Thread: Duluth's model day labor hall may close

http://www.ajc.com

Duluth's model day labor hall may close

By BRIAN FEAGANS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 09/29/06

Considered a model for bringing order to the often chaotic market in day laborers, a Duluth labor hall offers a more humbling lesson now.

The 6-year-old center has run out of funding and could be forced to close this fall, says director Maria Espinosa-Garcia. And its struggle underscores the financial and political realities that have doomed similar efforts in metro Atlanta.

Operated out of an old auto garage, the labor hall offers a safe, indoor place for hourly workers and employers to match up. Crew chiefs leave contact information and sign contracts guaranteeing the workers at least $10 an hour.

Duluth officials, fearful that closing the labor hall means more men will seek work from street corners, say they want to see it survive. So do some nearby churches.

But Garcia knows the timing couldn't have been worse.

Georgia is home to what the Department of Homeland Security calls the nation's fastest-growing population of illegal immigrants. Now the state is in the midst of a backlash against people who are in the country illegally, including many day laborers. That has made any venture helping day laborers politically sensitive.

"I'm just praying for a miracle to happen," Garcia said Tuesday as about 30 day laborers sipped coffee and played dominoes in the waiting area.

Hispanic Community Support, the nonprofit that operates the labor hall, lost a grant from the United Way earlier this year after missing the application deadline. Garcia had to lay off her staff and operate the center without the $1,200 monthly salary she has gotten in the past. The labor hall has been limping along this summer on donations from a local business and a church.

Now even the day laborers, many of whom support families back in Latin America, are pitching in. An old plastic cookie jar on Garcia's desk reads "Worker's Donations." Most give $2 each time they land a job.

Garcia, a Mexico native whose first husband worked as a day laborer in Texas, said she's hit a personal financial crisis as well. The mother of three is struggling to pay her mortgage. Each day she's torn between searching for a paying job and working to save the award-winning center studied by groups around the Southeast trying to develop their own labor halls.

She would have closed already if not for the help of Sugarloaf United Methodist Church, which gave $1,000 this month and plans to do so again in October. Some parishioners there are calling on other Duluth-area churches to help save the labor hall. But they've hit some resistance from some who see it as abetting illegal immigration.

Bruce Wood, a worshipper at Sugarloaf United Methodist, said he's confident the religious community will step up once it learns how the labor center helps some of the poorest residents of Duluth. "If Christ came to church and turned away from the illegal aliens and the criminals, we would not have had the lessons he left us," Wood said.

Similar frictions have surfaced in Cherokee County, where Ministries United for Service & Training operates a labor hall partly modeled after Duluth's. Called MUST, the faith-based organization supplies an interpreter and part of an old warehouse in Canton. But Kim Loesing, program director at ministry's Cherokee office, knows it's controversial.

"Some people are just very sensitive to the number of Hispanic people here and assume they're all here illegally," she said. "We just believe in safety. We offer them a safe place."

The community was reminded of the need for such a service three years ago, Loesing said, when several day laborers were beaten and robbed after being picked up along city streets.

The ministry is now trying to spin off the often overflowing labor hall, hoping someone with more space and expertise will take over, she said. But Loesing doubts she'll get any takers.

State Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), author of a recently enacted crackdown against illegal immigration in Georgia, said he's heard from many faith-based groups struggling with whether to help people in the country illegally. Rogers said he reminds them that knowingly aiding illegal immigrants is a violation of federal law.

"At the end of the day, the Bible talks about us following the law," he said. "...I would suggest they take their resources to where the poor really live – Central America or Mexico."

Labor halls often get shoved into the middle of religious disputes because cities are reluctant to fund the facilities. Plans for a day labor center in Marietta fell through after residents complained about illegal immigration.

Roswell Mayor Jere Wood said a day labor center there — which was partially funded by the city — served its purpose and died after three years for lack of demand. But Wood concedes a repeat effort would be far more difficult in today's political climate.

In Duluth, more than 100 men would often battle for work in a parking lot free-for-all before the labor hall opened, causing neighboring business owners to howl. "We see the value of being able to keep [the labor hall] working and keep them off the streets," Duluth Mayor Shirley Lasseter said. "We don't want anyone standing in the street and jumping in the back of trucks. That's not the American way."

But it shouldn't take taxpayer dollars to make that happen, Lasseter said. The mayor said she's using her connections in the community, particularly among churches, to help get the labor hall through the winter.

A new city street recently blocked the main entrance, making a better location even more critical if the facility is to survive long-term, said Wood of Sugarloaf United Methodist. He and fellow parishioner Mark Adams are knocking on church doors. "These people are here," Adams said. "We walk by them in the grocery store. They mow our lawns ... I think the faith community needs to step up and find them space."

Victor Miguel Rivera and Maribel Salgado, who were waiting for jobs in the Duluth labor hall Tuesday, said they're praying the strategy works. Salgado, 19, said she wouldn't feel comfortable jockeying for jobs on the street, where the most aggressive workers usually gets the job. And Rivera, 23, said he doesn't want to be part of the stories you hear from older laborers, the ones who've been stiffed or beaten.

"Here, at the very least you have a phone number if something happens," he said.

Espinosa-Garcia opened the facility in a downtown Duluth church basement in 2000. But when the church moved, the center landed in a four-bay garage down Main Street. Rent, bills and modest salaries have generally added up to about $3,500 a month, she said.

The labor hall had been paying the bills with a United Way grant, but lost a chance to renew the funds when the application deadline was missed. Espinosa-Garcia pleaded with city officials to step in. "It told them that, basically I'm trying to help you guys," she said. "It's not my problem. It's a city problem."

Thursday, the former Montessori teacher said she really should be sending out résumés. But she couldn't. A group wishing to open a labor hall in Athens was planning to come by the Duluth facility — and study Georgia's prototype.

She would have closed already if not for the help of Sugarloaf United Methodist Church, which gave $1,000 this month and plans to do so again in October. Some parishioners there are calling on other Duluth-area churches to help save the labor hall. But they've hit some resistance from some who see it as abetting illegal immigration.

Good. drain the funds from the churches, and they'll change their tune.

"Some people are just very sensitive to the number of Hispanic people here and assume they're all here illegally," she said. "We just believe in safety. We offer them a safe place."

If they are looking for work at a day labor site, chances are they are here illegally. If they had proper documentation to get a job, they wouldn't need to hang out at a day labor site for cash jobs.

""I'm just praying for a miracle to happen," Garcia said Tuesday as about 30 day laborers sipped coffee and played dominoes in the waiting area. "


I'm praying for a miracle too, that they will all get beamed up and back to Mexico.

I'm praying that my selfish, big-business-loving-screw-the-American-worker Government will wake up, build a wall and deport all these criminals.

I'm praying Mexicans will go home and fight to make their country worth living in.

I'm praying the Mexican leaders will stop stuffing their pockets and give some back to Mexicans.

The community was reminded of the need for such a service three years ago, Loesing said, when several day laborers were beaten and robbed after being picked up along city streets.

How skewed is this!!!
However, Americans can be murdered & raped in bulk by ILLEGALS and no one is REMINDED of the need for the return of our safe communities and the danger the ILLEGALS present to our families?

Hispanic Community Support, the nonprofit that operates the labor hall, lost a grant from the United Way

At my place of employment, social intimidation is used to force employees to give to United Way.

I still refuse. I encourage fellow employees who lack the courage to refuse to specify that their donations go to a specific organization like the Boy Scouts of America.

Many people don't know that a person can designate which organization under the US umbrella their money goes to.