Thread: Oh the joys of Day Laborers - Phoenix, AZ

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... labor.html

Day-labor dispute simmers
Immigrants soliciting work seek center where they could avoid wrath of businesses on Thomas

Long-simmering tensions over day laborers have ignited new clashes between business owners and activists in east Phoenix, worsening a situation that community leaders have had little success in resolving.

Business owners have hired off-duty police officers to drive day laborers off their properties. Leather-clad bikers, some hurling obscenities and insults, have been intimidating workers. And day-labor supporters are staging another rally Saturday to protest the use of police and highlight the need for a day-labor center.

On Thursday, day-laborer activist Salvador Reza and supporters called for a boycott of a furniture store that has hired off-duty police. Reza and members of other grass-roots groups have vowed to rally there each Saturday leading up to Christmas until the situation is resolved.

For years, there have been no solutions. However, The Republic on Thursday confirmed that activists and city officials are searching for property in the area where the workers could gather peacefully. Those involved in conversations declined comment.

The day-laborer dilemma is symptomatic of the federal government's failure to pass an immigration policy that would legally allow the workers to find work, city officials and activists said.

The nation's 117,600 day laborers and 63 hiring centers have come under fire from foes of illegal immigration who say the centers support illegal immigration.

In the Valley, work centers have been at the heart of a hostile battle over how cities should deal with undocumented workers. Non-profits and business owners don't want to attach themselves to controversial projects, fearing loss of funding and business. Last year, state lawmakers passed a law that prohibits cities from funding day-labor centers.

"The federal government has to act and the more anyone tries to solve isolated pieces of this problems, the more it takes the pressure off the federal government and the more it puts the pressure on state and local governments," Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said. "Short of that, this problem isn't going to get solved."

At the crack of dawn every day, dozens of men stand on sidewalks between 32nd and 40th streets, drawn to the area by the Home Depot at 36th Street and Thomas Road and demand for their work. Routinely, laborers are shooed off of the home-improvement store's property and spend the mornings shuffling from one street corner to another.

One recent morning, a dozen workers from Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador stood on a corner near a red and white sign saying "Do Not Pick Up Day Laborers." Ignoring the sign, employers hired the men.

"Wherever we go to look for work, (the police) ask us to leave," said Roberto Valdez, 36, from Mexico City. "If we go to another corner, they chase us along. They won't leave us in peace."

Business owners along the busy corridor are fed up. The day laborers have spread onto and near their properties, where workers heckle them, drive away business and spread litter. Roger Sensing, owner of M.D. Pruitt's Home Furnishings on Thomas Road and 34th Street, is frustrated to the point of tears.

Ongoing protests by day laborers, coupled with counterprotests by the anti-illegal-immigration motorcycle group American Freedom Riders and others, are threatening his business, he said.

"I could not come out on my front driveway, which is my own property, my whole life," said Sensing, who has been in business for 56 years. "I've been flipped off. I've been yelled at. We're just trying to make a living."

Ten months ago, Sensing organized about two-dozen area business owners to hire off-duty policemen to protect their properties, just like malls and other businesses regularly do.

In those 10 months, the officers have documented several incidents of day laborers soliciting work from the roadway; none of the cases led to prosecutions, police said.

Hispanic activists contend Phoenix police are allowing Sensing to set up a private patrol, using police. "He's now created a vigilante system up and down the corridor," said activist Alfredo Gutierrez, a Spanish-language radio-show host on Radio Campesina, KNAI-FM (88.3).

Phoenix police and officials said the off-duty police are acting within city policy.

Phoenix's only official center, the Macehualli Work Center at 16801 N. 25th St., opened in February 2003 to provide a safe place for neighborhood workers. The City Council agreed to set up the center and spent $120,000 in public money to do so, igniting an ideological firestorm.

"(The city), they think they're damned if you do, damned if you don't," said Reza, of the non-profit Tonatierra, which operates the Macehualli center. "I say we're damned if we do not find a solution."

Sounds to me like these "workers" have made pests of themselves and the local business community is responding to protect their legitimate interests and livelyhood from destruction and ruin.

More power to 'em!!! If these "workers" can't find work, maybe they'll wise up, go home and fix their own countries.

Many comments left at the link also.
http://link.toolbot.com/azcentral.com/25731

Vigilante or victim?
12/01/2006 11:04:43

Things are getting ugly along Thomas Road, where workers here illegally and an anti illegal immigration group called the American Freedom Riders are squaring off in ugly ways. Stuck in the middle: the poor guy who owns Pruitt's Home Furnishings.

Concerned that the massing of men on and near their properties is driving away customers, Roger Sensing, owner of Pruitt's, and other business owners 10 months ago hired off-duty cops to protect their properties. Now, Hispanic activists are complaining that Sensing has set up what amounts to a private patrol of the area.

"He's now created a vigilante system up and down the corridor," former Sen. Alfredo Gutierrez, now a talk show host of Radio Campesina, told The Arizona Republic.

They've vowed to protest every weekend between now and Christmas, which means the counter protesters will be there as well. As for Sensing, he's left to wonder how he'll keep his 56-year-old business afloat.

So you tell me: is he a vigilante or a victim of the federal government's continuing refusal to do its job?

Hello? Congress? Is anybody home?

Why aren't these guys in trouble for loitering?

I don't know about any of your financial situations, but when I look in the newspaper and find out its going to cost me hundreds of dollars for some "professional" painters to come paint my house it makes me sick. Its amazing how much money Americans are willing to spend just so that they can have the best of everything. I'm not going to pay that much for 3 people to come do something that even I could do if I wasn't so busy, when I could hire 3 day laborers for half or even less than that. The problem isn't the laborers', its the people, like me, who hire them to save the money they need to meet todays standards of living. This problem stems from an even greater problem, which is economical. Like it or not, the middle class is growing. Wages are staying the same, while the cost of everything is rising. We're drowning in our own economy, while we spend a trillion dollars on war machines.

The problem isn't the laborers', its the people, like me, who hire them to save the money

Truer words have never been spoken! Since you obviously benefit from this cheap labor, why the hell don't you support them? Why should I pay in order for you to save?

Like it or not, the middle class is growing.

And just what planet are you living on? The lower middle class will soon become the lower class.

We're drowning

We're drowning all right in your BS.

Originally Posted by had_enuf

Truer words have never been spoken! Since you obviously benefit from this cheap labor, why the hell don't you support them? Why should I pay in order for you to save?

By laborers, I mean the day laborers. I figured it would have made sense since my entire post was in support of the cheap labor they provide as opposed to the "professional" laborers who for some reason expect me to pay them hundreds of dollars to do something simple.

Originally Posted by had_enuf

And just what planet are you living on? The lower middle class will soon become the lower class.

And the upper middle class will become the middle class, and so on and so forth. Thats a good thing because?

Originally Posted by had_enuf

We're drowning all right in your BS.

Thats the spirit!

Originally Posted by The-Social-Liberal

I don't know about any of your financial situations, but when I look in the newspaper and find out its going to cost me hundreds of dollars for some "professional" painters to come paint my house it makes me sick. Its amazing how much money Americans are willing to spend just so that they can have the best of everything. I'm not going to pay that much for 3 people to come do something that even I could do if I wasn't so busy, when I could hire 3 day laborers for half or even less than that. The problem isn't the laborers', its the people, like me, who hire them to save the money they need to meet todays standards of living. This problem stems from an even greater problem, which is economical. Like it or not, the middle class is growing. Wages are staying the same, while the cost of everything is rising. We're drowning in our own economy, while we spend a trillion dollars on war machines.

You had better begin your education in the Trade Agreement area before you bring up the 'war machine.'

If you're unhappy about our 'wage problem' {and I agree with you} you're looking in the wrong direction.

All you're doing is regurgitating Talking Points with limited knowledge of the subject. Talking Points have run their course and are boring. Both sides of the aisle, might I add.

Come back with something more substantial next time. It's more productive for the learning process.

.

Of course you were talking about picking up day laborers to save yourself a couple of bucks. Aiding and abetting illegal aliens, plain and simple.

And the upper middle class will become the middle class, and so on and so forth. Thats a good thing because?

Who said this was good thing? Not me for sure.

BTW, how many illegal aliens are in Idaho anyway? Want 400,000 more? That way you'd really be able to rack up your personal savings.

Originally Posted by The-Social-Liberal

I don't know about any of your financial situations, but when I look in the newspaper and find out its going to cost me hundreds of dollars for some "professional" painters to come paint my house it makes me sick. Its amazing how much money Americans are willing to spend just so that they can have the best of everything. I'm not going to pay that much for 3 people to come do something that even I could do if I wasn't so busy, when I could hire 3 day laborers for half or even less than that. The problem isn't the laborers', its the people, like me, who hire them to save the money they need to meet todays standards of living. This problem stems from an even greater problem, which is economical. Like it or not, the middle class is growing. Wages are staying the same, while the cost of everything is rising. We're drowning in our own economy, while we spend a trillion dollars on war machines.

You know when I read this post. It so much seems to me that you are confused. Why do you think wages are staying the same. It is like, if I was making a product. I made 10 a week of that product. I would be able to charge more. But if I mass produced it. The price would drop. Same goes with labor. If I flood the market with cheap labor. Guess what the wages either fall or stay stagnant. The only big winners with a flooded market of Labor is Big busniess and the corrupt labor unions. Not the people. If the wages of even a Dish washer stays the same, in time it will even effect what we used to call the middle class.