Our local day labor center has more day laborers outside in the streets than in the center—why is this?
The problem may be the center itself. Not all of these programs are the same. Social Service Agency Model day labor programs have not greatly decreased the number of day laborers on the streets. Some cities have discovered that their ill-conceived centers have actually made their problems worse. Centers that have a very low level of employment usually have large numbers of day laborers still in the street—day laborers will quickly give up on a day labor program and return to the street if they think that they will not be able to get jobs at the center, or if they think that the job distribution is unfair. Centers that average a daily employment rate of at least 80%, and a job distribution system chosen by the workers through consensus, have very few day laborers outside the hiring center. We have found that despite the varying economy, both local and national, an 80% average employment rate can be maintained. Poorly run programs often blame the economy for the low rate of employment, and blame the day laborers themselves for choosing to stay in the streets instead of the center.
Why is it important that the day laborers “own” their program?
For a successful program, the day laborers themselves must “buy into” the program—no ordinance or law, no force, and no amount of “outreach” or incentives will convince day laborers to leave the street and participate in a program if they do not want to. Moreover, day laborers who feel that they own their own program are less likely to allow abuses, and more likely to work to make necessary changes, rather than just putting up with a poorly run program
Is the practice of day labor illegal?
Loitering on public property is not illegal. Most state and municipal ordinances against loitering have been ruled unconstitutional. Laws regulating the freedom of assembly are contrary to fundamental American principles. Some cities have successfully passed carefully crafted anti-solicitation ordinances. These are usually predicated on the existence of a day labor center which both fulfills the needs for employment and a place of assembly while at the same time solves the public nuisance issues identified in the ordinances.
What do day laborers want?
Long term research indicates that what day laborers want is work. Day laborers want to support themselves and their families. They do not want charity—they want to work.
When I shop at the building supply store, the day laborers always crowd around my car and scare me. Are day laborers dangerous?
The Day Labor Research Institute has been monitoring crimes involving day laborers for over six years. Based on six years of reports, we have to conclude that, in spite of negative stereotypes that portray day laborers as dangerous, day laborers are no more likely to be violent or to commit crimes than non-day laborers. While being “swarmed” by day laborers can be intimidating, there is no real danger associated with the groups of day laborers.
Why do only Latinos look for work in this manner?
Actually, the United States has a long, proud history of day laborers, from Irish and Polish immigrant day laborers in Boston, to the present day Armenian, Russian, Chinese, Mongolian and Polish immigrants, and even non-immigrant, citizen day laborers in many medium size and large cities.
Why do you advocate letting the day laborers make all the rules, decisions, and program policy? Aren’t they the problem in the first place?
That is the precise reason why allowing day laborers to make all the rules, decisions, and program policies makes sense: this puts the solution entirely in the hands of the day laborers—the day laborers themselves define the problem, decide on a solution, and decide how to implement and fund the solution
We have found that day laborers are able to construct a worker-designed day labor program that will satisfy the day laborers, local businesses, employers, community, local government and police as long as they have the right tools. Why should day laborers make program policy? Day laborers are, after all, the ones most affected by bad or good program decisions. Bad decisions leave them without work and feeling impotent to influence the program.
What are the “right tools” that day laborers need to make good policy decisions?
The right tools for day laborers involved in designing a day labor program include:
• Complete knowledge of all the facts including how their method of seeking employment effects others, how others view them, what the community, employers and potential employers, local government, and police want
• Consensus reaching with a neutral facilitator trained in mediation
• Access to police officers willing to cooperate to solve the problem
• Local government willing to support their effort .
What if the day laborers decide to just stay in the street?
If the day laborers are content where they are, our policy is to refrain from interfering, and we will advise the city and police to leave the situation as is.
What if they make bad decisions?
Bad decisions can and will be made—but the day laborers themselves can adjust or undo a decision if they decide collectively to do so. Consensus reaching meetings continue to be held at the center whenever there are complaints, and the day laborers have proven to be very sophisticated and creative in problem solving. Importantly, they continue to have and use the tools mentioned above—access to knowledge of all the facts including complaints and ideas from the neighboring businesses and residents, employers, local government, and police, a neutral advocate/ facilitator trained in mediation, police officers willing to cooperate with them and local government willing to support their efforts.
How do you know that the decisions are really what the day laborers want?
The decisions are consensus decisions made in general meetings out in the street where the day laborers gather, at times of the day when the most day laborers are present (early morning). Meetings are facilitated by ethno-organizers trained in mediation and consensus reaching. A simplified version of Roberts Rules is used, and all consensus decisions are recorded on paper by day laborer volunteers, and read back to the group of day laborers as each decision is written so that they can confirm that the decision is recorded correctly. These consensus decisions become the written policy and operations manual for the center. Moreover, meetings are recorded on video or DVD. After the day laborers are in a center, meetings continue to be run and recorded in the same manner.
Is everyone happy with the day labor centers based on this model?
There is one group of people who are usually not happy with the day laborer-designed model center: day labor activists at non-profits who depend on grants and government funding for their existence. Day laborer-designed programs take away the reason for these groups' existence, and take away their funding. Their response has typically been noisy protests and unfounded accusations against the day laborer-designed programs, making things difficult for the very people they claim to want to help—the day laborers themselves.
Why not simply arrest day laborers to eliminate the public nuisance?
Since the practice of loitering on public property is itself not illegal, police are given few tools with which to deal with this problem. Routine enforcement efforts, such as citing for littering, jaywalking, etc not only consume limited police resources, but have a proven record of failure. Nowhere has routine enforcement alone proven to be a long-term solution to the issues of day labor. The rights of day laborers cannot be protected without an alternative to looking for work in the streets.
Why not just call INS?
It is a misconception to think that all day laborers are “illegal aliens.” We have found day labor corners where all the day laborers have legal papers (in some San Diego areas), and have found everywhere that day laborers often have legal papers. It is impossible to look at a group of day laborers and discern which have papers and which don’t. Moreover, INS policy on the national level doesn’t allow for raids of day laborer sites—they are just too busy with their real concerns of national security, dealing with the border, and finding and arresting criminals who smuggle and exploit undocumented immigrants.
Why do day laborers swarm cars?
Although "swarming" sometimes frightens people, the practice actually originates with the employers, who motion to the day laborers from inside their vehicles, and then usually choose the first day laborer who arrives at the vehicle (or the first to open the door and jump into the vehicle). Day laborers explain that those who do not run will not get work. Our research revealed that the only time that the first day laborer to arrive is not chosen is when another day laborer is able to bargain down the wage to win the job (one reason day laborers often earn less than the minimum), or when the employer chooses to seek a worker with specific skills, which is rare.
How can I get the day laborers to NOT swarm my car when I go into the parking lot?
The day laborers are on the lookout for potential employers, and each day laborer wants to be the first to notice and respond in order to assure that they get the job. Avoiding eye contact, and avoiding any gesture with your hands that may be interpreted as a sign to “come here” (like scratching your head or brushing your hair out of your eyes) will usually discourage day laborers. If they still swarm your car, shaking your head “No” while frowning effectively communicates that you are not looking for workers. Locking all car doors before entering the lot will keep day laborers from mistakenly opening your car doors if they misunderstand and think they are being called to your car for work. Like most young men, day laborers love to tease each other and sometimes tell each other, “Look — that person just waved to you to call you over—Go! Quickly!”
Do day laborers want fulltime jobs, or do they prefer to work day by day in different jobs?
Most day laborers want full-time work. Most do obtain long term work for weeks or months, and return to day labor when this work runs out. Over 700 day laborers have obtained full-time work at the Glendale Skilled Worker Center since it opened. Moreover, many day laborers are very skilled at certain jobs (such as carpentry, plumbing, and painting) and some are masters. The stereotype that day laborers are unskilled is false, as is the stereotype that all day laborers prefer daily work to fulltime work.
Is opening a day labor center the best solution?
Many times there are better solutions than opening a day labor center. Day labor centers are expensive to run, and need constant adjustment and supervision to assure their success. The decision to open a day labor center should be made only after careful research of that community’s particular situation, including the number of day laborers, their current level of work in the street, the available funding, the level of complaints being generated, and most important, the desires of the day laborers themselves—without the day laborers’ support and cooperation, a center will be a failure no matter how much funding and effort is spent.
How much does a day labor center cost?
Not including rent, a day labor center costs around $100,000 a year to run.
Why do your centers make the workers pay dues?
Dues are never forced on the day laborers, but day laborers often think of dues when asked how they want to fund their program (during the planning stage of program development). Day laborers usually elect to pay for the program themselves through dues. This gives them a sense of ownership and control over their program. Day laborers who pay dues for their program value it more than day laborers who don’t pay dues, and typically complain often and bitterly about any perceived injustice in their programs—these complaints are actually an important part of the consensus reaching process, and help keep the program on track. [See the Q below on complaints]. Allowing day laborers to pay for their own program through dues belies the stereotype that day laborers are poor and needy, and depend on government funds.
Some cities complain that their centers became magnets for day laborers, making the problem worse than ever. Why?
Day laborer programs that do not limit participation to day laborers only and that do not limit participation to those living in the geographical area near the center can quickly become overrun with participants (many that are not day laborers or that are day laborers, but from different areas). The side effect of this policy is that these programs become too full and the employment too scarce.
Why not offer other services to the day laborers, like free food, clothing, and English classes?
We believe that the day laborers themselves should make all program decisions, including what services should be offered at their program. It is a false stereotype that the day laborers want or need free food and clothing, and other free services—day laborers consistently express that they want nothing free at their program because they don’t want to be seen as freeloaders, they don’t want to attract freeloaders to the program, and they can take care of their own needs, thank you very much! We have seen over and over again how the day laborers take in and take care of the newly arriving workers who are homeless and destitute. These workers are typically sent first to work, or taken along on other day laborer jobs, and are taken care of and taught to survive by day laborers who are well established here. When given the opportunity to make program decisions about services, day laborers always choose to have employment as a main focus of the program, with help in recovering unpaid wages. When the program achieves high levels of employment, day laborers later often elect to hold English and GED classes (in the afternoons and at night), ask for AA meetings at the center, want AIDS education and testing and training in CPR and First Aid, often want a domestic worker program to be added, organize their own soccer, baseball, and basketball teams, want to participate with police in keeping the community safe, and enthusiastically participate in organized volunteer work in the community, including collecting toys for poor children at Christmas, cleaning up litter, painting over graffiti, and helping programs like Habitat for Humanity and Christmas in April.
I have heard that our program has serious problems—the day laborers complain that the director takes bribes to put workers first on the list, that there isn’t enough work, and that the staff abuse the day laborers. Could this be true, and what should be done?
Complaints about day labor programs are not necessarily a bad sign—in fact, our specialists are much more worried when they find day laborers have no complaints, as this is a sign that they are afraid to complain. All healthy programs have lots of complaints, often about the same things: the director, favoritism and bribes, lack of work, and abuse. Key to a good program is a formal complaints’ process—day laborers need an avenue to make their complaints known, and careful investigation of these complaints will assure that problems are caught soon and are dealt with. Careful investigation includes a review of the daily documentation generated by the program (sign in sheets, work records for day laborers, unpaid wages, etc.) to check for signs of problems, and interviews with the day laborer complaining and other day laborers who may be witnesses. Many complaints that are found to be true will generate consensus reaching general meetings to adjust the policy or rule, or to make a new rule. Note: the center director should not investigate complaints against himself / herself!