End Of The Working Class - Coping With The Labor Gap

I write this from the vantage point of being raised in a lower-middle-class family, the first generation in this country, owning and operating service businesses for nearly 28 years, employing, training, firing, and saying goodbye to thousands of employees over the decades. Like what I have to say or not, my experience is unique, and in my firm opinion "rooted in reality".

My first experience of a sweeping labor gap was 2005-2008, yes the housing boom, before it became a housing bust. I was still in my twenties during those years. Most recently a vast shortage of labor occurred during the economic boom beginning just before the new federal administration took office (contrary to what some want to believe) and only just now is showing signs of a slow down after nearly three years of flat out explosive growth. I am no economist, but let me ask you... how tapped into the economy do you think a company like mine is, wherein I can directly observe the level of new construction, land positions, leases, and vacancies in a geographic area representing a vast percentage of the population? I know when a speculative building sits and when it moves, I know when vacancies rise and fall. We service upwards of 100 million square feet of assets company-wide. Mark my words, the slow down is coming, and we will go back to why this matters later in this article.

"Mark my words, the slow down is coming, and we will go back to why this matters later in this article."

Bethlehem Steel, Video Games, And The Internet

I was 13 years old, the same age I started this family business we now call East Coast Facilities, Inc. I started my business cleaning storefront windows in Frenchtown & Milford New Jersey. I lived just across the river in Upper Black Eddy Pennsylvania, where my father settled after immigrating from Mexico. He was a cleaner. Not hit man, more like a janitor. I remember distinctly sitting in class at my middle school (Palisades School District). My English literature teacher was ranting pointing towards somewhere north (Bethlehem, so far away at the time, really only 15 minutes) saying "and they are going to lay off ANOTHER 5,000 people!". He was angry! I thought man, all these people are going to lose their jobs. In time I would come to understand what that meant, and its impact. Greedy corporate white collar executives decided it was a good idea to spend all the earnings and put no cash back into the business. They destroyed the world's most powerful steel company ever known to man. Most people who watched the movie Transformers II would never know the opening scene had the old Bethlehem Steel Stacks reminiscing in the background.

Right around this time of my life, my brother Juan, the oldest of the Gámez boys, bought something called a Nintendo gaming system, and we had a couple of games, Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. I remember being interested just a little bit and then thinking to myself what a waste of time. I spent most of my time dreaming about building a business, not to make money so much, instead to accomplish something. I designed letterhead, and flyers, and even did projects around my parent's house to practice. I had a cousin, let's call him Johnny, God forbid he sues me. Johnny also bought a gaming system, and he was my age. We use to play in the woods, hike, fish, and hunt before he bought it. We were your classic Pennsylvania boys. Johnny got so addicted to video games he barely came out of his bedroom. We could observe that it was so bad that it affected and infected his entire life.

Interestingly enough when my two sons were born, I NEVER let them play or have video games in our home. Of course, to the rest of the family, I was too strict, even if they did not say it, they thought it. My rebuttal, let me see where your sons are in 20-years.

Then this thing called the internet invented back in 1983 started picking up momentum. It is pretty neat to say, "hey the internet was invented in my lifetime". By the time I was 18 (1996) the internet had done something to my friends. Good people, certainly not lazy people, it pulled many of them in the direction of technology, they started studying on all types of matters related to I.T. and Microsoft Applications. I was still cleaning windows and by now started cutting grass. Except for one or two, all of my friends that I grew up with ended up in office-based jobs, I.T., Administration, Programming, basically anything technology. This entire generation was taught that working hard in the dirt is a dead-end job, and if they were not taught that, they just weren't taught which is even worse.

These experiences shaped the way I manage, recruit, and behave as a business leader. Please keep reading.

On The Backs of Immigrants

In my short lifetime, the working man went from hero to zero. Looked down upon, marginalized, and even demographically speaking, replaced. In the early '90s a new company started appearing on all of the corporate campuses, university grounds, and commercial parks in the area I lived in. They had brown trucks and lots of brown people. Mexicans. Sprawling campuses once maintained by domestic workforces began to move to this company with predominately immigrant labor. At least in the North East and Mid-Atlantic, they pioneered the recruitment of immigrant labor to replace the dwindling domestic labor pools. Yes, we can debate whether it was to pay them less. Live and breath in our industry and you may think differently. You may also want to better understand how Reagan's 1986 amnesty played a role in all this. This powerhouse was The Brickman Group. Today The Brickman Group is gone, and they will never return. Brickman was the greatest landscape maintenance company ever operated in the world, in my opinion. They dominated and delivered. They are no more. BrightView can claim the B is Brickman, but we all know better. BrightView will never be the great Brickman or the old lion, Valley Crest. Stock tickers have replaced the Brickman's and Sperbers.

I want you to know... I do not take political positions, just factual ones as I know them. You will never see me say I support this party or that party, in fact, I am politically neutral, and not a nationalist of any nation. I am a good citizen, obey the law and pay my taxes. Now let us face reality. The service industry, specifically the facility services industry is carried on the backs of immigrants, specifically Latinos. Some markets like South Florida, also have a robust population of Haitian immigrants who work hard in the service industry. True in some rural areas, or outside of the major population centers this is not the case, but if you observe on social media, videos, websites, you will see their faces. They cannot be hidden because they are there. We must recognize the contribution to the economy that these fellow human beings provide, and the essential role they play. Likewise, our hardworking domestic workforce should be highly valued and celebrated.

Re-Building a Diverse Sustainable Working Class

Why did I share my experiences of my youth, and why did I point out the facts of the makeup of the demographics of our industry? It is because these play a direct role in how I have built my company culture, how we recruit, how we train, and how we retain.

I understand very clearly that beginning with my generation, the working middle class was nearly wiped out. That makes me appreciate that when I find a peer, or even someone younger, a fellow American citizen that is a hard working blue collar man or woman they are in rare form, they are to be highly valued. They are the heart of business and industry. I also understand that because there are not enough domestic laborers to draft from, I must look to an immigrant workforce. I have no choice unless I want to change industries. Never do I engage an immigrant workforce to pay less. My goal is to compensate my entire workforce more than the rest of the market. We are champions of the blue-collar workforce. My field employees earn more than my competitor's employees do, and they have better benefits. All East Coast Facilities employees who work more than 1500 hours per year, have a full health care package, PTO, a safe-harbor 401-K with employer matching up to 4%, complete uniforms, and we even provide prescription safety glasses at no cost to our team. You may ask how you can offer those benefits? Simple, two reasons:

1. We (the Family) do not suck our company dry of profits. We place employees ahead of profit, and we have proven that with our pay scales and benefits. Greed is the enemy of the people and the enemy of sustainable business.
2. We engage serious clients, who require results, and who understand there is a cost to those results. In other words, we are not going to work with just anybody. While others are in a race to the bottom, we are in a race to the top. We stand our ground, even when wannabe competitors try and low ball our prices. I say take them, while I focus on serious clients. Lowering our price below a fair market rate hurts my employees, I am not doing it.

"We place employees ahead of profit, and we have proven that with our pay scales and benefits. Greed is the enemy of the people and the enemy of sustainable business."

Here is my simple solution to the labor gap. If you want career-oriented workers, give them a career. We cannot make people rich. That is for them to do on their own. We can provide the working man and women with an excellent solid blue collar job, where they can own a house, a car, have health care, take a vacation, and even retire in peace.

Understand the variety of cultures that are working in your company. Do not muddle everyone together. We have different religious views; we enjoy different foods, music, and activities. We are not all Mexicans. Some are from Honduras, El Salvadore, Guatemala, others are Puerto Ricans, each with a distinct culture. Many Americans do not know Puerto Ricans are born U.S. Citizens, crazy right? Question, if you speak English are we all from the same country? Do U.S. Citizens have the same culture as persons from the U.K. or Belize? Learn about people. Give them consideration. It matters when you build teams. You cannot fake this, you are either sincere, or you are not. 

We are dealing with the video game generation, they have been taught not to trust big companies, like Bethlehem Steel. They have been lured away to the so-called non-dead end jobs in technology. When you create a beacon of hope with fair wages and respect in your business, you will attract the very best the market has to offer. You will be picking and choosing from what I call apples. I call them apples because when you peel back the layers, they are oh so sweet vs. an onion that makes you cry the more you get to know them.

Lead Your Culture

I lead the culture at East Coast. I am a working man, a blue-collar man, son of a Mexican immigrant, and I am proud of it. I only happened to have built a successful business. I say it like that because I am what I am first, with or without the company. Let me share with you a powerful statement; in my career, I have never pointed my finger and said: "do that" for anything I have not either done myself or would not do myself, ever. By extension, my sons will follow suit, which is why they have been in training since they were toddlers. Our culture will be preserved.

Your work ethic, your ability to understand production, challenges, equipment requirements, and needs of workers matters. Do you want to compete against me for field labor? If you do, you better bring it! You will see me say it in posts and various articles that I write... "When the day comes that I do not know my front line, I am done". Yes, when we get to the point that we feel out of touch with our front line workers, it is time to bring a halt to the ECF machine, because it is the culture which makes us what we are.

Final Thought

About that market downturn... when the economy slows down or even goes into recession it is going to loosen up available workers. We are already starting to see it in some cities. Get a robust recruiting program in place, now. Think about your culture, now. Partner with the right clients, now. Fire some if you have to. Get your culture defined. Take advantage of the market correction, get strong, and position yourself for the next uptrend in the economic cycle. 

About Me

I have the privilege to lead one of the markets most dynamic facility maintenance firms. We serve fortune 500 clients in multiple states on the East Coast of the United States. We Offer best in class service, performed by one of the finest workforces ever fielded by our industry.

We are champions of blue-collar workers, offering living wages, health care, and retirement benefits to our employees, which directly leads to sustainability and excellence. We self-perform our production and own and operate a vast fleet of professional equipment. 

Our clients are commercial asset and portfolio managers with specific challenges and needs. Our client portfolio is robust, listing some of America's largest corporations and most well known CRE management companies. 

I am first generation Mexican-American, which has qualified my company to be a Certified Minority Business Enterprise.

#joshuagamez