, quite frankly, Americans really are not willing to do — at least not at the wages paid, and sometimes not even then.

They diaper and soothe our babies, and they diaper and soothe our elderly. They work in the meatpacking plants and do the stoop labor in the fields for all the crops that cannot be mechanized. They bus the tables and clean the hotel rooms. They send money home to the Old Country and they hope their own children will do better.

Like every immigrant group before them.

What can be done about the inequities? Pressure politicians to fix Immigration and also to tear ICE down to the studs and start over. Vote Democratic. Pressure union organizers and labor leaders ro take up the cause of the undocumented along with the other workers — and not as only 3/5 of a person.

That’s all I’ve got. Except to say: I’d have tipped that crew too.

[MichMan]

8. How do undocumented workers get a green card ?

Doesn't that make them documented?

Also, how is a small business owner, who is paying UI and Workmen' comp on his employees, and providing benefits, expected to compete fairly with competitors who are able to undercut them with cheaper prices by cheating both the government and their employees?

[Hekate]

9. There is a brisk business in false green cards, or was last time I read about it

As for the rest of your question, to put it more strongly than I already have, the situation sucks.

I have not been in the position of doing much hiring over my lifetime, but a good long time ago my ex-husband and I owned a restaurant together. We had been informed by a business acquaintance that if the periodic INS raids were ever successful at doing something besides terrorizing steady workers, that every restaurant in the town would have to close down. We were so young and naive, it had to be explained to us: every busboy, dishwasher, janitor, chef’s helper — nearly every one of them was Mexican.

We determined to do our due diligence when we hired a janitor, and ended up with a space cadet so far gone he would stand dreamily and tell me about the purple shapes flowing around on the walls. Apparently he was the only certified US citizen who applied. After he was fired, my almost-ex hired two guys named (probably) Pedro and Jose — they were clean, on time, did good work, and went to ESL classes in their spare time. They had papers, and we did the payroll taxes, but — what do you think? Oh, and we didn’t undercut anybody on wages.

So I just return to what I already said: change the broken immigration system. It is inhumane.

[MineralMan]

12. Thanks. I've been around immigrant workers

all my life. I've worked with them, too. They are simply people.

Documented or undocumented, they are everywhere, working hard and trying to live a decent life.

Do some take advantage of their immigration status? I imagine so, but they're not doing that in the construction business. There is such a shortage of workers with the needed skills in most areas that contractors are constantly competing to hire and keep their workers.

As you said, we rely on those workers, including those who are undocumented.

To me, they're all just people trying to make their way though things.

[MineralMan]

10. I don't know. I did not hire the contractor, nor do I pay the contractor.

The HOA at my development contracted for this work before we even bought the townhome. However, the contractor is one of the larger ones in the northwest metro area of the Twin Cities. I met one of the owners of the company briefly, but did not inquire into that, because I have no business relationship with the work that was done.

I do know this, though: If you hire a contractor in the Minneapolis St. Paul area for remodeling, roofing, or other major jobs, the crew that shows up to actually do the work will mostly speak Spanish. That is true in many places in the United States. So, it came as no surprise to me that the four men who did the siding work spoke Spanish. Fortunately, I grew up in California in the 1950s. I lived in a small town with about a 50% Hispanic population. The kids I went to school with were bilingual. Their parents not so much. Their grandparents had no English at all. So, I learned to speak Spanish, because so many of my friends had Spanish-speaking families.

The bottom line is that there are many, many Hispanic people working in the construction trades. They live here. They work here. They have families here. Are they documented? I don't know. They may or may not be.

Are they taken advantage of by employers? Not so much in the construction business. There is a shortage of skilled workers in that business, so anyone who has the skills can pick their employer. Skilled workers don't have to work for exploitative contractors. Contractors are perpetually short-handed in this area.

[Sympthsical]

7. Cringe

Just.

Cringe.

[MineralMan]

11. Now that's informative.