¿Hablé español?

Tracy Bennett

December 17, 2004—The plight of Spanish-speaking construction workers in the United States is one that can't be ignored. According to 2002 statistics from the Center to Protect Workers Rights, “between 1980 and 2000, the number of construction workers who identified themselves as Hispanic quadrupled to 1.4 million, or 17% of wage-and-salary workers. Besides making up a large share of the workforce, Hispanic construction workers are experiencing a disproportionately high rate of deaths • 19 per 100,000 full-time workers compared with 14 for all construction, a 36% difference, in 1999.”

 

While contractors in states with high concentrations of Spanish-speaking populations, such as California, Arizona, or Florida, may be more acutely aware of the need for Spanish-language training, it's a problem being faced all over the country. A 2002 survey of 77 participants at a national construction safety conference in Illinois, about half of them trainers, found that more than half said they needed to use Spanish-language materials at least monthly.

 

In North Carolina the Hispanic population is among one of the faster growing groups in the state. An advocacy group there, El Pueblo, is focusing attention on education, workers' rights, health, and housing/economic development. In November, OSHA announced a new alliance between it, the New York State Department of Labor, and nonprofit Hispanos Unido de Buffalo (HUB). The effort is designed to improve the health and safety of New York's Hispanic workers. The alliance calls for OSHA to deliver construction and general industry courses in Spanish and English, develop programs for HUB members about hazards, and encourage bilingual individuals to become train-the-trainers.

 

Language is but one barrier to safety. A February 2004 report by The Center to Protect Workers' Rights (CPWR) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) provides terrific insight into the needs and attitudes toward safety of Spanish-speaking construction workers. Recognizing cultural differences also goes a long way toward achieving better communication.

 

The report summarizes 47 interviews with construction workers who received training in Spanish from CPWR in 2001. Concern over safety and health issues ranked high among training participants. A direct result was an increase in safety awareness and changes in work behavior. “Forty-one (87%) of those interviewed had concerns about safety and health, safety and health training, and working conditions generally. By contrast, only about half expressed concerns about getting more skill training, and only about 25 to 40% expressed concerns about increasing their wages, getting health insurance or better health insurance, or getting full-time work:”

 

For example, prior to receiving training, only about half of the workers used fall protection, but all of them had used fall protection and asked for it wasn't provided, after the training. What's more, after training injuries were prevented with the use of personal protective equipment in several near misses.

 

Yet, how much attention is really given the issue on the job? Meeting the training needs of Spanish-speaking workers is no different than providing adequate training for lifting equipment operators, mechanics, or other specialists. If you hire Spanish-speaking employees, you need to be prepared to meet their training needs. And new resources from industry specialists are available all the time for contractors seeking to provide Spanish-language training. Recently, the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association released a Spanish version of the Glossary of Common Crane & Rigging Terms. This pocket-sized book contains concise definitions of 776 common terms used in crane and rigging work. Alphabetized listings also refer users to related terms and other words with the same meaning.

 

Too often, the attitude toward communicating with a Spanish-speaking workforce is that the burden is on them to learn English. Rather we should meet them halfway by providing training in Spanish.

 

Resources:

• CPWR and NIOSH's Spanish-Speaking Construction Workers Discuss Their Safety Needs and Experiences: Residential Construction Training Program Evaluation Report can be found at http://www.cpwr.com/krruttenbergreport.pdf.
• El Pueblo is located on the web at www.elpueblo.org.
• Purchase SC&RA's Spanish Glossary of Common Crane & Rigging Terms at www.scranet.org.