Day Laborers Say Employer Cheated Them

Thirty immigrant day laborers demanding back wages surrounded an employer’s truck on a downtown Los Angeles street corner Wednesday morning, pounding on the doors and standing on the front bumper until police arrived.

Amir Abdoul said he had gone to Main Street and 14th Place, as he often does, to hire one or two workers to move large rolls of carpeting and fabric for his company, Express Delivery Service. Instead, he was confronted first by Javier Felix, a 21-year-old Mexican immigrant, who said he had not been paid for a day’s work he performed last month.

Soon, half a dozen other laborers who said they had also worked for Abdoul approached the startled entrepreneur, along with others showing “solidarity” with their fellow workers.

Abdoul denied having cheated the workers and no arrests were made. But the incident illustrates some of the tensions at the Main Street intersection, where more than 100 men gather every morning, hoping to earn about $5 an hour performing manual labor.

Competition for jobs is tough. When pickups and other trucks approach the intersection, groups of men sometimes push and shove each other in a desperate bid to reach the prospective employer first.

Unable to find employment for several days, at least a dozen men currently sleep on the sidewalk along 14th Place. And even those able to find work say they are sometimes paid as little as $20 for a full day’s hard labor.

So, when Abdoul arrived at the intersection and was challenged by Felix, several of the immigrant men said they saw it as an opportunity to release their frustration and anger.

“He came in his truck, we saw him and we didn’t let him leave,” Rigoberto Rocha said in Spanish as police officers questioned Abdoul and a handful of the workers. “All of the raza (Latino men) surrounded the truck. How are we going to let him get away with something like that?”

Felix said he had been hired by Abdoul three weeks ago. After working eight hours lifting rugs at several sites downtown, he said he asked for the $40 promised him by Abdoul. But the boss was nowhere to be found at the end of the day and Abdoul’s other employees merely shrugged their shoulders when Felix asked for his pay.

Abdoul acknowledged hiring Felix. But he added that the day laborer had worked only half a day and then quit because Abdoul denied him a lunch break.

The entrepreneur said he was surprised to see Felix again Wednesday, this time banging at the window of his truck.

Abdoul said he would no longer be hiring men at the intersection.

“I’m not coming here anymore. This is my last time” he said. “It’s too crazy.”

Police officers separated the angry day laborers from Abdoul, suggesting that the workers go to the state labor commissioner’s office on nearby Broadway to file a complaint.

“We don’t get involved, we just keep the peace,” said Sgt. Barry Staggs. “As far as we’re concerned, it’s a civil matter. It’s for Judge (Joseph) Wapner (of television’s ‘The People’s Court’) to decide.”

As Abdoul started his truck and began to leave, a few day laborers waved at him from across Main Street.

“Did you need any workers?” they shouted in Spanish and English.

Abdoul ignored them and drove away.