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« Reply #19 on: July 22, 2007, 12:40:13 am » |
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Do you ever wonder why Tulsa is crawling with illegal aliens? Ruthless, negligent, criminal, employers like this are to blame. Many of my esteemed colleagues in the professional building trades, including myself, disaffectionately refer to Green Country Interiors as Green Card(optional) Country.
Hispanics find niche in local economy By NORA K. FROESCHLE Assistant Editor
9/3/2003
Below: Mike Rogers (left), Francisco Sanchez and Martin Cordova, who work for Green Country Interiors Inc., take a break at the construction site for Montereau at Warren Woods, a retirement center near 71st Street and Sheridan Road.Photos by NORA K. FROESCHLE / Tulsa World
Tulsa's Hispanic population continues to grow, and its members help reshape the English-speaking culture.In Tulsa, the Hispanic population, both new and long-established, is influencing arts, sports and culture; religion, work and the economy; and education, social services and health care. In Oklahoma, 179,304 residents counted in the census called themselves Spanish, Hispanic or Latino, making them the third-largest minority population in the state behind American Indians and blacks. American Indians numbered 273,230, or 7.9 percent of the state's population, and black Oklahomans accounted for 260,968, or 7.5 percent of the total population.But the state's Hispanic community is the fastest-growing population, showing a 108 percent increase since 1990.
In Tulsa County, Census 2000 counted 33,616 people who identified themselves as Spanish, Hispanic or Latino, which is nearly 6 percent of the county's total population of 563,299. That number likely has risen. Unofficially, it is believed that the number of undocumented Hispanics in the Tulsa area would push the Hispanic population considerably above the Census 2000 figure.
Most Hispanic people come to Tulsa to improve their standard of living, said Maria Palacios, senior planner with the Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa, 16 E. 16th St.
The council conducted a comprehensive study of Tulsa's Hispanic population in 2001. Fifty-one percent of the respondents to the survey said they had moved to the area for job opportunities.
In the workplace
Employment among Hispanic people provided a focus of the Community Service Council study. A majority of Hispanics polled worked in jobs that are considered blue-collar, Palacios said.
The notion that Hispanic workers are taking jobs from willing non-Hispanics is false, she said.
"These are not jobs that a lot of other people are lining up for, and only Hispanics get chosen," she said.
Fifteen percent of the respondents said they are working in construction, 14 percent in hotel and restaurants, 12 percent are in professional and managerial fields, and 11 percent are technicians in a variety of fields.
Twelve percent fell into the "other" category, and the remaining 36 percent of the respondents said they worked in cleaning, homemaking, agriculture, factory work, education, clerical, service, engineering and medical fields.
In the construction industry, a major employer reports a positive experience in employing Hispanic workers according to Xavier Neira, vice president of special projects for the company.
Rooney Brothers Co., 5601 S. 122nd East Ave., the parent company of Manhattan Construction Co. and Hope Lumber and Supply Co., nationwide employs 2,600 people, 46 percent of whom are Hispanic. In Tulsa, the company employs 447 workers, 34 percent of whom are Hispanic.
Changing world
Neira, who emigrated from Mexico with his family when he was 13, serves as an unofficial spokesman and liaison to the company's Spanish-speaking workers.
Most of the company's forms and training materials have been translated into Spanish, and work sites have signs posted in English and Spanish. But these moves reflect only the surface evidence of what is apparently a deeper transformation.
Accordingly, the company changed pay structures to reward performance in some areas. For example, workers who load trucks of lumber are paid by the load, rather than by the hour.
This fall, the company will introduce a pilot payroll program that will work something like a card for an automated teller machine.
"We have so many employees who can't get a checking account," Neira said.
Almost 50 percent of the respondents in the Community Service Council study said they did not have personal bank accounts.
Workers who do not have bank accounts usually pay a fee to have their checks cashed, Neira said.
Instead of printing weekly payroll checks and shipping them to sites around the country, the company plans to issue a payroll ATM card to each employee. The cards would benefit the company, because it would save on check printing and shipping costs. It also would lessen the employees' worries about their cash, Neira said.
He believes the program will inspire company loyalty as well.
"If you show concern, you get it back three-fold," Neira said.
In 2000, the Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa estimated the economic impact of the Hispanic workforce on the construction industry alone was $50 million.
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