Align Your Company with NRCA to Represent the Industry

RCS Influencer Charles Antis encourages everyone to join him at Roofing Day in Washington, D.C.

In his most recent video, Charles is joined by field supervisor Jesus Zermeno and they share why it is so important to work with the National Roofing Contractor’s Association and to represent the industry at Roofing Day in Washington D.C. on April 3 and 4, 2019. You can either watch the video or read the transcript below.

Hi Roofer’s Coffee Shop, this is Charles Antis, founder and CEO of Antis Roofing and Waterproofing in Irvine, California. Along with me is Antis Roofing and Waterproofing field supervisor, Jesus Zermeno

Jesus and I have this great story. Because this month's question is, "What are we doing with our local, state, and affiliations in order to further our cause in Washington, or for regulations in state?"

And what we're doing is we're aligned with the NRCA. And Jesus is going to tell you what we're going to do soon.

Jesus: Well, we are going to Washington to talk about the shortage of labor, because we need more laborers.

Charles: We do, and we want you to join us. Come with us. I wanted to tell you a story about Jesus, because last year, Jesus joined me for roofing day in D.C., and it was the first time we ever did it. And there were 400 of us that were going to show up in D.C. And I went to Jesus and said, "Come. Come with us." And he was kind of nervous. And his daughter, who's going to a Cal Poly school, she said, "Dad, you should go." She's studying political science, and so he came. He was reluctant.

And I want to tell the story, because last year in D.C., when he went with me inside Congresswoman Mimi Walters' office, and there were 30 of us in there. We introduced ourselves. It really stood out when I said, "I'm Charles." And Karen says, "I'm Karen." And it got to Jesus after about 20 people. And he said, like he said today, "I am Jesus Zermeno." And when we heard that, there was a pause, because he is the voice of our trade.

Seventy percent of the labor that I'm aware of in this country are from a Latin force. He represents it, and he represents it well. I'm really proud of him, also. He just won an MVP award at this year's International Roofing Expo, one of five honorees. Because he is a great worker and does everything he can for the company.

The highlight of D.C. was that another person he saw was Congressman Lou Correa, who I've known for years, in lobbying for Habitat for Humanity. And as I went to a function, I saw Lou Correa, I was so excited. And I said, "Congressman Correa, you have no idea the impact you had on my employee Jesus, who is not even a citizen of the United States. He's a legal resident " And Lou grabbed my arm, and he said, "Charles, you have no idea the impact Jesus had on me." He told me he wasn't going to Washington that day, until he saw this man who lived in his district. And he said, "I'm going to show up."

And he did, and what we have now is this amazing story. We have people in our company, we have techs in our company that represents the labor of this country. And we are doing good things. Because we are all going to Washington, and we are doing what we can on all issues. But leading it this year is we need labor. And we all support legal immigration. Come with us April third and fourth this year. Thank you.

Charles Antis is the founder and CEO of Antis Roofing & Waterproofing. See his full bio here.