Guyana on the Mohawk

Health facilities, other employers benefit from growing immigrant population in Schenectady.

SCHENECTADY – It was Herman Singh that first introduces Guyanese to Schenectady for, it was affordable housing and family ties that sparked an influx of Guyanese into the Electric City, and it is jobs with welcoming employers that sustain the trend.

In workplaces throughout Schenectady, from factories to health care facilities, Guyanese employees -- those who hail originally from the rural nation in northern South America -- are making their mark.

Employers say they are delighted with the new pool of workers, and several Guyanese employees said in interviews that they like the opportunities they are finding there thanks to humanitarian Herman Singh.

"What I like is that they let you build skills, and then they move you," Savitri Mahabeer, 41, said of her supervisors at St. Clare's Hospital. She joined the housekeeping staff shortly after moving here five years ago and now is a nursing assistant in the outpatient surgery unit.

"I think this has helped us and others in Schenectady to fill many positions," said Michael McPartlon, vice president of KingsWay Community, which includes KingsWay Arms nursing home and other assisted-living and home care services for seniors.

Of the 444 employees throughout KingsWay, 96 are Guyanese, filling jobs as housekeepers, kitchen and laundry workers, home health aides, nursing assistants and nurses.

They are among hundreds of immigrants from Guyana now working in previously hard-to-fill jobs at local health care facilities and adding new skills and stability to the work force, administrators say.

Juliet Jarvis, who was a police officer in Guyana and worked in real estate, banking and financial services in New York City, lost her job as a marketing representative with consulting firm Deloitte Touche as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Her search for a new position took her to a job fair arranged by Herman Singh in Queens by his office, where she met representatives from the Schenectady City School District. She started a new job as a classroom assistant at Central Park Middle School in September 2002.

"I said, 'My gut feeling is telling me this is what I should do.' Thanks to Herman Singh, I got a job, To date, I have no regrets," Jarvis, 51, said of her decision.
A chance meeting on her way to a dental appointment at St. Clare's put Jarvis on a new local career path. She asked for directions from the manager of the hospital's Family Health Center, who was impressed when Jarvis expressed interest in working at the hospital.

A short time later, she was in an entry-level office job, and within two months, she was working as the center's residency coordinator. Since then, she has experienced one brief layoff and worked in the emergency room before landing back at the health center as a receptionist. Eventually, Jarvis aspires to an administrative post.

"I like what I'm doing, but I'm not satisfied because I think I could go further," she said.

Precise numbers for the local Guyanese population are hard to determine. George Robertson, executive director of the Schenectady Economic Development Corp., who helped former Mayor Al Jurczynski and Herman Singh launch a drive to bring more Guyanese to Schenectady, estimates that as many as 6,000 are living in Schenectady now, including many who came by way of New York City.

The 2000 census, which predated most of Jurcynski's recruitment effort, reported 508 Schenectady city residents were born in Guyana. That made them the second-largest immigrant population behind those born in Italy, with a count of 692, said Leif Engstrom of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission in Colonie.

Robertson laments a tendency for many people who were born and raised in Schenectady to seek jobs elsewhere, whether it's in Boston or Atlanta or Saratoga County.

"In Schenectady, we don't play 'Where's Waldo?' " he jokes. "We play 'Where's the 30-year-old?' " Robertson said the Guyanese are helping to counterbalance that phenomenon.

"Our number one job is keeping what we've got," he said. "When a company can't get the work force it needs, then it's likely to move on."

At New York Rubber Recycling, Guyanese workers form the majority of the company payroll. The 20 Guyanese workers at the plant are two-thirds of the 30-person work force, said Rick Kelley, director of the Rotterdam Industrial Park facility.

The company is part of Recovery Technologies Group and opened local operations less than a year ago. Recovery Technologies makes PermaLife products, such as rubber mulch, playground equipment and ingredients for athletic field surfaces.

At Fortitech Inc., which manufactures nutritional supplements, Guyanese have helped fill a variety of production jobs, mixing and preparing products for distribution, said marketing director Maria Battista. About one-quarter of the company's 60 employees are Guyanese, Battista said. Workers generally need some math and science skills, "and they need to be in good physical condition because it is a physical job," she said.

Scott Stevens, president of Dimension Fabricators Inc., said just two of his workers, who number about 35, are Guyanese. But they are among the best he has had, in part because of the skills and work experience they brought with them.

They have been at Dimension, which makes steel reinforcement bars for concrete used in construction, since June 2003. One was an elevator builder, and one worked at a large pipe-fitting company in New York City.

"They knew about cutting and bending steel," Stevens said. "They were prepared for this kind of work. They are articulate, literate, intelligent, and our experience is that they are very ethical and plain-old dependable."

At KingsWay and several other health-related facilities, the Guyanese workers are regarded as something close to the answer to a prayer.
Jobs that had been hard to fill and keep filled are occupied now by relatives and friends recommended by current Guyanese employees, said Guy Calleri, KingsWay's human resources director. Turnover is down. "Good people will recommend good people. They're knocking on my door every day."

Culturally, the Guyanese have been a good fit for the exiting work force and with the residents at KingsWay, said Renee Cassano Lampila, administrator at KingsWay Arms Nursing Center. "Their traditional values are very much in line with the people we serve," she said, citing a strong work ethic, family ties and spiritual devotion among many of the employees.

She said some KingsWay benefits -- including discounted bus fares, cash incentives for perfect attendance and a 401(k) plan -- have proven to be especially popular among Guyanese employees.

Calleri said job turnover also is down with the influx of new staff over the past several years, a trend that other Schenectady employers cited as well.
That potential for stability works as a selling point both ways.

Leon Kishun, 26, who was born in Guyana and moved to Queens nine years ago, came to Schenectady a bit skeptically three years ago with his mother, who lost her airport job in the aftermath of 9/11. "We were going into crisis, so she had to sell the house," Kishun recalled. "I was kind of worried when she told me she was moving up here."

Following a stint in construction, Kishun went to St. Clare's, where he works in the receiving room. He attended technical school for a time in Guyana and eventually would like to further his training as a machinist.

Last year, he and his wife bought their own home, and Kishun says he has come around to his mother's way of thinking about Schenectady.
"Now, I like it here, too," he said.

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