Thread: WAAAH! Immigrant workers vital to business owners

Originally Posted by Captainron

Originally Posted by magyart

He's a white, conservative Republican who owns a light manufacturing company and employs about 125 people. In the 1990s, he began getting job applicants with Social Security numbers that could not be matched.

No doubt has been voting Republican ( which is OK ). The party that out sources business & technology to China. The party that raises the trade deficit with every "free trade" agreement, the party that let Communsist China into the WTO.

I worked for a small stell procesing center in Columbus, OH. Half the employees were immigrants. When they initially started their English would be almost zero. They were small, hard working and LEGAL.

They all came from Macedonia. The land of Alexander the Great.

It help that the production scheduler and supervisor were also Macedonian immigrants. They had been with the company 20 years.

We had to work at this. We also insisted everyone was legal. They wanted to be legal. They wanted a job in America. Their opportunities here were 1,000 times better.

The guys rarely married an American girl. They always went home to pick a bride and bring her to the US. Many 1st generation men also went to their homeland for a bride. ( just facts )

There are some higly intelligent people who just cannot get a toehold in their home country to advance in their career or form a business. Their education may be superior to that of most Americans, too. The US needs businesses that are on the cutting edge of technology and can heip us maintain/regain leadership in exports. This is a lot different from letting in people who need extensive "rehab."

One solution for businesspeople who are stymied in not getting enough illegal aliens: Go to work for a company as an employee. Or form a parrtnership. Or reorganize your production so the jobs require more skill and you can pay more.

We weren't cutting edge technology but we used rotary knives to cut steel coils length wise. For each group leader we needed two men capable of learning to operate and three more willing to work hard.

Cranes and forklifts did the heavy tasks, but it got hot in the summer. It wasn't unusual to be over !00 degrees.

High School education was enough. Needed to be able to use a tape measure and micrometer.

It took longer for a Macedonian to learn the job. He also had to learn to read & write English and the English measurments system. They ALL were excellant workers ! We still used English rather than metrics. Although we could package and identify and ship it in metric.

I loved working there.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

When you said they came from Macedonia, it makes me wonder why a company would have a number of immigrants from the same country?

I probably am not asking the right question, but I can't imagine open hiring ending up with a large number of immigrants from one particular country. Is there a reason this happens?

I realize friends tell friends, relatives bring relatives, but it's strange to
me.

They were all from the same area of Macedonia. Many were related. They dreamed of coming to America. Many times we just said, "call yr cousin". He might already be here in some dead end job, because he was a foreginer. Hell, we would call him on a Fri. and he would be at work Mon.

Our pay was usually better than what he made else where + overtime and benefits. Much better than McD's. Remeber we had been hiring Macedonians fro 20 years. Some of them planned to come to America, as soon as they finished high school. These bright young guys usually studied English in school, so they had it easier. They stayed with relatives or roomed together.

Remember the Supervisor and the Production Scheduler were Macidonian. They pulled a little weight.

Not too many blacks stayed with us or young white men. One smart hard working black guy, right out of high school told me, "I'll be working at Honda soon. I just need some experience before they hire me." He did a good jib, Honda called and I gave him a good reference. Before he left, I told him, forget what you learned here, learn how Honda wants things done, do it Honda's way. I suspect smart blacks had better opportunities elsewhere.

I also have my own thoughts about mixing too many cultures and races. It just tuffer to handle all races and a dozen or more cultures. I also worked a short while at a plastics company. People from all over the world worked there, All races, religions, cultures. It was wild. Nothing wrong with it but sometimes communucation was more difficult. Sometimes feelings were hurt, due to misunderstanding.

But many minorities are better than just two. With just two, they seem to pick on each other.

The steel processing plant was easier, Basically white & black, American & Macedonian, English & Macidonian.

In 15 years we hired one Latino. He did ok. His English was worst than my Spanish. However, he could work an entry level job. I put him on the end of our shear line. He helped package the rectangular packages of steel. I also used him to do some final inspection. I did the check sheet in English.Spanish and had use a metric tape measure. His education was metrics, not English. Basically, it it was off more than a milleleter, he was ro record it and tell the Operator. The Op. took gorrective action.

He stayed 6 mos and went back to Hondorus.

Thanks for the explanation. It has been a long time since I worked at a regular job and this is all new to me.