Mexican "immigrants" getting most New orleans reconstruction jobs

[msongs]

from the Monday October 10 LA Times"

"Immigrants rush to New Orleans as Contractors Fight for Workers"

sorry don't know how to link to their site, it is very intrusive for gaining access, but here is what the article basically says in segments that are paraphrased -

lured by jobs paying $15-17 an hour spanish speaking day laborers are flooding the city

some contractors say they are hiring from the street corners because most workers fled after the hurricane."everyone's fighting for workers."

demand is so great that day laborers are negotiating pay upward.

to meet the demand new local business are springing up as temporary employment agencies. the employers let the temp agencies worry about the fine points of immigration issues. "There is a don't ask don't tell mentality right now".

according the AP mayor Nagin said "How do I ensure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers?"

"According to census figures, in 2000 there were about 15,000 Hispanics in New Orleans, or 3% of the population. Latino leaders and academic experts say the newcomers are likely to change the face of the city."

Some fast food joints are paying $9 an hour and Burger King is offering a $6000 hiring bonus paid in monthly installments for people who stay a year.

Hispanics are filling the vacuum left by evacuated African Americans, many of whom do not plan to return to New Orleans.

Immigrants are coming to stay because they can buy abandoned properties cheaply, and there is no shortage of places to live tho many of those places need fixing up.

------
Evidently Katrina is not a disaster for everyone.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/clark2008.htm

[Cha]

1. I thought with the repealing of

the Davis Bacon act that the salaries per hour would be around $5.00?

edit~changed to Bacon!

[pitohui]

2. the reality is quite otherwise

the law of supply & demand cannot be repealed by the chimpster

if you want workers, you gotta pay because otherwise the homeowner who IS willing to pay will get the roofer, electrician, & all the rest

i live near one of the burger kings offering the $6K bonus, this program is v. real

"now hiring" signs are everywhere, businesses can't maintain normal hrs because workers have nowhere to live so the businesses can't get sufficient workers

[Cha]

3. Good, but I think the workers

and carpenters who lived in New Orleans should have first crack at the jobs.

[hwmnbn]

9. Jeese Jackson and his organization....

Operation Push left Chicago today in a bus caravan carrying displaced Katrina victims. They are heading back to New Orleans demanding reconstruction jobs for the New Orleans residents.

They will pick up more along the way and coordinate their housing and employment. I heard that this afternoon on a local news show.

Far out!!

[annabanana]

17. VERY good to hear...

There ought to be busses and busses of willing workers on their way home.

[earth mom]

44. WOW! What Wonderful News!!!

:woohoo:

:bounce:

[pitohui]

11. yes i absolutely agree

i don't think illegals who don't know the language & are living in tents or in parking lots are necessarily getting the money

i suspect the language barrier is being used to take advantage not so much the spanish speakers who do seem to know the score but the mayan and other native speakers who may not be aware that they are being cheated & the contractor is just pocketing the difference in pay

a big problem is we DO need decent housing, the locals do want to work but we are not used to living in tents or in the back seat of somebody's truck

to get the workers here, we need FEMA to shake loose more of the trailers

[Why Syzygy]

5. It's Davis-Bacon Act

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=Davis-Bacon&docid=LA20030014 .snipped.

Carpenter
Drywall & Metal Stud
Installation................$ 14.00 0.70
Formbuilding/Formsetting....$ 12.70 0.56
All Other Work..............$ 13.68 0.00
Cement Mason/Concrete Finisher.$ 12.28 0.00
Laborers:
Common......................$ 9.55 1.05
Mason Tender................$ 9.32 0.00
Power Equipment Operator
Backhoe/Excavator...........$ 14.00 0.42
Bulldozer...................$ 15.17 0.00
Crane.......................$ 14.00 1.80
Roofer (including Built Up,
Composition and Single Ply)
(includes metal roof)..........$ 12.28 0.00
Sheet Metal Worker (excluding
HVAC duct).....................$ 13.26 1.91


Labor leaders of Gulf Coast states to demand Davis-Bacon be reinstated
Labor leaders from the Gulf States of Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana will be holding a joint conference tomorrow to demand that President George W. Bush reinstate the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage Act. The law required that federal contractors’ not lower community construction wages less than $20,000 a year for skilled full-time work. In that region during clean-up government contractors have also received a pass on applying affirmative action standards for hiring and rules that stipulate the number of hours a truck driver can work have been lifted.

AFL-CIO | White House | Posted 09/28/2005 - 9:05pm
http://www.laborradio.org/092905a


Think that’s ripe? He then tells them they can go ahead and hire people at dirt-cheap wages by suspending the Davis-Bacon Act, which compels workers under federal contract to receive the prevailing local wage, which was already an amazingly low $9 per hour. Are these guys going to be working at minimum wage? Yeah, because Bush says money is tight, real tight, and we all have to suck it up and take one for the team. But don’t worry, his signature tax cuts will not be messed with, he was quick to assure us. Amen, sir. Leave my tax cut alone. Lose the Davis-Bacon thing, don’t make anybody bid on the reconstruction jobs, but leave my tax cut alone. I need a new frying pan. Uh, then again, where’s the money going to come from for all the Halliburton contracts? I suggest you put a lock on the medicine cabinets, seniors.

http://www.canyon-news.com/artman/publish/article_3600.php

[Cha]

15. Thanks!

:)

[Why Syzygy]

23. Ironically

the ex and I did a job in Mississippi in 1994. Built Circus Circus in a trench they call "river boat", in Tunica.

All the labor was from Louisiana. Those cajuns can get crazy at times. There was no available housing. The company set up a few trailers and the rest had to stay in motels. He used to have to go round them up to go to work. Saw one of them passed out on the job one day. He was just about od'd on Nyquil.

They got paid on Friday. On Monday, they would be in there asking for a pay advance. One of them smoked some crack (we heard) and jumped off the balcony of his motel into the SHALLOW end of the pool on 4th of July. He lived, but didn't have much of a face left. They make damn good jambalaya though.

[sandnsea]

7. stories

You know, I've heard these stories about burger-flipping jobs for years, off and on. I've never in my life actually met someone who got paid more than minimum wage for flipping burgers. And $10-$15 for construction work is normal old shit pay, at least around here. $25 is going rate for skilled construction workers.

[pitohui]

13. well come to new orleans honey

this is not a story, i am in walking distance of a burger king which has a prominently displayed sign which states it will pay a $6K bonus to new hires

starting pay at burger king has jumped from $5.15 an hr to $8.50 an hr since katrina

$25 hasn't been the going rate for skilled construction workers in yrs, of course, because now the crews come from mexico, guatemala, etc. however katrina is changing that also -- if you don't wanna pay, the crew will go elsewhere, there are LOTS of jobs needing to be done & the man who is willing to pay will get the play

[sandnsea]

30. like I said, stories

Sorry if I've heard one too many from the so-called horse's mouths that didn't turn out to be true. $25 is the rate here, unless you go to Cardinal to get a job. Which is why I said $10-15 is standard pay for illegal day labor, which means New Orleans is humming along just like every other city in the country.

[raccoon]

41. Thanks for that post.

My guess is you don't live in a "right to work" state.

I'll never understand why so many people who would be HELPED by unions seem to think unions are to be avoided at all costs.

[cami715]

4. Mayor Nagin is laying off 3000 city workers in NO.

Why were these jobs not offered to them instead of to the Mexicans?

[Skink]

6. Davis Bacon is for later once things die down.

[mshasta]

8. because the mexicans

are willing to stay with the biohazard environment...and god knows what freaking viruses are up there...they are willing to sleep 15 of them in one rotten house, they are willing to take wherever the Americans are rejecting ...

[pitohui]

14. well those are different types of jobs of course

that said, educated men w. degrees who have lost their job are joining clean-up crews for that $15-20 an hr

[UTUSN]

10. And THE/Your Point Is???????????

so these Mexicans are just scarfing up these HUGH hourly wages. The embedded corollary IS WHAT?----------that 'muricans don't want/do these jobs?

Anecdotal: Some peeps from the East come down to the South and won'ta take skill jobs for less than $15 per hour. So Mexicans DO.

[amandabeech]

12. And people are surprised at this?

It was obvious right from the get-go.

I wonder if it will be difficult for non-Spanish speakers to fit into the reconstruction crews. It might not be safe to have workers who cannot communicate with one another in a hazard zone.

[pitohui]

18. it's perfectly safe

they seem to work OK when i've seen them working together, a tone of voice pretty much says it all when you are calling out a quick caution

i don't think we need to force everyone to speak a single language before we're allowed to work together just yet

i just don't like to see language used as a barrier to cheat ppl, some of these illegals are little more than slaves

[earth mom]

16. Once more the citizens of New Orleans get the shaft!

:grr:

I'm really sick of people saying that Americans don't want to do the jobs that illegal immigrants will do. That is TOTAL BULLSHIT. There is NO where for citizens AND their families to live! Would YOU after being treated like so much human garbage go back to that town and subject your family to the kind of inferior and sordid living conditions the illegals are being subjected too?! How about leaving your family behind?! VERY doubtful many if any Americans would do that. Nor should they have too! I guess it's NOT okay to ask for decent living conditions and any kind of humane treatment by employers! :eyes:


:rant:

[pitohui]

19. yes we need decent housing

not tents & workers relieving themselves in the great outdoors & washing up when they can in some gas station bathroom

you can treat an illegal like that until he catches on that there is better out there but you can't expect a local, w. his family, to live like that, we already know better

[amandabeech]

20. I think that contractors should be required to advertise in areas

known to be temporary home to evacuees explaining pay and housing conditions.

And OSHA and its state equivalent and the state and local housing authorities should get in there right now to make sure that basic safety and hygiene codes are being observed.

[Telly Savalas]

25. So what will you have them do?

As you say, there is nowhere for citizens and their families to live. Since decent living conditions won't just magically materialize out of nowhere, somebody's gotta build them.

[earth mom]

43. How about getting some trailers in there or better yet....

let nola citizens and their families live in the French Quarter where I read that there was a high unoccupancy rate BEFORE the hurricane. There should be some housing there now, no doubt.

[Telly Savalas]

21. They are paying $15 to $17 an hour.

Why aren't American citizens taking these jobs?

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. Maybe because they have been scattered to the wind?

Those who did reside in NOLA have been *outsourced* from their homes and don't have the means to get back and therefore aren't there to do these jobs of rebuilding their city?

[Telly Savalas]

28. I'm not talking solely about ex-NOLA residents.

Why aren't U.S. citizens from nearby areas attracted by the higher paying work?

Some in this thread are trying to spout Minutemen propaganda, but from the LA Times article, this is clearly a case where the contractors are having a really hard time finding people to do the work so they're taking whoever they can.

[earth mom]

45. I would NOT believe anything a corporate business owner said-EVER. nt

[EFerrari]

42. I read last week that the owner of the biggest hotel chain

procured undocumented workers for his chain.

Think about it. Cheaper labor, no responsibility. These bastards never change.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. They gave a ninety day grace period for I-98 papers

that said, this is the chaos they love, craetes more hate

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cap]

27. no... it's just playing one group off against another

that's just really sickening.

How about this... illegals should obtain the same pay and conditions as all American citizens.

Also, any jobs should go to the dispossessed first. No out of staters, be they Mexican or New Yorkers.

[Bridget Burke]

37. From the excerpts, the article is conflating two groups....

The Mexicans who are working in NOLA--illegal or not.

And people who are buying up "abandoned" properties. Are they the workers? Do the jobs pay THAT well?

Yes, the people of NOLA should have first dibs on the jobs; many will need temporary housing to make this possible. But the longterm damage will be done by developers.

[Why Syzygy]

31. Why are the American people

obligated to ILLEGALs being in our country?

War on TERROR! Remember? What is more terrifying than having someone who has no right to work, live, occupy space, take resources in our "Homeland". WHAT?

It has nothing whatsoever to do with "race". We have plenty of diversity and I celebrate it. I don't want people stealing our stuff. Period. I don't care where they come from. You could be considered "racist" for not allowing the black Americans from NOLA to go ahead and do the jobs. How 'bout that?

[Bridget Burke]

36. But someone who read the article said they WEREN'T illegal!

The OP added the quotation marks.

[Why Syzygy]

47. okay.

If they are citizens or have fulfilled their requirements to work in the US, what's the problem? I thought they were just running over the border to grab jobs. Sorry. My misunderstanding.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[earth mom]

46. Word. eom

[nomatrix]

29. U.S. History of the South

A temporary political vacuum existed in the postwar South. Confederate military and political leaders were temporarily prohibited from participating in the political process. Republican governments filled the void and were able to retain control by depending upon the votes of the newly enfranchised blacks. Blacks were vital to the process, but that did not mean that they ran affairs. Two groups actually pulled the strings of government:

Scalawags—a derogatory term (originally describing worthless livestock) applied to native white Southerners who supported the federal reconstruction plan and cooperated with the blacks in order to achieve their ends. Some of the scalawags were entirely above board, having opposed the Confederacy in earlier times and later wanted a new South to emerge from the rubble. Others cooperated with or served in the Republican governments in order to avail themselves of money-making opportunities.

Carpetbaggers—also a term of derision, but applied to Northerners who went South during Reconstruction, motivated by either profit or idealism. The name referred to the cloth bags many of them used for transporting their possessions, but today is applied to any recently arrived opportunist. Despite the negative connotation of the name, many carpetbaggers were sincerely interested in aiding the freedom and education of the former slaves.

Both the scalawags and the carpetbaggers were resented by many Southerners and became the targets of the Ku Klux Klan.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h240.html

Edit to add link

[Bridget Burke]

32. How are they buying abandoned properties?

Are they getting paid THAT much? Has anyone spoken up saying: "That is MY Property that was sold?"

You parenthesize immigrants in your title to let us know they're really illegals. (Wink, wink, nudge,nudge.) How can THEY buy property? How many real estate offices are open?

Who wrote the article? How many black evacuees have they spoken to, so they know they don't plan to return?

NOLA faces a greater threat from developers, building soulless, expensive homes for yuppies--than it faces from the "immigrants."

[maddezmom]

33. here's the link to the LATimes article

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-migrants10oct10,1,7502212.story

[Neil Lisst]

34. This was entirely predictable. You knew illegals would be ...

You knew they'd relocate blacks, bring in illegals, and then divide up the real estate booty. New Orleans will be picked over by arbitrageurs and speculators, who will buy foreclosed properties and distressed properties cheap, then get federal money to rebuild.

Bush is already counting on the political contributions such spending can bring him and pukes.

-----------------------
today I shout out to DU mods and posters
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/

[maddezmom]

35. from reading the article

the immigrants are legal, not illegal :shrug:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

39. Good for them. Why shouldn't they get jobs?

Oh, right...they're not 'merkuns. Only 'merkuns should be able to work and support their families.

[NorthernSpy]

48. well, given that this is all on "Merkun" soil...

... yes, "Merkuns" should be ones to do these jobs, and the displaced themselves (of all ethnicities) should get first crack at the work.

Which is why I applaud the Rev. Jesse Jackson's busing campaign to bring displaced people back to New Orleans so that they can get hired to do the rebuilding. Jackson takes a lot of flack for various things, but in this case, he's actually doing something -- not just protesting and making statements.

http://www.volunteertv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3964842

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

49. Big news! Immigrants ARE "displaced" people too.

All poor people deserve a way to make a living. Even those who aren't "real" Americans because they don't have "papers" that say they are.

[NorthernSpy]

51. so tell that to their respective governments!

I want my government to protect the working class of my own country before it tries to do anything else for anyone else.

[sepia_steel]

53. If they want the benefits that living in America has to offer

then there is no reason they shouldn't come into the country LEGALLY instead of HURTING our economy. Give the poor people who are here rightfully the jobs first!!

[EFerrari]

40. Well, despite the economic gain, it's also true that non of those

workers -- who frequently are bussed in by their employers -- can ever ask for health care or even decent working conditions.

So, actually, we won't know if Katrina was a disaster for these workers or not for a while yet.

[Jack_DeLeon]

50. I dont see the problem...

Lots of people probably dont ever plan to move back to New Orleans, here are some people who see an opportunity and are taking it.

[NorthernSpy]

52. sorry, but the scene of this tragedy isn't just another "opportunity"...

... for all and sundry to swoop in and exploit. I refuse to accept any attempt to push the displaced out of participation in the rebuilding of their own city.

And please don't assume that the people of New Orleans have no intention of returning home, just because some idiot on the news says so. That's speculation.

Actually, with the bus convoys that have been organized, people are already returning to take jobs in the city that is STILL their hometown.

[Bridget Burke]

54. The people of NOLA will need to fight for their city.

And I think the developers are more of a threat than Mexican immigrants, legal or not.

[Jack_DeLeon]

55. its not exploitation...

Yes its a tragedy what happened to New Orleans, but the flip side of any tragedy that results in this kind of destruction is the chance to rebuild and improve.

I didnt make my commment about some of those people not going back because of "some idiot" on the news. I made it because of all the interviews on the news of various refugees who claimed they werent going to go back. I live in Corpus Christi, TX we had our fair share of them too and some of them found jobs here and are staying.

I think you are really stretching your credibility to claim that the ammount of people who are going to go back are anywhere near the ammount that left.

I think its really funny how many closet racists we have in these kinds of threads.

The kind who claim it must be some kind of racism to get rid of the blacks and to bring in the Mexicans.

IMO its obviously the other way around. There are some racists who dont want Mexicans there because it doesnt belong to them it "belongs" to the blacks.

Last I checked this was a free country, cities arent owned by any one group of people. Anybody is free to come and go and look for work wherever they want.

[NorthernSpy]

56. actually, my only claim is that America belongs to Americans...

Those displaced by this disaster should be hired preferentially during the rebuilding. And no one but Americans and those foreign nationals who are here legally should be permitted employment. That's all. It's a pretty modest demand.

Remember: "American" is not a race. It's a nationality. Nationality and class are the bases of my solidarity.

IMO its obviously the other way around. There are some racists who dont want Mexicans there because it doesnt belong to them it "belongs" to the blacks.
Last I checked this was a free country, cities arent owned by any one group of people. Anybody is free to come and go and look for work wherever they want.

New Orleans belongs first to the people who actually live there, and then to all Americans. The city and its culture are a critical part of our national heritage. Sure -- some individuals may choose to stay away, and others may arrive in their place: that is to be expected. But the prospect of the majority of the people who created this unique culture ending up frozen out of their home territory and dispersed into some kind of permanent exile is unthinkable.