Posted on 11/13/2007 5:30:09 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
Safety warnings are given in English and Spanish at the sprawling BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee construction site in downtown Chattanooga.
Supervisors at the Cameron Hill site, where BlueCross is building a $300 million headquarters complex, say knowledge of both languages is necessary because Spanish-speaking workers outnumber English speakers three to one.
Brian O'Shea, the project superintendent, has been in construction for 23 years. He has seen many work force changes and an increased emphasis on safety, he said.
"It was hard to get people to wear their hard hats back then," Mr. O'Shea said of his early years in the business. "But that's an old way of thinking. Now it's a subculture. "If we hurt people, we aren't accomplishing what we set out to achieve."
At the BlueCross site, 20 or more bilingual workers help spread the word that safety is a priority, he said.
As the nation's construction work force becomes increasingly Hispanic, having bilingual employees is a tool second only to a hammer and nails, builders said.
Even if builders looked elsewhere, English-speaking labor might be hard to find, said Barry Payne, who builds about 20 homes a year in the Tennessee Valley.
Hispanics are "who's doing the work," Mr. Payne said. "It has kind of been forced on the market right now."
SAFETY PRACTICES Skanska, the primary builder at the BlueCross site, recently held a week-long safety campaign. Morning demonstrations included training in how to operate harnesses and scissor lifts as well as handling fires and dealing with electricity.
The classes, like all training at the site, were offered in English and Spanish.
In Tennessee, four Hispanic workers died at construction sites in 2006. That represents a fifth of all the deaths from construction site accidents in the state, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In New York City, where development is progressing at breakneck speed, Hispanic advocates have suggested the building boom might be costing immigrant laborers their lives, according to a recent Associated Press story.
Immigrant workers there sidestepped usual safety measures to save their jobs, sometimes suffering life-ending injuries, the AP reported.
Local builders, however, said that is not the case here, though Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show construction is tied with transportation as the state's deadliest profession.
Managers at the BlueCross site admit their profession has dangerous roots, but they said they are hoping to change that.
So far, at 379 days into the four-year project, no one has missed work because of an injury, Mr. O'Shea said.
He said he walks the five-building, 2-million-square-foot project every day looking for potential problems. Every subcontractor is required to meet in the morning and form a "pre-task plan," he said.
"They identify the hazards and show the steps to mitigate against the dangers," Mr. O'Shea said. "Every worker signs off on that."
Anibal Franco, a project engineer from Colombia, is responsible for all the safety training. He speaks Spanish and English and can communicate with both sets of workers, he said.
Mr. Franco said anyone on the job site has the ability to stop work if something seems unsafe.
"The fact that you don't speak English well doesn't mean you don't have the right to prevent an accident," he said.
Mr. Franco works for contractor H.J. Russell & Co. A third contractor, EMJ General Contractors, also is on the site.
The three companies are ahead of their peers in safety efforts, Mr. Franco said. He, Mr. O'Shea and Skanska Senior Vice President Brian Murray acknowledged that sending employees to morning meetings and regular safety classes costs money.
"We don't want to make a profit putting our workers in harm's way," Mr. Murray said. "That's not an honest way to do it."
BILINGUAL HELP Smaller builders that don't have the corporate support and money to do in-depth training also find ways to make their immigrant workers safe, said Teresa Groves, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Southern Tennessee.
For Mexico native Luis Becerra's 12 years in construction in the U.S., few sites have been without interpreters. At the BlueCross site, one person in his pod of workers can speak both languages. The Cameron Hill project is unique, though, he said.
"It's one of the only jobs that gives safety training as a part of orientation," Mr. Becerra said through an interpreter. "They do it in both English and Spanish. That's unusual."
Larger construction sites have more help for non-English speakers, he said.
Mr. Payne said he looks for that bilingual link when hiring a crew.
"Typically we have one or more (workers) that speak fluent English ... and that's how I communicate with them," he said. "I don't know if the workers I hire have just been Americanized or what, but they seem to understand what our level of safety is here."
Mr. Franco said that, as a supervisor, workers "feel more comfortable and protected by me because I speak their language."
He shows PowerPoint slides to new employees to explain their safety rights. At the end, a slide that displays a photo of a young girl reads, "They expect you to come home safely. So do we."
Mr. Franco said he is serious about safety.
"An accident here is a tragedy here and back in our home country," he said. "We remind them of their families."
E-mail Adam Crisp at acrisp@timesfreepress.com
Since Katrina I have spent around half my time in New Orleans helping rebuild. Some of this has been my own work while the rest has been with organizations and on my one helping others rebuild.
And while my sample size is not that great, perhaps a few hundred, people I can tell you that I have had to teach a higher percentage of Americans to do simple carpentry math than I have immigrants.
The bottom line is that a basic education only needs to include the skills needed for your line of work. The immigrants I worked with knew how to cut a 45 degree angle and how to float sheet rock. Most of the Americans did not.
At the time I needed people that could do simple construction math and float sheet rock and I did nor really care if they could talk to me about William Shakespeare.
“And who besides you is calling them non-Americans?”
Well there are these comments from the reporter...
“Mexico native Luis Becerra’s “
“As the nation’s construction work force becomes increasingly Hispanic”
“Spanish-speaking workers outnumber English speakers three to one.”
“Hispanics are “who’s doing the work,”
“Anibal Franco, a project engineer from Colombia,”
“back in our home country”
“non-English speakers,”
Ahhhhhhh Americans from other countries speak, read and write English...
There is mo need for intepreters for Americans...
...
“Hispanic-Americans”
Look who is discriminating now...
According to you a rapist who just hapens to be “Hispanic” must not be identified as such...but its OK to accuse workers of being “Hispanic”
make up your mind...
Tennessee invasion ping.
Now that you mention it...
California Homes Scourged – American Workers Will Be Burned Next
What a great read...
I had heard about the Black Americans being told to go home, “the Mexicans are here now”
Where’s Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson about this discromination against blacks?
Crickets forever....Like the murders of young blacks by Hispanic illegal aliens in NJ...
Roger Hitchcock gives updates about the Hispanic illegal aliens in the McGonigle Canyon near Rancho Penasquitos ...
He also mentioned the illegal aliens who were not victims of the fire, lining up for the goodies...What cheats...
>>The bottom line is that a basic education only needs to include the skills needed for your line of work. The immigrants I worked with knew how to cut a 45 degree angle and how to float sheet rock. Most of the Americans did not.<<
One reason that in some areas there is a shortage of Americans with carpentry skills, and other construction skills, is that wages are depressed in construction. And I would agree that the US public education system has failed to educate students to compete with students around the world in math and science. In my opinion, having millions of illegals who are consuming tax money dedicated to schools and other services is not going to help.
>>At the time I needed people that could do simple construction math and float sheet rock and I did nor really care if they could talk to me about William Shakespeare.<<
Did you care whether they were here illegally?
Actually, I know Mexicans who are very capable and educated in literature and other fields, (who could hold their own debating Shakespeare vs. Cervantes) but the ones I know stayed in Mexico. In my opinion, we have enough native born people here who are not well educated, and we don’t need millions more here illegally.
BS, the prime contractor sets the rules and decides who is and who isn't going to work on their project. They can make proof of insurance and tax payments and withholdings part of the bid process and they would if they were honest people.
I base my comments on over forty years of construction experience and exposure to perhaps ten thousand projects.
Insurance requirements are largely set by the Owner and his consultant in setting up the prime contract documents. Those requirements flow down to all subcontractors on the job.
Tax payments and withholding are established by law for all employers. Requirements for "certified payroll copies" are established by the prime contract documents for all contractors and subcontractors on a project based upon the Owner's need to establish a wage verification set of documents for involvement of federal or local government funds in the financing of the project.
In my experience I have only seen first hand about five instances of someone getting nailed on payroll kick-backs and it has always been a subcontractor/trade contractor.
The reason for this is simple -- generals can't make much money doing it compared to the risk. A GC has generally 2% to 10% of his contract in self-performed payroll. A subcontractor has typically 30% to 60% of his cost in self-performed payroll.
GC's chisel the sub prior to making the subcontract or cheat him in final payments with claims for deficiencies if they are wanting to unethically increase their margin.
Usually, the kick-back scheme occurs when the government sets prevailing wages higher than the subcontractors are paying and the man making 18.00 per hour is mandated to receive 26.00. His employer or a supervisor says: Hey, I will put you on for 21.00 but you will kick me back 5 of the 26 for doing so.
When this is suspected the faulting employer is liable to have a disgruntled employee and they make a claim to the Labor Department who starts a massive audit down to looking at original check endorsements and outside bank accounts. The Labor Department never has to reveal who made the complaint in certain cases.
Keep in mind my experience is on large commercial construction, not residential and not highway or road work.
Most other kick-back schemes in the construction industry involve crooked Owner reps, union officials, or corrupt local politicians or inspectors getting a prime or sub to pay to line their pockets.
The instances of this have largely vanished in the last twenty years compared to the 40s thru 70s as machine politics has left local government and organized crime has pushed back from their detail control of some construction unions.
These are my honest observations based upon my experience and observations of competitors -- not speculations. If your direct experience has been otherwise you can cite the instances but I am trying to explain what actually occurs rather than characterize various segments of the industry.
Darned good question.
Yes, the male Hispanic dropout rate down here is about 50%.
You say you are on your way to Texas...fair warning. Everything from grocery store ads to elevator signs to highway signs to automatically filling prescriptions are given in English and Spanish. We are gracious and accepting of this practice. It would be well advised to do the same and not criticize.
I never knew that! Where are you from, if I may ask?
If ICE was doing its job, it would be at the construction site arresting illegal alien workers.
Americans will do any job. However, it is cheaper for construction contractors to hire illegal aliens than Americans.
All of the licenses and driver certificates issued to illegal aliens should be immediately revoked by the Tennessee Department of Safety.
http://tancredo4prez.blogspot.com/
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