Thread: Day laborer center opens in Herndon

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Day laborer center opens in Herndon


By DANIEL GILBERT
dgilbert@potomacnews.com
Thursday, December 15, 2005


What do you think?

The opening of a formal center for day laborers in Herndon on Wednesday brought a new fervor to a debate that has raged since August, drawing roughly as many demonstrators as laborers to the site.

Even before sunrise, demonstrators had installed themselves at the perimeters of the Herndon Official Workers Center at 1481 Sterling Road. Two ideologically opposed groups stood intermingled: those protesting the center, and those protesting the protesters.

The demonstrators, bracing themselves against temperatures in the low teens, did not at first verbally confront each other, letting the battle play out in the air above them.

“Change Your Name, You’re Still The KKK,� read one anti-protester banner. “Right To Work = Right To Eat,� read another.

“Enforce Immigration Laws,� protester pickets answered back. “Help Save Herndon.�

Within earshot of Minutemen supporters, one demonstrator called the anti-illegal alien group “misguided.�

“They think immigrants are taking jobs from U.S. workers, but those jobs are being shipped overseas,� said Mike Benson, a Washington, D.C., resident, who makes a living as a day laborer.

But employment is not the issue that brought Bob Rudine, a member of “Help Save Herndon,� to picket and photograph in the numbingly cold weather.

“Increased crime, the MS-13 gang, public drunkenness and urination� are some of the detrimental effects Rudine attributes to a heavy day laborer presence in Herndon.

“We’re non-violent. At least we’re trying to be. I don’t know how long that will last,� said Rudine, who assists the Minutemen by photographing those who hire day laborers.

And at times, the tension boils over.

“You’re racists, infecting our town, trying to deny people the right to feed their families,� Lila McDowell, a member of an activist group supporting the center, yelled at a man holding an “Enforce Immigration Laws� banner.

Rudine and the other protesters said little in response, training their video cameras on their detractors.

Diane Bonieski, an opponent of the workers center, noted that many of the anti-Minutemen picketers were out-of-towners.

“We’re from Loudoun and Herndon. They’re from D.C. That speaks volumes,� Bonieski said as she fumbled with a cigarette lighter, trembling from the cold. “We really need a heater out here.�

FORMALIZING THE SYSTEM
Out of sight of the demonstrators, day laborers registered with the center, signing in at an outdoor table. Jenny Albers, the strategy coordinator of the center, wrote each worker’s name on a raffle ticket, placing the tickets in one of three transparent jugs: one for English speakers, one for special skills like welding and one for all other laborers.

The names, drawn at random, determine the order for work opportunities.

Access to a heated trailer adjacent to the sign-in table was barred to the laborers, open only for English classes offered by Project Hope and Harmony. Albers said that there are plans to build a 25-by-40-foot “picnic area� with industrial strength polyvinyl curtains. But for now, the workers have to stand outside in the frigid weather.

Few are complaining.

Instead, they are busy sipping coffee, eating bagels and doughnuts, all provided by volunteers.

By 8:30 a.m., 86 workers had signed in. Only eight had found work. Still, the atmosphere is upbeat, almost jovial.

“I feel happy,� Matias Abrego, a native of Honduras, said in Spanish. “Although unfortunately less employers are coming than we hoped, no one is going to run me off this place. I can walk to and fro in peace.

At the entrance to the center, Bill Threlkeld, director of Project Hope and Harmony, passed out flyers informing prospective employers of their legal responsibilities. Fumbling with a flyer, Threlkeld said he had not slept in 48 hours.

“It’s been busy,� he explained.

A prospective employer pulls up, the third of the morning. Threlkeld asks for details. The man, Alvin Tumibay of Herndon, is looking for one English speaker to tear up flooring for eight hours. He is offering $10 per hour.

“The police told me to come here, the police at the 7-Eleven,� Tumibay said. He added that he had never employed a day laborer before, and was only doing so because his assistant was ill.

Another employer, Bill Farrah, came looking for a worker to stack salt.

“This is the 49th day this year I’ve used a day laborer,� said the Herndon resident, with a proud smile. “I want the center to succeed. I used to be a day-laborer when I was a kid.�

A DIVIDING LINE
Another dimension to the issue sits across the street from the center, where two men in a white pick-up truck keep a video camera focused on the entrance to the center.

“We are not the Minutemen, and I am not available for an interview,� said the driver, who later identified himself as Keith Fairfax, enforcement program manager for Loudoun County. “We’re here to see how the territory [on which the center is built] is being used.�

The Town of Herndon and Loudoun County are divided by a line that runs directly through the property which the center occupies. Specifically, the entrance to the center on Rock Hill Road and some of the parking spaces, are located in Loudoun.

While Herndon approved the construction of the center in August, Loudoun’s Zoning Administrator, Melinda Artman, determined Sept. 6 that “a temporary assembly site for day workers ... is not permitted on the Loudoun County portion of the subject property.�

Herndon has appealed this determination, arguing that barring access to the Loudoun portion of the facility would adversely affect its town.

In response to the appeal, Artman upheld her earlier decision in a recommendation to the Board of Zoning Appeals, stating that the “driveway and parking associated with [the day laborer center] are not permitted on the county portion of the subject property.� Lacking the requisite site plan and zoning permit approvals by Loudoun, Artman concluded the center is in violation of the Loudoun County Zoning Ordinance.

The hearing will take place at 7:30 tonight to decide whether to uphold or overturn Artman’s September decision. In the probable event that it is upheld, Herndon will have several options for the center: It can apply to rezone the property, solicit the county to amend the current zoning ordinance or close access to the site from the Loudoun portion.

MINUTEMEN
In the meantime, George Taplin, leader of the Herndon Minutemen chapter, has vowed to maintain a presence at the site.

Taplin said the center was no improvement over the previous informal site at a 7-Eleven on Elden Street.

“Are [the workers] making better money? Are they getting more benefits? No. Nothing is changing for these guys,� he said.

Taplin noted that membership in his chapter continues to swell.

“Our members are now in excess of 125, and we are growing very rapidly,� he said. “New people, sometimes three or four, are trickling in every day.�

Day laborers, now out of view of the Minutemen, did not appear worried by their continued presence. When asked if he were concerned, Edgar Morales, a native of Guatemala, smiled and shook his head.

“My God,� he said, pointing to the sky. “He is everything. He protects me wherever I go.�

READER COMMENT

Posted on 12/15 at 07:34 AM
I think if they work, let them work. But I do not agree with our taxpayer dollars paying for someplace for people to hang out and get jobs to work under the table. If they get a job by signing in, then they pay for that service. Also, we need to stop turning every sign and every commercial and every isle markers to Spanish. They need to learn the English language. People in the past, Germans,French,Russians, whomever, did not have that luxury of everyone trying to accomodate their language.
mmk988

My name is Joe, aka The Ostrich (funny story behind that...when I ran track in high school, my body would be ramrod straight, and my butt would stick way out.) Hey, I think what the Herndon Minutemen are doing is great. Are there other day laborer sites in Fairfax County, VA? Any suggestions about how to go about organizing people to film the illegal hirings going on at those sites?

Thank you.

What is need is to have legal day laborers as Minutemen. The issue of illegal competition is a daily bread and butter issue.
The less competition the more likely the legals are to obtain day jobs and make more.