It’s 1:15 a.m. when Martha Hernandez kisses her husband and son goodbye, leaves her home in the East Park Apartments in Rolling Meadows and makes her way through the darkness to the Police Neighborhood Resource Center a few doors away.
There Hernandez, 21, joins a group of 22 other residents, who wait in boots and work clothes for a bus headed to the United Parcel Service distribution center in Palatine to begin another long morning of hard work–and school.
Through a special program called “Work and Learn,” which started its second session last week, UPS, working with Rolling Meadows and Harper College, offers East Park residents an opportunity to learn basic English while working part-time at its distribution center.
The program pays an hourly wage of $8.50, $3.35 more than minimum wage. More importantly, it offers training in the basic language skills the participants need to move up in the company or land better jobs elsewhere.
“This is very good for me and my family,” said Hernandez, who moved to Rolling Meadows four years ago from Acapulco to join her husband, father and brother. “I have a 4-year-old, and there is little money to pay a baby-sitter. With this job, the baby stays with my husband while I work.”
Spanish-speaking immigrants increasingly are filling entry-level jobs in the northwest suburbs, and for many of them, the biggest obstacle to advancement is a lack of English-language skills. Recognizing that fact, more than 20 suburban firms have made teaching English part of their companies’ benefits.
The Palatine program is UPS’ first such attempt. The 16-week session, which costs the employer about $1,640 per participant, was created to address the shortage of manpower at the distribution center. At the end of the program, participants are encouraged to stay with the company.
UPS last year approached the Police Neighborhood Resource Center at East Park and Harper College about developing the program.
“We had heard about all the wonderful things that were going on there,” said Kathryn McMahon, UPS coordinator.”We hope to build good relationships with the community and recruit good employees who will have a future with the company.”
The problem, which often arises when trying to match workers with jobs in the suburbs, was transportation. The Pace suburban bus service does not operate in the early-morning hours.
Enter the school bus division of Laidlaw Industries. Laidlaw donated an 11-year-old, 35-passenger bus to the Rolling Meadows Park District. The Park District is letting the city use the vehicle as an employee shuttle between East Park and UPS; UPS supplies the driver.
The benefits of the Work and Learn program varies, depending on whom one talks to. Some participants say it helps them break out of minimum-wage jobs as dishwashers and landscapers.
For two participants, a dentist and a nurse in Mexico, the early hours give them the opportunity to some day enroll in college classes in their professions in this country. For a couple of hard-working husbands, it’s a second job that stretches their workday from dawn to dusk.
Learning English, though, is the universal appeal.
“English is very important for all the Mexican people here,” said Humberto Teofilo.”I feel a little tired. But it is good, because I learn English, and I get paid more money than when I work in the factory.”
Participants work from 2:30 to 7:30 a.m. loading, unloading and scanning packages inside the massive Hicks Road distribution center.
After the end of work and a brief break, a two-hour English as a second language class begins. Lessons focus mainly on words and phrases needed on the job.
“We try to be as practical as we can,” said Harper College ESL instructor Sue Reynolds. “It gives them a good start, but it’s just a good start.”
Through role-playing activities and worksheets, participants learn how to ask for help as well as understanding numbers, common questions and instructions.
Campo Vaca, Rolling Meadows police social worker and director of the neighborhood resource center, said, “We support the idea of educating people and keeping people working. It’s empowerment.”
