http://www.elpasotimes.com

Wanted: Job for just a day
Temporary work force likely to keep growing

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times
Thursday, February 2, 2006

As the day dawned Wednesday on the still- deserted streets of Downtown El Paso, a small crowd of middle-aged men stood in front of a fast-food restaurant on Paisano Drive, hopping from foot to foot to shake off the cold.

They are painters by trade, and day laborers by necessity. A few blocks away, a group of masons also waited for trucks to swoop by with offers for a few hours of work.

The scene is repeated daily across the country. A recent study estimated at least 117,600 day laborers compete for work. In the context of increased immigration and increased competition for cheaper labor, day labor is expected to grow.

In El Paso, day laborers are not as numerous as they are in places with a booming construction industry such as Phoenix. But Antonio Fernandez, one of the painters on Paisano Drive, thinks they are too many for the demand.

"There's a lot of competition," Fernandez said.

Fernandez, 54, waited at 7 a.m. Wednesday for employers to hire him for lievritas, the slang for small jobs or chores. For half an hour, no one stopped, and the painters mulled over getting money together to rent a car and go to Albuquerque where rumor has it more work is available.

Researchers at UCLA, the University of Illinois at Chicago and New York's New School University who wrote the first nationwide study of day laborers, "On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States," predicts the "continued growth of day-labor work."

Rick Posthuma, assistant professor of management at UTEP, has done research on temporary workers.

"There is significant growth in temp work as we move away from a manufacturing economy to a retail, service economy that is so competitive that quite often, it requires employers to hire temporary workers to fill certain jobs for a certain period of time," he said.

In the case of day laborers, employers are more likely to be individual homeowners looking for help cleaning, moving or gardening rather than construction contractors. The study, which consisted of detailed interviews with 2,660 workers around the nation, showed that 49 percent of workers were hired by individuals. In the Southwest, which includes El Paso, 55 percent were hired by individuals. Two-thirds said they were hired repeatedly by the same employer.

The study, which collected data in July and August 2004, also provides a rare glimpse into the parallel world of day labor. Three quarters of the day laborers interviewed were undocumented immigrants.

For 60 percent, day-labor work was their first job in the United States. Almost half have been day laborers for less than a year, which suggests many day laborers are able to move on to more-stable employment.

Day laborers suffered regular abuses, such as being denied water, being threatened by employers and working more hours than they had agreed to. On-the-job injuries were also common. In the year leading up to the interviews, 20 percent of day laborers said they were injured, and more than half did not receive medical care needed for the injury.

The median hourly wage for day laborers is $10, and monthly earnings fluctuate between $500 and $1,400. Their annual earnings are generally less than $15,000.

At the Sin Fronteras center for migrant workers and farmworkers, many will chose field work over standing on a corner. Field work is backbreaking, but there's usually plenty of it.

"Those who stand on the corner, that's because they don't have papers and they don't want to risk getting caught," said Cesar Fernandez, a 40-year-old migrant worker not related to Antonio Fernandez.

The buses that take the workers from Downtown El Paso to the fields of Southern New Mexico are sometimes, though rarely, stopped by the Border Patrol for inspection. Others go farther, to Colorado or California, which requires going through Border Patrol checkpoints.

But when the winter comes and there's no work in the fields, farm workers such as Roberto Holliday join the painters on the corner.

"There's no harvest now," he said.

Experts have estimated that migrant farmworkers make an average of $7,000 a year.

Antonio Fernandez, who has a green card, said he started working as a day-labor painter after he lost his steady job at a construction company to a worker who was paid less money.

He said he won't accept day- labor work for less than $7 an hour, but some employers offer only $5 or $6.

This worries Guillermo Glenn, coordinator of the Association of Border Workers.

"We're concerned with this increase in temp work. It really lowers the wages for all workers," he said.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com, 546-6131.