Thread: CA - Recent sweep of day laborers reopens hot debate

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Recent sweep of day laborers reopens hot debate about day labor centers






08:10 PM PDT on Tuesday, March 10, 2009

By DAVID OLSON




Photo Gallery: Day laborers at the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center

For years, some community activists in Riverside's Casa Blanca neighborhood have been pushing for construction of a hiring center for the day laborers who congregate along Madison Street.

After Riverside police swept through the area Jan. 29 and detained 12 people for trespassing and other infractions, they repeated those calls, arguing that a center would have prevented problems.

Yet there still is no center, a sign of the contentiousness of a matter that goes beyond complaints about loitering and littering to the hot-button issue of illegal immigration.

Day laborers in Pomona sometimes ignore the job center and try to get work on their own, according to a police lieutenant.
A 2003 San Bernardino proposal for a day labor center had the support of the Police Department and the mayor at the time, but it never came to fruition, largely because the community was divided over whether to build it. Rialto had a hiring site for eight months in 2005 and 2006, but it closed because of lack of funding.

Day laborers congregate at sites throughout the Inland area, often at home-improvement and building-supply stores. Some sites attract 100 workers or more.

Most day-labor centers are operated out of trailers or other small structures and include toilets, chairs and tables. Workers typically are hired based upon skills that customers require and their place on a list. Once they are hired, they go to the bottom of the list.

The Jan. 29 police action was in response to continuing community complaints of day laborers aggressively soliciting potential clients, urinating, littering and committing other infractions, said Lt. Bruce Loftus, the police commander for the area. The sweep created controversy after police called the U.S. Border Patrol to identify 12 men who did not have identification cards and 11 were arrested on immigration charges.

Laborers often spill over from Madison Street into the parking lots of the Home Depot and other area businesses.

"They're everywhere all the time, and they're rude," said Tanisha Alexander as she stood behind a counter at the GT Fast Mart at the 76 gas station next to the Home Depot. "You ask them to move and they sit there and laugh at you. Not all of them, but most of them."

Regular customer Mark La Bray said he sometimes gets gas at another station because laborers often surround his pickup truck as he pulls up, hoping for work.


Day-labor activists have been trying for years to get a center in Riverside or San Bernardino counties.
"It is a nuisance," La Bray said. "You have days when you don't want to deal with it."

La Bray supports a day-labor center, saying it would "corral the problem where they're not out there being aggressive."

But Christian Crosier, another customer, opposes one.

"I don't think we should provide a bathroom or anything to cater to anyone who's in the country illegally," he said.

In 2003, a city-sponsored survey of Casa Blanca residents found 70 percent support for a community work center. Councilman Frank Schiavone, who was involved in city meetings on the matter at the time, said he supported a center as long as it was open to anyone who needed either temporary or permanent jobs and included education and job training.

The proposal died because the city could not find a nonprofit organization willing to spend the money to run the center, he said.

Sunrise Church in Rialto closed its center after it found it more difficult than expected to raise the $110,000 in operating costs, said the Rev. Sam Petitfils, associate pastor at the church. The city provided $30,000 in startup money.


A day laborer peeks out a window from the Pomona center. Most facilities are in trailers or other small structures.
Mike Story, Rialto's director of development services, said the center was a success. Complaints from area businesses about day laborers plunged, he said.

Burbank required Home Depot to help fund a day-labor center as a condition of opening a new store in 2006. Home Depot gave land to the city next to its parking lot and provides $94,000 a year in operating costs, said Michael Forbes, deputy city planner for Burbank. Catholic Charities runs the center. Burbank police Sgt. Robert Quesada said police have received no complaints.

But in Pomona there are repeated problems with workers who refuse to join the day-labor center there because they don't want to abide by the rules, said police Lt. Ron McDonald.

Laborers seeking work independently fan out in front of businesses near the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, spurring complaints of aggressive soliciting, urination and other problems, he said.

Police sometimes arrest workers who solicit jobs outside the center's system -- four were arrested last week -- but the problem continues, he said.

The city is happy with the center because it concentrates most workers in one place, said Raymond Fong, Pomona's redevelopment director. The city provides just over half the $330,000 budget. The center opened in 1998, after the city passed an ordinance prohibiting job solicitation on city streets.

Workers cultivate good relationships with the community by volunteering for trash cleanups and other civic work, said Suzanne Foster, executive director of the center. The center teaches workers ways to avoid getting cheated by employers and about their right to the $8-an-hour minimum wage.

In recent months, the center has sent employees to day-labor sites in Riverside and San Bernardino to educate workers there about their rights and to work with them to reduce problems with littering, blocking sidewalks and other issues, she said.

On a recent morning, 73 workers signed up for jobs at the Pomona center, although, with the poor economy reducing demand for laborers, most waited in vain.

Reach David Olson at dolson@PE.com

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stor ... 15de4.html

But in Pomona there are repeated problems with workers who refuse to join the day-labor center there because they don't want to abide by the rules, said police Lt. Ron McDonald.

surprise! Surprise! Surpise!

La Bray supports a day-labor center, saying it would "corral the problem where they're not out there being aggressive."

So are those that run the center going to lock the doors and only let a few out at a time? Otherwise they are not containing the mob.