Mexican Cliques in Construction
Modus Operandi a la Mexicana: Jobs for Sale:
Call: 1-800-CORRUPTION
Ricardo Charles
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Copyright 2011 Ricardo Charles
First Edition
Published by Ricardo Charles at Smashwords
ISBN: 978-1-936886-47-0
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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To all the hammer swingers in construction.
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Contents
My Background and Career / US Army Europe / British Columbia / Mexico for Japan / Lookin’ Back, Texas /
Chapter 1 Background of Mexican Cliques5
What is a Clique? / Types of Cliques / Attitude / Behavior / Symptoms /
Chapter 2 Encounters with Cliques
Investigators / The Ladder of Corruption / Aero Mexico / Why Women Stop Men
Chapter 3 Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing
Perform Quantitative and Qualitative Risk Analysis / The Cliques as Root Cause / Problem Solving / Brainstorming Methods / The Five Why’s
Chapter 4 The Fisherman
Habits / Why the Industry Is Giving Up / Native Indians / Farm Pushers vs. Supervisors / Mexican Systems / Master’s Degree in Fuck-ups / Porros / Aviadores
Chapter 5 Sociology: Who and Where Are We?
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs / Charles’s Hierarchy of Belonging / Hierarchy of Position vs. Belonging / Common Mistakes / Tip / Frederick Herzberg / Code of Ethics
Chapter 6 The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave
Equal Opportunity Employment Not Equal / International Bridge
Chapter 7 US Robocops
Internal Affairs / Texas Rangers / FBI / US Army IG
Chapter 8 Bribery
Conspiracy to Commit Theft and Fraud / Price to Pay / Liability Not an Asset / Punishment
Chapter 9 Education
My NCCER Story / My Supervisory Story / OSHA / Company Evaluation / Spanish: Construction’s Official Language? / Proposed Solution / Carte Blanche Corruption / A New Education System Perspective / Special People Purge
Chapter 10 Challenge
Discredit / United Nations / Forty-niner / Acquire Your Interests / Psychology Evaluation / The Requisition System / The Answer Is Blowin’ in the Wind
Chapter 11 The Art of Speech
Bluffing / Threats at the Workplace / Most Likely / Organized Crime / Terrorism / Standardized Structure / Legal Action / Antagonism
Chapter 12 Good-bye, Charlie
Project Participants / Baby Goats plus Weekly Fees / Motiva: Santa Claus / How This Book Surfaced / Another Book to Come / Thanks, Kleptomaniacs / My Homework
“Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.”
—Karl Kraus
My thirty years of experience in construction as a journeyman carpenter in North America, including twelve years in civil industrial construction in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, have provided an eye-opening education for me regarding Mexican cliques in my industry.
Even though cliques are not always made up of employees of Mexican origin or background, I am going to focus on this nationality because it’s my nationality and my background. I grew up and went to school on both sides of the border in South Texas. I speak the languages of both sides of the border. I have the cultures of both sides of the border—I am Mexican American.
Another reason for this focus on Mexican cliques is because of the high percentage of Mexican employees in the construction industry. I do this without prejudice to my own people, especially the hardworking folks who contribute their enthusiasm and dedication to the US construction industry.
This book is written about Mexicans who are part of cliques and who look for a way to make a clique. Of those who lack ethics and integrity. I was raised to believe honesty is the best policy—but I have learned there are many in the workplace who do not follow that policy, much to the detriment of other workers.
In fact, eight of every ten workers in industrial construction have lost their jobs or have encountered work-related problems due to Mexican cliques entrenched in the workplace. A clique is a tight group of people usually held together by a common interest. This book will address two types of cliques in the construction industry. There are the ones who want to control and secure the job only for themselves and then there are others who control, steal, and commit fraud. They tend to be territorial when new employees threaten their turf. They harass other employees and create a hostile environment. Unfortunately, this attitude and behavior is acceptable by many employers as long as the job gets done.
My encounters with cliques have not been pleasant. Jobs are for sale, and bribes to obtain a job plus weekly fees to keep the job are common. It is openly seen but nobody notices. In a country of freedom of speech everybody is speechless in order to keep their job. Due to the economic crisis, increasing numbers of employees have traded personal values for a paycheck.
Human resource personnel lean toward cliques, giving them a green light for their shenanigans. They do not want to investigate this type of criminal activity, and those who report the activities tend to get fired while the cliques keep their jobs and continue stealing. Corruption exists openly in industrial construction and lack of employees’ rights help them become stronger.
Work errors are typical in a clique environment but the blame goes to those who are not part of their group. There are no rights for employees getting blamed and fired for clique errors. The cliques are not on the books of any construction institute—they do not exist; therefore, they are never at fault. Project management methods such as brainstorming are not working but are accepted because in construction cliques do not exist. They are not recognized, thus giving them carte blanche for corruption.
Even though Mexicans are rich in culture, there are barriers created from generations of bad habits such as refusal to learn the language and adopt to a new society. The industry in turn is not encouraging Mexican workers to learn the official language because there are people in high positions who benefit from it. With the language barrier the workers are more easily manipulated, thus the industry can control the workforce. Education is not recognized as important; therefore, it is not a motivation factor. Control has become a priority above knowledge and productivity. The industry is applying corrupt methods that have been followed in Mexico for more than a century and have not worked.
Non-educated clique supervisors, along with their workers, compromise themselves by not learning English and acting in an antisocial, stubborn, prejudiced way, displaying inferiority complexes and promoting illiteracy. These people run the industry with backup from employers. Factors such as these create hostile activities in the workplace and generate an unwelcome environment for new workers who do not have these negative attitudes.
Our government has Robocops to look after our nation on foreign and domestic criminal issues. The United States Army has its own police and the Inspecting General to protect soldiers from high-ranking officers (and it is the fairest system I have seen in internal law enforcement). The FBI has power over any corrupted police department in the country. The Texas Rangers are above police and sheriff departments and internal affairs inside city police departments in the state. Immigration and customs agents have supervisors to look after them to prevent them from falling into corrupt temptations. However, project managers and human resources have nobody to look after them. It is a license for corruption. There are no laws against project managers and their henchmen who steal, commit fraud, and get rid of honest workers who get in their way.
Bribery and conspiracy to commit theft and fraud are federal offences and constitute three of thirty-six offenses under the RICO Act. The chances of applying this law in the situations I am describing are none, nada. This is Disneyland to Mexican criminals with blessings from big shot godfathers who allow them to practice monkey business in the construction industry.
Everybody knows about safety regulations because the employers encourage workers to learn them, but nobody is interested in learning a new language and their trade. Safety is enforced by OSHA and violations cost the employer and client millions of dollars; however, education has no enforcement. There are no penalties for lack of education.
The website for the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) reports it is a “not-for-profit education foundation created to develop industry-driven standardized craft training programs with portable credentials.” Their goal is to “help address the critical workforce shortage facing the construction industry.” However, the awful truth is that NCCER examination answers are for sale. Corruption has taken over the system, resulting in lost credibility and respect for the organization. The employers certify themselves and there are cliques within the employers. A superintendent taking a nephew or son of a compadre to take the exam knows that chances are he will pass it. There are many certification-holders of tradesmen who never have worked in that trade. I have seen carpenters who do not know how to drive a nail but are certified. I have never been a boilermaker in my life, but next week I can be a certified boilermaker. This action results in low motivation regarding education and low morale in the industry, very low, and should not be acceptable. If NCCER cannot fix this matter, the Department of Labor should enforce regulations to prevent fraud and provide equal opportunities. Education should not be for sale. We can get over being poor, but it takes longer to get over being ignorant.
The Canadian construction education system is much better than NCCER, and the Mexican corruption system is one of the worst in the world. The saddest thing is that the industry is applying the Mexican system instead of the Canadian system.
In industrial construction I encountered special people everywhere I went. What do I mean by “special”? “Pedro has been working in the company for fifteen years.” “Jose is the general foreman’s cousin.” “Juan is the superintendent’s brother-in-law.” “Alberto, Gonzalo, Luis, Manuel, and Enrique are from the same small town in Mexico and they want to work together.” Special workers cannot be told what to do. Special workers backtalk supervisors and disobey orders. Special workers cannot be disciplined. They have a tendency not to work as part of a group or team and assign themselves their own tasks. They cause dissention. Special people are cliques, and in order to remove cliques special people need to be removed.
I have written this book in order to bring questionable practices to light with the ultimate goal of cleaning up the corrupt industrial construction system. Why is cheating acceptable? How can some illiterate people from a corrupted, out-of-control country be better workers than American students? How can people without the English language pass exams in English? Who makes and supports cliques? Do employers control NCCER? Do employers control the workforce and the industry through cliques? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.
My Background and Career
“I have learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for what we become.”
—James Rhinehart
My parents were married in the early 1940s. My father was a bracero and came to the US and then returned to a small farm they had across the border. They were migrant workers living between Mexico and the United States. My father passed away in 1965. My older brothers were farm workers from the late 1950s through the late 1960s until they started residential framing in Houston before the end of the decade. My second oldest brother, Jesus, stayed in Reynosa building schools and subcontracting projects until he passed away a few years ago. I remember that I was about eight years old and sometimes I went to his jobsites. Years later, he was asked to be the president of the Carpenter’s Syndicate in Reynosa but was never interested in politics. Sometimes he had ten to forty workers. My oldest brother, Armando, was drafted in the army and sent to Vietnam in 1967. It was hard for my mother with eleven children without a father and the oldest son at war. Thanks to my hardworking brothers we never went to bed hungry and we were never in need of basic things.
My parents had bought a house in Reynosa and that’s where we finally stayed. While in elementary school I sold newspapers, magazines, and American chocolate bars. I was good at selling because I was the only one with blond hair and people would rub my head while reaching for whatever I was selling. I always liked to be outdoors, especially walking. There was no running water in my neighborhood, so I worked for water carriers. They carried two barrels on a horse-drawn cart and delivered water to people in the neighborhood. It was fun; when they were empty I would race against other carriers on the way to the city supply water terminal. In just part of a day I made ten times more than the average daily allowance of a child my age. My mother never asked me for any of my money, so I grew up with money in my pockets and that meant many friends. I still keep a present I bought for her on Mother’s Day during those good ol’ days. We would come across the border for shopping, visiting relatives, and vacations. We lived there until 1973. My mother passed away in 1995. My older sister, Guadalupe, passed away in the same car accident with my mother. Rosa Elvira is the youngest of the family; she has three children and lives in the Valley.
Mexican Americans see me as a Mexican from across the border and Mexicans see me as a Mexican American from the US side of the border. I have been discriminated by both for being from both countries. I have two cultures, and I try to learn as much as I can from each of them. I couldn’t ask for more from either one and couldn’t be prouder. I have been discriminated against by both for having two cultures, but the saddest thing is when I am discriminated against by people who do not even have one.
I quit junior high in McAllen at the age of sixteen in 1977. I took off with some friends to work in the farm fields in Indiana. I wanted to check out all those stories I’d heard about the North. The few dollars I made would be spent partying and at the local roller skating rink on weekends. We worked in tomato fields where sometimes there were not many tomatoes. We would spend the day throwing tomatoes at each other. I came back to Texas with the same jeans and T-shirts I’d left with, promising myself not to set a foot on the fields—and I kept my promise.
Soon I arrived in Houston to work for my older brothers. I had come to work during summers as a water boy, so I was familiar with carpentry measurements already. In 1979, along with backup from my older brother, Quique, and my cousin Juan Antonio “el macho,” I started subcontracting framing or assembling prefabricated houses from Ryland Homes in the Kingwood and Woodlands areas. My older brothers Jorge and Alberto were the first subcontractors for Ryland in 1972 and framed until the ’90s. Even now, my nephews run a few crews when there is a demand for framing. On good paychecks we headed across the border to party over the weekend and start the next house on a Tuesday. I still cannot believe how I managed to put those houses together. I drove in three nails and I pulled out two. My favorite tools were the nail puller and the sledge hammer. The following year there were no more houses to frame, at least not for me, and I decided to join the army. I feel sorry for the people who bought those houses.
US Army Europe
“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he comes to see.”
—G. K. Chesterton
Band of Brothers is a 2001 ten-part World War II miniseries based on a true story. The executive producers were Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. The narrative centers on the experiences of Easy Company. They are a unit of the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army. It covers activities spanning basic training in Georgia, the landing in Normandy, Operation Market Garden, the battle of Bastogne, and the taking of Hitler’s Eagle Nest high in the Bavarian Alps.
Major Richard Winters is one of the main characters in the series. After the war, the company is waiting for further orders in Bavaria. Drinking and lack of war action become problems with the soldiers’ behavior. Some lose their lives because of it. Company Commander Major Winters requests a transfer to the war in the Pacific. The general-in-charge declines his petition and tells him that he needs no more action to make the rank of general, if that’s his plan. He explains to the major that the soldiers had been through war with him and they need him. If he brings in a new company commander they will not respect him and it would make matters worse.
Writing of the European countryside and its architecture brings me lots of memories. Bavaria was my favorite place to go while I was stationed in Europe. Even though the series Band of Brothers was filmed in Switzerland the panorama is of the Alps. I was in Bavaria on three occasions and one was at the Oktoberfest. I drank the best beer in the world in big mugs. Once the whole company earned a pass to go snow skiing close to Munich. I was special duty five months out of the year and traveling was part of my responsibilities. It gave me the opportunity to see many cities in West Germany and other countries, including communist East Berlin.
I was once part of a marching team in which we walked one hundred miles in four days, but training for that took three months. The event was in Nijmegen, Netherlands, every summer and thousands from all over the world walked that distance. In 1982, we were 10,000 military from different armies and 14,000 civilians of all ages. On this march I earned the Presidential Sports Award. Today there are 50,000 walkers that show up every year.
I and my friend Philip Clifford, from Florida, earned a ten-day pass because of the march. We got our bikes ready to travel and as soon as we got back to Berlin we headed back to Augsburg, West Germany, by train. The American duty train ran from West Berlin to Frankfurt, where there is one of the biggest train stations in the country. The duty train was free and was only for us soldiers and dependents. Once in Augsburg, we rode toward Munich, about forty miles. My friend told me we should visit Dachau, the Nazi extermination camp, which was just before Munich but I declined, something I regret. There is a difference between concentration and extermination camps. Concentration camps were where they detained the victims and eventually transported them to extermination.
The following day we rode bikes in downtown Munich. I did not get to see the Olympic Stadium of the 1972 athlete massacre, but I saw the outside later on a bus tour.
After two days, we rode south toward the Alps and as we got closer they became bigger and bigger. On a clear day you can barely see the Alps from South Munich. On our way to the Alps we saw the sign of the town of Bad Tolz, training camp for the US Army Special Forces’ Green Berets. We camped for two days in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, home of the 1964 Winter Olympics. We rode a train through a tunnel to the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. It was summer and we could see the mountain peaks full of snow. The mountain borders with Austria. There are small concrete blocks, about 5” x 5” and a line between them showing the border. I took a picture of my foot beside a block. There is no way to go down to the Austrian side. From Garmisch, the next day we rode into Austria on the skirts of the Alps. Sometimes we rode downhill, sometimes we walked our bikes uphill. We took some trails through the mountains. We always avoided big roads. We rode on a half of a circle and back into Fussen to see the most beautiful castle in the world. Disneyland has a replica of it. Inside the castle we saw the music hall where Richard Wagner played, the bedroom, kitchen, the church, and the altar. We visited the outside of another castle nearby where King Louis, the last King of Bavaria, lived. We camped by a lake with a nice view of the castle lighted at night and the Alps in the background.
Even though this was a personal getaway adventure, I was a privileged soldier as a sportsman in the Berlin Brigade. I brought back many memories and sports awards. My favorite sports certificate was signed by Pat Nappi. He was the US National Boxing coach from 1974-1988. He coached in the Montreal Olympics the Spinks brothers and Sugar Ray Leonard. He went to Berlin in 1982 to give us a four-day boxing clinic. My wife takes it off of the wall and a few months later I put it back on. Years later, I wrote him a letter and he replied to me about information in how to coach in the army. He passed away soon after.
British Columbia
“He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche
After I came from Germany I stayed in the Valley a few months and then came to Houston. I started sub-contracting exterior finishing or cornice work as it is called. Cornice is setting windows, doors, exterior trim, siding, and suffit. I did a lot of work on my own, adding a second floor to small old wooden houses on the north side. The Houston environment was not for me. I lost friends because of crime and others ended up in prison. I returned to the Valley to frame houses with my brothers, Wilfredo and Alonso. After disagreements, sometimes I framed a small house on my own and on big houses we would get together or gather friends. The best residential carpenters I had seen are from the Valley. Sometimes five of us would take a whole week just to stick frame rafters on a roof. Very challenging houses.
I missed Europe and all of a sudden I decided to go to Canada. The next day I flew to Seattle and took a bus to Vancouver. I couldn’t believe it, Europe in North America and no foreign languages.
The following day I was walking looking for an address and stopped by a residential construction site. I told them I could put the house together and they were happy to hear that. I told them I knew metric but had more experience in imperial measurements or standard. I found out that they use our measurements also. Later, I took an estimate course in which we went through the metric system. Nine years later I bid on a house that was in metric measurements.
I had never seen basements before, so on weekends I would ride the bus and whenever I saw a house in construction I would stop and check out the work. The following year I was framing houses on my own. I was already subcontracting before I got my work permit. As an American you are legally there for ninety days but cannot earn money. During that time you can cross the border, buy something, keep the receipt as proof, and go back again for another ninety days, totally legal. The immigration officers stopped by my apartment on a random visit. They saw blueprints lying around and I told them I was only an advisor without pay but would like to subcontract to hire unemployed Latin Americans. They laughed, they did not buy it, but gave me an appointment for the next day. The following day they had the work permit ready for me. There were quite a few Central American and South American refugees and I managed to put the crew together with Spanish-speaking workers. Some had come from remote areas and had never seen a measurement tape and other carpentry tools before. Eight years later some of them were framing houses and doing carpentry work on their own. Back then I was the first and only Mexican to frame custom homes in the most expensive neighborhoods in Vancouver.
Hong Kong had been under Britain’s rule for 156 years. On July 1, 1997, the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China occurred. In the early ’90s there were many Chinese from Hong Kong immigrating to Canada. Nobody knew the fate of the city. The communists could confiscate everything. Back then, a two-bedroom apartment in Hong Kong cost over a million dollars and that money could buy a small home in Canada. Wealthy Chinese people were tearing down typical old homes and building monster homes. My clients were these people and I learned a lot from their work ethics.
Most homes were a basement, first and second floor. The basement was used for a computer room, karaoke bar, and a big Jacuzzi. All the houses had circular stairs and soft concrete on the second floor. We framed the second floor walls with double plate on the bottom to allow for concrete. The houses were what I called big, square cornflake boxes. On the first houses I did not make a profit on the basements but I did it to learn and my profit was on the framing. There were no rental forms so we did everything with studs and chip lap, 1x10, for walls nail with chamfer nails and snap ties nailed on the studs with small duplex nails. The footers were 2x8s at 21” apart and 1x4 nailed across like a ladder, set them around the perimeter at the right elevation, 2x4 as bottom plates horizontal nailed on the 1x4s and studs at 18” on center. The plates at 9.5” apart and with the thickness of the ¾” chip lap will end up at an 8” thick wall. It was hard for the studs to stand still on the first chip lap but as you get higher they stay sturdy. By 1995 I was renting forms. Basements are ten feet deep and we had to throw in all the lumber and throw it out and stack it after wrecking. There was no room for the excavated dirt and these lots had occupied houses on both sides. A mound of dirt at the front and back was common.
In Vancouver it rains 220 days a year. It was no fun building basements in the rain, especially wrecking, with 24” between the exterior wall and dirt wall. Years later, it would take me with four workers one week to pour and wreck a 5,000 square foot house and three weeks to frame it. I had good relationships with Chinese builders; I wish all my clients were like them. I had one who built five houses a year and I framed them for him. On two occasions I framed houses for East Indians and I had bad experiences. The third and last time a friend invited me to do a small job for one of them. I hesitated but he told me the pay was for sure. We were going to split the profit 50-50. When we finished the man said he forgot his wallet at home, he said that we were very good people and when we died we were going to heaven. At the end he brought his hands together by his chest as if praying and he said with a strong Indian accent, “One thousand thank-you’s.” Since we were going half and half, I told my friend, “Five hundred thank-you’s for you and five hundred thank-you’s for me.
In winter there were no houses to frame and sometimes I worked for independent contractors. There were many Italians and Portuguese in construction that I befriended. The carpenters’ union is run by Italians. They said you had to be Italian to work in the union but that was not the case for me. I was the only Mexican in 1500 members and the only one in its history. Most Mexicans were waiters who came from the tourist resorts of Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Los Cabos. Many Canadian women go on vacation, befriend these people and bring them over. There was no such thing as Mexican construction workers in Canada.
I worked on a thirty-story building in downtown Vancouver. I learned about lobbies and flying forms at that project. I also learned a trick I used last year on a school foundation in Beaumont and have used before. The tools are spread out by two laborers before everybody starts and at the end of the day the carpenters stopped working five minutes before the end of the day, leaving the company tools where they are. The laborers pick up all the tools and put them away. It increases the productivity of experienced people. The wasted time in the morning and afternoon getting ready and wrapping up is cut off dramatically.
I was hired once to cut timber rafters on a park project. I regret never taking a timber home construction course. I attended quite a few shows and they were very impressive. I went up north to a small town where I framed a couple of houses in an Indian reservation. I liked the town and I stayed there to open a Mexican restaurant, but I never opened it. I worked with a Hungarian man who was very smart and knowledgeable. I got along pretty well with his son who was an apprentice carpenter. We would remodel ski resorts up high in the mountains, and we did a lot of work in small villages. I was privileged to work inside because I was Mexican and I could not stand temperatures below zero. I stayed in that town for two years. I got to know many town folks and I volunteered as a boxing coach. They thought I knew everything about boxing because I was Mexican. We traveled to small towns and sometimes to Vancouver with the kids for competitions. I attended boxing clinics and sports clinics. In sports theory they teach you how to teach sportsmen. The stance, the center of gravity, peep talk, nutrition, how to talk to kids, drugs prevention, and exercise methods such as ply metrics. The participants were from hockey coaches to women in gymnastics and swimming instructors. There are five levels in coaching. National coaches are level five. I managed to attend level three but for lack of time in the system I only accomplished level two. Everywhere you go it is beautiful.
Many people had never seen a Mexican before and they stared at me as if I were from outer space. I knew what they were going to say: “You don‘t look like a Mexican.” As in Europe, they expected me to be brown-skinned with a mustache, skinny legs, and a mariachi beer belly. They expected to see a bandoleer with bullets across my body shooting left and right.
Once I showed people American dollar bills and I found out they had never seen them before. It was weird for them to see bills of different denominations but the same color and size. In Canada, Germany, and many countries the colors are not the same and in some countries the denominations are different size. In Germany the larger the amount the bigger the bill and they look like monopoly money. The Canadian $1,000 bills are kind of red/purple and are smaller than the rest. They were my favorites.
Sometimes I crossed the border down to Bellingham, Washington, to do some shopping and get a feeling of the American life. I joked with American people telling them that I spoke Canadian, eh? During the winter people laughed at me because I thought -20 degrees Celsius, -4 Fahrenheit, or anything below zero was very cold. Indians from the Yukon and Northwest Territories told me their temperatures drop -60 degrees Celsius or -76 Fahrenheit. The lowest I experienced was -15 below Fahrenheit on the record but -56 below with the wind factor by a big lake. I couldn’t be out of the truck more than one minute. In the town I lived there were two hundred nearby lakes, small and big. No shortage for ice hockey fields in winter. Water over the ice and you could skate and play hockey. In winter when you see flat land with no trees it means there is a lake below. Sometimes I stopped and talked to people ice fishing. It is hard to believe, they use an ice chest for beer, but to keep it from freezing!
Just about everybody I knew had seen a bear. Although I camped many places I never saw a bear, even though I heard many stories. One time, while driving on a mountain I saw a herd of rams cross the road in front of me. I went many times to the Okanagan region, which is known for fruit groves. In summer there is so much fruit that canning is popular to preserve food throughout the winter. Indians have their season when they can fish for salmon. Watching Sarah Palin on the television series brings me lots of memories about the Canadian outdoors.
My last few years in Vancouver I lived in an apartment building on the beach. During the summers there are pyrotechnics contests between countries. A barge on the bay takes care of the fireworks while more than 250,000 watch. I lived on the seventh floor and I could see all the crowds below. I had a wonderful view of the bay and the mountains. The place was packed with friends during the event. Each year four countries participate in the contest. Countries like Japan, Italy, Spain, and France, and including Canada of course. I remember Spain had the fireworks with the rhythm of the Gypsy Kings.
On New Year’s Day it was the Polar Bear Swim. With chunks of ice on the water people swim toward a boat and the winner wins $10,000.00. I watched them from my place and no way did I get in that water. Also in the winter there was this man who was seventy-four years old. Every day he would exercise by the beach around four o’clock in the afternoon and swim for about an hour. Sometimes it was windy and I’d watch with binoculars but I’d lose him in the waves. Vancouver has seven beaches and they are packed in summer, but not many people get in the water. The water was too cold for me even in the summer time!
My roommate and other friends were dancing instructors who spent too much time in nightclubs and I got fed up with that environment. I lived on Denman Street, which is nothing but restaurants and cafeterias. Robson Street was walking distance and hosts weekend gatherings for eating out and night life. Across the street was the beach with a walking path of miles going around Stanley Park and into Granville Island. On summer weekends thousands of people walk, jog, roller skate, and bicycle ride.
Two of the activities I miss most are snow skiing and meeting different nationalities. I lived in different places, but this was the place I have the best memories of. In Vancouver I met and befriended people from countries and Pacific islands that I never knew existed. I managed to survive and spent good times thanks to construction.
Mexico for Japan
“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
—Japanese Proverb
This proverb fits me better: “Fall down forty-nine times, stand up fifty.”
The earthquake in Kobe, Japan, occurred in January 1995. This was the worse since the 1923 Tokyo earthquake. The cities of Kobe and Osaka are connected by an elevated highway, and the earthquake caused several portions of this highway to collapse. Most of the deaths and injuries occurred when older wood-framed houses with heavy clay roof tiles collapsed. Fortunately, there was Vancouver Village, a neighborhood of North American homes built by Canadians from Vancouver that withstood the earthquake. For decades the Japanese system, which had high regard for infrastructure, did not work—I had a worker who did framing in Japan and he told me stories about the new Japanese framing system. There was a demand for Canadian carpenters after the earthquake.
I received a phone call in November of 1996 with an offer to work in Japan. I was going to stay in an apartment north of Tokyo and not in tents as many did. I stopped working on December 17 and I will never forget because that day was -17 below zero or 2 degrees Fahrenheit. I was working on an underground parking lot fastening and elevating steel joists on steel scaffolds. Any idea how cold it is to grab metal at that temperature? We did not work that day or any day when it was lower than 10 degrees Celsius. I decided to take three weeks off and wait until January 11 when work would start in Japan. I bought cassettes and books to learn Japanese and my plans were to buy a motorcycle and get to know the country. I found the language easy and neat—I could write my name!
Then on New Year’s Day I found out I needed to come to Texas for family issues and I exchanged Mexico for Japan. I spent the next sixteen months in Mexico, during which time I got to know many rural small towns in the state of Tamaulipas. I always wanted to have a ranch, so I rented a small one. I bought cattle and at one point I owned ninety-two heifers. I miss my black horse—my rancher would saddle it for me and I played Marlboro man. My favorite activity was barbecuing and taking a siesta on a hammock under a cabana with a palm leaves roof. I would spend the time going from ranch to ranch buying cattle and into the state of Nuevo Leon through the mountains. I got to know many small towns such as Burgos, San Carlos, Santa Engracia, El Barretal, Cruillas, Jimenez, Abasolo, Soto La Marina, La Pesca, San Fernando, and the capital, Victoria. I went to Victoria to party every now and then and was back and forth between Reynosa and the ranch. Even though I had been to these places before, I got to see Mexico City, Guadalajara, and a few times I went to Monterrey and Linares where my father was from. I liked riding my uncle’s horse on the ranch where my father was born and once I rode it to neighboring Hualahuises where my mother was from. Every now and then I flew to Houston with a friend who bought used cars by the lot; he would pay for them and back we went.
Lookin’ Back, Texas
I married my wife in 1998 and before the end of the year we were in Houston and I was working in construction. My first job was at a ten-story parking lot in downtown Houston. I saw many Mexicans working and thought it would be nice working with people speaking Spanish, since for many years I have worked with different nationalities. The first day I was a helper’s helper, the second day a helper, the third day a carpenter, the fourth day I had two helpers and in two weeks I was the lead man of twelve workers. I used a trick I learned long ago that always works. I tell them to let me work so they can see me and we can get to know each other and then we talk about money.
The one in charge of the project, General Superintendent Junior Gonzalez of Rago, Ltd., looked at me and asked, “Are you from the Charles’ family of Reynosa? No wonder you are a carpenter.” He happened to be from my neighborhood across the border. Even though he is older and we never socialized in our childhood he went to elementary school with a couple of my older brothers. He still runs projects for Rago. Later, in 1999, I worked at the Minute Maid Stadium, and then I moved to KBR. I worked for KBR on my first industrial job at Sterling, in Texas City, as a carpenter. KBR paid me according to my carpentry exam. At work I found out I was making a few cents more an hour than carpenters working for the company for twenty-four years.
“History is philosophy teaching by example and also by warning.”
—Lord Bolingbroke
In Mexico climbing the ladder of corruption begins by getting a position, usually in the government hierarchy, and paying for that position with a cash lump sum or sometimes just getting the opportunity and then paying monthly fees as you make money while at work. It is luck, it is a privilege, like all the good things that bring pride. For driving a car without registration there is no problem with the transit police or transito. If there is an altercation, no problem with the crime police.
For example, Zenaido is driving a car without license plates. He drives with screeching tires and runs red lights and if somebody tells him, “Hey, watch out, the transito might pull us over,” the typical answer is, “What are you talking about? All those transitos are a bunch of bums and good for nothing; their Chief is my compadre.” Children admire that behavior and wish that one day when they grow up they will buy a pickup truck and do what their father does. It is a sign of power.
Another example: Evaristo is in a restaurant and lights up a cigarette in a nonsmoking section. The waiter comes and tells him to please not smoke in that area and points toward the no-smoking sign. Evaristo takes it as an insult. “What? You are only a waiter and you are trying to tell me what to do? The owner is my friend and I am going to tell him to fire you.” It is typical for somebody who knows someone in a high position to not respect those in between.
In order to understand who we are we have to search our roots. We do not need project management techniques like brainstorming or the fishbone diagram to find the root cause. With a little elementary history and knowledge of the situation in Mexico nowadays we do not need to be rocket scientists to figure this out.
Once I was in a party in Mexico where I met a fiscal as they call the Mexican border customs people nowadays. I befriended him and we talked about the difference in his job today compared to what it was years ago. According to him, before President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–1994) a position as a customs agent or aduanal had a salary of US $60,000. If there was an opening is was like winning the lottery. Positions like that were worth waiting a long time to obtain. Besides the cash lump sum monthly fees were paid in order to keep the job.
Each local aduana had his own clique at each port of entry and paid the monthly fees to those above him. Government collectors are called aviadores and they travel collecting fees all over the country once a month. Everyone engaged in illegal activities have their own aviadores. The price for the position sounds high but they got their money back and more in only one transaction, as in letting into the country a couple of 18-wheelers full of American goods. To obtain a government position it has to be endorsed by somebody and the endorser is called el padrino, or godfather, and usually is kept secret. Ex-president Gortari broke that tradition by getting rid of old aduanales and replacing them with young, educated fiscales provided by an academy in Mexico City.
The six years the president is in power is called sexenio and everybody wants a piece of it. There is no presidential double-term so people get as much as they can during that timeframe. The next sexenio comes with a new clique and positions are filled with new people and rules change; some might lose their positions, some not, depending on who they know or how their position affects the new administration. The workforce within the government or those affected by it wonder how new politics will affect their jobs in the following six years; their future plans go into limbo. The government is the role model of cliques all the way down to cheating in elementary school.
In the maquiladoras a contract as a food caterer is worth a new pickup truck. If you want the contract make sure you can afford to give away a new truck, and contracts are awarded each year. A maquiladora has from 1500 to 4000 employees. That’s the number of meals if served only once a day per employee. If served twice, multiply it by two. Any idea how many maquiladoras in Mexico? Thanks to the United States and Canada for signing the North America Free Trade Agreement to help Mexico. A contract in the refinery in Reynosa has a price; that’s where some of my elementary school friends still work and cuotas (monthly fees to keep the job) are part of the Mexican culture. This is whether the corporation is the government, organized crime, or independent. In US construction it is true whether it’s a foreman, superintendent, project manager, or human resources.
Anybody with a position has his own aviadores; for example, a city official in Matamoros, Reynosa, or Nuevo Laredo in charge of the Health Department will have his own aviadores to collect weekly fees in places such as restaurants, bars, and prostitution. It also applies to the one in charge of all the street vendors, of which there are hundreds in any city. Any elementary and secondary school has more than a dozen permanent street vendors outside, and they appear at hundreds of schools, sport games, busy streets, corners, and in neighborhoods. A street vendor paying a cuota of US $15.00 a week does not sound like much, but thousands of street vendors throughout the state generate thousands of dollars a week. A percentage of that goes to the state aviadores and these pay a percentage to the Mexico City aviadores. And that is only street venders. Any idea how much a border town plaza or position for a federal police commander cost? All the smugglers need to pay fees coming over this way or going back the other way.
These are the methods of working we all know. You pay to work and you are as strong as the position you hold and the people you know. In the United States everybody is welcome. From religious groups to war refugees and even just by humanitarian compassion, that’s what makes this country beautiful. It is also nice when we all abide by the rules of the new country that is embracing new immigrants. Learn the new language to socialize and do not look for a way to apply methods that in other countries causes society problems while only a handful of people benefit.
In US construction, Mexicans in supervisory, management, and human resource positions are applying this ideology and some employers and clients who are unaware are embracing it and going along with it “as long as the job gets done.” I have seen projects of all sizes being mismanaged and out of control due to cliques while they are making money off of them.
After two hundred years of independence since1810, and one hundred years after the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Mexican government cliques lost control of the country. A few months ago three explosions took place in different places in downtown Reynosa. One of them was several hundred feet from the US international border, which was censored information. The country is in chaos. Mexico has more battlefronts than the US in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. The press told organized crime to stop killing reporters and they will print anything they want. They sent that message on the front page of newspapers. The press and the police are better off working with organized crime than with the government so the citizens want to work for organized crime.
At the end of 2010 there was an exodus of people from small towns just a stone’s throw away from the US. They were leaving against their will because of threats and leaving those places behind as ghost towns. Police chiefs are killed on a daily basis. A governor was shot and killed in late November 2010. The government cannot protect its own employees, never mind its ordinary citizens. WikiLeaks reports show that the government lost control of part of the country to organized crime and the armed forces are not organized. During the Christmas holidays of 2010–2011 it was recommended for Mexicans returning to Mexico to travel in caravans—but how can they be safe if heavily-armed Mexican army convoys are attacked, never mind unarmed tourists?
The government does not recommend travel between Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo because they lost control of that area. In other words, all the towns in Texas from McAllen to Laredo, south of the border and half the Rio Grande, are out of control. What is happening to Mexico is the same thing that happened to the doctor who built Frankenstein. He made a monster and lost control of him and that monster to Mexico is 112 million people. Throughout the years the Mexican government has been known to change rules to apply monkey business for their own benefit without caring or taking into consideration its aftermath. In US construction, cliques have changed the working environment so that everything is tailor-made to benefit themselves. The losses and devastating end depends on the stage where they are stopped. Small companies have gone bankrupt and big companies have had losses because of cliques and nobody had found the root cause.
What Is a Clique?
“Every clique is a refuge for incompetence. It fosters corruption and disloyalty, it begets cowardice, and consequently is a burden upon and a drawback to the progress of the country. Its instincts and actions are those of a pack.”
—Madame Chiang Kai-Shek
Webster defines a clique as a narrowly exclusive group of people usually held together by a common, often selfish, interest or purpose.
In the workplace, all employees must advocate team playing by supporting team building not separatism. Cliques do very little to inspire the spirit of camaraderie. These people meet and converse; if they get along well and have something in common they click. Thus, the clique is borne. They believe in the same things, have the same values and enjoy one another’s company. Being part of a clique can lead to favoritism. This type of clique also leads to decline in morale among other employees who are not in the loop. Clique members see new workers and outsiders as intruders. Often clique members are rude, thoughtless, self-centered, and arrogant when relating to people who are not part of their group. There are no rules that say they have to accept others and no evidence when they reject others, especially new employees.
Cliques can cause dissentions, divisions, and hurt feelings, which can have a negative effect in the workplace at large. Cliques formed at work are more serious than those formed in organizations such as schools and sport teams because the fallout is greater and costlier, especially in construction.
I have noticed something in common in just about every clique. They feel as if they own the company they work for. The longer they have worked for that company the more they feel they have the right to make decisions about what is supposed to be done or who is allowed to work and who is not. Whether those decisions are right or wrong for the company is not considered; their show of power is always of more importance than anything else. Cliques have the tendency to not work as a group or follow a plan. Sometimes a plan needs to be tailor-made for them to perform their work and avoid disagreements. They are known to be spoiled and privileged, thus they become arrogant and create an unwelcome environment for people with a different mentality outside their clique.
As unbelievable as it may sound, a small clique influences employers and project managers in making decisions in the construction industry. I have seen small, sloppy cliques that seem to have the employer under a spell, making him think nothing gets done without them, and that this group is his most valuable asset.
Cliques are known to be territorial and get defensive when new employees threaten their turf, making false accusations against them to the employer. Cliques cause problems on purpose in order to blame new people, creating a soap opera in the workplace. Before the arrival of the new people there were no problems. Everything was under control so chances are the new employees are at fault. Usually when they get notified about a newcomer they don’t like him before they meet him, and once they do meet they begin to look for defects to justify their rejection. The employer tends to believe them because he’s known them for years or he just goes along with them in order to get the job done and ignores the new employee. This results in the clique becoming stronger.
Types of Cliques
There are only two types of construction cliques: those who control and obtain job security and those who control/secure, and conspire to commit theft and fraud.
Types of cliques:
1. Control/Secure
2. Control/Secure, Theft/Fraud
There are three types of workers who get the job done: those who get the job done honestly, those who get the job done but control and secure, and those who get the job done, control/secure, and conspire to commit theft and fraud.
Get the job done…
1. Honestly
2. Control/Secure
3. Control/Secure, Theft/Fraud
Attitude
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
—Winston Churchill
There are a variety of attitudes an employee can have at work. Attitude refers to how you feel. A bad attitude toward another employee might cause a hostile environment even if the harassment is only verbal. Playing with people’s minds ends up in bullying and harassment, which are illegal. Threats and swearing at the workplace are also against the law. The employer should not allow this type of attitude at the workplace. People do it when no one stops them, often because there is lack of proof against them.
There are various ways that members of a clique can create an environment of harassment to new employees or outsiders:
-Verbal harassment
-Degrading comments
-Indirect, sarcastic insults
-Threats to damage your reputation
-Threats to terminate your employment
-Threats to make false statements about you to a supervisor
-Telling you continuously that you lack knowledge of your work
-Telling you continuously that your job is poor quality
-Refusing to work with you
-Talking behind your back, backstabbing
-Not letting you perform certain duties you are well qualified to do
-Continuously asking personal questions and if you refuse to answer they call you antisocial and say you have a bad attitude
-Focusing only on your small mistakes while ignoring their large mistakes
-Applying the “ice law”—nobody talks to you, acting like teenage girls
The saddest thing of all is that if you complain you make it worse. If before there was no reason, now they have a good reason to be against you. When you get tired and tell them what you think, your confrontation may be the end of your job. It is a risk you are taking by that decision. After the confrontation if those in charge of the company do nothing, you lose. Especially when the whole project team is on the side of the clique, which is typical—that’s why they do it.
-Reasons workers want to join a clique:
-Assurance of always having work
-Jealous of other people’s knowledge
-Insecure about themselves
-Having hateful feelings about themselves
-Ignorance
-Lacking ethics, integrity
-Wanting to be part of something to avoid feeling alone
-Feeling selfish and envious
-Feel powerful when hurting somebody
-Wanting the power they cannot achieve by themselves
-Arrogance, narcissism
-Crooks with criminal minds
-Working that way for a long time and that’s the only way they know