Who has Latino workers? Help with advice please.

not trying to get nasty in the racial subject here,
but i feel that the american youth DO feel that hard work is beneath them and that there is always a way out..gov $ for school , welfare etc
where the illegal immigrant will take $50 a day dragging brush because its better than the $3. a day that they made in their native lands.
once a child that was born and raised as an american, educated by OUR schools and society goes out to work...they want too much $ to start and hold too high a value on themselves, and physically cant work as hard as an import can.
i'd love to see our own people doing these jobs but i doubt it and for the price most of us charge the client if we paid what these kids want we' d be priced right out of the job.
so there is always going to be a foreigner coming to do the hard work because american or americanized kids grew up on x box and pizza
its a shame but sadly its reality, until something in our own society changes ,
so welcome to america, here is your casco and lentes, and here is some brush put it in that over there, you get paid on friday
maybe im on a soapbox, but im dissapointed in our own youth,
 
What agencies do you all use.

Just thought I'd give some life to this thread again in case there are any new readers out there that might add some new good information.

Are there any tree companies on the East Coast reading this that use an agency that is good?

First my brother used Amigos. Good but expensive.

2nd year they and I used a small operation called Critical Labor. -it was not positive. Hard to get ahold of him and he never did get me a replacement (as he said he would) for the guy I fired. Also, we were shorted a guy from the beginning.

This year I am thinking about an agency called Workforce Advantage in Virginia. I hear positive things about them. When I called them today for the first time, someone was there to answer the phone and they want to set up an appointment to meet in person for next week, they also e-mailed me there 2007 prospectus today.

Are there any of you business owners in the East willing to share positive or negative remarks about agency experiences? or are ya too competitive to help each other out with advice? :)

Mark, with all your crews in New Jersey.... don't you use some hispanic workers?
 
I've had both kinds of workers , but nothing beats having your own kids work w/ you ..
 

Attachments

  • 55795-PICT0031.webp
    55795-PICT0031.webp
    376.1 KB · Views: 66
Re: What agencies do you all use.

David,

I have used a service here to do the same as you. He was Dominican. He was horrible. He was lazy. I fired him after two days. He gave spanish speaking workers a bad name. Since then we've hired 3 Mexican employees that have been great. Two are from Puebla and another from a neighboring village.

My feeling of them is that they have a great work ethic, complain very little unless someone is racist towards them, and they are loyal-family oriented people. They help out however they can and love to do good work. Sure we are different in some ways, but I am proud to know/work with them each day.

Two are brother-in=laws and another is a friend. They have their paperwork in order, hospitalization and make good mnoney. They are treated the same as our other employees with the exception of a slight language barrier. We give them training materials in Spanish whenever available.

Two are with me now for 4 years and one is with me for over 1 year. One climbs (I rescued him the other day from a hornet attack (see Killer Bees thread) and the other 2 do not).

People are people David. There are good and bad people of every race. Don't get a distaste for the race, just the guys you met, and maybe that agency!

Another company here uses a lot of Costa Rican employees. Ask Treedr how great they've been for them.
 
Re: What agencies do you all use.

wow, 4 years, that's great.

Yes, people are people. I was just a bit mad that I paid money to get them here and we were having a bad time.

So, do you use a service to get them here every year, or do you do the embassey stuff yourself, or do they never go back to Mexico? Or do they get here on their own?

If you use an agency to do the paperwork, mind passing on their name?

I didn't know Treedr has been using C.R. workers, cool.

I'll PM him.

and thanks!
 
Re: What agencies do you all use.

They actually came to me. We got their documentation from them, except one of the guys. We had our lawyer deal with the papers. He is "legal" but still waiting for a final approval from the government. It can take a while sometimes. One of our guys said it took him 3 years to get his in order and $4K in lawyer fees.
 
Re: What agencies do you all use.

we started with a few guys years ago and it has progressed to almost twenty coming to us now. The best part is that when they have to go home, they train their brothers and friends in proper arboriculture and when its time to come here, we have new guys ready to go right off the plane.
 
Re: What agencies do you all use.

Alberta's the place to be. Black gold and steers, wait a minute no money in steers.

I've been looking at trucks and equipment nation wide on auto trader, and my (now damaged) Hiab truck WITHOUT the multilift is going for about 10k more out in AB.

Crazy.
 
Re: What agencies do you all use.

I did a small job on Saturday for a local landscaper. All I needed was my saw he provide 4 mexican workers to clean up. Large Tulip Popular split and came down onto the homeowners pool fence in the backyard. No access for the chipper so the brush had to be pulled about 150'. I was not impressed with the work they did but they normally cut and edge lawns not tree work. I cut and quartered the trunk so they could wheel it out the gate. I never saw anybody happier than those four Mexicans when the homeowner said he would keep the wood since it was cut small enough for him to handle. I do agree that it is hard to find good workers that will work hard.
Hey mangoes what happened to the truck?
 
Re: What agencies do you all use.

[ QUOTE ]
Alberta's the place to be. Black gold and steers, wait a minute no money in steers.

I've been looking at trucks and equipment nation wide on auto trader, and my (now damaged) Hiab truck WITHOUT the multilift is going for about 10k more out in AB.

Crazy.

[/ QUOTE ]

Too much money flowin out here right now, darn oil! /forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
If you can earn respect from Latinos they will be loyal to you. I have a good Mexican friend I have been working with for nearly 4 years. (We met working for Wright Tree Service doing line clearance). He has saved me from dangerous situations in trees and would protect me and my family if needed. And I would do the same for him.---Good all around person. Mutual respect is the answer.
 
I used mexicans in seattle and had real good luck. What i don't like to see is a company that uses nothing but illegals (profiting off of cheap labor). U can find americans to work but u have to pay more. More money is a motivating factor. A mexican is not really making $7-/hour. If I could jump the border into Canada and work under the table for 5 years at McDonalds- then go back home to the US with a enough money to buy a small ranch, I'd do it too!! i am always mostly a two man band. i always need one person there all the time. A lot of times the only help i could find was a mexican. And there is no better worker i found for a groundy than a mexican.
 
I enjoyed reading the commentary. I worked for Sam Noonan out in California and he had three mexican workers when I came in. The formeman was with him for 8 years and I still consider him to be one of the best climbers I've seen. The whole crew worked great. When I came in, there was a lot of difficulty. I was working under them, and I felt at times they sort of enjoyed (and used) the leverage. I know it wasn't personal, but had a deeper significance.

Over time, there was sort of a respect that grew between us. The difficulties were still definitely there and I ended up leaving partly because I went to finish school, and partly because I couldn't get along with the other ground guy while working. I got fed up and walked out, which in hindsight wasn't the best way to deal with it. I know the culture is much different, but I will say that these guys had a great work ethic, and were incredibly intelligent and quick, not in the book educated intelligence way we think of in the US but in the common sense way which is really important in tree work. It's a complex situation because these are people and there situation is much much different than people growing up in the US. I remember them telling me within the first few weeks that I should get out and go back to school because I didn't want to be doing this my whole life. So here I am really excited about arboriculture and caring for trees and being pretty naieve about the REAL situation that these people are in when they come over here to work, and here were these guys that were great at what they did but it was still work for them and was just a way they found to make money and support their families. Hell I was working for a surf shop and living on the coast surfing all the time and went to work because I wanted to work with trees, not because I had to have the job. I guess I don't have a family either.

The funny thing is they always changed there voice when Sam would come around, and would call him Senor. But after a while they talked to me like another buddy. It was a challenging but eye opening experience.

jp
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom