County Issue Day Labor Gathering Sites...

Shirley Ortiz, Director , Center for Employment Training in Oxnard

I would say they could use an official hiring site. I don’t know if one in the county is good enough. In Ventura County, I think they would need at least four: one in Oxnard, the Thousand Oaks-Agoura area, the Santa Paula- Fillmore area and one in Moorpark. Day laborer meeting sites have been established on a spontaneous basis for the laborers and the contractors. Contractors need to find people who will work a day, a half a day. Usually the work site is a place that the worker doesn’t know. That person says he’s going up there to be picked up tomorrow, and then people follow. They’re hoping they can get some work. That’s how the spontaneity happens. Because people need day laborers, they need to go someplace to meet them. If they had an official site, people wouldn’t be so hesitant to use them, and the community wouldn’t be so critical. They need something that is sanctioned.

Roger Campbell, Fillmore City Councilman

Yes, I think that would be good as long as it didn’t result in more government, that is, something that would cost taxpayers more money. Having a central location would be of benefit to the day laborers and the people who want to hire them. Currently, there is a sign up in the front of the Fillmore Hotel that says, “Day laborers, suggested hourly rate $5.” People drive by and pick them up all the time. I personally have used them for cleaning up around my shop, such as with weed abatement. I think an official site would be beneficial. It would make the people who want to hire day laborers more comfortable about knowing where to go. It would also give day laborers a place where they could be picked up for work. To me, the basic idea is that those of us who want to use day laborers would know there is a place we could go, almost like a job placement site facility. There should be an official site in each one of the cities in Ventura County.

Ralph De Leon, Labor contractor

Mexican workers have a tremendous network of their own. Ventura County does not need a formal hiring place. It is an agricultural county. Most of the people who do work on the farms have a cousin, a brother, an uncle who works for somebody and usually this is how they get the job. The people you’re talking about, who gather on corners of streets, you don’t see too much of it in Ventura County. Most of these fellows, I would venture to say, have no papers. They only want to get a job from the citizens who have a garden. They pick up these fellows and make them work for a day and pay them in cash. If they were to come to an employer, he would require documentation. Most likely, these people are the ones who cannot get a job somewhere else. I don’t feel Ventura County needs an official hiring site because it would be very easy for them if they had documentation to go to the Employment Development Department and apply for work. In a way, I don’t blame these people because I’d rather see somebody standing on a corner looking for a job than begging on the streets.

Pam Castro, Board member, Moorpark Unified School District

I think an official hiring site would be a wonderful solution, especially if it were somewhere that would provide safe access and didn’t hinder businesses. Kids are being sent to the store where the day laborers are, and that concerns parents. An official site sounds like a positive solution. It’s better than trying to take the alternative, which would be to try and erase them. That would be an unrealistic goal, in that it would create a situation that would require taxpayers’ money to eradicate it. Someone’s going to be asked to pay for the manpower that it would take to get rid of them. There would have to be more than one site in Ventura County because most of the workers don’t have transportation. If it’s too far from their homes, they will start other unofficial sites. A lot of these people are illegal aliens and they go to places where they can run away quickly. That’s another thing that would have to be addressed. You wouldn’t want to set up a site where officials could make a one-stop arrest.

Antonio Aguilera, Owner, Antonio’s Breakfast Cafe and Antonio’s Mexican Food in Ojai

They’re out there every morning, that’s what I don’t like. There’s about 70 people on the sidewalk in front of my restaurant. Some of them are construction workers and farm workers. They’ve been out there for a couple of years, but probably longer than that. I think they need a place where people can go to hire them, instead of standing in front of my restaurant. That way, people who need to hire someone could go to one place and pick them up right there. I think I’ve lost some business because of it. They lean on the customers’ cars. I came in early one Saturday morning, about 7 o’clock, and there was a whole bunch of them out front. This is bad for business. The customers have complained. This is really a pain. I don’t like to see them out there. They are out there at least six days a week. It looks bad. But who’s going to find a place for them?