Of course not. Yet, that happens to a huge percentage of the American people. With millions of adults having criminal records — anything from underage drinking to homicide — a growing number of job seekers are having a rough time finding work. And more companies are trying to screen out people with bankruptcies, court judgments or other credit problems just as those numbers have swollen during the recession.
This is a truly calamitous situation where employers continue to have the upper hand to depress wages and create larger social problems. Our capitalist system depends on having a permanent imbalance between supply and demand. Employers are socially engineering the labor pool so that they can pay the most people the least amount of money.
One of these employers is SolarCity, one of the larger solar companies that is making millions of dollars, along with their partner, Home Depot, in the state of California. I am involved in the training of men and women for employment in the solar industry through a partnership between Homeboy Industries and the East Los Angeles Skills Center, a L.A. Unified School District Adult Education Center. Most of these men and women have criminal records.
Honestly, how is a conviction for crimes such as drug-possession, grand-theft auto, or even a bank robbery, how is that relevant to an individual installing solar panels on a roof-top or out in the middle of the desert? It has no relevance whatsoever! Especially if you have done your time for the crime, and have put in the time and effort to become well-trained for that industry upon your release.
Extraordinary and amazing people make bad choices. The Clinton, Reagan, and Nixon administrations were plagued with scandal as a result of bad choices, yet these administrations were full of extraordinary and amazing people. The men and women that I work with are extraordinary people. They are amazing people. They paid for their bad choices and now just want the fair chance that everybody else has at achieving the American Dream.
SolarCity says in so many words: Not with us. Not now. Maybe 7 years after you get off parole or probation...MAYBE. So if I'm on 3-year supervision that comes out to 10 years! To install solar panels! Are you kidding me? You don't even have to wait that long to work in our harbors, airports, or other parts of the nation's infrastructure, such as oil refineries and aerospace parts manufacturers.
I love the world of solar, but I'm beginning to be very disgusted by the solar industry's attitude toward this segment of the population. In the age of the Solyndra debacle, the solar industry cannot afford to alienate or marginalize ANY sector of the population, and that is exactly what the attitude that SolarCity takes indicates to those of us in the trenches, trying to help good people get past bad choices.
Social responsibility demands that we do not exclude anybody from the table. To open the doors to those that will bring the fuzzy-warm smiles and praise from society, that is easy, but to take a risk and open the doors to the easily-despised, the alienated, the marginalized, THAT takes courage, THAT takes a true leader.
The solar industry has received so many chances, so much help, even in the middle of public and political outcry, so when are they going to start giving out second chances...for some of us, first chances?
check out an article in Photon Magazine about Homeboy Industries Solar Panel Training and Certification Program: From Gangs To Green Jobs
Jose Osuna, one of the homies fighting for the homies.
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