:: rawblogXport ::

:: Monday, September 13, 2004 ::

Housing boom drains pool of skilled labor Glen Creno, The Arizona Republic
Builders leave it to the trade contractors to worry about whether the people who fill their jobs are legal residents. The contractors rely on the honesty of the job applicants, although Rick Mills, a carpenters union official, said the workers often are undocumented immigrants with phony identification.

'They eventually get caught, a lot of them,' said Mills of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters in Phoenix. 'But a lot of them don't. . . . A lot of them will float from place to place or work for cash money. That really hurts this economy.'

Mills said most of the people in his union work on commercial jobs or such things as highway construction. He said non-union residential framers may start at $7 or $8 an hour, possibly less, depending on experience, with a foreman and his assistant earning roughly $16 to $22 an hour.

Union apprentices make $11 an hour and after four years make $20 an hour. Mills said the Valley also has to compete with Las Vegas and Los Angeles, two markets that pay more for carpenters.

'Why would a person who has good skills work for far less (in Phoenix) than they are capable of making?' he asked. 'The work is going crazy in both places.'

posted 7:00 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

-------------------------------------------