Local construction industry values its Hispanic workers

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Local construction industry values its Hispanic workers - Birmingham Business Journal:

Local construction industry values its Hispanic workers

Driving through Birmingham, one cannot help but notice the number of Hispanic workers participating in many of the construction projects around town. We should not be surprised.

The Hispanic community in Alabama is thought to number more than 700,000.

Some still consider this to be a low estimate, because we are having newcomers almost everyday.

Whatever census sources you refer to, all agree that the Hispanic community is one of the fastest-growing minorities in the country.

Birmingham, too, is participating in the assimilation of this new wave of temporary and permanent immigrants, and the process is having an indisputable impact on both the city's business and its local infrastructure.

Many businesses are finding that Hispanics fill an important need as a willing and able workforce.

With a tight labor market, the influx of this labor pool has come at the right time.

The no-nonsense construction industry has found that Hispanic workers are dependable, hard-working employees. Despite the obvious communication problems, industry sources comment that the Hispanic workers are quick and eager to learn new skills.

Steve Freese, human resource manager at Saiia Construction in Birmingham, finds his company's Hispanic workers to be "hard-working and dependable."

"They take the initiative to make themselves better and to do the job," he says.

Freese also notes that Hispanic workers prefer to keep busy.

From operating heavy equipment to providing manual labor, Hispanic workers are becoming a significant part of the Birmingham construction scene.

To its credit, the construction industry is doing more than just hiring Hispanic workers; it is taking steps to effectively assimilate these employees into mainstream Birmingham culture.

At classes all over the city, construction managers, supervisors and technicians can be found learning conversational Spanish, enabling them to better communicate with Hispanic employees.

Some firms have hired bilingual personnel to facilitate the assimilation process. Still others are offering ESL (English as a second language) classes for their employees.

Programs in cultural diversity are being provided by some organizations. These offerings are directed at providing a basis for understanding differences based on an individual's cultural background.

Birmingham stands out as a reference point for understanding human diversity.

Few cities in the world have internalized the process of understanding and appreciating the significance of diversity as has Birmingham. It is to the city's credit that the lessons learned from the past have indeed reaped great rewards.

Our past experiences in human diversity have allowed our city to successfully lay the groundwork for welcoming this new group of employees, and prospective citizens.

Alba Hernandez is president and CEO of Hernandez and Associates, a bilingual consulting firm in Birmingham that offers specialized conversational Spanish classes, translations, interpretations, and workshops in harassment and workplace safety. She can be reached at (205) 854-1300.

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I thought this was a good article.

Beth