Mexican Cliques in Construction

By Ricardo Charles

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ricardo Charles
• Release date: Jan 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781936886463

Book preview

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

Introduction

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

Introduction

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