Day Laborers Who Came In From The Cold Are Back Outside Again
As day laborers hustling business on street corners and Home Depot parking lots have flourished, some have called to get rid of them, or at least get them out of site. Some communities have responded by establishing "work centers." Centers match employers with day laborers, and do so away from the street and sidewalk.
On Sunday The Record (Bergen County, NJ) newspaper ran a story about the opening of a work center in Passaic, New Jersey. The center is hailed as the first city sanctioned day labor center in the state. It may also be the last. On a recent Friday morning the center stood empty, while the Home Depot nearby was teeming with day laborers. The electricity at the center was off, due to non-payment of a power bill, but that may not have been the only reason. It seems that some contractors prefer to hire on the street or in a parking lot. From the standpoint of convenience that certainly makes sense, as anyone who has used a drive through window can understand. Moreover, the contractors prefer to negotiate with day laborers directly, without interference with a center. Some centers require laborers to be hired on a first-come, first served basis. Sounds like finding a prom date by pulling names out of a hat.
Even established day laborers who helped get the center off the ground are disappointed. Publicity about the center has drawn many laborers to the area, most of whom prefer street corners and parking lots. Aggressive police enforcement of loitering and blocking sidewalks might drive business to the work center. But the police respond only when someone complains. If the laborers continue to thrive, complaints must be relatively few.
There may be more complaints against work centers. Critics complain that the centers attract and enable the hiring of undocumented workers. Across the country, attempts to new open centers have been blocked, and existing centers have been pressured to shut down. And so the day laborers go, back outside again.