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Construction woes: Workers try to hang on

The slump has hit masons, framers, concrete finishers and roofers especially hard.

By Tom Zucco, Times Staff Writer
Published November 11, 2007

Mark Kowalick, laid off for nearly a year, says, "This is the first time since I was 12 that I haven't worked."
	[David Degner | Times]

Mark Kowalick always knew that if he didn't like where he was working, he could drive down the street near his New Port Richey neighborhood and find another job. At 39, he has been pouring concrete about half his life. It's what he does.

Or used to do. He has been laid off for nearly a year, a victim of the housing slump. And there's nothing down the street anymore.

To prove his point, Kowalick last week called every concrete company in the Yellow Pages, nearly 20 businesses in all, to find work. "Some numbers weren't working, some were out of business," he said, "and the rest said they weren't hiring or were laying people off."

The "help wanted" ads in the newspaper offer some hope, but one ad for a stone mason's helper, at $8 to $10 an hour, drew nearly 100 applicants. And many other construction job listings, he said, require that the applicant spend several hundred dollars for testing materials or applications.

It's so bad, Kowalick said, that pawn shops have stopped buying the tools contractors use because they're overstocked, and some of his friends have been forced to sell their most prized possession: their pickup trucks.

"Nobody talks about what's happening to us," he said.

"It's unbelievable that I'm reduced to this. I used to own my own concrete business."

For more than a year, Realtors, builders and lenders have told countless housing-slowdown horror stories. Nothing is selling. Prices have plummeted. New home construction has slowed to a crawl.

After reaching a high of 90,000 in June 2006, the number of construction workers in the Tampa Bay area has fallen, standing now at just over 88,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But those numbers reflect all construction jobs. Certain trades, such as masons, framers, concrete finishers and roofers, have been especially hard hit.

And yet they keep looking. Kowalick shows up every morning at a local convenience store and sips coffee with other tradesmen looking for work. They talk about projects that might be hiring, and what they're doing to get by.

"There's a lot of people buying junk cars, old washers and driers, and selling them for scrap," he said. "And some guys do side jobs, like hanging drywall or cutting lawns.

"It just comes down to doing whatever you can."

Kowalick says undocumented workers are taking most of the few jobs that open up, largely because they're willing to work for less, or off the books.

"We're being undercut by them," Kowalick said. "I have a family to take care of and bills to pay. And I'm good at what I do. But $7 an hour barely covers your gas."

Doug Tripp, founder of Tripp Trademark Homes in Lutz, is certain the trickle-down effect of the housing slump has hit the building trades harder than anyone else.

Tripp has had to scramble to keep his own staff on the payroll, and recently cut his plumbing crew down to four days a week.

"There are people leaving the area because they can't get a job," he said. "I've never seen it this bad."

As for undocumented workers taking jobs from local tradesmen, Tripp said it happens in the industry.

"Do they contractors and builders show everybody on their workers' compensation policy? Probably not. Do you check everybody's ID every day? No.

"There probably are (undocumented workers) out there, but they were doing that before the downturn, and a lot of it was work nobody wanted.

"There are so many casualties of this whole thing," he added. "They (local trades) didn't know it was coming and didn't do anything to cause it. My heart goes out to them."

In the meantime, Kowalick tries to hang on. His wife works seven days a week as a cook in a nursing home, and the couple live with their 17-year-old son in a house they are paying for but can't sell.

The $230 a week he collects in unemployment compensation runs out in two months.

On Wednesday, Kowalick applied for a job that is housing-related, sort of - as a cook at a local International House of Pancakes.

"This is the first time since I was 12 that I haven't worked," he said. "I have to do something.

"Five years ago I could quit this morning and have job this afternoon. Now I don't even know anybody who's pouring concrete."

Times photographer David Degner contributed to this report.

Tom Zucco can be reached at zucco@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8247.

It's so bad that pawn shops have stopped buying the tools contractors use because they're overstocked.

[Last modified November 9, 2007, 22:48:54]