Monday, June 23, 2008

Illegal Labour in the Deck and Fence Business


Our last poll asked the question--what should be done. 55% said mass deportations. 25% said make them citizens. I am noticing a trend.
About 50% of our visitors are professional builders to this site. WE have all had to deal with it for many years now. Obviously in the US it has been a migration from the south. In Canada it has been from Eastern Europe. One of our largest competitors was here on a student's visa when he started his company.
Contractors are frustrated on both sides of the border.

If they are going to have to compete the competition should be on a level playing field. When people use indentured servants to get work done and charge less due to that advantage the legitimate builders get cheated.

In a Toronto Star article they stated that there was some 38,000 illegal workers in the construction trades in the Toronto Area in 2005 -- 125,000 illegal workers in total that year.

It is NOT their Fault.

They came here from a hostile economic circumstance. They will do anything to provide for their families.

Our governments and their communal inactivity are to blame--entirely.
I joined this trade in 1987 because there was a shortage in the trade. The government helped train folks to be carpenters--then threw them under the bus by not keeping the playing field level.
I guess that is why my game is so strong. I had to compete with all the new businesses--all the illegal labour and all the designers borrowing my details in the Toronto area.
Well, we now have about 8 builders in the Toronto Area that don't have to compete with illegals--(they aren't skilled enough to compete with us).

And there are also builders in Boston, Charleston, Virginia Beach, Tampa, Dallas and Los Angeles that are also setting themselves apart from the masses of builders just trying to make a living.

(get in touch with me for more info).

Just try to remember--in every economic season there are always people making money--the trick is to make sure they are your customers.
L






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