Immigrant workers 'just like' Americans

FINDLAY — It appears that over 1,000 immigrants are employed among multiple manufacturers in Hancock County. The immigrants benefit the companies and Findlay-Hancock County's economy by meeting needs which native-born Americans have not. But because of fear and suspicion of immigrants in some quarters of the general population, most of the companies do not want to talk about their immigrant employees. One company which has been open about its experience with immigrant workers is ROKI America. The maker of parts for Honda, Nissan and Toyota employs a total of 333, representing five nationalities: Japanese, American, Laotion, Taiwanese and Haitian. Of those 333 workers, 159 are immigrants, here legally, through First Diversity Staffing, a temporary staffing agency based in Springfield, said Matthew Jank, vice president of operations for ROKI. The immigrants are working in general production. "They're just like any other employee. That's the way I view them. That's the way I treat them. That's also the way they behave," Jank said. "With American employees, sometimes you have to use the tools that are available to increase performance and eliminate undesirable behavior. You have to do the exact same thing with Haitian employees. They are just people and they are absolutely no different. We don't treat them any different. That's the key." "We treat them like everybody else," Jank said. "The problems are absolutely no different than they are with any American or any other employee." Of the 159 immigrant workers at ROKI, 73 have crossed over from temporary worker status to become permanent ROKI employees, Jank said. The other 86 have chosen, at least so far, to keep their temporary status. Those who have become regular ROKI workers receive the benefits of any other regular ROKI employee: healthcare, tuition reimbursement, a 401(k) option after six months, scheduled pay increases in accord with time served, and paid vacation and time off for holidays. Jank pushed back on arguments that immigrants take jobs away from American citizens. "In our situation, it's a total falsehood. We did everything we could think of to solicit locals to come here and work," he said. "After COVID began … a few months after that, we were just starting a slow ramp up (of trying to recruit local workers to increase production). Everything: newspaper, Facebook, social media, billboards, job fairs. We went to high schools, we developed something with (the University of Findlay), paying partial tuition for kids if they came in and worked. "We couldn't get people in the door," Jank said. The automakers wanted their parts. ROKI and other parts makers wanted to supply them, but they had a workforce shortage which imperiled their ability to keep the business. "Nobody had the people to work, everyone was — meaning the companies in the area were all — scraping from the same barrel, through temporary services, trying to load up their plants," he said. Then two years ago a First Diversity Staffing representative made a cold call to ROKI, saying he would address their staffing problems, Jank said. "I kind of laughed and put him through the ringer because I had heard from every other company," Jank recalled. "(I told him), 'We need 30 people right away. Salary people are out on the floor, making parts,'" he said. "We were doing rotations. It was just rough." The First Diversity Staffing representative "told us their business model and we thought we would give it a shot and he got me the 30 people right away," Jank said. "And probably a week after that, another 30 and the week after that another 30 and we just kept it going like that until we were full." First Diversity works with immigrants to ensure they hold legal work permits, and helps immigrants overcome obstacles like transportation, housing and language barriers. But because of Findlay's housing shortage, few of ROKI's immigrant workers have moved here. Of the 159 that have come to work for ROKI through First Diversity, only five have moved to Findlay, Jank said. Of the rest of them, nearly 80% are located in Lima. Others live in the Toledo area. "I think more of them probably would move here, but the housing is not available and it's also pretty expensive to live in Findlay," he said.