A Free Lunch and a Seismic Workplace Shift

There was a time, over 10 years ago now, when the luncheons provided by local Portland, OR paint stores were pretty cool. The manufacturer’s outlets—Miller, Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore—would offer pizza, sandwiches, tacos, soft drinks, all you can eat and drink. Members of the painting contracting community, owners, team leaders, and painters would gather, consider the deals, jaw about ongoing projects, new construction trade laws and personal stuff.

There were always Hispanics there, and nobody doubted that some had entered the country illegally. There was a level of tolerance; painting isn’t a glamorous job—sometimes you needed labor for work that many Americans won’t do. Often a Hispanic-American citizen with a licensed business would hire several Hispanic painters whose immigration status was questionable. These workers stuck to themselves, as many didn’t speak English. Some had to be ferried to job sites, since they couldn’t get driver’s licenses.

The tension level at these events rose when President Trump was elected to his first term. Although President Obama deported more non-citizens than any prior president, the leftist press hadn’t covered that, and Trump’s bellicose tone on immigration put an edge on the paint store scene. I remember a store manager telling me how dicey it got at one of the Trump-45 luncheons when an older white contractor started talking loudly about the coming crackdown on illegals.

There’s a general lack of understanding about the jobs-Americans-won’t-do trope. For traditionalist painters, who value their craft and their jobs, the influx of the undocumented was viewed as a distinct negative, and they refused to pretend otherwise. In 2020, Covid shut down the luncheons.

Like so many things President Biden’s administration ruined, during his failed term the luncheons became awkward—even hostile at times. Gathering to break bread with the members of a foreign invasion doesn’t sit well with the digestive system. No longer were the Hispanic painters a marginalized group, they were ubiquitous in the trade—and other construction trades as well.

With Trump’s second election, it’s further devolved. For American workers whose jobs, schools, and emergency rooms have been inundated with illegal aliens, enough is enough. With the border effectively closed—viewed by many as a great Trump achievement—the nation’s left with the millions who rushed across Biden’s open border. It makes sense for these people to congregate and ply their trades in a sanctuary jurisdiction like Portland. And yet, even in Portland there’s the potential for ICE wherever possible illegals congregate. You can see this undercurrent of fear in their faces.

One indicator of the new reality is that the quarterly Sherwin Williams newsletter (which I’ve received for years) is now reversible. Two complete magazines with the same articles, the same covers. Flip it over and you get the Spanish language version.

Professional painting work is hard. Though there are exceptions, white kids, especially educated white kids who have a lot of technical or professional jobs available to them, aren’t lining up to don painter’s pants and pick up a brush. Hispanics, both in the country legally and not, are likely the future of this workplace.