July 15, 1999

Carpenters union organizes Hispanic workers

ISSAQUAH (AP) -- Jobs in the booming construction industry in the Puget Sound region are increasingly being filled by Hispanics.

As a result, the Carpenters Union has started to organize Hispanic construction workers, signing up hundreds in nine months.

Hispanic workers can be easy targets for abuse because of language barriers, willingness to work and occasional undocumented status. They sometimes receive wages below union scale with no benefits.

But jobs are plentiful.

"There's a huge demand for workers," said Sandra Olson, executive director of the Construction Industry Training Council. "Nobody can meet the need, here or nationwide."

Even though pay for a union carpenter in Seattle can be $20 an hour plus benefits, many young people avoid construction work.

High school students rank construction work only above grave digger or migrant worker on a survey of 250 occupations, Olson said.

So immigrants are filling the need, including Russians, Koreans and Bosnians, plus Canadians coming down from British Columbia.

Hispanics are likely the most visible immigrant group. Union organizer Jimmy Matta estimated Hispanic laborers are 80 percent of the workforce that frame and install drywall, especially at apartment buildings.

Denis David, who owns Cedar King Lumber in Redmond, said the number of Hispanics in his work force has grown from two to more than a dozen.

When an older brother makes $40,000 in construction, it gets noticed, David said.

David said he and a competitor are close to opening a school to teach workers how to install siding.

Construction was a good choice for Jose Juarez, 28, who did plumbing and refrigeration repairs in Mexico before moving to the Seattle area.

"I'm a man who likes to work with his hands," he said.

Contractor W.G. Clark offers safety talks in Spanish and incentives to workers to learn English, said Mike Sotelo, vice president of field operations for the Seattle construction company.

Perhaps the most remarkable change is inside the Carpenters Unions. Labor organizations have traditionally been hostile to low-wage immigrant workers.

But the Carpenters Union in September launched a drive to organize Hispanic workers, signing up about 500, said Eric Franklin, organizing director for the Pacific Northwest District Council of Carpenters.

The union has concluded the workers are here to stay, Franklin said.

"There's no alternative but to organize them," Franklin said. "It's a fact of life."