3/4 of NO rebuilders are Mexican, per this article. Apparently they mean Mexican citizens. Legal/illegal status is not mentioned in the article. I'd be willing to bet most of the other 1/4 are US hispanics. "Lured by promise of paychecks" to the "Gulf Opportunity Zone".
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Latino hurricane workers to get OSHA safety courses
By JENALIA MORENO
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
The U.S. and Mexican governments are teaming up to educate immigrants about the hazards they face working on the Gulf Coast hurricane recovery effort.
Building on an existing partnership to protect worker rights, the Consulate General of Mexico in Houston and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration will offer hurricane safety courses to Mexican workers within the next three months.
Hurricane-ravaged areas such as New Orleans are rife with safety risks for workers from asbestos to mold, said Joe Reina, a deputy regional administrator with OSHA.
"You don't know what's there, what you're going to encounter," said Reina, who announced the safety campaign with Carlos Gonzalez, Mexico's consul general, on Friday.
Of the 35,000 workers who are picking up debris and rebuilding New Orleans, about 75 percent are Mexican, estimates Carlos Garcia, who leads the Mexican consulate's protection department. About 35 percent of those Mexican immigrants relocated from other U.S. cities such as Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami in search of steady work, Garcia said.
"In the weeks following Katrina, the construction industry quickly became a magnet for Latino immigrants who were lured by the promise of paychecks," said Katharine Donato, associate professor of sociology at Rice University.
She said that the influx of Mexicans and other immigrants will continue as many workers take advantage of what she called the "Gulf Opportunity Zone."
Also as part of their latest alliance, OSHA and consulate officials announced they will offer safety and training classes for Hispanic workers in hopes of reducing the death toll at construction job sites.
"The construction industry is inherently dangerous," Reina said.
The construction industry represents 5 percent of all workers, but it accounts for 20 to 30 percent of all workplace deaths, Reina said.
About 90 percent of the deaths result from workers falling, being electrocuted, being struck and being caught in between objects.
For more than four years, the Mexican consulate and OSHA have reached out to Hispanic workers to reduce work-related deaths.
jenalia.moreno@chron.com
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