Two of the hard-working men who roofed our house. The supervisor willingly told us that the reason so many of the roofing companies use Hispanic immigrants is that the men have a good work ethic and that they "are cheaper." He assured me that they are treated "fairly." I don't think that a two-tier pay scale is terribly fair! I'm going to have to check to see why unions have not interceded. Perhaps because some (many?) of the workers are illegal? The boss man assured me that all of his workers are legal. Time to stir things up...I shall suggest that our local paper do a feature on roofing. Wouldn't hurt to contact the Attorney General's office either.
Two of the hard-working men who roofed our house. The supervisor willingly told us that the reason so many of the roofing companies use Hispanic immigrants is that the men have a good work ethic and that they "are cheaper." He assured me that they are treated "fairly." I don't think that a two-tier pay scale is terribly fair! I'm going to have to check to see why unions have not interceded. Perhaps because some (many?) of the workers are illegal? The boss man assured me that all of his workers are legal. Time to stir things up...I shall suggest that our local paper do a feature on roofing. Wouldn't hurt to contact the Attorney General's office either.
Yeah they are cheaper and my Gary can't get a job for over a year because they ARE doing the jobs he is willing to do. That was the argument in California, they are doing the jobs we won't do, BS. Gary was in a store recently and a woman there said the same thing, "well who would clean my home, my pool and mow my lawn?" Gary said I would, she said well they are cheaper, he'd even work for what they were willing to work for if he could. Bigger companies hiring them would have to pay worker's comp and take out taxes and they wouldn't want to do that. States like Alabama try to pass tough immigration laws and the feds won't let them because they want the illegal votes (yeah they get fake ids and vote and collect welfare too, in Los Angeles you can get a fake drivers license and social security card for $3), no wonder the economy is so bad. It's all politics and the little guy suffers while the companies get richer. When we had our roof done here we asked who would be roofing it and made sure no one was illegal. One guy in our neighborhood has a landscaping business and all his worker's are illegal. He has boats, brand new cars, motorhomes, big fancy landscaping trucks and trailers, a huge three bay shop out back, etc. Gary went around our neighborhood with flyers saying he'd pressure wash driveways, did we get one call, nope. Four businesses said they'd hire him when business picked up, so far it hasn't picked up for them, perhaps because they hire legal employees and are competing with the companies who hire illegal employees.
ReplyDeleteIn California we had carpet put in our bedroom just before we sold our home and the two guys who came from Home Depot didn't speak a word of English, of course I didn't know this till they got there with the carpet ready to install it, otherwise I would have refused to let them do the job. Then I'd probably be sued for discrimination.
I could tell even more stories as a relative of ours works for ICE but I'll stop here. Ha.
Muchos gracias for the roofer men portraits!
ReplyDeleteAdios amiga, Great Kate!
They look like nice men!
ReplyDeleteWorth checking into.
ReplyDeleteSame problems here. People are always going to go for the cheaper option. It ain't fair. Life ain't fair.
ReplyDeleteI recently heard an Arizona farmer give a presentation at an immigration conference. He said that in 45 years running his farm on the outskirts of Phoenix, he has never had a non-Hispanic last moer than a day or tow working in the fields.,
ReplyDeleteA fair wage for a job well done. Another thing to compare is the cost of a roofer installing the shingles vs an office worker sitting at a desk pushing papers around.
ReplyDeleteGo for it, Kate! There's a lot of hypocrisy going around about illegals. In some places, like Florida, the illegals do all the jobs no one else wants to do and get a pittance wage.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lowell! Nice shots!
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