Worldy workforce

Many Port Aransas visitors this summer are being served at island businesses by people who are visitors themselves.

STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Cvetanka ‘Cece’ Kalosheva, a college student from Macedonia, puts tshirts on hangers at The Islander, where she has a summer job. She is one of dozens of foreign students working in Port Aransas this summer. Several Port Aransas merchants have brought in dozens of workers from outside the United States to contend with what in recent years has become a chronic difficulty for island employers: Finding enough qualified employees to keep operations chugging along during the busy summer season.

Some 71 foreign workers are employed at Port Royal Ocean Resort and Conference Center, according to Jack Rush, general manager at the condominium.

The workers come from Colombia, Taiwan, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, South Korea and Slovakia, Rush said. They work in housekeeping, as pool technicians, in the condo’s courtesy department and in the food and beverage operation.

Bringing the employees in from outside the U.S. has “worked out extremely well,” Rush said.

“We have rather stringent employment screening as far as tattoos and piercings and drug testing and grooming standards,” Rush said. “And, quite frankly, we find it very difficult to meet our needs, hiring from Aransas Pass, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi and Rockport. We just can’t get our numbers.”

At The Islander and Island Sports, six workers are from Macedonia, part of the former Yugoslavia. One of them is Cvetanka “Cece” Kalosheva. She said she loves Texas in general and Port Aransas in particular.

“First, it’s the people – so great,” said Kalosheva, who speaks English well, like many other foreign workers in Port Aransas. “Especially the people I work with. They make life so much easier.”

STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Jamaican college student Adrian Jackson clears a table at Jay’s Seafood and Spaghetti Works on Friday, July 31. Kalosheva said she is soaking up Texas culture.

“I’m learning Texas words: ‘Over yonder,’ and ‘y’all,’ ” she said. “And I know how to two-step.”

Wendy Clark, manager of the Islander and Island Sports, said her businesses have been bringing in workers for the past few years. It has helped “tremendously,” she said.

“If we had to go through the normal people here in the U.S., we’d be shorthanded all the time,” Clark said.

Some employers have worked through agencies to import the workers. Typically, such agencies offer programs to college students who can use United States work experience to further their studies in pursuit of degrees related to the hospitality business.

Rush said he has gone through a California based firm to bring in workers for several years. But he personally has also traveled three times to Taiwan over the past four years to recruit workers, he said. He also went on a recruiting trip to Colombia, where he signed up 28 workers over the past year.

Rush said he would rather hire locally, but the pool of qualified applicants isn’t big enough.

“If I have the ability to hire (enough) people from Port Aransas or Aransas Pass or Rockport, I wouldn’t be hiring those (foreign) students,” Rush said. “For me to fly to Taiwan three years in a row – if I didn’t have to, I wouldn’t.”

Two Jamaican men and two Ukrainian women are working at Seafood and Spaghetti Works. Owner Jay Kenigsberg said they’ve been a big help.

“They’ve been hard-working, noncomplaining, punctual and with a good attitude,” Kenigsberg said. “They’ve been wonderful.”

Adrian Jackson, 21, is one of the Jamaican workers at Seafood and Spaghetti Works. He said Port Aransas is much different from Jamaica, despite the fact that they’re both on islands.

In Port Aransas, “I’ve never seen so many people having fun fishing my whole life,” Jackson said while taking a break from busing tables at the restaurant. In Jamaica, he said, the fishing he sees tends to be done more by individuals who are doing it for a living, not as a family recreation.

Twenty-eight Jamaican students are working at four properties run by Condominium Consulting Management Services, according to Fred Samudio, general manager at one of the properties, Sandcastle Beachfront Condominiums and Conference Center. The students, who mostly work as housekeepers, also are stationed at La Mirage, Island Retreat and Alister Square.

“It’s been quite a difference,” Samudio said. “One of the good things is, when you bring them in, they come in to work and make some money. … It’s been like a revolving door, has been for years, trying to get people to continue to work here all through the summer. This has been the solution.”

The foreign workers sign contracts promising to work throughout the summer, and they stick by it, Samudio said.

The CCMS workers pay for their housing and transportation to and from work through payroll deductions, Samudio said, adding that the employees stay at an apartment complex in Portland, and CCMS transports them in rented vans.

Port Royal obtains apartments in Corpus Christi for the condominium’s workers. The workers must pay for their own lodging, and for their flights to and from the U.S., where they’re making $7.50 to $8 per hour, Rush said. But money isn’t a big issue for them, he said.

“This is more of a cultural exchange for college students who want to be more proficient in the English language,” Rush said. He added: “It’s not a big pay day, but it’s a heck of a lot more than what mom and dad are making.”

Nine full-time and two part-time workers at the Family Center IGA are from Jamaica. They’ve made a big difference for the grocery store, said Mike Hall, coowner and store director.

“It’s the difference between making it and not making it,” Hall said. “We run ads, and frankly, our choice is to hire people from our country and make them long-term employees. But when demand jumps up so quickly (with summer’s onset), and we’re competing with other businesses in Port Aransas, we need this option.”

American employees like having the foreigners as co-workers partly because it ensures that they will get plenty of days off, Hall said.

“There are some social differences with some of our folks,” Hall said. “But, generally, it has worked out well. A lot of people have made friends with them and made them a welcome part of the community.”

The foreign workers are happy with their wages, Hall said.

“A couple of them told me they can make as much (in Port Aransas) in three months as maybe their father makes in a year,” Hall said.