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
However, you said that the illegals pour into Tennessee for free schools but you also say that they do not value education.
Why would they come all the way to Tennessee for free schools if they did not value education.
You also said that they pour into Tennessee for Welfare but then you say they work doing construction.
Which is it? Do they come here to work or to be on Welfare?
There may be some merit to your statement as long as you are suggesting that the English speakers who were not born in the US are NOT US citizens...
If their “children” (regardless of age and relationship...who checks?)are enrolled in our schools, they can apply for all the other free bennies....
As for me, English was not my first language but I learned it soon after moving to the States. However, I was lucky, I was young, my family spoke English and I lived in an English speaking community.
However, I can take you to Greek communities in Chicago or Polish communities in New York where you will find second and third generation Americans that cannot speak the English Language.
Bakersfield...in the Central Valley...right?
Where many of the Dust Bowl refugees went...
A big part of Americana gone for good...
Right, like in ‘The Grapes of Wrath’.
Now, it’s just another barrio...
Yes, the welfare system is broken and there are there are citizens that cheat the welfare system as well.
NO!
You are so right about that. Sadly.
Fifty percent Hispanic drop out rate.
But were not putting up signs for them or being run out of businesses because we can't speak their language, are we?
>>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.<<
Probably they meant to write, “four Hispanic workers died at this construction site in 2006.” Those 2 sentences as written are contradictory.
>>Mr. Franco said he is serious about safety.<<
That’s what they all say.
When I was young I drove a taxi in Houston. They called me to a can factory to pick up a Hispanic (probably illegal) man whose finger was cut off in an accident, to take him to the hospital. They were too cheap to call an ambulance.
Apparently none of the other drivers wanted to pick him up because they were afraid he would bleed too much in the cab.
Sure, but there are communities in the U.S. where the drop out rate of US born students is greater than 50%.
Yes we do. Take a walk around Greenpoint Brooklyn and you will find lots of signs in Polish.
>>Sure, but there are communities in the U.S. where the drop out rate of US born students is greater than 50%.<<
And what do you think is the % of Latin Americans who finish the 12th grade and then come here illegally? You don’t count someone who stops going to school after the 6th grade as a “dropout?”
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