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Workers find help at halls


Vista wants hiring center to replace site at corner
By Elena Gaona
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 13, 2006

Arcadio Rivera, a 47-year-old roofer, used to look for work on the streets in Carlsbad. He says he stopped the day he saw a fellow day laborer get picked up for a job and then dropped off minutes later, with empty pockets, robbed instead of hired.

“You think you're going to work, but in the end you don't know whose car you're getting into,” Rivera said.

He now looks for work at the Carlsbad Hiring Center, operated by the nonprofit SER Jobs for Progress out of a trailer funded by the city of Carlsbad. With monitoring of employers and employees, a number system to assign jobs so workers don't have to crowd around employers' cars, shade, water and bathrooms, the bare-bones hiring hall is far better than the streets, Rivera said.

Could a similar hiring facility be in the future for Vista?

In conjunction with a controversial day labor ordinance that will require employers to register with the city starting July 28, Vista has talked to three nonprofits about opening a hiring center in town, Assistant City Manager Rick Dudley said.

“We're looking for an alternative site that will be better for day laborers to gather,” he said. City officials have made it clear that municipal funding would not be part of the deal, however.

The goal would be for the new site to replace the informal hiring corner at Escondido and South Santa Fe avenues, where workers – mostly Latino – and employers needing temporary help have met up for years.

Controversial corner
In recent months, other groups have also gathered at the corner to protest: a local chapter of Minutemen, the civilian group that patrols the border, and immigrant supporters. Workers call the Minutemen protests harassment while Minutemen say the counterprotesters are un-American. Some also call the corner a gathering place for illegal immigrants, although not all workers are undocumented.

The new ordinance, Vista officials say, is to protect day laborers from shady employers, though many immigrant supporters say it's really an attempt to shut down the site. City officials don't disagree.

Any hiring center operated by a nonprofit could be as simple as an outdoor space with shade, water and bathrooms, with one person overseeing activities, Dudley said.

One nonprofit that the city of Vista met with to explore the idea was SER Jobs for Progress, which operates centers in Carlsbad and Pacific Beach. The agency would need $80,000 to $110,000 a year from the city to operate a center in Vista, president Sal Martinez said.

“They already told us they don't have the money,” Martinez said.

SER Jobs for Progress requires people who use the center to show legal U.S. documents to work, Martinez said, which means that hiring halls will never completely rid the streets of people looking for work.

The center that the agency runs in Carlsbad opened in 1991 and has connected an average of 19,000 people to jobs each of the past eight years. Officials try to get workers a minimum of $10 per hour for gardening, moving and construction-type jobs, though often the pay is $8. The city of Carlsbad contributes about $80,000 toward the hiring hall operations, currently from its general fund.

The agency's hiring hall in Pacific Beach, operating out of two trailers, has placed more than 45,000 people in jobs for each of the past eight years. The city of San Diego contributes about $80,000 to operate that hall from its federal Community Development Block Grants, Martinez said.

In both instances the funding is not enough, he said, and both centers are struggling to stay alive, with old facilities and no pay raises for employees.

“We've told both cities we may not be able to continue to run the centers this year,” and both cities are working to increase funding, Martinez said.


Safety, development
The cities invest in the hiring centers because they offer safety for workers and contribute to economic development because the people who do find work spend their money in town, Martinez said.
Dudley would not say what other nonprofit organizations the city of Vista has approached.

But two nonprofits that help people looking for work in Fallbrook and Escondido say they are not meeting with Vista.

In Fallbrook, Father Bud Kaicher, pastor of St. Peter's Church, says the congregation offers day laborers a hearty breakfast soup from donated items as part of its ministry. Later, the men are allowed to stand outside the church to await any employers.

Though they are looking for work on their own, a volunteer writes down employer names so the workers won't be cheated. Workers also have access to a restroom and take turns making the morning coffee.

“We're open to anybody,” Kaicher said. “We have basic rules. No loitering, no drugs or alcohol.”

A Minuteman contacted Kaicher, the priest said, but then did not follow through with a meeting. So far the ministry has had no problems in the community, Kaicher said, and Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce officials have hired men from the site.

“Everyone always says all these guys are illegal,” Kaicher said. “Well, they're not all illegal.”


Focus on health
In Escondido, the nonprofit Interfaith Community Services works through the privately funded Confia en Ti program, which focuses on health. Day laborers are provided with basic health screenings, health and safety classes, meals and classes. After breakfast, a few dozen workers in the program try to find jobs through a number system in an indoor location. The agency does not consider its program to be a “hiring hall.”
It's “an effort to reduce loitering and traffic hazards,” executive director Suzanne Stewart-Pohlman said.

The program has also helped place 119 workers in permanent jobs in almost four years, Stewart-Pohlman said.

“Obviously, their legal status” is not undocumented, Stewart-Pohlman said. “It's quite a leap to suggest that because someone is Hispanic they're illegal.”

Despite the service, other workers not in the program often congregate outside on the street, looking for work.

“If you're desperate, you go to the street,” said Arcadio Rivera, the roofer waiting for work outside the Carlsbad hiring center.

“It's dangerous.”



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Elena Gaona: (760) 737-7575; elena.gaona@uniontrib.com