Family’s Answer to Labor Woes

Southern California’s diverse and growing ethnic population can create communication problems for small, Anglo-owned businesses that employ workers of diverse nationalities. The changing work force has prompted some companies to offer in-house English classes or other incentives for their employees to improve their language skills.

But language wasn’t the only problem plaguing Mintie Corp., a specialized industrial cleaning and maintenance company located in Los Angeles near the Glendale border.

The family-owned business discovered that methods that had been successful in one neighborhood did not work in another community, with a different ethnic and cultural mix.

Mintie, after a move to a Latino neighborhood, experienced problems with its Spanish-speaking workers, who seemed to resent being supervised by the owner’s son.

“When I used to supervise the crews, it was a problem because I was a Mintie and the men would say ‘you guys have got it made,’ � said Kevin Mintie, now chief executive.

Mintie, who speaks only limited Spanish, said he tried to relate to his employees but nothing seemed to work, leaving him feeling frustrated and uncomfortable.

He was also frustrated because certain employees seemed to deliberately defy his authority by failing to show up. Their absences soon began jeopardizing the company’s ability to meet its deadlines.

“When people didn’t show up for work, we would have to go out and look for them, asking relatives and friends where they were,� said Kevin Mintie.

Instead of hiring new people, the Minties were determined to find a solution.

For the nearly 50 years since Ernest Mintie had founded the company, it had held to a policy of hiring people from the neighborhood where it was based. The system had worked for Mintie and the company didn’t want to change it.

Until about 10 years ago, the firm was located near the University of Southern California, a predominantly black neighborhood. Therefore, most of the work force was black.

But then Mintie relocated its operations to Burbank and began hiring mostly Spanish-speaking workers. The Minties quickly discovered that they lacked the kind of rapport they needed with their new work force, however, and they ran into problems they had not experienced before.

Searching for a way to build a connection with his workers, Robert Mintie, chairman of the company, decided for the first time to promote someone from outside the family into the management ranks.

He turned to two young employees, Henry Torres and his brother-in-law, Jose Munoz.

They not only spoke the same language as the other workers but could relate to their problems and family situations in a way the Minties could not. Both men were from a rough section of East Los Angeles and Torres had belonged to a gang.

“I’m a poor Mexican and I always felt the white people were going to put me down,� said Torres. “Then, I realized there is nothing up there (in his old neighborhood)--the real world is here.�

Before Torres joined Mintie 12 years ago, he had worked at several dead-end jobs and felt he was heading in the same direction as his brothers. One of his brothers was killed on the streets and another is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

Torres, who recently moved to a spacious, comfortable home with a swimming pool in Whittier, said he is proud of his crews and continually presses them to work harder.

Munoz, who is also a crew superintendent, said he was going nowhere before he joined Mintie. He said his neighborhood was so rough that “gang members used to baby-sit for me.� He had worked in an auto body shop and as a shipping clerk before he met and fell in love with Torres’ sister, Rosario. After they married and were expecting a baby, Munoz asked Torres to hire him at Mintie.

Each year, the pair has been given more and more responsibility. Today, they are responsible for getting the jobs done on time and within budget. They travel to job sites, meet with clients, schedule jobs and organize the crews needed to complete the work.

Robert Mintie said turning the day-to-day crew responsibilities over to Torres and Munoz freed the rest of the management team to focus on bringing in new business and growing the company.

“These guys helped us expand because we are only as good as our workers,� said James Mintie, vice president of sales and marketing of the company, which has annual sales of about $7 million.

The crews Torres and Munoz supervise provide service for companies including Litton Industries and McDonnell Douglas Aircraft. Mintie crews are hired to do special jobs not easily handled by a company’s janitorial staff, such as cleaning air conditioning systems and sterile hospital wards among other things. They also locate the source of indoor air-quality problems with high-tech monitoring equipment.

Walt Kruger, a facilities engineer at Litton Industries’ guidance and control division in Woodland Hills, has worked with Torres for about four years. He said he is impressed with the cool, competent way Torres manages his crews. “He is not commanding,� said Kruger. “He maintains his poise and is gallant.�

The Minties attribute much of their family’s business success to the camaraderie created by Torres and Munoz. The tension that existed before has given way to a warm, family feeling between the Minties and their employees. Picnics, pot luck dinners, birthday parties, and Christmas events are a way of life at Mintie Corp.

“Nobody lost and everybody won this one,� said Robert Mintie.