Family business learns how to provide work for migrant, “fills gaps we didn’t know how to fill”

By Gabriela Vidal

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    COMMERCE CITY, Colorado (KCNC) — In the warehouse of a company called Colographic in Commerce City, migrant worker Marcos Adel Fidó Batista can be found crafting his purpose.

“All migrants come here with a purpose,” he said.

Colographic specializes in vehicle graphic and signage, and Batista says the owners of the Colorado business, Cathy and Jimmy Burds, are the reason he’s there.

“They helped me. They gave me a hand,” he said.

The business has been operating for more than 45 years, and recently they were struggling to find applicants to work for them.

“One of the team members here said ‘Why don’t we hire in our refugee pool, and I was like, ‘Hmm, how do we do that?'” Cathy said.

The company worked with state organizations to bring in potential migrant and refugee employers.

“And they brought to us Marcos and other people to interview, too, but we hired Marcos,” said Cathy.

The Burds say it was a learning curve bringing in a migrant worker, but their company has done everything to help him get working, and even finding unique ways to help train and communicate with him in Spanish.

“I have a translator, which are a pair of headphones, that work through an app, I configure then, and through there, it translates directly in my ear,” Batista said.

Batista says it’s been instrumental in helping him learn how to do his job quickly while also feeling like a part of the team.

“When you work hard enough and when people want you to do well, and you want to come out ahead, I don’t think there are any obstacles,” he said.

Batista’s employment is helping to remove the stigma towards a growing migrant population in the Denver metro area.

“For an immigrant, it isn’t easy finding work,” Batista said.

Cathy Burds agrees.

“The rhetoric that we hear about refugees and gangs and things like that isn’t the experience that we’ve had at all,” she said.

Cathy says they hope to hire more people from the migrant and refugee population, and are hearing other businesses they network with are following suit.

“It’s filling the gaps that we didn’t know how to fill,” she said.

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