The NY Times Researches Where American-Born Roofers Went, but Can’t Put the Obvious Puzzle Pieces Together

The New York Times ran a piece a few days ago seeking to understand where all the American-born roofers went, struggling to understand how an industry that used to provide well-paying career jobs is now overwhelmingly staffed by poorly-paid “immigrants.”

There are not many pieces to this puzzle, and the Times successfully analyzes each of the pieces, but it somehow cannot put these few puzzle pieces together to provide the obvious conclusion. The reason, of course, is that American-born roofers, many of whom were unionized construction workers, were replaced by poorly paid illegal aliens providing off-the-books labor while also being denied benefits, health insurance, and compliance with labor laws.

Something I keep harping on is the war on labor expense in this country. Businesses obviously need to focus on cost control, including the cost of labor, but somewhere in recent decades, we have seen a dangerous mindset take hold. It has become widely accepted that pretty much any labor expense is too high, and if labor can’t be offshored to places with wages and work conditions below American standards, then illegal forms of chattel labor need to be imported into the U.S.

There were several recurring themes throughout this article, bullet-pointed below, but somehow the Times just couldn’t (or wouldn’t) acknowledge the obvious cause and effect:

• English-speaking American roofers are virtually non-existent nowadays.

• Illegal foreign labor was hired (through subcontractors and labor brokers) at much lower wages.

• Immigrant laborers are hard-working and to be celebrated.

• Immigrant workers are ruthlessly exploited.

• Roofers’ wages have eroded, and are no longer a career wage.

• Builders are suffering a labor shortage, due to Donald Trump’s closed border and deportation policies.

• Construction / roofing is a job that Americans just won’t do any longer.

• Without unions, working conditions have eroded.

Although the link to the Times is behind a paywall, the entire article was republished at the Seattle Times, and it can be read here: “Where Did All the American-Born Roofers Go?”

I cannot quote the whole thing, but here are a few snippets:

First, construction jobs became less desirable, as eroding wages and working conditions diminished the quality and job security of the profession.

Why did the wages erode? Why did working conditions erode?

Only then did immigrants, with the encouragement of the political and business class, fill a gap that was already opening.

The sequence of “immigrants” taking those jobs seems to be out of order. By hiring off-the-books “immigrants” at below market wages, construction jobs became less desirable.

Most of those foreign-born workers are not naturalized citizens, and many lack permanent legal status. That leaves an industry of 6.8 million workers particularly vulnerable to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.

Translation: There are up to 6.8 million poorly paid illegal aliens working construction jobs in the U.S.

Builders are reporting labor shortages as some workers are detained or deported and others stay home amid immigration raids.

If only there was another potential labor pool aside from non-citizens who are in this country illegally…

When [Matthew] Moore started his career, unionized construction was a good living, especially for workers without a college degree. In 1973, a quarter of workers were unionized, and in construction it was 40%. But those numbers were already starting to decline.

I spent much of my life criticizing unions, but my gripe was always when unions wanted high compensation for not working (e.g. early retirement with benefits, idled workers getting paid, etc). I never begrudged them wanting good compensation for the work they performed. But if union labor was too expensive, the alternative was to offer competitive non-union jobs. Instead, the construction industry chose to pursue illegal foreign labor that was well below-non-union construction wages.

What was happening in California was happening across the country, both in states with a strong union presence, such as Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, and those that prohibited mandatory union membership — “right to work” states such as Arizona, Florida and Texas where the population, and housing production, was booming.

Yep. It wasn’t about the unions. Non-unionized construction workers were displaced too.

And with that decline in union strength came a decline in the economic standing for both union and nonunion workers. In 1973, the average union construction worker made $1.71 for every $1 the average American worker earned hourly. Today, unionized construction workers earn $1.15 for every $1 an average worker earns. And nonunion construction workers make just 86 cents for every dollar earned by the average American worker, often without health or retirement benefits.

Not only did construction pay effectively get halved by replacing Americans with “immigrants,” but it is well understood that the current system provides layers of contracting to deflect accountability for the inherent illegality of the construction labor system.

[Mariano] Martinez had arrived in the United States on the cusp of a major immigration boom. Workers interviewed for this article who crossed illegally during that period described a southern border that was more porous, even as barriers were going up. With the help of smugglers, many managed to get across on foot or in vehicles. In a common practice that continues today, builders avoided knowingly hiring workers lacking permanent legal status by keeping laborers off their payrolls and instead hiring subcontractors or labor brokers who employed the workers.

And again, it’s not just the pay, it’s also the lack of benefits and worker protections. Illegal laborers have no rights and no ability to redress illegal exploitation.

By then, the high demand for housing and fewer worker protections had led to tough working conditions. For Mario, 47, who first came to the United States in 1997 from Morelia, Mexico, as a teenager, roofing paid better than picking cucumbers and bell peppers, but it wasn’t easy. Mario was an adult by the time he started roofing, but many roofers living in the country illegally are minors, doing one of the deadliest jobs in the country usually without health insurance.

Illegal minors working off the books without health insurance is an extremely disturbing thing that has been accepted by “pro-immigration” Democrats and “pro-business” Republicans. There is no amount of empathy or profit that mitigates this level of exploitation.

Yet builders still feel that they are paying too much…

Immigrants who held onto their jobs say they have seen no meaningful wage gains in decades, and are still making today what they made before the Great Recession.

There is much more along these same lines, focusing on the current shortage of construction workers, but I’ve extracted enough to make the point. To fill that construction labor shortage, here’s an idea - how about once again hiring legal Americans at wages that can provide for a home and a family. If new home prices go up a little, so be it. But remember, home prices never went down when builders started subcontracting out to illegal labor at extremely low wages.

Roofing used to provide a career wage, and was heavily unionized in some places. As you read this piece, it becomes quite clear why unions held appeal to American roofers. Illegal laborers cannot object to unsafe conditions, no benefits, and no labor laws to abide by.

If the alternative to unionized labor is off-the-books, illegal labor, then unions are the ethical choice. But those don’t need to be the only options. There is a third option – hire legitimate, legal, non-union, American labor.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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