INSTANT KARMA COMES TO THE CHARLOTTE NC CONSTRUCTION JOB MARKET
For Thanksgiving I had dinner with my cousin. Her husband, and daughters (who all work in the family business) were down in the dumps. For the last week the construction side of their architecture and building business was completely shut down.
When I started doing carpentry in the late 1970s, all the labor was provide by good ole boys and some blacks. By the 1990s when I started working with my cousin (she is now retired) and her husband, we started to see Hispanics. At the time I had a contractors license and they were both registered architects.
Our original brick mason was from West Virginia . The joke was that all the rednecks wound up in Charlotte because that was as far as a tank of gas would take you. He was eventually replaced by what had to be a True Light.
(In my limited understanding, True Lights are members of a small fundamentalist church in Mint Hill. The members' children are either taught home economics during the summer if they are girls or are work in apprenticeship programs if they are boys. Any money generated beyond what is needed to run the program is held in trust until the child turns 18. By that time the boys are fully trained in a skilled trade, sober, hard working, and given enough money to afford at least a down payment on a house. I personally know they run a brick mason training program. Given the fact that our new mason was in his early twenties, clean cut, and able to manage an entire brick mason business that was clearly not a business that he had inherited from a family member, the only reasonable explanation was that he was True Light.)
All his workers were Hispanic. I don't know his current status, but this could problematic. When times were slow, sometimes I would help a painting contractor. One year he was all excited because he had made contact with a Mexican who could provide all the labor he needed. No need to worry about drunk rednecks with the DTs. Next year he didn't mention Mexicans. I can guess what happened. His help saw how much he charged and tried to steal all his business by offering do it for less. (I once helped him work on the HCVA national headquarters in Maryland. One of the porta johns had graffiti that read, "Here I sit struggling and flexin' trying to create another Mexican." )
This is not idle speculation. I know that is the case for other construction trades. We once had a really great sheet rock finisher. His son had the idea of buying some carpentry tools and doing inside trim work. He told me they couldn't get any work because no matter what he bid, a Mexican would offer to do it for $100 less. Likewise for the stone mason. He an art degree from college. Once the Mexicans showed up, he was gone.
The same thing eventually happened to our framer and his son. Fortunately for them, they both still work for the company as project managers, but all the labor people like them once provided is now done by Mexicans.
I nine years ago I retired, but the situation has apparently gotten worse. Except for a few Americans who hold specialized occupational licenses (HVAC, electricians, and plumbers) and/or work as managers, almost all the actual labor is foreign. As the Wall Street journal once told me, the US needs to bring in immigrants because no American was willing to do my job.
This brings us to the current moment. Last week ICE showed up in Charlotte. They started grabbing anyone with a Hispanic name, and all the construction labor went into hiding. While I sympathize with my cousin's company, at the same time this seems like instant karma. You kicked all the rednecks in the teeth to save a few dollars. Now they aren't there when you need them. But, hey, you saved $100. What goes around comes around.
