Day laborers, like many, struggling to makes ends meet
By James Wagner
Posted: 01/28/2010 05:38:22 PM PST


Raul Cardona of Baldwin Park, a Day Laborer who has not found work in the last two weeks, receiving lunch from Martha Gonzalez, of Association of United Day Laborers of San Gabriel Valley. Members of the Association of United Day Laborers of San Gabriel Valley brought lunch for the day laborers Thursday January 28, 2010. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Walt Mancini)COVINA - It's been a seemingly endless tease.

A car rolls up to the Home Depot on Badillo Avenue and day laborers rush towards it, only to be turned away.

There's been no regular work for months.

On Thursday, however, one car did stop. A white van appeared with a hearty lunch of chicken, rice and beans for the unemployed men, giving them hope in a desperate time.

"The ways thing are, no one has work," said 36-year-old day laborer Prajedes Ramirez, who hasn't gotten a job in two weeks.

The economy has hit many across the country hard, but day laborers have had it just as bad, if not worse.

Despite the weather, they stand in their regular spots, getting soaked because they think work will turn up.

As last week's storms flooded portions of Southern California, Ramirez and his fellow laborers took some cover under shop roofs across from the Home Depot.

"Rain or not, we have to be here," Ramirez said in Spanish. "There's nowhere else to go" for work.

The lack of employment has crushed day laborers beyond Covina, an expert said.

"It's not just in the San Gabriel Valley or Southern California but across the country that day laborers are experiencing hardscrabble times," said Chris Newman, the legal director for the Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Around 1 p.m. Thursday, a group of volunteers from the Association of United Day Laborers of the San Gabriel Valley and St. Joseph's Catholic Church in La Puente treated the day laborers to a warm meal.

They topped a folding table with large pots of fried chicken, rice, beans, tortillas, grapes and drinks.

Rafael Olivares, who helped found the group geared to helping the region's day laborers, helped pass out the food on disposable plates in a parking lot across from the Home Depot.

When he first came to the U.S. from Mexico 23 years ago, Olivares didn't know how to survive.

Day Laborers who hang out outside The Home Depot in Covina, looking for work have fallen on really rough times. The economy and the rains have left many without any work for weeks. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Walt Mancini)He went a week without food and help, he said.
"This is why I do this now," he said in Spanish. "I see them without food."

The day laborers say some cars pull over and promise to come back with clothes, shoes or better, food. Many don't.

For the past three months, Ramirez has driven six times a week from where he lives with his family in Hacienda Heights to the Home Depot.

Like Ramirez, many day laborers haven't worked in weeks. Some have been coming to this spot since this Home Depot opened up and they say it has never been this bad.

One day laborer said he hasn't had stable work for nearly six months. The most he has managed was two or three part-time gigs a week. It's been 15 days since he's landed one.

No one, they say, needs construction.

Olivares and a handful of volunteers fed nearly a dozen day laborers Thursday. When they finished, they packed up and drove to other stops to hand out the remaining meals.

But Olivares couldn't help but be reminded of his own past.

"How is it that with so much food in this country, I don't eat for a week?"

james.wagner@sgvn.com

http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_14289392