http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne ... 045010.htm

Posted on Sun, Jul. 16, 2006

Laborers shooed -- not shunned
An unusual coalition is helping day laborers who are being forced from their gathering site.
BY KATHLEEN FORDYCE
kfordyce@MiamiHerald.com

PROMO IN SD, PP

For more than a decade, day laborers have gathered daily near a South Miami-Dade Home Depot waiting for construction work. Now, the very development boom that has provided their bread and butter is forcing them from their meeting spot -- a move some fear will ruin their livelihood, but most welcome as an improvement.

The vacant property at Southwest 106th Avenue and Marlin Road where the men and women meet is being packaged for a future office park. The developer says the laborers are hurting his marketing efforts, and he wants them gone. Advocates say the workers are filling a need and aren't harming anyone.

Tension between the two sides has led to screaming matches and threats, witnesses say.

The solution? Rather than stand outside in the heat and rain on private property, the workers soon will gather at an informal labor center being created by an unusual alliance of police, business, church and migrant advocacy groups.

There will be a tent, portable bathrooms, picnic benches and storage shed, all less than a mile away at Eureka Drive and Southwest 109th Avenue.

''Most of the guys who are out there are just trying to get jobs,'' said Miami-Dade police officer Ozzie Hernandez, who has been instrumental in bringing the parties together. ``We are trying to solve the issue and find the middle ground.''

The new labor center will be set up behind offices of the Strategic Empowerment for Economical Development, a nonprofit association of churches and ministries known as SEED.

Hernandez said developers, Home Depot and other area businesses have donated about $6,000 in cash and supplies to get the project started.

The effort was sparked by complaints from Jorge Ramos, a managing partner and president of Creative Properties Development Corp., which owns the land where the laborers gather, just west of Cutler Bay and sandwiched between South Dixie Highway and Florida's Turnpike.

Ramos said he is working with other developers who own land in the area to build $20 million to $30 million office buildings and create a business district. His company purchased two adjoining lots on Southwest 106th Avenue and 190th Street last year to build the office and warehouse space.

''This used to be forgotten land in South Dade,'' he said. ``But because of the price of land everywhere else, this has became a very attractive investment.''

Hernandez and other officers have mediated talks between Ramos and the pro-laborer groups, including SEED, American Friends Service Committee, We Count! in Homestead and the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.

One of the advocates, Herman Martinez of the American Friends Service Committee, was a day laborer in the early '80s in California. He has agreed to operate the new labor center for the first three weeks. After that, the coalition hopes to hire someone using donations from businesses and other local groups.

Meanwhile, Martinez has been walking the streets telling the laborers about the center and encouraging them to spread the word.

But he said it will take time for the workers -- many of whom travel to the area from Homestead, Goulds and Perrine -- and contractors to get used to going there.

''It has been over 15 years that people have been going there to look for work,'' Martinez said of the current site. ``It's not going to change from one day to another.''

A few workers will remain on Southwest 106th Avenue handing out fliers and directing contractors to the new site where they can pick up workers, he said. The group hopes the site will be temporary until a warehouse or other permanent location can be found.

Some workers welcome the idea of a center because it will be more comfortable than waiting outside for work. They also hope the center can develop a way to track contractors who don't pay them or pay less than promised.

''It's better to have a labor center,'' Diego Cedillo said Thursday during a heavy downpour. ``It will be more comfortable.''

Ronny Matia, who has found work at the site for five years, said he hopes the center can blacklist contractors who don't pay workers.

''Many times I get picked up and then don't get paid,'' he said.

But others, like Mary Barberema, worry they won't get as much work at the new center.

''We just want to work,'' she said while trying to stay dry. ``I don't think [the contractors] will come [to the center]. They want to see us right here.''

Ramos said if the new center does not resolve the problem, he will take legal action against the county seeking enforcement of a law restricting solicitation for temporary work to industrial areas.

''Unfortunately for the day laborers, what used to be no longer is,'' he said. ``The problem is they refuse to accept the fact that this [land] is now being developed.''

Some business owners along Southwest 106th Street said they don't mind the laborers.

''I have never had any problems [with the workers],'' said Abdel Rahaman, owner of Fabulous Furniture Interiors at 19100 SW 106th Ave. ``Most of them are just trying to get a job. I think [Ramos] is the only guy upset.''

Rahaman and workers said Ramos has been aggressive, driving toward crowds of workers with his truck, yelling at contractors who stop to pick them up and shaking a baseball bat at them.

But Ramos said he is acting in self-defense. ''I'm going to protect myself and my property,'' he said. ``I'm willing to give this every possible opportunity. We are trying to go through all the right channels, but this issue will be resolved. We are not going to develop the properties with these people standing there.''