Standing with the industry brotherhood

In demolition and construction, you hurt one of us, you hurt all of us.

Back in 2016, I wrote a book called A Site for Sore Eyes in the immediate aftermath of the Didcot A Power Station collapse. I gave the profits of that book to three of the four bereaved families impacted by that tragedy (the fourth family politely declined). I sold more books overseas than I sold here including many to people that were barely able to read English. They didn’t buy the book to read it. They bought it as a demonstration of unity.

When I was threatened in my own home over something I had written, I received dozens of phone calls, emails and text messages. The majority of those came from outside of the UK.

I can find myself at a conference or exhibition in Italy, Germany, Spain or Sweden. Even though I don’t speak the local language, I get by because - like my hosts - I speak the universal language of demolition and construction.

There is a reason for all these things. Construction - and, by association - demolition - is a global brotherhood (sorry ladies. I didn’t name it). Within that brotherhood, we all speak the same language, regardless of where we come from. And there is an unwritten understanding that if you attack one man or one woman in this industry, you attack us all.

Which goes some way to explaining why what is happening in the US right now cuts so deep and feels so personal, even though it is happening thousands of miles away.

I am talking, of course, about the raids on US construction sites by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE as it has become known.

These raids are happening across the nation in the US. But here’s just a few quick examples. “Half of the 200 people who were working on the construction of a student residence hall near Florida State University last Thursday did not return home. They were arrested in an operation involving ICE authorities.” Just a few days earlier, “31 workers were arrested at two construction sites in Texas”. Another “33 suffered the same fate in Wildwood, Florida.”

In the US construction sector, it is estimated that one in four workers are immigrants. According to the National Association of Home Builders, around 31 percent are Latino. A large number of those arrested in Florida hail from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. It is further estimated that around half of all these foreign-born construction workers lack legal status.

And this is just one of the many areas with which I have an issue.

Those that are less than keen on immigration or people with a skin tone that doesn’t match their own will tell you that “these bloody foreigners come over here and sponge off our system”. Let me tell you something. There are much easier and safer ways to cheat the system and abuse the hospitality of the host nation than working in demolition or construction.

If you’re working a 12-hour shift in the blazing Florida or Texas sunshine, you’re not a sponger or a parasite. You’re a fucking hero.

But even setting aside the tax contribution made to the American treasury by these hard-working immigrants, there is another issue here.

The US, like the UK, is already suffering from a labour and skills shortage. If America wanted a clue on how the loss of a migrant workforce might impact upon their own construction industry, they only needed to look at the UK in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote. Tens of thousands and Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians returned home, significantly undermining UK construction productivity. As a result, the UK government was forced to add several construction roles to the “Shortage Occupation List” to attract bricklayers, masons, carpenters and roofers back to UK shores to plug the hole left by the post-Brexit skills exodus.

Yet that is only a part of a wider short-sightedness on the part of the US government.

Research from the Urban Institute estimates that more than 42 percent of construction workers are engaged in residential construction. Immigrant labour plays a significant role in states where the sector is already under severe pressure due to supply falling short of demand, particularly in California, Texas, Nevada, New York, Florida, Maryland, and New Jersey.

In other words, in its determination to weed out undocumented migrant workers, the US government is simultaneously slowing the construction of much-needed housing for American citizens.

Not only does all this feel deeply un-American, it also runs counter to history.

Here in the UK, large parts of our canal, railway and motorway networks were built by migrant labour from Ireland - The original navvies. Those migrant workers are the reason the UK demolition and construction industry still has a lot of successful and highly-respected Irish firms, and the sector is all the better for it.

In the post-World War II era, West Germany initiated the "guest worker" programme to address labour shortages. Migrant workers from countries like Turkey, Italy, and Greece were recruited to work in industries including construction. Those workers significantly contributed to rebuilding and expanding Germany's infrastructure after the war.

Most notably of all, the US Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869, stands as a testament to the vital role of migrant labour in national development. Chinese immigrants constituted approximately 80–90 percent of the Central Pacific Railroad workforce. Their efforts were instrumental in connecting the American coasts, facilitating commerce and settlement and making America what it is today.

Yet none of that - the skills gap, the housing shortage or the historical precedent - are the reason for my sadness, frustration and anger right now.

That reason is far simpler; far more human. These are not migrants or immigrants. These are not foreigners to be feared or to be hostile towards. They’re not spics or wetbacks.

These are demolition and construction workers; slogging their guts out and breaking their backs to support their families while simultaneously contributing to the development and improvement of a country that is not their own.

Regardless of their colour, the language they speak, the God they worship or their country of origin, they are part of the global construction brotherhood.

And I stand with them.