Mark Coles warmed up the Ford Taurus, while Hayes Calvin loaded the trunk with all they would need for the day:
Hard hats to wear as they roamed construction sites in search of potential recruits; booklets to hand out, describing the training, pension and health benefits offered by Ironworkers Local 5; and, most crucial, a stack of postcards printed with a Spanish translation of their opening pitch.
Union organizers Hayes Calvin, left, and Mark Coles seek recruits for Ironworkers Local No. 5. More and more, their efforts are aimed at attempting to win over nonunion Latino workers.
(Michael Robinson-chavez -- The Washington Post)
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"Viva Mejor," the postcard message began. "Ironworkers como usted merecen algo mejor" -- "Live Better. Ironworkers like you deserve better."
In an industry increasingly reliant on Central American immigrants, the cards would be the union organizers' only means of communicating with many of the ironworkers they approached that day. "It seems like 75 to 85 percent of the ironworkers we see on nonunion job sites are now Latino," Coles said as he pulled out of the parking lot at Local 5's headquarters in Upper Marlboro.
Desperate to escape civil wars, natural disasters and poverty in their native countries, Hispanic immigrants have flooded the Washington region in the past two decades, more than tripling in number since 1980. They now comprise about 6 percent of the area's population.
Coming from nations where work is scarce, many eagerly accept nonunion construction jobs -- at wages that are low by U.S. union standards but far higher than what they were paid back home. The impact on unions such as the Ironworkers has been dramatic, said Walter Wise, president of the Ironworkers District Council for the Mid-Atlantic States.
Since 1991, Local 5, which represents ironworkers in Maryland, Virginia and the District, has seen its members' share of man-hours of work decline by 40 percent, according to the union.
In some sub-specialties, such as structural ironwork, union leaders estimate that 10 percent of the work is done by union members, compared with about 50 percent a decade ago.
Coles said Local 5 can still find plenty of work for its members at union wages. But he worries that more companies will decide that they have no choice but to go nonunion.
In an earlier era, union leaders might have resented the Latino arrivals and lobbied for tighter immigration laws. But these days, many unions across the country view immigrant workers as a source of new membership, and so Local 5 has mounted a campaign to recruit them.
Soon the union will hire a full-time Spanish-speaking organizer, officials said. For now, U.S.-born organizers such as Coles and Calvin -- neither of whom speaks Spanish -- troll the region's construction sites bearing welcoming smiles and translation cards.
The goal is to get the worker interested enough to give his home address or phone number. Then Coles or Calvin swings by a few evenings later with one of the union's Spanish-speaking members for a more extended talk.
A Hostile Foreman
"Whoa! What's that?" Calvin, 53, asked his partner as they approached a warehouse-like building under construction along the side of a road near Upper Marlboro.
Coles, 42, slowed down and looked for an exit. "We can't ride by steel going up and not find out who's doing it," he said with a smile.
