.........LOL, Windflier, I’m not sure what “a pox on them” (and by extention I suppose “me”) means but it does not sound like it should be part of an intelligent FR discussion about an important issue. This seems to be a departure from your normally well thought out posts.
Windflier, I am not and never have been a Union employer. Clearly, that is the direction you are coming from and the argument you want to have. Well, not tonight.
But, on non union construction jobs around Texas, there are not enough “general laborers” available. That is a fact. Many jobs just SIT due to this labor shortage. So, setting aside the Union vs Non Union argument for a moment, and I know that is not what you want to do, Texas is in a boom condition generally and construction in particular and we need more skilled and unskilled labor. That is a fact. But, we don’t need or want AMNESTY! Or, a path to citizenship, or coyotes or the crime that comes with all of the above to say nothing of the terrorists slithering across the border.
Finally, Texas is a right to work state and that is something that clearly irks all you union guys. But, there is absolutely nothing a lowly developer like myself can do about undoing Right to Work in Texas. Sorry.
Notwithstanding any of the foregoing, I appreciate your comment and respect your viewpoint.
Why do you assume that I have anything to do with a labor union? That sounds like some sort of attempt to deflect or disarm my comments. For the record, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a union employer. And I never indicated to you that I had.
No, I'm just a guy who chose to go into construction at a young age, and have worked in that field for the last 33 years. 16 years ago, my wife and I started our own small construction business, and it thrived for a number of years until we began to be underbid by our unscrupulous competitors who were employing illegal alien labor.
While I bore the added expenses of being 100% in compliance with state and federal laws regarding taxes, unemployment, worker's comp, etcetera, other operators were paying illegals half of what my guys were making, while also paying nothing to the government in the way of employer contributions. That allowed them to price their jobs at a level that I couldn't touch.
I assure you, unions had absolutely nothing to do with the market distortions that were disrupting mine, and fellow contractors' businesses. Eventually, the drop in sales forced many of my brothers to leave the business. Some went over to the dark side and began hiring illegals themselves. And some of us just hung in there, letting our guys go one by one, until they were all gone.
Let me tell you something. We now make roughly 50% less for the same work, as we did in 2005. Why is that? It's because the presence of illegal alien labor in our industry has decimated wages across the boards. If a contractor can pay his guys peanuts to get the job done, he can charge a whole lot less for his projects.
Try competing with guys like that if you're playing by the rules, and employ a crew of American workers who you pay at levels commensurate with their skills and output. You can't. The market won't support it while there's access to labor that costs half as much.
But I don't think I really need to explain all this to you. You know exactly what I'm talking about. If you've been in business for any length of time, you know full well what illegal labor has done to small contracting businesses, and the Americans who formerly worked for them.
Now let me ask you a question. Were your hundreds of "hard working guys" legal to work in this country? Are you sure? Did you use E-Verify to check them out?
What about American workers? Did you ever hire any of them? If not, why not? Is it because they never showed up to apply? Now, why do you think that is?