Thread: Hayward Day Labor Center opens

Hayward Day Labor Center opens
Staff meets immigrant workers to discuss operational details
By Matt O'Brien, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:06/10/2007 02:45:51 AM PDT

HAYWARD — The grand opening of the Hayward Day Labor Center on Saturday started with a blast of conch shells, the pounding of feet and drums, and the aroma of burning copal incense wafting through a squeaky-clean auditorium.
Aztec dancers spun in circles, and politicians and South Hayward community leaders celebrated the occasion with speeches and warm congratulations.

More than an hour later, the real work began more quietly. Dozens of day laborers, who had been sitting reservedly in the back of the room, began taking seats in a circle of folding chairs.

They asked questions and, with work center staff, began formulating a plan: How to get work with decent pay in an organized fashion, and without waiting for hours and days under the sun. They wondered if other workers and contractors will think this is a good idea, and whether anyone will be left out.

"They still don't believe there are good people that want to help them out," said Gabriel Hernandez, coordinator of the new city-sponsored work center on Tennyson Road. "They've been through so much."

For more than two years, an estimated 100 to 200 immigrant workers have gathered along Tennyson Road looking for work. They come from all over, but most are indigenous Guatemalans and entered the U.S. illegally through Mexico.

Some neighbors and local merchants have complained about their presence, especially as the national debate over illegal immigration has heightened.

But as time passed, many of the problems associated with the day work economy — such as workers surrounding an uninterested commuter — abated.

The Rev. John Wichman, one of the organizers of the center, said that over time workers began using their own networksto organize themselves and create a more stable system. If one worker hadn't found a job for a couple of days, the others would put him — the workers are overwhelmingly male — at the top of the list to get the next one that came by.

Wichman said he hopes those networks can transfer to the more secure and organized environment of the new center, which is at Ruus and Tennyson roads in the Eden Youth and Family Center building.

Although the workers didn't make any final decisions on how they thought the center should be run, it is expected that employers will be asked to pay at least the hourly $11.20 minimum wage due city staff and contract employees under the Hayward Living Wage Ordinance.

The center also might require a minimum amount of work per day — such as at least three hours, or $50.

Equipped with phones, computers and a kitchen, the center is supposed to begin operating in an official capacity Monday morning, though Hernandez warned it might take a while before most contractors and other interested employers get the message.

The center also will offer health and other social services. The Hayward City Council voted 5-1 in December to support the center financially. It is expected to cost more than $100,000 over the next 18 months.

"Illegal or not, it really doesn't matter. You are members of our community," said Councilwoman Doris Rodriquez, who joined Councilwoman Barbara Halliday in speaking to the workers and volunteers at the Saturday ceremony. The total crowd numbered more than 80 people.

Along with local leaders, the event Saturday featured a federal official, Thomas Lorentzen, who is regional director of U.S. Department Health and Human Services for an area spanning from Hawaii to Nevada.


"This excites me," Lorentzen said. "This is how you build good communities."


Matt O'Brien can be reached at (510) 293-2473 or mattobrien@dailyreviewonline.com.


http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyrevie ... ci_6108124

another waste of taxpayers hard earned money.

"Illegal or not, it really doesn't matter. You are members of our community," said Councilwoman Doris Rodriquez,

Excuse me??? Since when is it up to you to decide whether the rule of law matters or not? This is total anarchy and it's mind-boggling!!!!!!!