Jobs Americans Won't Do...

[Don Ro]

Remember when Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires local contractors to pay "prevailing" wages, in the areas hit by Katrina to encourage reconstruction and cleanup?
Apparently his motive was to give contractors a break...as well as to employ illegal aliens.
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I just heard a radio interview with Linda Swope, operator of Complete Employment Services Inc. in Mobile, Alabama.
She told of hordes of buses that were driven into the area...full of illegals.
She mentioned several times about how the unneeded/terminated American workers broke down and wept.
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Arrival of aliens ousts U.S. workers
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

An Alabama employment agency that sent 70 laborers and construction workers to job sites in that state in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina says the men were sent home after just two weeks on the job by employers who told them "the Mexicans had arrived" and were willing to work for less.

Linda Swope, who operates Complete Employment Services Inc. in Mobile, Ala., told The Washington Times last week that the workers -- whom she described as U.S. citizens, residents of Alabama and predominantly black -- had been "urgently requested" by contractors hired to rebuild and clear devastated areas of the state, but were told to leave three job sites when the foreign workers showed up.

"After Katrina, our company had 70 workers on the job the first day, but the companies decided they didn't need them anymore because the Mexicans had arrived," Mrs. Swope said. "I assure you it is not true that Americans don't want to work."

"We had been told that 270 jobs might be available, and we could have filled every one of them with men from this area, most of whom lost their jobs because of the hurricane," she said. "When we told the guys they would not be needed, they actually cried ... and we cried with them. This is a shame."

Mrs. Swope said employment agencies throughout Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi faced similar problems, when thousands of men from Mexico and several Central and South American countries -- many in crowded buses and trucks -- came into the three states after Katrina, looking for employment and willing to work for less money.

The number of foreign workers who flooded the area after the hurricane has been estimated at more than 30,000. Many of them have been identified by law-enforcement authorities and others as illegal aliens.

Would-be employers in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, awash in cleanup and reconstruction jobs, faced little in the way of legal problems in hiring the illegal aliens after Katrina because the Department of Homeland Security temporarily suspended the sanctioning of employers who hired workers unable to document their citizenship.

Mr. Bush also had suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires local contractors to pay "prevailing" wages, in the areas hit by Katrina to encourage reconstruction and cleanup.

"The men we sent to jobs in Alabama were local fellows looking for work, men who needed jobs," Mrs. Swope said. "After driving 50 miles to the work sites where they had been promised $10 an hour, they discovered the employers had found substitutes who were willing to work for less."

In the radio interview, she said they drove 100 miles round trip.

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060410-123506-1297r.htm

[Rick Lee]

Well, I'd like to see those hit hard by Katrina get first dibs at fed. contract jobs. But the Davis-Bacon Act is a depression-era law, designed to keep black laborers from taking union jobs and it should have been repealed decades ago. Bush was right to suspend it, though I don't think this was the best time to do so. However, this would appear to be the perfect chance for Immig. & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to swoop in a round up all the illegals and redeem themselves for failing to do so yesterday.

[tabs]

Work!!!! I don't know what it is let alone do it!!!!

[pbs911]

Lots of contractors employ illegals, pay them non-prevailing wages, but charge the entity the prevailing wage rate. The prevailing wage for those areas were really low to start.

[Tobra]

My brother in law works construction in the south and legal workers are not a priority, or even a consideration.

[dd74]

It is a double-edged sword to state there are jobs Americans won't do. Those who insist upon this conjecture are, not ironically, the same who believe they can suck off the Latin-based voter by supporting their efforts at amnesty.

The simple fact is this: economically, there are jobs certain Americans won't do because those jobs pay too low within their economic setting, such as is found in and around big cities, where the pay scale is higher. However, in rural areas, go to a Residence Inn or an IHOP, and you'll see Americans of any race and sex changing sheets, cleaning bathrooms and bussing tables. Of course there, the cost of living is much lower than an LA, Chicago, Atlanta or Manhattan.