Baltimore bridge victims were immigrants in riskier, hard-to fill jobs

[RSherman]

This message needs more publicity! For the MAGA crowd who portray immigrants as "non human", criminal, etc., they take jobs that others won't. And, they are quite often exploited.

https://www.marketplace.org/2024/03/27/baltimore-bridge-victims-were-immigrants-in-riskier-hard-to-fill-jobs/?fbclid=IwAR2uAyISC4rG-roTtpY8v797EGKj3TyDUzSUWOatzsJtGcnWccOdkzrP3Z8_aem_AX9fOdtx_NIIqMb1YjKBV7bR_GqtDcXkViD1DX2g3-_r9tnvQPmBkx5UKh_9TlpuVGZTcHxiXHlHH13YGyh-8M72

Stories of immigrants who clean up after hurricanes in TX and FL (where they are perhaps the most aligned by those governors!):

Undocumented immigrants clean up after storms in FL. No one else wants to do it. Then DeSantis falsely claims they are there to "ransack" after the storm. Ugh. I heard an interview a few years ago in which immigrants report sleeping in and under their cars while cleaners working for FEMA are given hotel rooms. They are constantly harassed by law enforcement.

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/11/1128184363/undocumented-immigrant-workers-are-helping-clean-up-florida-after-hurricane-ian

IMMIGRANT DAY LABORERS CONFRONT A PERFECT STORM OF EXPLOITATION IN HURRICANE HARVEY CLEANUP
Texas leads the nation in construction industry deaths, and labor organizations in Houston say they’ve seen a spike in wage theft since the hurricane.

https://theintercept.com/2017/11/13/hurricane-harvey-houston-immigrant-construction-workers/

[viva la]

1. In my state, roofing crews are usually Latin American immigrants

Hard, hot, dangerous, necessary work.

[MichMan]

21. A significant number working for cash with few benefits and no UIA or Workmans Comp protections

Virtually impossible for a roofing contractor following the laws by paying taxes, unemployment insurance and workman's comp insurance to not get underbid on every job. Makes it very hard to compete when you are the one following the rules and others aren't

[viva la]

27. I can imagine how many hazards there are--

Heat stroke, just to start.

[MichMan]

2. Who employed the people in Baltimore ?

[LeftInTX]

16. Yeah, you would think infrastructure work would employ those who are here legally.

In Texas, road work is done by those who at least have green cards etc. (I really don't pay attention to road crews, but road work is govt or govt contractor work). Putting down tar in Texas is hot, very hard work. However, I don't quite see it as a job that "no one but undocumented immigrants want". I just don't get a chance to speak with tar workers for obvious reasons.

Our public utilities workers (water, electricity) all speak English, so I assume most are US citizens.

[LeftInTX]

23. They were employed by Brawner Builders, a local contractor for Maryland.

Pretty sure everything was legit. They were repairing potholes, so yeah, likely lower pay work.

The six men were employed by Brawner Builders, a local contractor that carries out maintenance work on bridges in Maryland state.
"They were wonderful family people," Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice-president of Brawner Builders, told the New York Times, adding that the six men had "spouses, children".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68673146

[MichMan]

25. According to this post, at least one was undocumented

Brawner has a lot of explaining to do

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218817440

[LeftInTX]

26. Hard to say, because there are numerous steps in the process

He was moving through the steps to get legal residency and planned to return to Honduras this year to complete the process, his brother said.

https://6abc.com/baltimore-bridge-collapse-victims-maynor-yassir-suazo-sandoval-honduras/14583445/

So, it sounds like he was eligible as a parent of children born here and in the process. He may have legally working been working here. Obviously, he was not a US citizen.

I'm not sure of all the work categories.

[lynintenn]

3. our house was roofed by Hondurans .

They worked into the night with spot lights on a very cold night. No dinner break.

[doc03]

5. The Amish do most roofing and construction work in this part of Ohio nt

[RSherman]

8. Same here where I live in Northern NY

Also, when a nearby town experienced horrible flooding (Lee? Irene?), the Amish were the first to show up to help muck out businesses, etc.

[we can do it]

15. How often do Amish use child labor. They did in our neighborhood.

[MichMan]

22. They run a lot of puppy mills around here

[RobinA]

24. They Replaced Our Barn Roof

and a small porch roof and everyone I saw was probably 18. They did a nice job on the roof, but they did leave a BIG ass mess, including nails all over the driveway and lawn.

[Retrograde]

28. Roofing jobs are messy - no matter

how careful the workers are! We had a garage re-roofed the fall before the pandemic, and I'm still finding pieces of old shingles and the occasional nail.

The people who painted our house (Spanish speaking, probably either from Mexico or of Mexican descent) piled their stuff all over the yard, including numerous extension cords, power washers, a microwave and 11 ladders (why three people needed 11 ladders to paint a one-story house I do not know). But when they were done they took everything away and left the yard is better shape than it was before.

[AllaN01Bear]

4. immagrints have always done jobs that we dont want to do.

[a kennedy]

6. Of course they were, they ALWAYS are when the work is dangerous, low paid, NON union

🤬 🤬 🤬

[mercuryblues]

7. To put it even more simply

These are jobs that non immigrants will do for that pay.

[bdamomma]

9. The people who

work these jobs are very hardworking essential workers, they need to be appreciated not scorned and ridiculed. They do work that Americans would not do. For example, Farm workers in California who gather up much needed food for our plates!!!

[RSherman]

10. We even ridiculed American citizens who worked in CA during the Dust Bowl

I just read "The Four Winds" by Kristen Hannah. I am ashamed I did not realize how "pickers" were treated in CA. They moved from the midwest after the Dust Bowl/Great Depression. Their crops failed, their livestock died. The workers lived in irrigation ditches. Every time they would flood, the people would lose what little they had. Because they didn't have access to clean water for bathing and laundry, yes, they were dirty and didn't smell great. The businesses would not serve them. Hospitals would not admit them. Churches even turned them away. This is white, American, men, women, and children. The big landowners even charged them for the sacks they needed to pick the crops. They would only accept credit at the store so there was no way to pay off one's debt and leave. The pickers were basically worked to death and had no rights because there were 100s of new people waiting at the gate for their jobs.

We will always find a way to "other" people.

[bdamomma]

30. There's

always a "fall guy".

[malaise]

11. As always

[JI7]

12. Their problem is non white people

most immigrants today are non white.

They would be just fine with whites.

[Wednesdays]

13. Yeah! "THOSE people, who are lazy and don't want to work...

...are taking all our jobs!"

[GreenWave]

14. And to those a-holes who want to blame this on Biden I have this to say:

Your position on abortion may be why the captain to failed to abort the mission earlier on.

[LeftInTX]

17. They likely were government contract workers and were likely here legally.

I would hate to think of a fly-by-night operation working on a bridge.

[MichMan]

19. They were filling potholes

In my state, contractors working for government contacted road jobs are still required to pay prevailing union wages

[EX500rider]

29. Not sure I would define filling potholes as "riskier" work

[RSherman]

31. The person quoted in the article

describes the workers as "on a flimsy bridge in the middle of the night". Which I guess would be riskier than on a road during the middle of the day? Although I realize people don't move over for those workers either.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/baltimore-bridge-collapse-growing-latino-labor-force-hispanics-rcna145201

[MichMan]

32. If the bridge is that flimsy, why are cars even allowed to drive on it?