Taking the job search on the road
by Matthias G. Bernold and Veronica S. Zaragovia
As he looked out the dirty window of the old Ford minivan, Daryl Mackie leaned forward as the van approached East 97th Street and Third Avenue. “We’re in the war zone now,” he said, lowering his voice in a conspiratorial tone. “Our enemies are up the block. They are trying to intimidate us. That’s all they can do because we get there earlier and we work harder.”
At 6:30 a.m. almost every morning, Mackie climbs into the van with up to 10 people, mostly men, searching for work through United Hispanic Construction Workers, a non-profit coalition group. People usually find out about United Hispanic through relatives or friends who have found jobs in the past through the coalition. Many have no prior experience in construction, but they learn on the job.
They take a road trip around New York City, starting at Hunts Point in the South Bronx, where the office is located, and traveling some days to the tip of lower Manhattan. They stop the van at construction sites in search of work, even if it is just a job for only a day.
When the weather gets worse in late fall and winter, the search for possible employment can become exhausting. There is a decline in the overall number of available jobs. The van’s passengers never know where they will end up, but their mission is always clear: find work.
On a recent late November morning, however, there is no trace of the “haters” - the moniker used by the workers in the van to describe the men of other coalitions, mainly from Brooklyn and Queens, whom they view as their opponents. They compete with the United Hispanic workers for construction jobs in the city. Should United Hispanic workers feel potential jobs for them are taken by members of a competing coalition, they won’t hesitate to grab the wooden sticks they keep inside the van, behind the front seats in a long black bag, and physically fight with their opponents.
“We are trying to cover as much ground as possible,” said Mackie, 35, who, as the crew manager, leads his workers on visits through the city, relying on a long, handwritten list of construction sites. Every weekday night, the president of the coalition compiles this list, which he hands out to his crew managers early the next morning. “There is a lot of work out there,” Mackie said, “but you got to hustle. It’s hard to get everybody working.”
Inside the van, the heat is turned up full blast, creating a bit of a cozy atmosphere for the eight men who range in age from 26 to 54. Some of them are listening to music on radio station Hot 97, bobbing their heads and moving their hands to the rhythm, singing along to the lyrics of new hip-hop songs “No one” by Alicia Keyes and “Good life” by Kanye West.
A good life is exactly what the workers in this van are looking for. They are mostly from the Bronx and Harlem and have bills to pay, mouths to feed and families to support. Most people think of day laborers as illegal immigrants. These men are not. But their lack of formal education, little job training, and a life full of personal struggles have limited their employment options. Some walked a path that led them to homelessness or jail before looking for another chance in the van.
Now, those whom may have once dealt with drugs or wielded guns, are eager to operate a jackhammer or run a concrete mixer. “We’re from the ghetto,” Mackie said. “This is a good opportunity for people who have no education.”
Non-unionized jobs usually pay about $10 an hour, compared to union jobs, where hourly wages range from $15 to more than $40 an hour. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, the earnings in construction jobs is relatively high compared to other industries.
If a worker gets hired with the help of United Hispanic, he or she pays $25 a week to the coalition, which is a non-profit organization that receives some public and charitable financing. Those who remain without work, don’t have to pay a dime. With the construction boom in the city, the organization finds work after a few days for most of its van passengers during the good season.
Looking for work through the organization has produced results for Charlie Sease, 49, from the Bronx, who studied for four years to become a carpenter. Although he is a member in a local carpenters’ union, he is often unable to get a job because the union has a list of 2,000 to 3,000 other union members seeking jobs, he said.
“I gotta keep moving; I can’t wait that long,” Sease said. He said that you got “put shape in,” using the term for putting legwork in, if you want to work.
“They help us if we help them,” he said. “Your turn comes up. God willing, I’ll be working tomorrow.”
The employees of United Hispanic try hard to get their members hired. They take them out five days a week in the organization’s own two minivans. Sometimes, not everyone can fit in the vans. It’s first come, first serve.
Other times, the United Hispanic crew managers don’t have enough people to fill the vans because the available workers have been placed in jobs across different sites. Those who find work don’t take the van to work the next day, since they are responsible for getting to work and coming back home on their own.
“I get up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to do the paperwork and to make phone calls early,” said David Rodriguez, the elected president of United Hispanic. Rodriguez is a sturdy man with broad-shoulders; his nose reveals that he was once in the boxing ring, a Golden Gloves semi-finalist. He wears a Malcolm X pin on his jacket.
While Rodriguez is at his office in the Bronx, working the phones, arranging meetings and exploring work opportunities, the men in the van are approaching the first destination.
But the construction site for a new high rise on East 90th Street and Lexington Avenue has nothing to offer. “That doesn´t matter,” says Mackie, “we will be back tomorrow and might have 5 or 6 jobs then.”
Despite the uncertainty, skilled labor is in demand in the construction business. According to the New York Building Congress, a membership association, about $83 billion is expected to be spent from this year until 2009 on construction projects
James Brown, an analyst for the New York State Department of Labor, said that 128,300 people were employed in the construction industry in New York City during October 2007. This represents a 6,600 increase over the same period last year because of work underway at residential apartment buildings, new office spaces, redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and public and subway projects.
Nevertheless, finding jobs is not easy, especially not in winter, when temperatures below freezing do not allow the setting of concrete. It is also sometimes dangerous work. One week after following workers through their day as they sought jobs at construction sites, a member of the group died on Nov. 21 after slipping off a beam and falling several stories to his death. He had been with the coalition for a few months.
In 2004, cases of work-related injury and illness were almost 7 for every 100 full-time construction workers, which is higher than the 5.0 rate for the entire private sector, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Fatal work injuries are higher in the construction industry than any other sector, with 1,226 work related deaths in 2006, a 3 percent increase from 2005.
Yet, these men are determined, against all odds.
“There is no bad weather for work”, said Marcelle Jordan, 26, who rode in the front seat of the van to accommodate his frame. At 6 feet 5, he said that he could have become a basketball player “if [he] hadn’t done some stupid things.”
In fact, some weather conditions may work to their advantage.
“If there’s the biggest snowstorm, you come in,” said D.J. Jennings, 47, another crew manager. You might be the only person here and you’ll get a job quick. In rain we wear our plastic suits,” he said. “But a little sweat ain’t gonna kill you and it puts bread on the table.”
And so they drive on.
This site, at East 61st Street and York Avenue, where condominiums are going up, won’t get bread on the table, either. “If there is no job, I can’t hire nobody,” says one of the site managers who wore a white helmet, a purple shirt and a suit. On construction sites, each construction company gives its workers a different-colored hat from the rest.
“He knows we are going to come back,” Mackie said, heading for the next site on the list. “To me, it’s quite a skill we practice. It’s not about being lucky, it’s about working hard and being at the right place at the right time.”
By 11:20 a.m., the van had stopped at the last site in Manhattan that was on the list. Shortly after noon, they find the last site in the Bronx deserted. Mackie finally surrenders. “Office,” he says. And the van moves on.
Tomorrow, however, is a new day. |
