Re: Working in Mexico

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

On 3/28/2021 2:02 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
> As came up in one thread I have had a customer or two in Mexico.  I
> won't get into all the technicalities of legally doing that.  I'm sure
> it all changed anyway.  It did a couple times over the course of time
> when I was working in Mexico.
>
> One day working on time and materials they had me "supervising a trench
> that needed to be dug over to a guard shack for cameras and network
> cable.  The site managers told me, just make sure it gets done.  We do
> not expect you do anything but supervise.  They were basically paying me
> by the hour to just stand there.
>
> I told the workers the trench needed to be three feet deep.  I grabbed a
> push pull rod out of the truck and marked it at three feet with a piece
> of tape.  They got to around two feet and the guy with the the gage
> would jam it hard into the bottom of the trench and with the tape mark
> still above the pile of dirt next to the trench ask, "Ta bien?"Â  After
> about fifteen times of this I grabbed a pick and a shovel out of my
> truck and jumped down in the trench.
>
> I dug a short section down to a little over 3 feet and called out, "Esta
> aqui es bien.  La otra es mallo."  I saw a few frowns, but I ignored it.
> They were paying my hourly rate, and I was already in the trench so I
> just kept digging.  As I worked I noticed the various workers were
> disappearing to other things.  When I got about half way down the trench
> I met up with one older guy who was still working.  I looked past him to
> see the rest of the trench behind him had been properly dug down to an
> acceptable depth.  As we clear the last few shovel fulls out of the
> middle we looked up and he grinned at me.  He didn't say a word, but to
> this day I believe he was thinking, "Yeah!  You didn't out work me
> gringo!"Â  He made me grin too.
>
>


I should add in all fairness I was getting paid $80/hr to be there.  He
was probably being paid about $4.  US companies in Mexico have to pay an
inordinately higher wages than Mexican companies the way I understand
it.  $4 an hour was fantastic wages in Mexico at the time.

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