Thread: Is the Construction Industry see the light?

Is the construction industry seeing the light? I'm just wondering. There is huge ad for a Construction Industry Career Day at Brookdale Community College here in NJ.

www.cicdnj.org or 732-225-2519

The reason I'm asking is they say they need 250,000 construction workers in NJ alone. Are they getting rid of the illegals?

They are looking for skilled workers but also jobs such as laborers, roofers, bricklayers. Jobs you usually might find illegals working in. The salary scales are really good too.

I hope this becomes a trend again. Start hiring AMERICANS.

Is the construction industry seeing the light?

I wouldn't bet on it. If you listen real carefully right now you can hear all those vans starting up in south Florida, full of illegals headed north to NJ.

Most of the contractors I know don't want to use illegals... but then their competition does (or the illegals themselves bid the work), and then they're forced into it because the Government won't protect them. ...same story as w/ other industries i guess.

However, an important point should be made: every single contractor I've talked to about this actually feels that home owners have just gotten used to artificially low prices, and that the market for renovation and construction has gotten out of whack. ...they WANT it back the way it was.

After Hurricane Wilma Miami Dade and Broward Counties started going after unlisenced contractor but it was short lived. They often use houses that the city confiscated and have renovation workers come and bid on the jobs and then arrest the unlicensed ones including illegals. The problem is that they figured it out and most work on large construction projects. What is sick is that they even work on city and county buildings. When they were building the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts ICE raided the job on numerous occassions rounding up over 20 illegals at a time. Part of government contracts should include if illegals are hired than their contract will be revoked.
What really scares me is the fact they are working on rebuilding New Orleans. If another hurricane should hit will those buildings get demolished and people in them get badly injured or die? This is one scenario unfortunately that would make the government realize that their laws should have been enforced.

Originally Posted by edstate

Most of the contractors I know don't want to use illegals... but then their competition does (or the illegals themselves bid the work), and then they're forced into it because the Government won't protect them. ...same story as w/ other industries i guess.

However, an important point should be made: every single contractor I've talked to about this actually feels that home owners have just gotten used to artificially low prices, and that the market for renovation and construction has gotten out of whack. ...they WANT it back the way it was.

Add to that when they use illegals the quality of work is not up to US standards in a lot of cases. Cheap is not always good.

Add to that when they use illegals the quality of work is not up to US standards in a lot of cases. Cheap is not always good.

This is certainly true. People really need to realize why the statement "You get what you pay for" is so true.
I have two friends who are contractors and neither one of them uses illegal help. They both try and keep an eye on the subcontractor's labor that they hire as well because too many times both of them have been burned by shotty work and this always causes them to redo the work and lose profits.

When I had my house built, most of the people who worked on it did not even speak English. The supervisor was final fired becuase the construction was so poor and since he couldn't communicate with the workers he couldn't get the house fixed. The light fixtures were held in place with papers shoved in the ceilings. When I asked about whether the workers were in the country legally, the official reply was that all the people who worked for the company were legal but they were not sure about the sub-contractors. Anyway it took four months after the final inspection to fix everything. Illegals are not helping americans and are taking jobs that americans want.

They are taking jobs Americans want and can do properly. Many construction jobs that can be done by legals with lots of experience are going to illegals. One evening I spoke to a young man at Starbucks and he said that he is remodelling offices for his dad as his dad owns several buildings but is concerned whether he will be able to find work once the jobs he has are over. This is due to all the illegals working those jobs.

When I built my house, I checked out the subcontractors myself, and made sure they didn't use illegals. You would be suprised how many legal/American Hispanics there are in the construction industy glad to get the work, even though their wages have been driven down somewhat by illegals. There are a lot of pissed off Americans in the construction industry that we need to get involved somehow. The problem is many of them are not on the internet.