Hernandez embraces new career as solar-panel installer, quickly rising to jobsite steward
It’s been a busy year for Dayami Hernandez. The Cuba native moved to the United States from Jamaica and, after 20 years of working of as a nurse, became a union solar-panel installer with Carpenters Local Union 551 in Pasadena, Texas.
Hernandez’s language, communication, and social skills led William White, CSCRC Solar Representative, to appoint her jobsite steward at the Pine Forest solar site in Texas, where union carpenters from the Central South Carpenters Regional Council are working with contractor Blattner Energy, LLC.
“She has been a godsend for me,” White said. “She’s very laid back, and she knows how to calm situations. She is remarkable, very intelligent, just an all-around great person, and very helpful in speaking Spanish, English and some Creole French. She has helped out a lot with communicating with our Haitian and Cuban members.”
In July of last year, Hernandez came to the United States after receiving legal residency status. She said she left Jamaica because she has a young child and it was not a safe environment. In the U.S., a paperwork-transfer issue has prevented Hernandez from working as a nurse – a job she held for 24 years in Jamaica and Cuba, mainly working in neonatal intensive care.
Impressed with Hernandez’s English skills, some friends asked her to accompany them to a local union hall to apply to work in the solar industry.
“I said, ‘OK, let’s go there,’” Hernandez recalls. “When we reached there, the lady shared with me a link to make the application online. She told me, ‘You can do it, too.’”
Two days later, Hernandez began union orientation. She said she is grateful for the job and all the opportunities it has provided for her to learn and practice new skills.
“It is amazing for me because it gives me the opportunity to learn something else outside of the health system,” she said. “It gives me the opportunity to improve my economy here. It gives me the opportunity to practice my English, to meet nice people.”
The working conditions are very different from those she experienced as a nurse.
“It’s hard working in panel installation, under the sun, under the rain, in the mud,” she said. “That was new for me.”
Beyond the practical benefits and broadened horizons, Hernandez said union membership provides a sense of community and a chance to connect with people from diverse backgrounds. She learns from their experiences and helps them adapt to the culture of the United States, which she became familiar with during time spent in the country previously, including as a representative of the Jamaican health system.
“I have the opportunity to share with people from different countries,” she says, adding that most of the union workers at her jobsite are from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, or Mexico. “It’s a big problem because they have other cultures, other habits. Customs, are really, really different.”
Hernandez enjoys being able to advocate for other workers’ rights as well. Language barriers can lead to unjust treatment simply because of miscommunication. For instance, after a worker mentioned having surgery, an employer representative, thinking the surgery was recent, told her she was not allowed to work. But the surgery had taken place three years prior.
Hernandez cleared up the miscommunication, and the employer allowed the woman to return to work.
Hernandez has worked on three solar projects and has performed different jobs at each, giving her a chance to expand her skills and deepen her understanding of the field. She has remained responsible for completing her own work while also taking on the sizable responsibility of serving as jobsite steward for a largely non-English-speaking workforce.
“I’m the voice of the people from the union,” she said. “And it’s a hard position. I have to be in the middle of the admin people and the workers.”
While the role involves navigating complex relationships, Hernandez embraces it with passion and dedication, driven by a commitment to fairness and equality. Going forward, she said she wants to continue being a good leader on projects and would like to become a foreman.
Dayami Hernandez with fellow crew members at the Pine Forest solar site in Texas